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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Before
AfterFull System Cleaning in Denver, CO
Full system cleaning is a complete Air Duct Cleaning service for every component in your home’s forced-air system: every supply duct run, every return duct run, the main trunk lines, the air handler cabinet, the blower motor housing, and the plenum boxes on both the supply and return sides. A single register cleaning or a partial-access job is not this. In Denver, where homes built between the 1960s and early 2000s frequently have galvanized steel trunk lines packed with decades of debris, full system cleaning is what actually changes the air your family breathes. CleanRun Duct Repair & Cleaning has delivered this service with a written price, professional-grade equipment, and a documented photo record on every job since 2013.
If you’ve received a $79 coupon from another company, bring it. We’ll put our own written price next to it, in writing, before any work starts – that’s our Free Second Opinion guarantee. Call us at (720) 799-2292 and a live person will answer. To understand how full system cleaning fits into the broader service, visit our Air Duct Cleaning in Denver page.
Full system cleaning in Denver typically runs $399 to $899 for a single-family home, depending on square footage, duct count, and system configuration. Most jobs are completed in three to five hours. Every job ends with a Documented Photo Record of the inside of every duct run – before and after – delivered to you as a standard part of the job, not an add-on.
When You Need Full System Cleaning
Not every home needs a full system clean on the same schedule. Denver’s altitude, dry climate, and long heating seasons create specific conditions inside ductwork that accelerate debris accumulation. Here’s what usually brings homeowners to us:
- You’ve never had the ducts cleaned since buying the home. If you purchased between 2015 and 2025 and the seller’s disclosure said nothing about duct maintenance, the safe assumption is that nothing was ever done. In older Denver neighborhoods like Harvey Park and Barnum, we regularly find original ductwork with construction debris, rodent activity, and compacted insulation fibers that have never been disturbed.
- Your home feels dusty within days of vacuuming. When registers are pushing debris-laden air across clean surfaces, the source is upstream. A shop-vac at the register face doesn’t touch the trunk line or the plenum – the places where most of the material actually accumulates.
- The HVAC system was recently replaced or the home was renovated. Drywall dust, insulation particles, and metal shavings from new ductwork connections settle throughout the system during construction. Denver’s renovation pace in neighborhoods like Sloan’s Lake and West Highland means we see this constantly on jobs called six to twelve months after a remodel.
- Allergies or respiratory symptoms worsen indoors. Denver’s dry winters mean windows stay closed for five or more months. Whatever is in the ductwork circulates continuously. We’re not making a medical claim, but when our camera shows a quarter-inch layer of debris at the first elbow on a supply run, the connection is hard to dismiss.
- Visible mold or microbial growth at a register face. This is a situation where partial cleaning is never sufficient. Every run, every component, and the air handler cabinet itself needs to be addressed. We document what we find with the camera before quoting any remediation work.
- A musty or burning odor when the furnace kicks on. In Denver’s climate, the first furnace run of October frequently pushes a season’s worth of settled dust through the system at once. That smell is combustion of debris on the heat exchanger. It’s a signal worth acting on before heating season is fully underway.
Our Full System Cleaning Process
What follows is exactly what happens on a CleanRun full system cleaning job – not a marketing outline, but the actual sequence a technician follows. Every step produces a documented record. Nothing is skipped because it’s inconvenient to access.
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Pre-Job Camera Inspection and Written Scope
Before any equipment enters the ductwork, we run a camera through the accessible runs and photograph what’s inside. The camera goes to the first elbow on each branch, into the trunk line from multiple access points, and into the plenum box on both the supply and return side. You see those images on a screen before we write a single number on the quote sheet. The written price comes from what the camera showed – not from a price list we filled in before we looked. This is Haven Standard Clause 1: written price before work starts, every time.
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Negative-Pressure Containment Setup
Negative-pressure extraction means we create a controlled airflow direction through the system so that dislodged debris moves toward our collection equipment rather than into your living space. We use a Nikro or Rotobrush negative-air machine connected to the main trunk line, which draws the entire system into negative pressure while individual runs are cleaned. This is the step that separates professional duct cleaning from vacuum-and-blow methods. Denver homes with multi-zone systems or three-story layouts require careful setup here – we verify negative pressure with a gauge before brushing begins.
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Mechanical Agitation of Every Duct Run
Every supply run and every return run is mechanically agitated with rotary brush equipment. We use Rotobrush equipment on flexible duct and hard-pipe runs, working from the register back toward the trunk line in each run. In Denver’s older homes – particularly post-war builds in areas like Athmar Park and Elyria-Swansea – we frequently encounter galvanized duct with years of compacted debris at elbows that doesn’t move without mechanical agitation. A vacuum at the register face moves the surface layer only. The brush moves what’s actually bonded to the duct wall.
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Air Handler Cabinet and Blower Motor Cleaning
The air handler cabinet – the metal enclosure that houses the blower motor, evaporator coil, and the filter housing – accumulates debris at the same rate as the ductwork, and in some cases faster because it’s the point where all return air arrives before being conditioned and pushed back out. We clean the blower wheel, the motor housing, and the cabinet walls. If the evaporator coil shows visible fouling, we note it in the written scope and photograph it. We don’t clean coils without a separate written authorization – that’s a different procedure with different pricing, and you get to decide.
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Trunk Line and Plenum Cleaning
The supply plenum is the box that sits directly above or downstream of the furnace heat exchanger and distributes conditioned air into every supply run. The return plenum collects air from all the return runs and sends it back to the air handler. Both are high-accumulation zones. We access them through existing service openings or, when necessary, cut a service access panel – which we close and seal before leaving. The trunk lines running the length of the home are cleaned via access points at multiple intervals, not just from one end.
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Post-Job Camera Verification and Photo Record
When every run is complete, the camera goes back in. We photograph the same angles we documented at the start. You receive both sets of images – before and after – as part of your job record. This is not a courtesy add-on. It’s the standard deliverable on every CleanRun job, held since our first job in 2013. If a run didn’t clean to the standard the before photo required, we go back in. That’s the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if it’s not done right, we make it right, backed in writing on every job.
BeforeAfterFull System Cleaning Pricing in Denver
Full system cleaning in Denver is priced from a written scope based on what the camera found, not from a square-footage formula applied before anyone looked inside. That said, here are the honest ranges homeowners in Denver typically see:
| Home Size / System Type | Typical Price Range | What Drives the Range |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,500 sq ft, single system | $399 – $529 | Duct count, access difficulty, debris load |
| 1,500 – 2,500 sq ft, single system | $529 – $699 | Number of runs, trunk line length, attic vs. basement routing |
| 2,500 – 4,000 sq ft, single or dual system | $699 – $899 | Dual zones, multiple air handlers, extended trunk lines |
| Dual system or 4,000+ sq ft | $899 – $1,400+ | Multi-zone, three stories, complex routing, prior remediation history |
Add-ons that affect the total price:
- Sanitizing treatment (EPA-registered antimicrobial applied to duct interior surfaces): $80 – $175 depending on system size
- Evaporator coil cleaning (separate authorization required): $95 – $185
- Service access panel fabrication and installation (when no existing access point exists in a sealed trunk line): $65 – $120 per panel
- Dryer vent cleaning added to the same visit: $89 – $140
Every one of those numbers is written down before the first panel comes off. Haven Standard Clause 1 is not a policy that applies to most jobs – it applies to every job. Bring a competitor’s quote and we’ll put our number next to it in writing. That’s our Free Second Opinion, at no cost to you.
Call (720) 799-2292 to schedule. A live person answers every call. We’ll ask about your home’s square footage, system type, and any known history with the ducts, and we’ll book a time that works – not a four-hour window that wastes half your day.
What Denver’s Climate Does to Ductwork
Denver sits at 5,280 feet. The combination of low humidity, high UV intensity, and temperature swings of 40 or more degrees in a single day creates conditions inside ductwork that differ from what you’d find in Atlanta or Seattle. Flexible duct – the silver accordion-style runs common in Denver homes built after 1985 – dries out faster at altitude. The inner liner becomes brittle and sheds particulate into the airstream over time. We see this in Capitol Hill condos and Stapleton townhomes alike during Residential Duct Cleaning work: the duct itself becomes a debris source, not just a vessel for it.
Denver’s heating season runs roughly October through April, and during that stretch, the furnace runs most of the day. That’s six months of continuous airflow through whatever is sitting in the ductwork. The other six months, the system sits mostly idle and debris settles. The cycle repeats. Full system cleaning interrupts that cycle with documentation of what was actually inside – not an assumption based on the home’s age.
In newer Denver developments like Stapleton (now Central Park) and Conservatory Green, we see a different pattern: construction-phase debris from the original build that was never cleared, combined with high-efficiency filtration systems that give homeowners a false sense of security. A Honeywell or Aprilaire whole-home filter catches particulate in the return air stream, but it doesn’t clean what’s already inside the supply side of the system. Those runs still need mechanical agitation.
What the 365-Day Done Right Promise Actually Means
Most service companies offer a satisfaction guarantee that exists in the fine print and disappears when you try to use it. The CleanRun 365-Day Done Right Promise is written on the job record you receive when the truck leaves. It says: if the work is not right, CleanRun makes it right. It doesn’t say “subject to manager approval” or “at our sole discretion.” It says we make it right.
What triggers it on a full system cleaning job? If a post-job camera run shows a run that wasn’t fully cleaned, we go back. If debris begins blowing from a register within a reasonable period after cleaning, we investigate and document. If the photo record shows a before image that required more work than the after image reflects, the job isn’t closed until it’s resolved.
We’ve held this standard since 2013, across more than 52,000 homes. The photo record is what makes it enforceable – for you and for us. You have the documentation. We have the documentation. There’s no argument about what the ductwork looked like when we arrived or when we left.
FAQs – Full System Cleaning in Denver
How long does a full system cleaning take in a typical Denver home?
Most full system cleaning jobs on a single-family Denver home take three to five hours, from the first camera inspection through the final photo record. A 1,200-square-foot ranch in Washington Park with a single furnace and twelve runs is typically on the shorter end. A 3,500-square-foot home in Cherry Hills Village with two air handlers, an attic distribution system, and twenty-plus runs will run closer to five or six hours. We give you a time estimate in writing along with the price – before work starts. Call (720) 799-2292 with your home’s details and we’ll give you a realistic window.
Is full system cleaning different from the standard duct cleaning I see advertised?
Full system cleaning addresses every component in the forced-air system: supply runs, return runs, trunk lines, the plenum boxes, the air handler cabinet, and the blower motor housing. Most advertised “duct cleaning” services – particularly the $79 coupon variety – clean accessible registers with a vacuum and leave the trunk lines, plenums, and air handler untouched. The difference is visible in the before-and-after photo record. If a company can’t show you camera images of the inside of your trunk line before and after the job, the work wasn’t done to a full-system standard.
How much does full system cleaning cost in Denver?
Full system cleaning in Denver runs $399 to $899 for most single-family homes, with dual-system or larger properties ranging from $899 to $1,400 or more. The exact number comes from a written scope based on what the camera found inside your specific system – not a square-footage formula. Optional add-ons like sanitizing treatment or evaporator coil cleaning are priced and presented separately, in writing, before you decide. Call (720) 799-2292 to schedule your inspection and get your written price.
Do I need full system cleaning if my filters are new and my home is relatively new?
New filters protect the system from ongoing particulate accumulation – they don’t clean what’s already inside the ductwork from the original construction or prior years of operation. In Denver’s newer developments, we frequently find construction-phase debris (drywall dust, fastener shavings, insulation fibers) inside supply runs that were never cleared before the home’s first occupant moved in. A camera inspection tells you what’s actually there. If the camera shows clean ductwork throughout, we’ll say so in writing and you’ll have documentation to that effect. That’s an outcome we’re entirely comfortable with – and one that happens on a portion of the jobs we inspect.
Book Full System Cleaning in Denver
CleanRun Duct Repair & Cleaning has served Denver homeowners since 2013 – more than 52,000 homes, every one with a written price before work started and a documented photo record when the crew left. Tomas Reyes leads every job under the H.A.V.E.N. Standard: background-checked, uniformed technicians, identified by name before arrival, operating with professional-grade equipment from Rotobrush, Nikro, and Aprilaire.
To schedule a full system cleaning or to get a Free Second Opinion on a competitor’s written estimate, call (720) 799-2292. A live person answers every call. Your written price will be ready before we touch a single register cover. From our home base in Denver, we serve neighborhoods across the metro – from Highlands Ranch to Northglenn, from Aurora to Lakewood – with the same documented standard on every job.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Denver, serving Denver.