Mice, air conditioning duct damage, cleanup?

[saint]

Hanging ceiling in the basement, flexible ducts for the air conditioners. Had a mice and rat infestation. Escalating war ends with me killing them with poison after weeks of pest control folks, traps, etc. near as I can tell we've killed them all and now have the cleanup to do. The holes in the outside walls have been sealed also.

They've chewed a few holes in the flexible air conditioning ducts, and have been running in the ducts. Probably have nested, ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, etc in the ducts. I'm afraid we have dead mice in the ducts also, as the smell of decay is strong and i suspect we haven't  found all the little bodies (we found six). I'm also not sure we found all the holes.

Anyone know anything about duct cleaning services?  Near as I can tell duct cleaning is full of scam artists. I spoke to one guy who said to make sure you have a truck based vacuum system, not portable units. He said no camera system will tell us where the damage is and that we're going to have to just do a visual inspection from the outside. He said he thought his vacuum would suck up the mouse bodies, and gave me a flat $400 quote that he said wouldnt change (no up charges).

Opinions/advice? This sucks a lot.

[lilshawn]

Most companies use cameras now a days. so that should be a give in. due to the nature of your infestation, it may be wise to (if possible) repair any damage before they show up. otherwise you may get someone going all gung ho fixing things and then presents you with a bill with a whole bunch of extra labor.

Some quotes look attractively low – until the technicians show up and start adding “extra” charges. Before the work is started, get a written estimate that includes the cost of all of these items:

• cutting or opening up all the necessary access holes or panels
• cleaning all the ducts, including the main supply and return ducts
• cleaning all the piping and ductwork that connects the main ducts to the vents
• cleaning all the vents (not just some standard number)
• cleaning the furnace itself (burner, chimney, drip pan, whatever.)
• cleaning the fresh air intake line
• cleaning the combustion air intake line
• sanitizing/disinfecting the duct system
• re-sealing all access holes when cleaning is finished
• handling and disposing of all waste material (you'd be surprised)
• all labor costs

Be sure you’re getting a guaranteed total price, not a rough estimate. Don’t trust verbal promises. Your written quote should clearly state that all the above items are included. Be sure to ask: “Is this the guaranteed total cost, or are there additional charges not included in this quote?”

Last, but not least, remember that if someone won’t put a promise in writing, it ain't guaranteed. Paper will save your butt.

[drventure]

Well, if you have reasonably easy access to the ducts that are damaged, it's fairly simple to replace them yourself.

For those runs where they've actually chewed all the way through (or even just damaged the insulation), you'll probably want to replace those runs. It's amazing what energy you'll loose if just the insulation has fallen away from the ducts.

400$ seems to be a pretty reasonably price for a full duct cleaning. The truck mounted vacuum comments sounds about right. The vacuums I've seen also have a big brush like thing on the end that can scrub the inside of the ducts.

Haven't ever had anyone use the camera snake thing so I won't comment on that, though it would seem like you could learn alot about how bad they are, and how much better they end up afterwards using something like that (assuming the snake is long enough to traverse the whole run.

As a side note, if you're up in the attic dealing with this stuff anyway, you might check your levels of insulation too. That blown cellulose (or whatever it is they're using now) is pretty easy to blow in, and can make a big difference if you have less than 6-8 inches in there now.

Yeah, that smell (and the monster flies that come with it) is pretty nasty.