Whole-home duct cleaning
Dryer vent cleaning
Camera inspection
Sanitizing & deodorizingWhole-system duct and dryer vent check with before-and-after photos - you see exactly what came out of your vents
That "$99 whole-house special" is a bait ad - the real number appears once they are in your hallway, or the "clean" is a shop-vac at the register. We photograph the inside of your ducts before and after instead.
Fast, Reliable Air Duct Cleaning Across Piedmont
If you’ve just taken possession of a rebuilt Piedmont home and every register is blowing a fine white dust plume, you’re not imagining it. The ductwork in a newly finished addition or remodel here is often packed with drywall sanding dust, joint compound residue, and foam-board shavings the builder never removed. We’re Hallmark Air Duct Cleaning, and we handle post-rebuild duct cleaning in Piedmont with professional-grade extraction equipment that removes construction debris at the source instead of pushing it through your house. Call (833) 467-6681 for a free estimate, and we’ll walk through what your specific system needs.
Why Hallmark Air Duct Cleaning Is Piedmont’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
Piedmont homeowners tend to do their homework, and they recognize the difference between a specialist and a generalist HVAC crew that tacks duct cleaning onto a service call. Nelson Briggs built Hallmark Air Duct Cleaning around a simple principle: match the right tool to the task. That means Rotobrush rotary-brush extraction for heavily contaminated galvanized trunks, Nikro industrial equipment for deep cleaning, and Abatement Technologies negative-air machines with HEPA filtration on every job so whatever we dislodge gets contained, not recirculated. We contain what we dislodge. It’s the standard Piedmont’s older architect-designed homes deserve, especially when a new addition ties into an 80-year-old octopus trunk that was never sealed properly.
The work we do in the hillside streets off Highland and Moraga avenues often involves original 1920s duct systems that have been patched, extended, and partially abandoned over decades. That’s not a problem for a generalist; it’s a puzzle for a specialist. Our familiarity with Piedmont’s housing stock means we know what to expect when we open a crawlspace access panel or run a camera through a return drop.
Styles & brands we work with
- Whole-home duct cleaning
- Dryer vent cleaning
- Camera inspection
- Sanitizing & deodorizing
HVAC Duct Cleaning in Piedmont
HVAC Duct Cleaning in Piedmont looks different than it does in most East Bay cities, because so many of the systems we clean are either original pre-1950 galvanized trunks or freshly installed flex runs carrying construction debris from a just-finished remodel. When a rebuilt Piedmont house gets handed over, the ducts often haven’t been cleaned since the drywall crew packed up. The first time the air handler cycles on, that dust and joint compound gets pulled straight into the blower and pushed through every register. A full HVAC duct cleaning for a typical Piedmont home runs $450 to $850 depending on the number of supply and return runs, access points, and how much debris is packed into the system.
Supply Duct and Return Duct Cleaning
Supply ducts deliver conditioned air to each room; return ducts pull it back to the air handler. Both get dirty for different reasons. In Piedmont’s hillside homes, return ducts in floor cavities often collect leaf litter, rodent sign, and decades of dust from the crawlspace below. We clean both sides of the system, not just the visible registers.
Video Inspection Before and After
We run a camera through the trunk and branch runs before we start, and again when we’re done. That’s how you know the work actually happened. In Piedmont, where some duct runs are original octopus galvanized pipe and some are brand-new flex, the camera tells us exactly which sections need aggressive rotary brushing and which need gentler agitation. No guessing, no unnecessary access holes.
Vent Cleaning in Piedmont
Vent Cleaning in Piedmont is the part of the job where homeowners see the difference immediately. Supply vents and return grilles collect a film of dust, and in homes near the hills the fall leaf season adds its own layer to return plenums. Vent cleaning as part of a full system service in Piedmont typically adds $75 to $150 to the job, depending on how many registers and returns the house has and whether any are in awkward floor or ceiling positions. It’s not a separate upsell; it’s part of doing the job correctly.
Register and Grille Restoration
Old registers in 1920s Piedmont houses are often caked with paint from decades of repainting. We remove, clean, and reinstall them, and we flag any that are bent, rusted, or undersized for the modern blower attached to the old system. A register that’s been painted shut is a real thing in Piedmont, and it’s worth knowing about.
Dust Plume Diagnosis
If you’re seeing white dust on surfaces near a register after a remodel, that’s not normal post-construction settling. It’s dislodged drywall dust inside the duct run getting blown out during the first heating or cooling season. We trace the source, clean the affected runs, and verify with the camera that the system is actually clear.
Trusted Brands We Service in Piedmont
Most of our Piedmont work involves cleaning systems tied to Honeywell and Aprilaire air quality products; homeowners here often upgrade filtration after a remodel, and we’re familiar with how those components integrate with existing ductwork. We also stock replacement filters for Guardsman and Aprilaire systems so Piedmont customers aren’t waiting on a special order after we finish cleaning. Our equipment is matched to the specific duct type and contamination level on every job, whether that’s a Nikro extraction unit on a packed galvanized trunk or a Rotobrush on delta-shaped flex runs in an attic retrofit.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Piedmont Homes
- Post-rebuild drywall dust packed into new flex runs. Builders and their subs hand over a finished addition without running source removal on the new supply and return ducts. The dust sits there until the owner’s first heating season pulls it through the air handler and into the living space.
- Unsealed octopus trunk seams shedding dust back into fresh systems. New attic retrofits tie into an original galvanized trunk that was never sealed. Even a clean job on the new branch runs leaves the old trunk seams leaking dust and ash into the fresh system.
- Shop-vac “cleaning” that stirs debris instead of removing it. Crews working on Piedmont remodels sometimes run a basic shop vac through the ducts and call it done. That stirs construction debris loose and pushes it out the registers rather than out of the house. Real source removal requires negative pressure and HEPA filtration.
- Wildfire smoke residue settling into old galvanized trunks. During fire season, smoke from the surrounding hills gets drawn into return ducts and sticks to the caked dust already lining original trunks. The first fall rain pushes more moisture into the system, and that’s when the musty odor starts.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Piedmont, CA
A typical full-system air duct cleaning in Piedmont runs between $450 and $850 for a single-family home. Smaller condos and townhomes in the 94610 ZIP area often land closer to $350 to $500, while larger hillside homes with multiple zones, floor returns, and hard-to-reach crawlspace access can push toward $900 to $1,100. The main cost factors are the number of supply and return runs, whether we’re working from a basement, crawlspace, or attic, and how much construction debris or old dust is packed into the system. We give one flat price per system, agreed before work starts, so there’s no per-vent math and no surprise invoice when the van pulls away. Call (833) 467-6681 for a free estimate on your Piedmont home.
We Also Serve Cities Near Piedmont
While this page focuses on Piedmont, our full-service Air Duct Cleaning team also works regularly in Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and Albany. If you’re in one of those cities and dealing with post-remodel dust, give us a call at (833) 467-6681 and we’ll schedule a camera inspection of your ducts.
Serving Piedmont, CA – Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Piedmont area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage – if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Air Duct Cleaning in Piedmont
Yes, and here’s why: the first system test after framing pulls drywall, joint compound, and foam-board shavings directly into the air handler and branch runs. That debris sits in the ducts until your first heating or cooling season pushes it through every register. On a rebuild, the new flex runs and the original galvanized trunk both need source removal before you move in. Call (833) 467-6681 and we’ll do a camera inspection first so you can see exactly what’s in there.
The builder should have sealed the open duct ends during framing, and should have scheduled NADCA-standard source removal with negative pressure after the final drywall sanding. Most don’t; it’s not in their scope. What we find on Piedmont rebuilds is new flex runs packed with sanding dust sitting on top of an original trunk that was never sealed before the new branch lines were tied in. We correct both issues: clean the new runs, seal the old trunk seams.
We don’t cut new access holes unless there’s no other way to reach the duct, and even then we keep the opening minimal and behind an existing register or grille. Most Piedmont systems have enough existing access points: floor registers, return drops, crawlspace or attic entries. Our camera inspection tells us exactly what we’re working with before any tool touches the system.
Yes, but the cleaning has to be matched to the trunk’s age and material. Old galvanized octopus trunks in Piedmont hillside homes often have seams that were never sealed, which means each cycle pulls dust from the surrounding bay and pushes it into the rooms. We clean the trunk with agitation tools and negative pressure, then seal the seams we can reach. The result is a duct system that stops re-contaminating your air within days of the cleaning.
Yes. Dryer vent cleaning is a dedicated fire-risk reduction service, not a filler add-on. In Piedmont’s older homes, dryer vents often run through unconditioned crawlspaces or out through roof caps, and the lint buildup in a long, winding run is a fire hazard. We clean the full run from dryer drum to exterior cap. Call (833) 467-6681 for a quote on air duct and dryer vent cleaning together; most Piedmont customers schedule them at the same time.
Written by Nelson Briggs, Owner at Hallmark Air Duct Cleaning, serving Piedmont and the East Bay since the company’s founding.