How to Eliminate Mold in AC Ducts

Mold in the air ducts – it’s every homeowner’s worst nightmare. However, many homeowners have no idea that they even have mold in their ductwork. If you haven’t cleaned or used your AC system in a long time, there may be a chance that your air ducts are full of mold. Ideally, you want to clean out the ductwork before you turn on or use your AC system, because if you don’t, you could risk spreading mold throughout your entire home. Here is how to eliminate mold in AC ducts.

First and foremost, you want to make sure your AC system is completely off. Ideally, you want to clean the ducts without the system being connected to any source of power. After you make sure that the system is off, you want to prepare the home and you want to get all the supplies you need. For one thing, you will need to make sure you have clothing that you can throw away afterwards – painter’s overalls will do the trick. You want to throw them away after you are done cleaning, because they will most likely have mold spores on them.

Next, you want to open all the windows in your home. When you are working with chemical cleaners and removing mold, you want there to be plenty of ventilation. So, be sure that all the windows are open. You probably want to clean your ductwork in the daytime – when there is plenty of light and when it is warm enough. Once all the windows are open, you can start prepping the work area. When cleaning ductwork, there will be many work areas, so you want to organize everything quite neatly.

After that, you want to prepare a mixture of bleach and water. Make sure that the bleach is highly diluted. You don’t want pure bleach poured into your ductwork, because the smell will be impossible to get rid of. Before you clean, you want to identify the areas where there may be the most moisture. If you notice drips and leaks in certain areas, you want to clean out those areas first. You can bet that wherever there is water, there is also mold. So, you want to be sure to remove the mold from the areas where you are absolutely certain there is mold – then you can move on to the rest of the ductwork.

Lastly, if you aren’t sure what you are doing – or if your ductwork snakes behind walls or in precarious parts of your home – you probably want to call the professionals to remove the mold for you. The last thing you want is to hurt yourself. Also, you don’t want to further damage the ductwork. After the mold is gone and your ductwork is clean, you want to take better care of your air conditioning system. For instance, you want to make sure that you have a new filter every couple of months. The importance of air filter replacement can’t be stressed enough. If you take better care of your HVAC system, you will have fewer occurrences of mold and your whole system will work more efficiently as well.