Posts Tagged ‘Duluth’

Can I Clean the Air Ducts on My Own?

Monday, November 17th, 2014 by Lisa Pixley

Cleaning your air ducts requires a lot more than pulling out your vacuum and removing the dust from the registers. Your ductwork is a long, complex system that can reach to the deepest parts of your home, and dust and dirt can settle in these parts as easily as any other. Being able to remove the contaminants from your entire system takes knowledge and expertise, which is one of the reasons why it’s important to hire trained and certified professionals for residential duct cleaning in Duluth. If it’s time for you to clean your ducts, call a company you can count on to do it correctly and efficiently: Alpha Air Corporation.

Reasons to Call a Professional

  • Specialized tools – there are a number of specialized tools that a trained technician uses to clean your ducts. These can include truck-mounted vacuums, pneumatic tools, visual aid equipment, professional brushes and access tools. It is likely that you don’t have these kinds of tools, which can put you at a great disadvantage when trying to clean your ductwork yourself.
  • Training – certified technicians not only know what to look for, they know what to do. For instance, part of a professional duct cleaning involves the safe and clean removal of all contaminants. This ensures that your home won’t be re-contaminated when things like dust and dirt are removed from your ductwork. Are you able to guarantee that for yourself?
  • Efficiency – trained technicians clean ductwork every day. This means they not only have the knowledge, expertise and experience, they will also be efficient and expedient when they clean your ductwork.
  • Good results – when you hire a trained professional to clean your ductwork, you can be assured that your ductwork is truly being cleaned and that dust, dirt and any other contaminants are removed from your system.

Your ductwork is an integral part of your HVAC system. Having it professionally cleaned helps you and your system for the long-term.

If it’s been more than 3 years since your last cleaning appointment, schedule residential air duct cleaning today with Alpha Air Corporation today!

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Common Tools Used in Duct Sealing

Friday, May 16th, 2014 by Lisa Pixley

If you read the title of this posts and the words duct tape immediately came to mind, we’re not surprised. After all, the word “duct” is right in the name. However, duct tape is not designed for ducts. (Actually, it was originally known as duck tape, possibly because duck cloth was used to back it.) Laboratory tests done on duct tape have revealed that it rapidly fails when exposed to the temperature extremes inside a ventilation system and loses its adhesive ability.

Professional duct repair technicians use different tools to close off leaks in ventilation shafts. When you have ductwork with breaks that are affecting your HVAC system’s efficiency and lowering indoor air quality, call for experts with the right equipment to handle the job.

For your duct sealing in Duluth, MN, look to Alpha Air Corporation. We offer many services to protect your indoor air quality and keep your ventilation system in prime shape.

The tools of professional duct sealing

Along with replacement duct material for larger jobs (ductboard, flexible ducts), professionals principally use two tools to close leaks: mastic sealant and metallic tapes.

  • Mastic sealant: This resin-based adhesive can stick to many different surfaces—metal, glass, plastic, ductboard—and dries quickly with a smooth surface to reduce air resistance. Many duct repair technicians favor mastic sealant because it remains flexible even after it dries, and this is helpful for ducts because they expand and contract as the temperature inside them changes. Mastic is also resistant to temperature extremes, making it far superior to brittle duct tape. Duct sealers use a caulking gun to apply mastic onto duct leaks.
  • Metallic tape: There is a type of “duct tape” that professionals use, but it’s nothing like the soft cloth-backed duct tape you find in stores. Tapes made from a variety of metals are a popular choice in duct sealing; some professionals prefer them to mastic sealant. The metallic tapes are effective mechanical fasteners and have high durability, often outlasting mastic sealant. These tapes are usually made from aluminum with an acrylic or butyl adhesive.

For service on your ventilation system, you should rely only on National Air Duct Cleaners of America-certified technicians (NADCA), like those at Alpha Air Corporation. We offer 24-hour emergency service for when you need us, and we will bring the best equipment available to assist us in doing the best job possible for duct sealing in Duluth, MN.

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Fire Restoration Services in Duluth

Friday, March 21st, 2014 by Lisa Pixley

A house fire is a devastating event for any family, and it leaves behind not only physical scars on property, but emotional ones as well. Although there’s very little that can be done about the traumatic effect a house fire has on people, there is plenty that can be done to restore and remedy the physical damage. With proper fire restoration services, you can have the important ventilation system of your home repaired, cleaned, and restored to its former condition.

Don’t wait for the clean-up process to begin before contacting a professional fire restoration service. Contact Alpha Air Corporation right away for quality air duct cleaning in Duluth, MN, and we’ll start to work making your life in the wake of the fire much easier.

Why You Need Fire Restoration for Your Ventilation

First, restoration may be insurance-mandated. Your fire coverage might require that you use a professional restoration contractor to clean up the fire damage.

Second, professional restoration will keep you safe from additional damage. A home with fire damage requires delicate work to avoid creating further collapse. Restoration experts are familiar with how to avoid causing more injury as they do their job.

Third, you need to have the most thorough cleansing of your ducts possible, or else you will continue to circulate toxic debris from the fire through your home after you move back in. Regular duct cleaning cannot eliminate the residue that a fire will leave behind; it requires restorationists.

What Happens in Fire Restoration for Ventilation Systems

Fire restoration experts use special cleaners to remove the damage that fire inflicts on a ventilation system. They remove soot and smoke deposits, a job that requires a great deal of technical knowledge because there are different types of fire damage and each needs a different approach to properly clean it. Wet residue is the most difficult to remove, while the powder left over from dry residue is much simpler. Protein residue is harder to detect, but restoration experts will focus on locating and cleaning it.

The professionals will use special cleaning and sanitizing agents on the ducts that won’t leave behind any toxic chemicals and which will eliminate odors.

Call Alpha Air Corporation for Fire Restoration

We do sincerely hope that you will never need to call us for fire restoration in Duluth, MN. However, know that we are here when you need us, and will make a commitment to providing you high quality service that will make this time less stressful for you. Before you make any other plans after the fire, call Alpha Air Corporation.

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I Have Flexbile Ducts: Is Duct Cleaning Still An Option?

Friday, August 30th, 2013 by Lisa Pixley

If you own a forced-air distribution system, such as a furnace or heat pump, then you depend heavily on the integrity of your ductwork to remove indoor air from your home and to recirculate conditioned air throughout the various sections of the home. But in order to get the most out of your heater or air conditioner, you need to ensure that your ductwork is kept clean at all times. There is simply no other way to ensure that they will be both effective and efficient. Homeowners with flexible ductwork in their homes may be wondering about whether such material can be cleaned. Is duct cleaning an option for flexible ducts? In short, yes. But it ultimately depends on whether you hire a professional heat duct cleaning professional in Duluth, MN to get the job done right.

Cleaning flexible ducts requires a gentler touch and a different set of tools than with normal, sheet metal ductwork. The latter is sturdy and stable, but flexible duct is relatively thin and comprised of corrugated plastic whose rings can begun to accumulate dust and other debris. It can be difficult to get into such areas effectively and thoroughly, which is why attempting to clean your own ducts is inadvisable. Attempting to vacuum them on your own may risk the integrity of the insulation lining the duct as well as the connections.

In order to have your ducts cleaned professionally, you need to ensure that you hire a qualified contractor who knows how to address the unique needs of flexible ductwork, and who can give you an honest appraisal of whether your ducts needs to be cleaned. Because of the low cost of flexible ductwork, there may be cause to replace the ductwork instead of cleaning should the debris accumulation be particularly severe. Look for an HVAC technician who can help advise you on such matters.

At Alpha Air Corporation, we can ensure that your heat duct cleaning service in Duluth, MN is completed thoroughly and properly so that your heating and cooling are restored.

Call us today to schedule a consultation about your ductwork.

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