Whole-system duct and dryer vent check with before-and-after photos - you see exactly what came out of your vents
That "$99 whole-house special" is a bait ad - the real number appears once they are in your hallway, or the "clean" is a shop-vac at the register. We photograph the inside of your ducts before and after instead.
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AfterVideo Inspection in Littleton, CO
Duct video inspection means running a small camera through your duct system before any cleaning or repair work begins, so you can see exactly what’s inside – debris load, damage, disconnections, mold growth – in real footage, not a technician’s verbal summary. Most Littleton homeowners who call us are reacting to something: chronic dust, an unexplained smell, or a quote from another company that never came with any evidence. A camera run gives you that evidence. Our Air Duct Cleaning in Littleton service always includes a documented photo record of every duct run before and after work, and video inspection is the foundation of that process – it’s how we know what we’re actually dealing with before we price anything.
If you’d like a written price before committing to anything, call us at (720) 315-7291. A live person answers every call, and we’ll tell you exactly what a camera inspection costs for your home’s square footage and duct configuration – no vague estimates, no “it depends” without an explanation.
When You Need Video Inspection
Not every home needs a dedicated camera run as a standalone service, but there are situations where skipping it means working blind. Here’s when Littleton homeowners typically call us specifically for an inspection:
- You’re buying or selling a home in Littleton’s older neighborhoods. Homes built in the 1970s and 1980s in areas like Columbine Valley and Governors Ranch frequently have flex duct that has collapsed or disconnected at the joints – a condition invisible from the register opening but clearly visible on camera. If you’re in escrow, you want this documented before closing.
- A previous cleaning company left no documentation. If the last crew came through with a shop vac and handed you a receipt but no photos, you have no way to know what was actually done. A camera run establishes a verified baseline – what the duct interior looks like right now, in footage you can keep.
- You’re noticing persistent musty or burning odors that change with the HVAC cycle. When a smell intensifies exactly when the blower kicks on, the source is almost always inside the duct system or at the air handler. Camera footage from the supply and return plenum – the plenum is the central distribution chamber where conditioned air enters the duct network – narrows the location quickly.
- Your home is in a wildfire smoke corridor. Littleton sits at the eastern edge of Jefferson County, and during high-smoke events like those in the summer of 2020 and 2021, fine particulate matter infiltrates duct systems through return air intakes. That material doesn’t behave like ordinary household dust; a camera shows whether it has settled as a visible layer at low points and elbows.
- You’ve had moisture intrusion or a foundation issue. Homes in the South Platte River corridor in Littleton occasionally deal with seasonal moisture that finds its way into lower duct runs through crawl space sections. Mold growth in ductwork isn’t always detectable by smell alone, but it shows up clearly under camera lighting.
- Your system is more than 15 years old and has never been inspected. Duct tape – the foil-backed kind used on older Littleton builds – loses adhesion over decades, especially in attic sections that cycle between sub-zero January temperatures and 130-degree summer highs. Camera inspection identifies separations at joints before they become full disconnections.
Our Video Inspection Process
Here’s exactly what happens when a CleanRun technician runs a camera inspection in a Littleton home. Nothing is skipped to save time, and nothing is added to inflate a bill.
- Written price before the panel comes off. Haven Standard Clause 1 means you receive a written quote for the inspection before we do anything. The price is fixed – it won’t change because we found something unexpected inside. If what we find warrants additional work, that’s a new written quote, presented separately, with no pressure.
- System mapping and access point identification. Before inserting any equipment, the technician walks the home and maps the duct layout: number of supply runs, return air locations, plenum configuration, and any flex duct sections. In Littleton homes with finished basements – common in Ken Caryl Ranch and Columbine Knolls – this step catches buried or enclosed duct sections that need to be noted in the inspection record.
- Camera insertion at the supply plenum and each primary duct run. We use professional-grade camera equipment to work through each main duct run from the supply plenum outward. The camera captures real-time footage and still frames at each significant point: elbows, take-offs, dampers, and any location where debris accumulation or damage is visible. A take-off is the branch point where a main duct splits into a smaller run feeding an individual room register.
- Return air system inspection. The return side of the system – where air is pulled back to the air handler – is inspected separately. Return plenums in older Littleton construction are sometimes built from framed wall cavities rather than sheet metal duct, and those cavities can harbor debris, pest activity, and insulation fragments that a supply-side inspection would miss entirely.
- Real-time walkthrough with the homeowner. If you’re home, we show you the footage on-site. We name what we’re looking at: “this is a 2-inch debris accumulation at the first elbow off the main trunk,” not “your ducts are pretty dirty.” If we see something that needs repair rather than cleaning, we identify it by location and describe it in plain terms.
- Documented photo record delivered to you. Every inspection concludes with a photo record of the duct interior – before any work, so you have an unaltered baseline. This is a standard CleanRun deliverable, included with every inspection, not an add-on. If you proceed with cleaning or repair, an after-inspection photo record is included as well. Both sets belong to you.
BeforeAfterVideo Inspection Pricing in Littleton
Duct video inspection in Littleton typically runs between $95 and $195 as a standalone service, depending on the factors below. When inspection is bundled with a full cleaning, the cost is rolled into the overall cleaning price rather than billed separately.
| Scenario | Typical Price Range |
|---|---|
| Standalone inspection, single-story home (up to 2,000 sq ft) | $95 – $130 |
| Standalone inspection, two-story or finished basement (2,000-3,500 sq ft) | $130 – $175 |
| Inspection included with full duct cleaning package | Included – no separate charge |
| Return air system inspection added to supply-side run | $25 – $45 additional |
| Pre-purchase inspection with written report for escrow purposes | $150 – $195 |
What affects where you land in that range: duct count, system configuration, accessibility (finished basements and attic duct sections take more time), and whether you need a written report formatted for a real estate transaction. Homes in Littleton’s older sections – particularly those built before 1985 in areas like Sunset, Columbine Valley, or along South Windermere Street – more often fall toward the upper end because the duct layouts are less standardized and access is tighter.
Every price is written before work starts. If you bring a competitor’s written estimate, we’ll put our number next to it in writing at no cost – that’s our Free Second Opinion policy, and it applies to inspection quotes the same way it applies to cleaning or repair quotes. Call (720) 315-7291 for a fixed written price for your home’s specific layout.
What the Camera Actually Finds in Littleton Homes
After inspections in Littleton homes since 2013, certain findings come up consistently enough to be worth naming. In homes built during the 1970s and early 1980s in the Columbine area, we regularly find foil-tape failures at main trunk elbows – the tape has dried out and pulled away, leaving gaps that reduce system pressure and allow unconditioned air to enter the duct stream. In homes near the Platte River corridor with crawl space sections, camera footage frequently shows insulation fragments that have shed from duct wrap and accumulated at low-point elbows. In homes that have had multiple previous owners and no documented cleaning history, the camera sometimes shows a visible debris layer – matted dust, pet hair, and fine particulate – at 1 to 3 inches deep across long horizontal runs.
None of those findings are remarkable on their own – they’re what happens to a duct system over 20 to 40 years in a climate like Littleton’s, where temperature swings between January lows below zero and July highs above 95 degrees cause constant expansion and contraction at every joint. What matters is that you can see it, not just hear about it. Footage of a 2-inch debris accumulation at the first elbow is a different kind of information than a technician’s opinion that “your ducts are dirty.”
We use Nikro equipment and Abatement Technologies tools on our jobs, and the camera systems we run are the same grade used in commercial HVAC inspections – not consumer-grade USB cameras adapted for residential work. That distinction matters when you’re trying to see a crack in a joint 30 feet from the access point in low light.
How Video Inspection Fits Into a Full Cleaning
For most Littleton homeowners, video inspection isn’t a separate appointment – it’s the first step of a full Air Duct Cleaning job. The camera run establishes what’s present before negative-pressure extraction begins. Negative-pressure extraction means a high-capacity vacuum unit is connected to the main trunk line, pulling air – and loosened debris – out of the system rather than pushing it further in. The camera footage taken before that process gives us the baseline; the footage taken after gives you proof the work was done.
The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers both the cleaning and the inspection documentation. If there’s any question about whether the work was completed correctly, the before-and-after photo record is the reference point. That’s not a marketing statement – it’s a written commitment on every job, and it’s been CleanRun’s standard since 2013 across more than 52,000 homes served.
FAQs – Video Inspection in Littleton
Is duct video inspection worth paying for separately, or should I just have the ducts cleaned?
If you’ve never had a documented inspection and your system is more than 10 years old, finding air duct cleaning near me in Littleton, CO for a standalone camera run is worth the cost because it tells you whether cleaning is actually warranted and where the problem areas are before any cleaning equipment touches the duct. If you’re already scheduling a full cleaning, the inspection is included in the CleanRun process at no additional charge – the camera runs before we extract anything, and the footage becomes part of your job record. Where a standalone inspection makes the most sense is for pre-purchase due diligence, post-remediation verification, or when you have a specific concern – an odor, a visible breach – that you want documented independently of a cleaning quote. Call (720) 315-7291 and describe your situation; we’ll tell you which approach makes sense for your home.
How long does a video inspection take in a typical Littleton home?
A standard single-story Littleton home with one HVAC system and 10-14 supply registers typically takes 45 to 75 minutes for a complete camera run, including the return air side and the on-site walkthrough with footage review. Two-story homes or homes with finished basements – common in Littleton’s Ken Caryl Ranch and Governors Ranch neighborhoods – usually run 90 to 120 minutes because the duct layout is more complex and access points are sometimes in finished spaces that require more care to work around. We give you a time estimate when we book the appointment, not after we arrive.
Can the camera detect mold inside ductwork?
Camera inspection can identify visual indicators consistent with mold growth – discoloration, surface texture, and moisture-related staining at low points in the duct run – but camera footage alone isn’t a mold test. What the camera does is locate the areas of concern precisely, so that if you want confirmatory testing, the sampling happens at the right location rather than at a random access point. In Littleton homes with crawl space duct sections near the South Platte corridor, camera footage has directed us to moisture damage that wasn’t detectable from the register opening and would have been missed entirely without the camera run. If footage shows something suspicious, we note the location in writing and describe what we observed – what you do with that information is your decision, made with documented evidence in hand.
Do I get to keep the footage and photos from the inspection?
Yes. The documented photo record – still frames from inside every duct run, before and after any work – is a standard CleanRun deliverable included with every inspection and cleaning. You receive it as part of your job record when the technician leaves. This has been the practice since CleanRun’s first job in 2013, and it exists because documentation you can hold is the only honest answer to the question of whether a job was done. Haven Standard Clause 2 covers this commitment: every customer receives a photo record of the duct interior before and after every visit, with no exceptions and no additional fee.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Littleton, serving Littleton since 2013.