Air Duct Mold Removal in Los Gatos, CA

Mold in Los Gatos ductwork

Postwar ranch homes here sit over crawlspaces on raised foundations. Supply runs go cold down there. Coastal-influenced moisture meets that cold metal. Condensation forms, dust settles, and the dust film is what grows. The galvanized sheet metal itself is not food.

Material decides the fix. Original trunk-and-branch steel can be cleaned and dried. Mid-century wrapped fiberglass ductboard usually cannot. Once the fiber face is wet and shedding, brushing it releases more. Same with a deteriorated flex inner liner. Those runs get cut out and hauled off-site, then replaced with new R-6 or R-8.

Find the water first. Mold is a symptom. We check the evaporator coil and condensate pan. Then we check boots at register takeoffs, pulling humid crawlspace air into the system. We also check for a missing or torn vapor barrier below. Fogging biocide through a still-wet system buys a few months.

Scope follows how much porous material is involved. A few ruined feet near a boot is one job. An attic full of sagging, shredded flex is another. Sometimes the honest answer is replacement, not cleaning.

Check it yourself before calling. Pull one bedroom register and shine a light in. Speckling on the liner reads different than gray dust. Musty odor and rodent odor are separate problems, though wooded hillside parcels often have both.