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 Somerville
Air duct cleaning in Somerville typically runs $450-$850 for a whole-home system, and every job starts with a written price before we touch anything. We’re Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning, and our crews work Somerville triple-deckers in Winter Hill, East Somerville, and Teele Square every week. Dispatch is coordinated from our Boston office, so we know the narrow streets, the parking realities around Union Square, and how to get equipment up to third-floor units without scratching the walls. Call (323) 918-4345 for a free estimate, or keep reading to understand why duct cleaning here is different from almost anywhere else.
Why Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning Is Somerville’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
We’ve been part of the Cedarwell family since 2005, and our reputation in Somerville has been built one triple-decker at a time. Homeowners here talk. They mention the crew that noticed the cat and used the quieter Rotobrush setting during nap time. They mention the written price that matched the final invoice exactly. They mention the photo of the clean-up, emailed before the van pulled away.
Our response time to Somerville is same-day or next-day for estimates, and we schedule cleaning around your actual life, not ours. We know which streets have alternate-side parking on which days. We know that a Winter Hill third-floor walk-up with original plaster walls requires different equipment protection than a ground-floor condo near Assembly Row. That local knowledge means fewer surprises for you and a faster, cleaner job.
Every technician is background-checked, arrives in uniform, and works to the Cedarwell C.A.R.E. values. Shoe covers and drop cloths are standard on every visit, included in every price. And the 365-Day Done Right Promise applies to every Somerville job, stamped on the paperwork, not just offered if you ask.
Ductwork Cleaning in Somerville
Ductwork Cleaning in Somerville is rarely a routine maintenance call. In this city, it’s almost always a post-renovation recovery job. The triple-deckers that define Somerville’s housing stock, built between roughly 1880 and 1920, were designed for steam or hot-water radiator heat. Any forced-air system you find today was retrofitted into closets, wall cavities, and under-stair chases during a condo conversion or gut rehab. That means irregular routing, sharp bends, no standard access panels, and joints that were never properly sealed. A typical whole-home Ductwork Cleaning in Somerville runs $450-$850, with smaller condo systems sometimes landing at $350-$550 and larger multi-zone jobs reaching $950-$1,200.
What We Actually Clean
We clean supply ducts, return ducts, main trunks, and the air handler cabinet, using professional-grade equipment from Rotobrush and Nikro with HEPA filtration. In Somerville’s retrofit systems, we often find that the visible registers are the easy part. The real work is reaching the buried sections where construction debris, plaster dust, and disturbed lead paint have accumulated since the renovation.
When Somerville Homeowners Call Us
Most calls come after a renovation, when dust keeps puffing from registers. Others come when a new homeowner realizes the previous contractor never cleaned the system post-construction. Some calls are preventive, especially before a baby’s arrival or after adopting a pet with respiratory sensitivity. We don’t alarm anyone into service. We inspect, we explain what we find, and we let you decide.
Air Duct Inspection in Somerville
Air Duct Inspection in Somerville is the step that should happen before any quote, and we’re direct about why. The retrofit ductwork in Somerville’s pre-1920 triple-deckers hides inside original plaster walls and drywalled-over chases. We’ve found supply runs that dead-end inside walls, sections that disconnected during renovation and were simply covered over, and cavities with clear evidence of historic rodent activity. A typical camera inspection in Somerville runs $150-$250 as a standalone service, though we often credit that toward the cleaning if you proceed. An inspection without cleaning, after a major renovation, is sometimes the smartest money you spend.
What the Camera Reveals
We use a high-resolution video scope to document every section of your system. You’ll see what we see: disconnected runs, debris accumulation, moisture intrusion at unsealed joints, or mold growth in wall cavities. The video becomes part of your record, and it drives an honest quote with no surprises.
Inspection Before Purchase
Buying a converted condo in Somerville? An Air Duct Inspection before closing can reveal whether the previous owner actually cleaned the system post-renovation or just swapped the registers and called it done. We’ve saved buyers from inheriting $800+ in hidden cleaning and sealing costs.
Trusted Brands We Service in Somerville
Our trucks carry professional equipment from Rotobrush, Nikro, Aprilaire, and Abatement Technologies, not the rental-grade gear you might pick up for a weekend project. We stock common parts and fittings for these brands locally, which means faster turnaround when a Somerville job reveals a failed damper, a disconnected flex section, or a compromised seal that needs addressing before the clean is complete. The Honeywell and Aprilaire media filters we install are sized for the actual airflow of your retrofit system, not guesswork. And Guardsman protectants are available where pet-safe surface treatment makes sense after the job.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Somerville Homes
- Disconnected runs buried in walls. Contractors during condo conversions sometimes drywalled over duct sections that pulled loose, leaving dead-end cavities full of plaster dust and construction debris that recirculates every time the heat kicks on.
- Moisture intrusion at unsealed joints. Somerville’s humid summers and aging building envelopes let moisture into retrofit ductwork through gaps that were never properly sealed, creating conditions for mold in wall cavities that ordinary cleaning can’t reach without camera guidance.
- Lead-paint dust from century-old plaster. Gut rehabs in Somerville’s triple-deckers disturb original materials that contain lead. Without proper containment and HEPA filtration during cleaning, that dust keeps circulating through the system your family breathes.
- Partial cleans that miss the real problem. Some crews clean only visible supply registers and main trunks while ignoring return ducts and the air handler, where the bulk of post-renovation debris actually collects in these older, irregular systems.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Somerville, MA
Whole-home residential duct cleaning in Somerville typically runs $450-$850, with most single-family and condo-conversion triple-deckers falling in the $550-$750 range. Smaller one-bedroom condo systems start around $350-$450. Multi-zone systems or jobs requiring extensive access panel cutting in plaster walls can reach $950-$1,200. Camera inspection is $150-$250 standalone, credited toward cleaning if you proceed. Dryer vent cleaning, often bundled with duct cleaning in Somerville’s stacked units, adds $120-$180.
What moves the price: the number of supply and return registers, whether access panels need to be cut into plaster or drywall, the extent of debris accumulation, and whether disconnected runs or failed seals need repair before cleaning can be effective. We give you one flat price per system, agreed in writing before any work starts. No per-vent pricing. No add-ons after the van arrives. And you’ll get before-and-after photos of your own ducts, not stock images.
Call (323) 918-4345 for an exact quote. Estimates are free, and we can often inspect and quote same-day.
We Also Serve Cities Near Somerville
Our crews work throughout the metro area, and we regularly schedule Air Duct Cleaning in Somerville alongside jobs in Cambridge, Medford, Boston, and Everett. The same Cedarwell Care Promise, the same written pricing, the same photo documentation. If you’re on the border of two cities, we’ll schedule you from whichever office gets a technician to you fastest.
Serving Somerville, MA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Somerville 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 Somerville
Because Somerville’s pre-1920 triple-deckers have retrofit ductwork hidden inside original plaster walls and drywalled chases, and we’ve found too many dead-ended runs, disconnected sections, and historic rodent activity to quote accurately without looking first. The camera inspection protects you from a low quote that balloons once the crew discovers the real condition of your system. Call (323) 918-4345 to schedule an inspection, credited toward cleaning if you proceed.
Century-old plaster dust, disturbed lead paint particles, and gut-rehab construction debris are the primary contaminants, not ordinary household dust. In Winter Hill and East Somerville units especially, we find drywall compound, insulation fragments, and sawdust from conversions done years ago that were never properly cleaned out. The field vignette from our own work: a top-floor Winter Hill unit where plaster dust puffed from registers after a gut rehab, and our camera found two disconnected supply runs and one dead-end section packed with demolition debris and historic rodent evidence. Reconnecting, sealing, and cleaning under negative pressure with HEPA filtration stopped the dust immediately.
If you have forced-air ducts now, those ducts were installed during a retrofit or condo conversion, and they’re almost certainly carrying renovation debris that was never removed. The original radiator system is irrelevant to whether your current ductwork needs cleaning. We’ve cleaned systems in Teele Square and Union Square conversions where the ducts had been circulating construction dust for fifteen years. An inspection will tell you definitively.
New England’s five-plus month heating season means forced-air systems run hard and long, accelerating debris buildup and moisture cycling in ducts that are often already compromised by poor retrofit routing. Summer humidity then intrudes at unsealed joints, creating conditions for mold. For Somerville’s retrofit systems, we recommend inspection every three to five years, not the annual cleaning some national chains push, with cleaning only when the camera shows it’s warranted.
We evaluate every joint during inspection, and minor sealing is included in our standard cleaning price where accessible. Extensive sealing of buried or poorly routed ductwork, common in Somerville triple-deckers, may require a separate quote if we need to cut access panels or reach sections inside wall cavities. We tell you exactly which category your system falls into before any work starts, with the price in writing.
Ready to find out what’s actually in your ducts? Call Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning at (323) 918-4345 for a free estimate. We’ll send a technician to your Somerville home with a camera, a written pricing sheet, and shoe covers already on. The Cedarwell Care Promise and our 365-Day Done Right Promise apply to every job, no exceptions.
Written by Paul Adeyemi, Owner at Morton’s Air Duct Cleaning, serving Somerville since 2005.