Tips for Keeping Air Ducts Clean

1/4/2021 (Permalink)

By cleaning ducts, you can enjoy fresher air in your building

Three Steps To Mitigate Mold Damage In Your Ducts

Protecting the air quality in your commercial building in Kensington, MN, is an important part of your routine maintenance schedule. Mold growth within your HVAC duct system can lead to lower air quality, so it's important to deal with black mold quickly and thoroughly at the first sign of trouble. Here are the steps to mitigate the mold damage in your ducts and keep them clean.

Locating the Growth
The first step to any solution is knowing how to recognize when you have a problem. Look for common signs of mold in your building's air ducts:

• Black patches around vents
  
• Moldy insulation
  
• Musty odor
  
  

If you suspect you have black mold in your system, contact an environmental hygienist to have it tested. A positive test result indicates that you need professional cleaning.

Cleaning the Ducts
Your first instinct is likely to have your custodial or maintenance staff tear out the insulation and scrub down the ducts. Certified mold remediation specialists have better equipment to do the job more efficiently. They analyze the test results to determine what kind of mold they're dealing with so that they can choose the best method for doing so. They remove any materials that cannot be salvaged and clean ducts thoroughly with an industrial detergent. Then they can replace the things they had to discard and retest the area to ensure that the cleanup was effective.

Preventing a Recurrence
Thorough cleaning is important, but if you only clean without figuring out what led to the mold growth in the first place, it is likely to return. Repairing leaks and taking measures to control humidity within the air duct system is essential for preventing future issues. Follow the suggestions given by the technicians who cleaned the ducts to keep a mold problem from recurring.
Black mold in your HVAC system can have an effect on the air quality of the whole building. By cleaning ducts and taking the appropriate steps to keep them mold-free, you can enjoy fresher air in your building.