Commercial Manufacturing in Cache Valley

Manufacturing is a sizable part of Logan, Utah and the greater Cache Valley’s economy. From scientific manufacturing such as ThermoFisher, to food manufacturing like Pepperidge Farms, to exercise equipment manufacturing like iFit. With so many manufacturers in the area, there’s also a significant business in warehouses. Here in Logan, many of these commercial warehouses are finding they can benefit from having their air ducts professionally cleaned. But why is that?

The Importance of Clean Air

Clean air is super important. The EPA says that indoor air pollution is one of the biggest risks to human health. About 64 million workers around the US report experience symptoms connected to what the EPA calls Sick Building Syndrome, caused by exposure to pollutants. These symptoms can include headache, nose and throat irritation, dry coughing, and other effects. As many as one in four commercial buildings may be classified as “sick buildings.”

The last thing a company wants to worry about is the employees getting sick and causing a labor shortage and decreased productivity due to long term health issues.

The best way to prevent these problems is proper ventilation. The symptoms are caused by the build-up of pollutants in a building, which occurs when the air inside is unable to properly circulate. It builds up inside until it begins causing health problems. Often, these health issues require prolonged recovery time. That’s not good! That’s why you want to keep your commercial building’s HVAC system cleaned, including the air ducts.

The Pros of Commercial Air Duct Cleaning

1. Better Air Quality

Obviously, the big reason you want your air duct system to stay clean is better air quality. Having clean air ducts keeps your HVAC system working efficiently, giving your building the best air circulation possible. With better air circulation, you’ll have cleaner air and be less likely to experience symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome.

2. Increased Energy Efficiency

This is another way that keeping your air ducts cleaned will save you money in the long-run. The dust and other pollutants that can contaminate your air duct system will restrict the airflow. Over time, you’ll find the cost of heating and cooling a building will increase as it takes more work from the HVAC system to move the hot and cold air. You end up running the system more and more to compensate, costing you more money. Cleaning the air ducts restores the airflow and reduces the amount of work the system has to do to keep a comfortable temperature in the building.

3. Less Sick Time

Poor air circulation can leave your employees feeling more sick. Even if they aren’t actually catching any particular diseases, the poor air quality affects their ability to breathe. If a contaminated air duct gets wet, it can grow mold, which may release toxic spores into the building. All of these issues adversely affect people’s health and as the owner of the building, you are liable for this if it’s found that you didn’t do your job to provide adequate air circulation to prevent it.

On top of that, people will have to take more time off to recover, which can leave you understaffed and struggling to keep to a proper schedule. All of this can hurt your business and leave your employees very unhappy.

4. Reduce Fire Risk

Your air ducts share the responsibility of air circulation with heating and cooling. Not only can contaminated ductwork affect the air circulation, but it can prevent a fire risk. Even dust can be flammable and if it’s allowed to build up too much, running hot air through it can potentially cause it to combust.

5. Get Rid of Unpleasant Odors

Many of the things that can contaminate your air ducts just smell bad. Since the air ducts carry air throughout the entire building, if something in your ducts smells bad, your ducts will spread that smell everywhere. There’s nothing more infuriating than a smell you can’t locate the source of, especially when the source is in a place that’s not easy to check.

6. Meet Compliance Standards

There are many different kinds of warehouses around Cache Valley and they all have different regulations. Medical warehouses and food production, for example, can have very strict standards of quality, since food and medicine are things we put in our bodies. Exposing your products to dust, mold, or even bacteria/viruses can potentially put your company at risk. Since these can contaminate your building’s air ducts, it’s a good idea to make sure the ducts are clean.

7. Look More Professional

Unclean ducts aren’t automatically going to cause these potentially serious issues. These are, obviously, the worst things that can happen. However, even setting that aside, spreading dust around your building through unclean air ducts is still not good. It can give your building an unprofessional look if you find dust everywhere. Employees might not want to work at a place that doesn’t try to keep itself clean, and business partners might raise concerns for their own reasons.

Are There Cons to Commercial Air Duct Cleaning?

If we mention the pros of duct cleaning, does that mean there are cons? Well, there are a couple you should keep in mind.

1. The Up-Front Cost

Any service is going to cost you money. So, just up front, you’re going to be spending extra money to keep your air ducts cleaned. Fortunately, the return on this can make up for this. Increased production and less sick days from employees will mean you get more bang for your buck from the building. Many companies make this part of their regular maintenance budget every year so they can plan around it.

2. You Have To Watch For Scams

Unfortunately, there are not yet any broad industry standards or regulations on the industry of air duct cleaning. This means that it’s possible for scams to crop up. The most common kinds are bait and switch scams. We’ve found a lot of instances of businesses that offer really cheap prices, perhaps offering tempting coupons that promise a cleaning for less than $100 for a building. What they don’t tell you is the cheap service doesn’t do that great a job. The aim is to get their foot in the door and then “upsell” you on more services to get the job done that they should have been doing in the first place.

We’ve done some research on the subject and put together an article to help you spot the common types of air duct cleaning scams and how to avoid them.

Easy Breezy Will Help You Breathe Easy

Good air circulation is an important part of good health. Poor circulation will allow the build-up of pollutants indoors. Fortunately, a semi-regular cleaning job can help improve air circulation as well as improve overall energy efficiency of your commercial warehouse or production plant.

Here at Easy Breezy, we’ve spent a lot of time studying up on the best procedures to get the best results and ensure that you get the best job done for the money spent. We follow a ten-step inspection procedure to identify the needs of your building and determine the best cleaning and maintenance schedule to keep your building’s air ducts clean and fresh.

We also use specialized equipment to sanitize the air ducts, which will kill bacteria and viruses, as well as helping to prevent mold and mildew.

If there are other problems with your air ducts, such as breaches, or mold infestations to deep for our sanitizers to deal with (it’s very hard to kill mold once it gets a strong foothold in anything), our inspection will spot these problems and we can help you take appropriate steps to deal with these problems – usually replacing the ducts if the damage is serious enough that we can’t deal with it ourselves.

This will help solve the problems of having a “sick building.”

Get In Touch Today

How long has it been since you cleaned your commercial building’s air ducts? Chances are, it’s been a while. We don’t ever see the inside of the air ducts, so we often don’t realize the problems they could be causing. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say, but just because you aren’t thinking about the problems, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

If this sounds like you, then get in touch with us today. We’ll be happy to help you out!