Air Duct Cleaning During Cold and Flu Season

We moved to our new home last month, actually, my husband got promoted and we decided to move to a bigger and better place. It took us several days to place everything in the right position, probably this is an anticipated situation with a couple of kids. We were all excited because this house was much bigger than the old one and the kids got their separate rooms. We had to hire several kinds of services as a part of the preparation to move in. We hired the best handyman in town to ensure high-quality work. Unfortunately, we forgot about air duct cleaning services that we were reminded of the hard way.

The reason we had to hire the handyman services is that the house was abandoned for a very long time and putting everything back in the order needed a skilled workforce. My kids love to play around the house and they are always up to something. So, it was Monday morning when the younger daughter came sneezing at me and said she caught a cold and now can’t stop sneezing. That worried me for a bit because it wasn’t cold outside because it was sunny for the last couple of days. Anyway, I gave her the aspirin and told her it’ll be ok in a couple of hours, but I didn’t know at that time that I should just hire a professional air cut cleaner because the real problem was different. Later on, I found out that the elder one is also having flu symptoms as well.

Getting my second child attacked by the flu worried me and as usual, I planned to take the girls to see a doctor the very next morning. I called in and booked an appointment for 11:00, but I had to rush because the flu had taken a serious shape, so I reached an hour before the appointment. Luckily the secretary moved my time earlier when she saw the kids are in a mess. Our doctor is an experienced person and it didn’t take him much time to examine the kids. He wrote down the medicine and asked me not to skip them and also recommended a few remedies to make the breathing easy.

The kid's condition improved and they got all better by the next morning, but I didn’t know that the trouble was once more ready to knock on our doors. I woke up a couple of days later and felt a bit dizzy, so I woke up my husband and told him that I am not feeling well. He asked me to stay in the bed and he’ll get the girls ready for school. I still remember how panicked he was when he came back running because the girls were not feeling well. They were having another episode of this flu, so he skipped the office and took us all to the doctor. Honestly, the doctor was a bit shocked to see us again so soon.

Once he finished writing off the medicine, he asked my husband to clean the house from germs because our flu is kind of unusual and probably the air quality inside the house is poor. It was then my husband remembered that we just moved in but we didn’t clean the ducts. Since the house was closed for a long time no one knew that the air duct has become the home to germs and mold and consequently reduced the air quality inside. He ordered the best inspection services in town and they promised to visit the next day during the day timing.

I didn’t know at that time what type of equipment and gear is needed to carry out an air duct cleaning but I found out as soon I opened the door for the inspection team. The person-in-charge asked my permission to start the work and I immediately called my husband and he took them to show the air duct and its vents. The house was big the duct’s construction was a bit complicated but it didn’t take them much time to tell us that our ducts are full of mold and the filters were choked as well. No wonder we fell sick. They requested the map of the house to look at how the duct was built.

Fortunately, we had it and soon they started their work and moved out a ton of junk from the ducts. The strange smell of moist junk filled the home, and we were asked to open the windows. It took them a couple of days to clear out everything from the ducts. Now, it’s all good and we understand the importance of clean air better than ever. We put air duct cleaning on our annual maintenance schedule and ever since we didn’t experience seasonal flu problem. Everyone’s happy and thank God we made the right decision in time to clear out our ducts.