Whole-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.
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AfterFast, Reliable Air Duct Cleaning Across Alamo
Air duct cleaning in Alamo typically runs $450-$950 for a full residential system, with most jobs scheduled within a few days and completed in a single visit. We’re Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning, and our crews have been working in the San Ramon Valley long enough to know that an Alamo home isn’t like a Walnut Creek condo or a Lafayette cottage. The homes here are bigger, the duct runs are longer, and the dust that blows in off the Las Trampas grasslands has a texture you won’t find closer to the Bay.
We dispatch and schedule from our San Francisco Bay Area office, but our technicians live and work throughout the East Bay. That means when you call (323) 918-4345, you’re talking to someone who knows the difference between the Stone Valley Road corridor and the lower valley neighborhoods near the Iron Horse Trail, not a national call center reading from a script. We arrive with Rotobrush and Nikro equipment on the truck, shoe covers already on, and a written price in hand before we touch your registers.
Why Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning Is Alamo’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
We’ve built our reputation in Alamo by treating oversized homes with the methodical care they require. A 4,500 square foot house with three zones isn’t a bigger version of a 1,800 square foot ranch. It’s a fundamentally different job requiring separate scope, separate documentation, and technicians who understand why skipping the third air handler defeats the entire purpose.
Our customers in Alamo mention the same things in their feedback: we showed up on time, we explained exactly what each system needed, and we left a photo of the clean-up before we drove away. No surprise charges. No rushed half-job. The 365-Day Done Right Promise is stamped on every invoice, not offered only when someone complains.
Response time to Alamo is typically two to four business days for standard scheduling, sometimes sooner depending on route consolidation. We don’t promise same-day because duct cleaning isn’t an emergency service, it’s a scheduled maintenance job that deserves proper preparation. When you call, a live person answers 24/7, takes your information, and books you into a real slot with a real crew.
What separates us in this market is local pattern recognition. We know that Alamo’s inland valley position produces summer highs that routinely reach 95-105°F, driving far longer HVAC runtime than coastal Bay Area communities and pulling significantly more airborne debris through duct systems each season. We know the fall Diablo wind events spike particulate loads sharply. And we know that proximity to Northern California wildfire corridors means smoke infiltration into ductwork is a near-annual occurrence rather than a rare event. That knowledge changes how we scope the work.
Vent Cleaning in Alamo
Vent Cleaning in Alamo means more than wiping visible registers. In these larger homes, supply vents often sit at the end of 30-foot duct runs that snake through attic spaces above the main living areas, while return vents pull air from multiple rooms through shared wall cavities. When we clean vents in Alamo, we’re agitating and extracting debris from the full length of that pathway, not just the part you can see from the hallway.
A typical vent cleaning project in Alamo runs $180-$340 per zone when done as part of a larger system cleaning, or $280-$520 as a standalone service focused on severe register buildup. Homes near the Las Trampas open space or along the Stone Valley Road corridor often need the higher end of that range due to heavier grass pollen and silicate dust loading.
Supply Vent Deep Cleaning
Supply vents push conditioned air into your rooms, but they also collect whatever settled in the duct upstream. Our technicians use Rotobrush agitation tools with HEPA vacuum extraction to pull debris from the full run, not just the first few feet. In Alamo’s 1970s and 1980s homes, we frequently find degraded fiberglass duct board lining the first six feet of these runs, shedding particulates that standard dusting never reaches.
Return Pathway Restoration
Return vents and their connected wall cavities are the dirtiest part of most systems because they pull unfiltered air from your living space. In Alamo, that means grass seed fragments, wildfire ash, and fine valley dust. We camera-inspect these pathways where accessible, then use negative pressure and mechanical agitation to restore airflow volume. The before-and-after photo we leave shows exactly what came out.
Air Duct Repair in Alamo
Air Duct Repair in Alamo addresses the physical failures that develop in aging systems, particularly the original fiberglass duct board common in homes built before the mid-1980s. After four decades of thermal cycling and vibration, this material degrades, sheds fibers into the airstream, and develops leaks that pull unfiltered attic or crawlspace air directly into your system. Repair isn’t about sealing a single gap. It’s about restoring the integrity of a network that was never designed to last this long.
Typical air duct repair in Alamo ranges from $350-$680 for targeted sealing and reinforcement of accessible runs, to $1,200-$2,800 for more extensive replacement of degraded duct board in multiple zones. We scope every repair with video inspection so you see the damage before we quote, and we provide a written price before any cutting or sealing begins.
Return-Air Leak Sealing
Leaky return ducts in Alamo attics are especially problematic because they bypass your filter entirely, pulling Diablo wind dust and wildfire smoke directly into the air handler. We use mastic sealing and mechanical reinforcement to close these pathways, then verify with pressure testing where equipment allows. The improvement in filter life is usually visible within two weeks.
Duct Board Replacement and Lining
When original fiberglass duct board has degraded beyond sealing, we remove the damaged sections and replace with modern, smooth-wall ducting or apply approved lining systems where appropriate. This is meticulous work in tight attic spaces, which is why our crews carry drop cloths and work mats to protect your insulation and ceiling drywall from disturbance.
Trusted Brands We Service in Alamo
Our trucks carry professional-grade equipment from Nikro, Honeywell, and Aprilaire, with Abatement Technologies HEPA filtration on every vacuum system. We don’t use rental shop gear that loses suction halfway through a 6,000 square foot home. For Alamo customers, this means we can source replacement components and filtration media without the delays that come from ordering unfamiliar parts. Our technicians train directly on the manufacturers’ specifications for each platform, so when we encounter a Honeywell electronic air cleaner integrated with your duct system or an Aprilaire whole-house humidifier on the return plenum, we know how to work around it without damage. The equipment matters because Alamo’s longer duct runs and heavier particulate loads demand sustained performance that entry-level machines simply don’t deliver.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Alamo Homes
- Multi-zone homes treated as single systems. A three-system Alamo home gets one air handler cleaned, the other two zones and their returns stay contaminated, and the homeowner assumes the whole house was done. We document each system separately with photos and scope sheets so you know exactly what was completed.
- Return-air leakage in long attic runs. Diablo wind dust and wildfire smoke bypass filtration entirely through gaps in attic ductwork, loading your blower motor and evaporator coil with debris your filter never saw. Camera inspection finds these leaks; mastic sealing fixes them.
- Original fiberglass duct board degradation. Homes built in the 1970s and early 1980s retain duct interiors that shed fibers after four decades of thermal cycling. Cleaning alone doesn’t solve this; repair or replacement of degraded sections is the lasting fix.
- Register-only cleaning ignoring the blower and coil. Some crews clean visible vents and call it done, leaving the heaviest debris in the air handler and evaporator coil. Our full system cleaning includes the mechanical components where the real accumulation lives.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Alamo, CA
A typical residential duct cleaning in Alamo runs $450-$950 per HVAC system, with most homes falling in the $680-$820 range for a thorough job on a standard single-system house. Multi-zone homes with two or three systems scale from there, but we price per system so you only pay for what’s actually cleaned and documented. Dryer vent cleaning as an add-on typically runs $180-$280.
What moves you within that range: the number of systems, total linear feet of ductwork, accessibility of attic and crawlspace runs, and whether we find degraded duct board requiring repair before cleaning can be effective. We don’t do per-vent pricing because it’s a setup for bait-and-switch. One flat price per system, agreed in writing before work starts, every time.
On a Stone Valley Road property backing up to the Las Trampas open space, our tech found a 6,000 sq ft home running three separate systems with original fiberglass duct board interiors shedding particulates from four decades of use. We set up negative pressure at each air handler, ran camera inspection down the long supply and return ducts, and used agitation tools with HEPA filtration on the truck to pull dried grass seed fragments and fine silicate dust out of every zone rather than just the main trunk. After we sealed return-air leaks in the attic runs and documented each system separately, the homeowner’s filters stopped loading up within two weeks - a filter swap alone never would have fixed it.
Call (323) 918-4345 for a free estimate. We’ll ask about your home’s size, system count, and any symptoms you’re seeing, then give you a real number you can plan around.
We Also Serve Cities Near Alamo
Our crews work throughout the San Ramon Valley and surrounding communities. If you’re in Alamo proper, you’re on our regular route. We also schedule jobs in Walnut Creek, Moraga, Lafayette, and Danville. Each community gets the same per-system documentation and written upfront pricing, though the specific challenges vary. Walnut Creek’s denser housing stock faces different particulate profiles than Alamo’s open-space exposure, and Danville’s elevation patterns create their own airflow dynamics. Our Air Duct Cleaning team adjusts scope accordingly.
Serving Alamo, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Alamo 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 Alamo
Because a flat whole-house rate incentivizes the crew to clean the easiest system and skip the others. Alamo’s oversized multi-zone homes often carry three or more separate HVAC systems with long duct runs, so a ‘whole-house’ duct cleaning that treats the house as one system leaves entire zones - and their returns - untouched. Per-system scope and documentation are what actually protect you. Call (323) 918-4345 and we’ll walk through your specific system count.
Not always, but it needs inspection. Duct board from that era degrades after four decades of thermal cycling, shedding fibers and developing leaks. We camera-inspect accessible sections and show you the condition before recommending anything. Sometimes targeted repair of degraded sections is sufficient; other times, replacement of the worst runs is the only lasting fix. The written price we provide before work starts includes exactly what we found and what we propose.
Alamo’s inland valley position and proximity to open grasslands create a particulate load that coastal and more sheltered cities don’t experience. During the June grass die-off on the surrounding open-space hills, technicians cleaning ducts in Alamo homes - especially those backing up to Las Trampas or Stone Valley Road corridor properties - routinely extract dried grass seed fragments and fine silicate dust alongside standard household debris. This combination clogs filters faster and points to return-air leakage in attic or crawlspace duct runs that a simple filter swap will never resolve.
Every system we clean gets a separate scope sheet with before-and-after photos of accessible components, camera inspection footage where performed, and a photo of the clean-up before the crew leaves. You should never pay for invisible work without visible proof. The 365-Day Done Right Promise backs this documentation - if something isn’t right, we make it right.
Yes. Proximity to Northern California wildfire corridors means smoke infiltration into ductwork is a near-annual occurrence rather than a rare event, particularly when return-air leaks in attic runs pull unfiltered outside air directly into the system. Even with windows closed, your HVAC system can become a distribution pathway for fine particulates if the ductwork itself has leaks. Cleaning removes accumulated smoke residue; sealing the leaks prevents recontamination. Call (323) 918-4345 for an inspection if you’ve noticed persistent odor or respiratory irritation during smoke season.
Ready to get your Alamo home’s duct systems properly scoped, cleaned, and documented? Call Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning at (323) 918-4345 for a free estimate. A live person will answer, ask the right questions about your home’s size and system count, and get you scheduled with a crew that knows the difference between a single-zone ranch and a three-system valley home.
Written by Paul Adeyemi, Owner at Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning, serving Alamo since 2005.