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 San Francisco
Air duct cleaning in San Francisco typically costs between $450 and $1,100 for a full residential system, and most jobs are completed in a single visit. Those numbers reflect the city’s older housing stock: Victorian and Edwardian flats with retrofitted duct runs that are awkward to access and rarely cleaned. At Linden Air Duct Cleaning, we know exactly what’s inside those walls, because we’ve been pulling decades of grime, plaster dust, and fog-driven mold out of them since Marcus Veale founded the company in 2004. If you’re ready for a straight answer on what your system needs and what it will cost, call us at (980) 447-2498.
Key Takeaways
- San Francisco pricing: $450 – $1,100 for a full residential Air Duct Cleaning; inspection-only visits run $95 – $195.
- The fog is the problem: Western neighborhoods like the Outer Sunset and Outer Richmond get mold in ducts even without AC use.
- Older homes need more than a surface clean: Camera inspections routinely find crushed runs, disconnected boots, and unsealed balloon-frame chases.
- You’ll know exactly who’s coming to your door: Every Linden technician’s name, photo, and background check are sent to you before the visit, and a photo ID badge is shown at the door.
- Written price before work begins, every single time. No exceptions.
Why Linden Air Duct Cleaning Is San Francisco’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
We’re not a national franchise that parachutes a crew into San Francisco with a generic playbook. We’re part of the Threshold Group family, operating to the Threshold Verified standard since 2004, and our scheduling for the entire Bay Area runs out of our San Francisco Bay Area office. That means the person on the phone understands what a Noe Valley flat’s duct system looks like when it’s wedged behind original redwood framing, and they won’t put a tech in your driveway who doesn’t know the same thing.
Marcus Veale built this company on a simple idea that most of our competitors seem to think is optional: a homeowner should know exactly who is walking through the door and exactly what the job will cost before the van ever parks. So every Linden technician is background-checked and identity-verified. Their name and photo are sent to you before the visit. A photo ID badge is shown at the door, every time. And the price is put in writing before any work begins. If you call us at 8 p.m. from a top-floor unit in the Richmond District with a question about your return ducts, a live person answers. Not a voicemail tree. Not a callback queue. A person.
Our crews serve every San Francisco neighborhood, from the Outer Sunset to the Mission to Potrero Hill. We run professional-grade equipment from Rotobrush, and every repair is backed by our 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing.
Air Duct Inspection in San Francisco
Air Duct Inspection in San Francisco starts at $95 – $195 depending on system size, and it’s the step that separates a real cleaning from a surface dusting. In this city’s older homes, inspection means running a camera through every accessible run, checking for crushed sections, disconnected boots, and contamination that a visual-only look from the register would never catch. If you own a Victorian or Edwardian flat, the inspection is where you find out what’s actually going on behind those original walls.
What the Camera Tells Us
A camera inspection in a typical San Francisco flat takes about 45 to 90 minutes, and it shows us what your system looks like where it matters: the joints, the plenum, the runs you can’t see from the living room. In fog-belt homes, we’re looking specifically for moisture damage and microbial growth. In retrofitted Victorians, we’re checking for disconnections and crushed sections that a surface clean would simply miss.
When to Book Inspection Before Cleaning
If your home has never had its ductwork cleaned, or if it was retrofitted decades after construction, book the inspection first. The camera findings determine what kind of cleaning and sealing you actually need, and that’s the only way to give you an honest price before work begins.
Residential Air Duct Cleaning in San Francisco
Residential Air Duct Cleaning in San Francisco runs $450 – $1,100 for a complete system, with the final number determined by system size, number of returns, and what the inspection reveals. Most San Francisco homes fall on the higher end of that range because our systems are not like inland suburban systems: they’re retrofitted into balloon-frame cavities, routed through floorboards that predate the Great Depression, and often sealed poorly or not at all. A fixed price is agreed in writing before we touch anything.
The Source-Removal Process
We use negative-pressure extraction with HEPA filtration, which pulls contaminants out of the system under vacuum rather than pushing them around with a brush and calling it done. For San Francisco homes, this matters, because we’re often removing decades of plaster dust from original construction, fine grit from 100-year-old floorboards, and moisture-fed buildup in the western neighborhoods.
Sealing the Real Problem
Cleaning gets the contamination out. Sealing keeps the fog out. In most San Francisco duct systems, the real fix is in the joints and plenums, where fog-driven moisture enters even when the system sits idle for months at a time. We stock sealing materials and replacement flex sections locally, so the work is done in the same visit as the cleaning.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Francisco
San Francisco homes are full of duct systems built from whatever was available when they were retrofitted, and we service them all. Our crews run extraction equipment from Rotobrush, and we work with air-quality products from Aprilaire and Abatement Technologies when a home needs filtration or humidity control to keep the fog-driven moisture from coming back. Because we stock replacement parts and materials in our Bay Area office, San Francisco customers don’t wait on a distributor in Sacramento to ship something across the bridge. Same-visit sealing and replacement is the standard, not the exception.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in San Francisco Homes
- Fog-driven mold in the Outer Sunset and Outer Richmond. In these neighborhoods, duct systems routinely grow visible mold colonies even though the thermostat has never been set above 68°F and the AC has never been used. The marine layer alone drives the humidity, and it sits in the flex-duct joints and unsealed plenums for weeks at a time.
- Crushed and disconnected runs in retrofitted Victorians and Edwardians. These homes were built for floor furnaces and radiant heat, not forced air. When central ducts were added in the 1950s through today, they were threaded through original wood-framed walls and subfloor cavities with tight clearances. Crushed runs are routine, and they’re rarely found without a camera inspection.
- Unsealed balloon-frame return chases. The same balloon-frame cavities that made these homes easy to wire and plumb also make them terrible return-air ducts. When a 1910 cavity is used as a return chase without sealing, it pulls air from the crawlspace, the wall cavities, and wherever else it can. That’s how fog moisture ends up in a system that never runs.
- Stacked-flat contamination passing between units. San Francisco’s two- and three-unit flats often have independently jury-rigged systems per unit but shared chases and wall cavities. One unit’s contamination, especially in a shared return cavity, can cross into the neighboring unit through gaps and unsealed penetrations a surface clean can’t address.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in San Francisco, CA
A full residential system in San Francisco runs $450 – $1,100. Inspection-only visits run $95 – $195. Commercial systems in this city start around $1,200 and go up based on square footage and the number of rooftop or mechanical-room units. What moves the residential number: the number of returns, the age of the retrofit, whether the system is a single-family home or a two- or three-unit stacked flat, and what the inspection finds. Every job gets one flat price per system in writing before work starts. No per-vent add-ons, no surprise invoice at the end. Call (980) 447-2498 for a free estimate with a camera inspection included in the quote process.
We Also Serve Cities Near San Francisco
Our crews serve the entire San Francisco Bay Area, including San Francisco itself, Daly City, Brisbane, Sausalito, and South San Francisco. When you schedule with us, you’re booking a local team run out of the Bay Area office, with local parts stock and techs who know these neighborhoods. If you’re just outside the city line, the same flat-price guarantee and written estimate apply.
Serving San Francisco, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Francisco 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 San Francisco
In San Francisco, the ductwork doesn’t need to run to collect contamination. In fog-belt neighborhoods like the Outer Sunset and Outer Richmond, ambient humidity infiltrates flex-duct joints and unsealed plenums entirely on its own, even when the system has been off for months. That moisture supports mold and mildew growth at temperatures far too low to trigger any inland California duct problem. Add decades of plaster dust and floorboard grit from an older home, and you’ve got a system that needs source removal even if the AC switch has never been touched. Call (980) 447-2498 and ask for a camera inspection estimate.
Yes, and this is one of the most common situations we handle in San Francisco. In a Noe Valley Victorian, the original floor furnace vents were not designed for forced air, and the central ductwork was retrofit later. Those retrofit runs are often cramped, irregular, and have joints that were never sealed properly. We clean them with negative-pressure extraction and, where the camera inspection shows open cavities or disconnected sections, we seal and reconnect them as part of the same job. Give us a call at (980) 447-2498 and we’ll set up the inspection.
In our experience working across San Francisco’s older housing stock, a camera inspection typically finds at least one of three things: crushed runs, disconnected boots, or unsealed balloon-frame chases pulling air from the crawlspace. In western neighborhoods, we also routinely find moisture-fed microbial growth on flex sections that have never seen a single day of AC use. The inspection is the highest-information step in the whole job, which is why we build it into our quote process. For an exact figure on inspection and cleaning as a combined price, call (980) 447-2498.
We treat the mold in a fog-belt San Francisco system as a two-part problem. First, we perform source removal with negative pressure and HEPA filtration, physically removing the contaminated flex sections rather than coating over them. Second, we correct the entry point: that’s usually an unsealed plenum joint, an open balloon-frame return cavity, or a flex run that’s been sitting against a damp subfloor. The sealing work is the real fix, because cleaning alone in the Outer Sunset just gives the fog a clean surface to grow on next season. Call (980) 447-2498 to discuss what the inspection finds and what the full fix costs.
Yes, and they also need a shared-cavity check. Stacked two- and three-unit flats in San Francisco often have independently retrofitted systems per unit, which means each unit’s ductwork is its own job. But because the wall and floor cavities, balloon-frame chases, and subfloor spaces are shared, contamination can cross between units through gaps and unsealed penetrations. We inspect each unit separately and look specifically at the shared paths during the camera inspection. For a price on a stacked-flat building, call (980) 447-2498 and we’ll walk you through what we need to assess.
Written by Marcus Veale, Owner at Linden Air Duct Cleaning, serving San Francisco homeowners with verified, accountable duct service since 2004.