Whole-home duct cleaning
Dryer vent cleaning
Camera inspection
Sanitizing & deodorizingWhole-system duct and dryer vent check with before-and-after photos - you see exactly what came out of your vents
That "$99 whole-house special" is a bait ad - the real number appears once they are in your hallway, or the "clean" is a shop-vac at the register. We photograph the inside of your ducts before and after instead.
Fast, Reliable HVAC Cleaning Across Kirby
If you live in Kirby and your air conditioning has been running harder than it should, the problem often isn’t the unit itself. It’s what’s inside the ducts and coils after decades of South Texas heat, dust, and humidity. We clean HVAC systems throughout Kirby, from Ackerman Road to the neighborhoods off Old Seguin Road, with technicians who know exactly what mid-century ranch homes here hide in their attics. Most standard HVAC Cleaning jobs in Kirby run $350 – $600 for a typical single-story home, and we hand you a written price before any work starts. Call (254) 347-3897 and you’ll talk to a live person who can schedule your cleaning and answer questions on the spot.
Why Cardinal Air Duct San Antonio Is Kirby’s Preferred HVAC Cleaning Company
Kirby homeowners call us because we understand what a 1963 ranch on Ackerman Road actually looks like inside its ductwork. That’s not a guess. Our technicians have opened hundreds of attic access panels in this city and found the same thing: original metal ducts, separated at the joints, packed with a fine gray grit that most companies never fully remove.
Our Kirby customers consistently mention two things in their feedback. First, the technician showed up when the tracking link said he would. Second, the before-and-after photos from the camera inspection matched the written report. No vague “we cleaned it” hand-wave. You see the inside of your supply runs before we start and after we finish. Omar Haddad leads our San Antonio-based scheduling team, and every Kirby job is dispatched from that office with a live arrival window you can track from your phone.
Response time to Kirby is typically same-week for standard cleanings, and because we stock common replacement components for older Carrier, Rheem, and Trane systems in our service vehicles, we’re not running back to a supply house mid-job. The Relay Standard booking experience means every Kirby customer gets a live trackable arrival window, before-and-after photo proof, and a digital invoice payable by link. It’s how we’ve always operated, and it’s why homeowners here don’t have to babysit a four-hour arrival window.
Styles & brands we work with




Furnace Duct Cleaning in Kirby
Furnace duct cleaning in Kirby deals with the supply and return runs that carry conditioned air through your home, and in this city those runs are usually original galvanized metal from the Eisenhower and Johnson administrations. The job involves source-removal cleaning: we connect a HEPA-filtered negative-pressure vacuum (Nikro units, in our case) to the main trunk, then run a Rotobrush rotary brush through every run to loosen the debris that’s adhered to the duct walls. The vacuum pulls loosened material out of the system instead of letting it resettle. When a Kirby homeowner notices dust on furniture within days of dusting, or hears a whistling from certain registers, it’s time. Most furnace duct cleanings in Kirby run $300 – $550 depending on the number of runs and whether the return plenum needs attention.
What We Find in Original Metal Runs
In Kirby’s 1950s through 1980s homes, the metal ducts weren’t sealed at the seams with anything durable. Decades of thermal expansion have opened those joints, and every open joint pulls attic air into your conditioned air stream. That attic air carries whatever’s up there: blown insulation particles, rodent droppings in some cases, and the fine Calaveras Lake bed dust that settles on every surface in a Kirby attic. A proper cleaning doesn’t just remove the debris. It gives us a camera view of every joint so we can point to the exact spots that need sealing.
Sealing After the Clean
Cleaning without sealing is half a job in Kirby. We apply mastic to accessible joints and transitions after source-removal cleaning, which is the difference between a system that stays clean for two years and one that’s dusty again in four months. You pay one written price that includes the seal work we identify during the camera inspection. No surprise line items after we’re already in your attic.
AC Coil Cleaning in Kirby
AC coil cleaning in Kirby is about the evaporator coil inside your air handler and, in many homes, a condenser coil outside that’s been eating dust from Calaveras Lake and construction traffic off FM 78. When the evaporator coil is coated with a gray film, your system can’t transfer heat efficiently, so it runs longer to hit the same temperature. We clean coils with professional-grade coil cleaners and follow with a rinse process that won’t damage the fins. For Kirby homeowners whose cooling bills climb every August, a coil cleaning typically restores noticeable capacity within a day. AC coil cleaning in Kirby runs $150 – $350 for evaporator coils, with condenser coil cleaning typically $100 – $200.
Evaporator Coil Access
In Kirby’s ranch and bungalow homes, the evaporator coil is usually inside a closet-mounted air handler or a hallway ceiling unit. Access can be tight, which is why we don’t give a quote over the phone without seeing the setup. What we do promise: the written price you approve before work starts is the price you pay, whether we’re in and out in two hours or fighting a corroded access panel for forty minutes.
Condenser Coil and Airflow
The condenser outside your Kirby home collects cottonwood, grass clippings, and that same gray lake-bed grit. A coil that’s caked with debris can’t reject heat, so the compressor works harder and runs hotter. We include a condenser coil rinse as part of the system-level cleaning, and we’ll show you photos of the coil before and after so you can see the difference. It’s part of the same written estimate, not an add-on we pitch at the door.
Trusted Brands We Service in Kirby
Kirby homes run on a mix of brands depending on when the system was installed. We service and clean components from Carrier, Trane, Rheem, Goodman, Lennox, and York, plus older units from Day & Night and Amana that are still chugging along in mid-century homes. For filtration, we install and service Honeywell and Aprilaire media cabinets, which matters in Kirby because the dust load here clogs standard one-inch filters faster than most homeowners expect. We carry common filter sizes and coil cleaners on our trucks, so a Kirby customer isn’t waiting a week for a part to ship. If your system uses a Guardsman ultraviolet lamp, we inspect and replace those too.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCommon HVAC Cleaning Problems We See in Kirby Homes
- Thermal joint separation in original metal ducts. Kirby attics routinely exceed 140°F in summer, and that heat expands and contracts metal ducts every single day. Over decades, the joints open up and your system pulls attic air into every room it conditions.
- Gray Calaveras dust packed into return runs. Windblown sediment from the lake bed and surrounding construction sites settles into return ducts and coats the blower wheel. This abrasive grit accelerates wear on the blower motor bearings and reduces airflow.
- Crushed or disconnected flex duct retrofits. We see a lot of poorly supported flex runs in Kirby attics, sagging between trusses and kinking at the boot connections. A camera inspection finds these hidden restrictions that a basic vent-cleaning crew will never see.
- Clogged evaporator coils from years of bypassed filtration. When old filter slots don’t seal properly, unfiltered air flows around the filter and deposits directly on the coil. The result is a coil that looks like it’s been spray-painted with gray felt.
Pricing for HVAC Cleaning in Kirby, TX
Here’s what Kirby homeowners can expect to pay, in writing, before we touch a single duct:
- Furnace duct cleaning (full system): $300 – $550 for a typical single-story ranch, based on number of supply and return runs.
- Evaporator coil cleaning: $150 – $350 depending on access and coil condition.
- Condenser coil cleaning: $100 – $200 for exterior unit cleaning and fin inspection.
- Blower wheel and housing cleaning: $100 – $200 when done as part of a system clean.
- Joint sealing with mastic: Quoted per joint after camera inspection, typically $20 – $40 per accessible joint, included in the written estimate before we start.
Every estimate is free, and the price we hand you is the price on your invoice. No per-vent pricing games, no “premium package” invented after we’re in the attic. Call (254) 347-3897 for an exact quote on your Kirby home.
We Also Serve Cities Near Kirby
Our Kirby customers often refer us to family in neighboring cities, and our scheduling office dispatches crews across the east side of the San Antonio metro. We serve San Antonio, New Braunfels, Cibolo, and Converse with the same written-price guarantee, camera inspection, and The Relay Standard booking experience. If you’re in any of these areas and your ducts haven’t been inspected in years, call us at (254) 347-3897.
Serving Kirby, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Kirby area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About HVAC Cleaning in Kirby
Kirby homes need HVAC cleaning more often because of the combination of mid-century metal ductwork and the specific dust load from Calaveras Lake and surrounding construction. The original ducts in 1950s – 1980s homes weren’t sealed to modern standards, so every open joint pulls attic air and debris into the system continuously. A San Antonio home with newer flex duct might go three to five years between cleanings. Many Kirby homes genuinely benefit from an inspection every two to three years.
Camera inspection in Kirby’s ranch homes typically finds separated joints in the original galvanized metal, crushed or kinked flex runs where retrofits were poorly supported, and a gray film of Calaveras dust coating the inside of return trunks. We also routinely find disconnected transitions at the air handler where a previous contractor replaced a section of duct but never sealed the connection. You’ll see these findings in the photos we provide before any repair or cleaning recommendation is made. Call (254) 347-3897 to schedule an inspection.
The gray dust in Kirby ducts is primarily windblown sediment from Calaveras Lake and nearby construction, mixed with attic insulation particles and general household dust. It’s abrasive rather than acutely toxic, but it does contribute to poor indoor air quality, aggravates allergies, and accelerates blower motor wear. The more immediate concern is what it indicates: open duct joints pulling attic air into your living space. We recommend a professional cleaning and sealing rather than simply replacing your filter more often.
Old metal ducts leak because the original connections were made with slip joints and basic sheet metal screws, not sealed with mastic or foil tape. Decades of thermal expansion in Kirby attics that exceed 140°F in summer have loosened those connections to the point where they separate visibly. Even joints that look fine from the outside can be leaking significantly. The fix is sealing accessible joints with mastic after a source-removal cleaning, which restores static pressure and stops attic air infiltration.
Flex-duct retrofits can reduce the joint-separation problem of original metal ducts, but only if they’re installed correctly. In Kirby, we often find flex runs that were never sealed at the air handler transition, sagging between trusses, or kinked at the boot connections. A proper flex retrofit, installed with sealed transitions and proper support, can go longer between cleanings than original metal. But even new flex duct in Kirby should be camera-inspected every few years because the Calaveras dust load doesn’t care what material your ducts are made of.
Whether it’s a full furnace duct cleaning, an evaporator coil that’s starving for airflow, or a camera inspection to find out what’s really happening in your attic, we’re ready to give you a straight answer and a written price. Call (254) 347-3897 for a free estimate on HVAC cleaning in Kirby, and we’ll walk you through exactly what your system needs.
Written by Omar Haddad, Owner at Cardinal Air Duct San Antonio, serving Kirby and the surrounding area.