Getting rid of this dust around here.. I need some help.

[used_submarine]

Hi all,

I have no clue why, but there is suddenly so much dust in this room of mine, and it's driving me nuts. Not only will it try to find its way into my tower and all of the other electronic things in my room, but it's coming a bit faster than normal.

Logic says to have our air ducts cleaned, but that's going to be a problem. Whoever built our house put the heating/ac duct opening behind a hell of a lot of other equipment in our garage, so the cleaners we had over for a free eval said it would cost a lot more than usual since it'd be so tough to get their equiptment in there to do the cleaning.

So my question is, has anyone tried any of those portable air cleaners (Honeywell, etc..) that can be found at Lowe's, Menards, Home Depot, and places like that? Did they do their job? Or does anyone else have any ideas for cutting down the amount of dust?

[swamp-fox]

I'd say you have a leak in your return air duct ,sucking in dirty dusty air form the attic.
If you smoke the nicotine is a dirt magnet and will stick to everything.
Some old houses will suck air throught electrical plugs, light switches or even around the base trim if the sheetrock job wasn't the best and has gaps. Look around the plugs for dust and the carpet next to the walls. More expensive but maybe an install of all new ductwork is in order.
One other thing you can try is spray endust (lightly) on your filters and let the fan run 24 hours a day for a while and change filter once a week. May help after a thorough dusting of whole house. Another trick I hear of is to throw a smoke bomb in the ductwork in the attic and go look for the smoke coming out of the joints then reseal them. hope this might help

swamp

[Ed_S]

For one thing, I'd get another estimate on the cleaning. When we had ours done, they entered the ductwork from each register, NOT from the furnace. All that was done at the furnace was to clean the inlet / outlets of dust, which was done via existing openings. The main "trunk" line did need to be opened for access, but that could be done at any point in it's length. They use brushes on long flex tubes, much like a plumber's snake, plus a truck-mounted vaccuum unit. Brush knocks it loose & vaccuum pulls it out before it can settle.

And yes, it DID make a difference & was well worth doing.

Even with limited access, any company with proper equipment & knowledge should be able to do the job.

[DaveLewis]

I hope you can get to the filter in your heat and air unit. One of the easiest and cheapest things you can do is to replace your filter with a really good HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) type. They're available from good hardware and home improvement stores. Once the new filter is installed you'll see a slow improvement as you start to catch all of the airborne dust. Be prepared to change the filters at frequent intervals - probably at least once a month until the air starts to clean up.

If you keep the windows open for long periods of time (weeks) all bets are off of course. I live in a climate where its either too hot or too cold most of the year and we keep the house pretty much sealed up. Therefore the good filtration system works pretty well.