Priced the way the job is actually built: by the number of air handlers, the number of supply and return openings, and whether the dryer vent is on the ticket. The licensed system work is listed on its own, because a different person quotes it.
Every figure below is a range drawn from what Houston-area contractors and the national cost guides publish for a full source-removal cleaning. The contractor who takes your call quotes the actual number, in writing, before anything is booked.
Pick the closest description. The readout is the duct-only range a full cleaning should land in, with the licensed add-ons shown separately so you can see what a bundled quote is made of.
Ranges only. A house with ducts that have never been opened, a hoarded attic, or a system with no access panels lands high; a well-kept single-story house with one system lands low. Anything under $200 for a “whole house” is not describing this job.
| Home | Systems | Supplies / returns | Duct-only cleaning | Coil + blower (licensed) | Dryer vent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,500 sq ft, single story | 1 | 8–10 / 1 | $390 – $625 | +$300 – $900 | +$99 – $189 |
| 1,500 – 2,400 sq ft | 1 | 12–16 / 1–2 | $440 – $800 | +$300 – $900 | +$99 – $189 |
| 2,400 – 3,200 sq ft, two story | 2 | 16–22 / 2–3 | $860 – $1,325 | +$600 – $1,800 | +$150 – $275 (roof) |
| 3,200 – 4,000 sq ft | 2–3 | 22–28 / 3–4 | $870 – $1,950 | +$600 – $2,700 | +$150 – $275 (roof) |
| Over 4,000 sq ft | 3+ | 28+ / 4+ | $1,200 and up | +$900 and up | +$150 – $275 |
The single biggest driver. Each system is its own set of plenums, its own returns and its own hookup for the negative-air machine. Most two-story Houston homes over about 2,400 square feet run two; large ones run three. Per-system rates in this market run roughly $350 to $550 for the duct side, and the national guides put a full system at $450 to $1,000.
About one supply register per 140 square feet is a fair guess for a modern floor plan. Returns cost more than supplies — $40 to $75 each against $25 to $50 — because they are bigger, dirtier and often sit behind a filter grille that has to come apart.
Ordinary dust is the base rate. Drywall dust from a remodel, the debris and droppings pests leave, or a run that has never been opened in thirty years all take longer and land high in the range. Wet or moldy duct is not a cleaning job at all; see the flex duct page.
An attic air handler with a decked walkway and a plenum that already has an access door is the easy case. One buried under twenty years of stored boxes, or a system with no access panels and a plenum that has to be cut and fitted with a proper door, is a licensed add-on and more time.
Evaporator coil cleaning runs $150 to $500 per system, blower cleaning $150 to $400, and any anti-microbial fogging $75 to $300 — all quoted and performed by a TDLR-licensed air conditioning contractor. Read the licensed system work page before agreeing to any of them; the EPA has registered no chemical biocide for use inside internally insulated ductwork.
$99 to $189 through a wall, more through the roof. Cheap enough that it is usually worth adding to the same visit, and a genuine fire-safety item rather than an upsell.
The Houston market is split in two, and the aggregator “averages” sitting around $600 hide it. At the bottom are the coupon and social-media specials — $13 to $99 for a “whole house” — and what that money buys is one air handler’s supply registers vacuumed from the room side, a deodorizer sprayed in, and a second system, the returns and the plenums added on the driveway or skipped. At the top, the NADCA-member operators in the metro publish per-system prices that run from roughly $900 to $1,600, for a job that takes most of a day and opens every part of the system.
Both are real prices. They are prices for different jobs. The point of this page is that you should know which one you are being quoted, and the fastest way to know is the written scope: how many systems, how many openings, which plenums, how long, and who holds the license for anything past the grille. This checklist is the one to compare it against.
No. It is the range a full source-removal cleaning of a house like yours should land in, drawn from published Houston and national figures. The contractor who takes your call quotes the actual price after counting systems and openings, and puts it in writing.
Because under Texas rule 16 TAC §75.100 cleaning them is air conditioning contracting, which needs a TDLR license, while cleaning the ductwork between the plenum and the grilles does not. Listing them separately shows who is doing what and stops a licensed price from being hidden inside an unlicensed one.
Usually, but the system count matters more than the square footage. A 3,000-square-foot single-story house on one system with sixteen supplies is a smaller job than a 2,600-square-foot two-story on two systems with twenty, because the second air handler brings its own plenums, returns and hookup.
Ask two questions first: who is applying it, and what is it. Applying a disinfectant inside ductwork is licensed work in Texas, and the EPA says no chemical biocide is currently registered for use inside internally insulated ducts, which is what most Houston flex duct is. For a system that was simply dusty, the honest answer is usually no.
Say how big the house is, how many air handlers it has, and which part of the metro it is in. The contractor covering your zone counts the openings and quotes it in writing.
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