Ducts in Marietta get worked harder than most. A spring tree-pollen season that broke the Atlanta record in 2025, a cooling season that runs from April into October pulling humid air across a cold coil, and return ducts in hot attics and damp crawlspaces that leak dust into the system all year. A proper cleaning here covers the supply runs, the returns, the air handler and the coil it sits on, not just the grilles you can see from the hallway. What is included and what it costs are settled before the first register comes off.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (943) 271-6154A system cleaned end to end, a camera that shows whether it needed it, and a price that does not grow once the truck is parked outside.
Supply runs, returns, the air handler cabinet, the blower wheel and the coil. A job that only vacuums behind the grilles gets called what it is.
Photos from inside the returns and trunk lines show what is really there. If the ducts are clean, you hear that, and you keep your money.
Systems, openings, add-ons and the figure at the bottom, agreed before work starts. Nothing turns up on the invoice that was not discussed at the door.
From the Square and Whitlock Avenue out toward Kennesaw, Smyrna and East Cobb, written for houses with attic air handlers and crawlspace returns.
There is nothing to fill in. The work is quoted before any of it starts.
How many systems, where the air handlers sit, and what you have noticed. That alone rules a lot of unneeded work in or out.
A camera in the return and a look at the coil and blower decide whether this is a full cleaning, a coil job, a dryer vent or a sealing job.
You get the scope system by system and one total. The work follows that list, and before-and-after photos show it was done.
Illustrative photographs of the kinds of work described on this page. No specific Marietta property is shown.
Four things set the price of duct cleaning in Marietta. Every one of them can be pinned down before the work starts.
Each air handler and its duct network is a separate job. A two-system house is closer to two cleanings than one, even with one truck in the driveway.
More registers and returns mean more hours. An air handler wedged into a tight attic or a low crawlspace takes longer to open up and seal back than one in a basement.
Sheet metal tolerates aggressive tools; flex and duct board need gentler ones. Crushed or disconnected runs found on the day are repairs, priced on their own.
Ordinary dust is the baseline. Construction debris, rodent nesting or visible mold growth mean more time, more containment and sometimes a different trade.
Most calls begin with one of these four complaints. Each links to the page about the job that actually fixes it.
When dust settles that fast the usual suspects are a filter that lets fine particles straight through, a return duct pulling attic or crawlspace air through a gap, or supply runs carrying years of buildup. In Marietta the spring version is yellow, because tree pollen rides in with every door opening. A camera look inside the returns shows which one it is before money goes into a full cleaning.
Towels still damp after a full cycle usually means the dryer is starved for exhaust. Lint packs the run between the drum and the outside hood, airflow drops, and the drum overheats trying. Long runs to a roof hood, common in townhouses and in newer houses with upstairs laundry rooms, clog fastest. The fix is cleaning the whole run and measuring airflow at the hood afterward.
That smell usually comes from the indoor coil and its drain pan, not from the ducts. The coil sits cold and wet through a Georgia summer, and any dust that slips past the filter sticks to it and feeds growth. A slow condensate line makes it worse. Cleaning the coil and pan and clearing the line often ends the smell without touching a single duct.
Weak airflow to the far rooms and dark streaks around a ceiling register point at the ductwork itself: a flex run crushed under stored boxes in the attic, a joint that pulled apart, or a return leaking hot attic air into the system. Cleaning cannot reconnect a duct. Finding and sealing the leak can, and a duct leakage test shows how much air was going missing.
Not sure which one it is? Describe what you are noticing and where in the house, and the right job gets matched to it.
Checked against primary sources on 2026-10-25. Every claim below links to where it came from.
On Saturday 29 March 2025 Atlanta Allergy & Asthma recorded a pollen count of 14,801 grains per cubic meter of air, shattering the previous record of 9,368 set in March 2012. Any count above 1,500 is classed as extreme. Trees were the main source, after a warm February with no hard freeze brought an early bloom and a warm, dry March intensified it. The count is taken from a rooftop sampler and read under a microscope.
Why it matters: Pollen gets into a house through doors, windows and any return duct that pulls air from the attic or crawlspace. A filter that fits its slot catches most of it; a leaky return or a loose filter lets it reach the supply runs. Cleaning in the middle of a season like that is wasted money. Fix the filter and the leaks, then clean after the counts fall.
Source: atlantanewsfirst.com
Georgia's state energy code took effect on 1 January 2011, and duct and envelope tightness (DET) verification became mandatory on new homes from 30 June 2011. A newly installed duct system must be tested if any part of it, or the air handler, sits outside the building envelope, in an unconditioned attic or crawlspace. As first written, the rules also required an existing system to pass the same test if more than half of it was modified, and required mastic on new or modified ductwork. Under Georgia's amendments to the 2015 IECC the duct leakage target is 6 CFM per 100 square feet of conditioned floor area, and testing must be done by a certified DET verifier such as a HERS rater or BPI analyst.
Why it matters: A Marietta house built before mid-2011 was never held to a duct leakage test, and its attic and crawlspace returns often pull dust, insulation fibers and humid air straight into the system. Cleaning those ducts without sealing them buys a few clean months, and the leak is usually the better use of the money.
Sources: southface.org · southface.org
University of Georgia Extension Circular 1047-1, Preventing Mold in Your Home (fully reviewed 1 March 2023), advises keeping indoor relative humidity below 60 percent and ideally between 30 and 50 percent. It lists air conditioning system flaws, naming an oversized unit, duct leaks, dirty coils and condensation, among the sources of excess moisture in a house, and recommends sealing leaks in HVAC ducts and the return plenum and running a well maintained, right-sized air conditioner with the fan on auto.
Why it matters: In a humid Georgia summer the indoor coil sits cold and wet for months, and that is where musty smells and growth usually start, not in the duct runs. A fan left on 'on' re-wets the house with water from the coil. The coil, the drain pan and the leaks deserve attention before anyone sells a duct sanitizer.
Source: fieldreport.caes.uga.edu
The City of Marietta lists five National Register historic districts: Atlanta-Frasier Street, Church-Cherokee Street, Northwest Marietta, Washington Avenue and Whitlock Avenue, and in August 2013 part of Kennesaw Avenue became the city's first locally designated historic district. The Whitlock Avenue district, listed in 1989, covers 82 acres and 101 contributing buildings dating from before the Civil War into the 1930s. The Northwest Marietta district, listed in 1975, takes in about 230 acres of houses built roughly from the 1840s to the 1890s.
Why it matters: Almost none of those houses were built with forced air or central cooling. Most of their ductwork was added later, threaded through crawlspaces, closets and attics around plaster walls and old framing, and it is often a patchwork of metal and flexible duct of different ages. A cleaning there starts with finding where the runs actually go.
Sources: mariettaga.gov · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org
No. The EPA's guidance says duct cleaning has never been shown to prevent health problems, and it does not recommend cleaning as a routine part of system maintenance. It says to consider cleaning when there is substantial visible mold growth inside hard-surface ducts, when the ducts are infested with rodents or insects, or when they are clogged with excessive dust and debris. NADCA, the duct cleaning trade association, recommends an inspection once a year and cleaning as needed. In a Marietta house that usually means after a renovation, after mice or squirrels have been in the attic or crawlspace, or when a camera shows real buildup, not because a mailer arrived.
It gets very bad. On 29 March 2025 Atlanta Allergy & Asthma recorded a count of 14,801 grains per cubic meter, shattering the previous record of 9,368 from March 2012, when anything above 1,500 already counts as extreme. Trees were the main source. Pollen comes in through doors, windows and leaky return ducts, and a filter that fits its slot catches most of it. A return that draws attic air, or a filter with a gap around its edge, lets more reach the supply runs, where it settles with ordinary dust. Fix the leak and the filter first and clean after the counts drop, or next March undoes the work.
If any part of the duct system or the air handler sits outside the insulated envelope, in a vented attic or crawlspace, very likely yes. Georgia's energy code took effect on 1 January 2011, and duct and envelope tightness verification has been required on new homes since 30 June 2011, carried out by a certified verifier such as a HERS rater or a BPI analyst. The results go on a compliance certificate posted on or near the electrical panel or the air handler, so look there first. Under the current Georgia amendments the duct leakage target is 6 CFM per 100 square feet of conditioned floor area. A house built before that was never held to the test, which is a big reason older attic and crawlspace returns leak dust into the system.
Get the whole system in scope, the supply runs, the returns, the air handler and the coil, with the total settled before anything is opened. If there is water pooling under the air handler or a burning smell from the vents, switch the system off at the thermostat first and mention it when you call.
Call (943) 271-6154Upfront pricing · No obligation · Local Cobb County technician