Air duct cleaning in Fairfax.
Duct and dryer vent cleaning in the City of Fairfax and the county side. We put a camera in first, so you see what’s in yours before a price.
- You see inside first
- Priced by the system, in writing
- Dedicated HVAC team
Get your duct price in writing
One Fairfax address, three kinds of duct system.
The City of Fairfax and Mantua are mostly single-family houses from the 1960s, with sheet-metal ducts and returns that are often just panels across the floor joists. Kings Park West runs to 1970s houses and townhouses. Fair Lakes and Fair Oaks went up in the 1990s, and a lot of Fair Oaks is in apartment and condo buildings, where the system is small and the job goes quicker.
So the first question on a Fairfax call isn’t the price, it’s which of those houses you’re in. A 1965 rambler in Mantua and a 1997 townhouse in Fair Lakes are different jobs, and the camera tells us which one before you pay for anything.
Heating is a bigger share of what we do in Fairfax than in most towns, and the first cold week is when people notice their ducts: the furnace fires for the first time since spring, and the smell in the first ten minutes is whatever has been sitting in the system.
Kings Park West is the exception on the county side: 1970s houses and townhouses, and close to half of them heat with electricity. A heat pump runs its blower for longer stretches in winter than a gas furnace does, so the filter and the ducts in those houses move more air, and more dust, over a year.
What the ducts look like across Fairfax.
Census figures for the owner-occupied homes in each place, and what that usually means when we open the system.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | What we usually find |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair Oaks | 1995 | condo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Condo and apartment buildings: small closet systems and short runs. |
| City of Fairfax | 1966 | single-family houses, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Houses from before 1980: original sheet metal, and returns built into the floor framing. |
| Kings Park West | 1976 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 5 in 10 | Houses from before 1980: original sheet metal, and returns built into the floor framing. |
| Merrifield | 1990 | condo and apartment buildings, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Condo and apartment buildings: small closet systems and short runs. |
| Fair Lakes | 1998 | townhouses, about 3 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | 1980s and 90s houses: sheet-metal trunks, flexible runs and one big return. |
| Mantua | 1968 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Houses from before 1980: original sheet metal, and returns built into the floor framing. |
Fairfax houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
The City of Fairfax
- Median home built1966 Census
- Built before 1980about 7 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 2 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 5 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 7 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 3 in 10 Census
- Houses that age often have returns built into the floor framing, which pull dust from the whole floor. We clean returns first.
The Fairfax County side
- Built before 1980about 3 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 4 in 10 Census
- Most homes arecondo and apartment buildings, about 4 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 5 in 10 Census
- Townhouse dryer vents run long, to the roof or the back wall, and long runs clog sooner.
- Condo systems are small and quick to clean; anything shared through the building belongs to the association.
What duct cleaning costs in Fairfax.
The same price book as our air duct cleaning page, for a home up to 2,000 square feet on one system. We look first: a camera goes in at a return while you watch, about ten minutes, and it costs nothing if yours are fine. Then you get the price in writing, then we clean.
- Return Air Duct Cleaning$298
- Whole Home Air Duct Cleaning$598
- Whole Home Air Duct Cleaning with ActivePure Air Scrubber$1,798
- Dryer Vent Cleaning, on its own$299
- Dryer Vent Cleaning, added to a duct cleaning$199
A second system bills at 90 percent of the tier, because it’s isolated and cleaned on its own. The calculator on our air duct cleaning page does the arithmetic for a bigger house.
The dryer vent is the yearly one, and it’s in the Family Care Plan at $199 a year along with a heating inspection, an AC inspection and a plumbing inspection.
When duct cleaning is worth it in Fairfax.
Nobody remembers the last time
Which is most houses. Nobody opens a duct, so it never comes up until somebody looks.
You just finished a renovation
Drywall dust goes wherever the air goes, and the system was running while they sanded.
The house is new to you, not new
A 2005 house has had twenty years of filter changes, some of them missed, and the system may have run while the drywall went up. Nobody has looked inside since.
What the county says about dryer vents.
Fairfax County
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue tells every household to clean the lint out of the dryer vent pipe once a year, sooner if clothes are taking longer to dry, and to have a gas dryer checked by a professional. Source.
How to pick the best duct cleaning company in Fairfax.
Questions to ask anybody who quotes you, us included.
Will they tell you when your house doesn’t need it?
A 1990s house in Fair Lakes that’s had its filter changed on schedule can look fine on camera. If yours does, the right answer is to change the filter and check again in a few years, and that’s what a good company tells you.
Do they look before they quote?
A camera look at one return takes ten minutes. A price given at the door, sight unseen, is a price for the average house, not yours.
Do they clean the returns, or only the supply vents?
The returns are the big grilles that pull air back to the system, and they’re the side that collects dust. A job that only counts supply registers leaves half the system alone.
Is the price for the whole system, in writing?
Ask what it covers: every supply and return, the main trunk, the blower compartment. The $59 mailbox coupon covers getting somebody into the attic.
What our customers say.
I would gladly recommend them to anyone in the greater Fairfax/Alexandria area without reservation.
Aaron and Marshall were honest with me and did a good job cleaning the dryer vent.
Swiftpro came out the same day I called when my AC was out and had it fixed in less than an hour after arriving.
5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Duct cleaning questions from Fairfax.
Is duct cleaning different in an older Fairfax house?
Usually. In a 1960s house the returns are often open panels across the floor joists rather than sealed ducts, so they pull dust from the whole floor and they’re where we start. In a 1990s townhouse it’s mostly flexible duct and one big return, which needs a softer brush and less time.
Do you serve the City of Fairfax as well as the county side?
Yes. Inside the city line and all the Fairfax County streets with a Fairfax address, from Mantua and Kings Park West to Fair Lakes and Fair Oaks. Same crew, same prices.
Do you clean ducts in Fair Oaks and Merrifield condos?
Yes. A condo’s system is usually a small air handler in a closet with short runs, so it’s a shorter job than a house. If your dryer vent runs up through the building instead of straight out a wall, check with the association first; that part may be theirs.
How much does air duct cleaning cost in Fairfax?
$598 for Whole Home Air Duct Cleaning on a home up to 2,000 square feet with one system, $298 for Return Air Duct Cleaning, and $1,798 with an ActivePure air scrubber installed. A dryer vent is $299 on its own or $199 added to a duct cleaning.
Is it worth it?
Sometimes, and the camera is how you find out. If the duct walls are furred over, cleaning takes that out of the loop your air runs through, and the before and after are obvious. If the metal is clean, it isn’t worth doing and we’ll say so. The EPA’s position is that routine cleaning hasn’t been shown to prevent health problems, so we don’t sell it that way.
Duct cleaning in the towns next door.
More from SwiftPro in Fairfax
See inside your ducts first.
Call, or book online and pick a window. The camera look takes about ten minutes and costs nothing, including when yours turn out to be fine.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Fairfax and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Book online, read our reviews, or see every town we serve.