Our Duct Cleaners are the best and here is a nice story to show why.
Last week, one of our Duct Cleaners was scheduled for a full duct cleaning & dryer vent cleaning job in Battleground, Wa. Upon arrival, Courtney (One of our awesome Lead Duct Cleaners) performed a full detailed walkthru with the customer, answering any questions and looking for any issues or obstacles before they began the actual duct cleaning. During her inspection, she found several heating supply ducts containing water!
The homeowner was naturally extremely upset! Courtney explained to her that at J&M Services, we also specialize in Ventilation and Ductwork Installation and/or Repair. Courtney was able to calm the homeowner after assuring her they would find the problem and come up with a solution.
Courtney and Chris (Her assistant duct cleaner) outlined a map of the entire heating duct system in the crawl by first locating all of the vents mounted in the floor, then sending Chris down into the soaking wet and flooded crawl space. As Chris located each vent register from inside of crawl space, Courtney followed him from inside the home and took notes as he called out damage assessment and material/duct sizes.
Chris identified the problem as a faulty crawl area sump pump. The sump pump was designed to remove water from the crawl area, but unfortunately, it appears it had not been working for some time! While Chris was in the crawl, he searched out the entire crawl space, including all foundation vents that allow fresh air into the crawl area of the home. He discovered three foundation vents that were missing the protective screening that prevents animals from entering the crawl. Especially during the cold Winter months, all types of animals will make your crawl space their home if the protective screening on the foundation vents is compromised! Animals in your crawl space can cause devastating amounts of damage, often using your expensive heating system ducting as bedding.
Once our Duct Cleaners had a detailed map of the entire duct system in the crawl, they were able to clearly show the homeowner the extent of the damage. Unfortunately for this homeowner, the entire flexible duct system had been completely submerged under water. Once water enters flexible insulated ductwork, there is no option other than full replacement. Flexible ductwork utilizes an inner plastic liner with a spiral wound wire for support than a layer of raw R8 rated insulation, followed by a layer of thick mil visqueen plastic that fully encases and protects the insulation from damage. Once water fully penetrates flexible duct, it becomes “sandwiched” between the two layers of plastic and will never fully evaporate from the insulation. This causes harmful mold & bacterias to form, which will be carried by the air flow in the ductwork directly to the air your family breathes!
While our Tech’s were on site, they called a trusted plumber for the homeowner and arranged an appointment. Courtney instructed the homeowner to call our J&M office if she needed any help with her homeowner’s insurance submission. We also bid the full damaged duct changeout while we were onsite. This entire process took a little over an hour, but since no actual Duct Cleaning was performed, we did not charge the customer anything for our time.
The homeowners insurance instructed her to get 3 bids for the duct replacement. The homeowner was so happy with our great Duct Cleaners she didn’t even want to call anyone else! We urged her to do things by the book and told her if she did find someone able to do the work cheaper than us that of course, we would understand.
Our bid came in a full $1,000 less than the cheapest of the other 2 bids! By specializing, we are able to purchase our duct materials in bulk quantity gaining significant savings and passing that savings on to our valued customers.
Duct Cleaning is so much more than just running a vacuum. Trust your homes heating system duct cleaning to the highly trained Duct Cleaners at J&M Services!
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Give us a call at 503-680-0195
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