Post-Construction Air Duct Cleaning

The builder hands over the keys, the paint smells fresh, the floors are spotless — and there’s a layer of drywall dust sitting inside the return plenum that nobody on the punch list was paid to find. We’ve scoped homes in Cinco Ranch off the Grand Parkway, in Steiner Ranch up the Hill Country, in Springwoods Village by the ExxonMobil campus, and in Liberty Hill subdivisions still smelling like fresh sealant. Every one of them ran clean on the surface and dirty underneath, because the HVAC ran during texture and paint and pulled gypsum, sheetrock, and MDF particulate straight into the supply boots.

Why New Construction Requires Specialized Cleaning

Our specialized inspection cameras reveal what builders often miss. JY runs high-level remediation for new builds across the Houston and Austin corridors.

The Invisible Danger Your Filter Won’t Catch

Drywall dust isn’t just dust. It’s mostly gypsum, but it carries trace silica — the same respirable particle OSHA tracks on construction sites. Joint compound powder, MDF residue, fiberglass insulation fragments, and PVC shavings ride along with it. Standard 1-inch builder filters — the ones the framers taped over the return during sheetrock day — capture roughly 7-11% of these fines (MERV 4-6 range). The rest blow into the supply trunks, settle in the drain pan, coat the evaporator coil fins, and load up the blower wheel. When the family moves in and the AC kicks on for a 95° afternoon, that load lifts off and circulates through every room. Children, infants, and anyone with reactive airways take the worst of it — they breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults.

How JY Runs Post-Construction Cleaning

Most “duct cleaning” is a shop-vac on a register and a coat of fragrance. JY runs the NADCA ACR Standard — the same spec required on commercial and government work. Negative air pressure is set with HEPA scrubbers before a single register cover comes off, so drywall fines stay inside the duct, not in your living room. Rotary brush whips and compressed-air skipper balls walk every supply trunk, branch, and boot. The evaporator coil is fin-combed and rinsed, the blower wheel is pulled and balanced, the drain pan is flushed. EPA-registered antimicrobial fog treats the cleaned system against microbial growth from any moisture introduced during the build.

The Equipment in Action

Portable-vacuum system cleaner Nikro 5000 CFM + HEPA scrubber containment in action on a Texas new-build home.

The White-Glove Pass & Static Pressure Verification

Before we pull out of the driveway, we read static pressure at the air handler — the number that tells you if the system is actually breathing right or strangling. Construction dust on coil fins is a known driver of static pressure issues, short-cycling, and premature compressor failure. We document the reading on the work order, run a final white-glove pass on every supply boot interior, and leave the home with a NADCA-protocol commissioning record. No mystery. No upsell. The number on the gauge is the proof.

Trusted by Builders, Property Managers & Municipal Projects

JY Air Duct Cleaning has been a NADCA-certified contractor since 2017. Post-construction commissioning is most of what we do across Texas: home builders rolling out subdivisions in Cinco Ranch, Telfair, and Springwoods Village; multi-family developers turning over apartment fleets in The Woodlands and Round Rock; property management groups handling tenant turnover; and municipal and county facility teams running new-build commissioning on Greater Houston and Greater Austin public projects. Same NADCA spec on every job — whether it’s a single new-build in Liberty Hill or a 200-unit apartment commissioning in Sugar Land.