Ever wonder what is lurking in the hidden compartments of your house?
Modern PURAIR, a full-service furnace and duct cleaning company based out of Castlegar, travels regularly to Greater Trail to help homeowners expose and get rid of what is hiding in their vents.
“We have a lot of funny stories,” said owner Hollie Tayal.
“Very memorable was the time we were cleaning a strata building and in the very last dryer vent, out crawled five baby birds, and I mean babies, no feathers yet or anything.”
Tayal said with no “mama bird” in the vicinity, the technicians transported the babies to a local animal shelter, and with a small donation, was assured the birds would be cared for.
“The shelter fed them, sent us pictures as they grew, and eventually all were healthy and flew away.”
Living rurally has it's challenges when dealing with critters.
One of Tayal's customers calls the company to clean her dryer vent annually.
“Every year we go to remove a large nest and odds and ends that a pack rat leaves in her dryer vent over the winter,” she said.
“And every year we tell her she can put a screen or cover on it to prevent infestation, but she doesn't want to.
“She says she 'doesn't want to put him out of his house,'” laughed Tayal.
But on a more serious note, the service that PURAIR provides to many residential homes and commercial facilities in Greater Trail are health related.
“These days building codes make the facility or home airtight,” she explained.
“And most of us spend 90 per cent of our time indoors without getting any fresh air.”
Unlike a quick clean up of dust on a dining room table, she said duct systems are out of sight and out of mind.
“Studies show inside air can be 1,000 per cent more contaminated than outdoor air.”
The Modern PURAIR service begins with a visit from a technician who will conduct a walk-through; give a powerful vacuum to the duct system; and finish with a contact cleaning scrub system that actually enters the duct system and scrubs all four sides.
Typically what is removed is dust, skin particles, animal dander, mold spores, viruses and bacteria.
“Once we are done the cleaning, we show our clients everything that was removed from their duct system,” she said.
The technician will remove the disposal filter, but lets the customer rifle through it.
On occasion, clients have retrieved long lost items such as old collectible baseball cards, coins, and jewelry.
A complete cleaning includes the duct system, furnace, fan and related parts, 15 heat vents and cold air intakes for $349.
Depending on the age of the home, medical history of asthma or allergies, animals and foot traffic, it is recommended to book the service every two to three years.
Hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. with a one hour promise time on appointment day.
For more information or to book an appointment, call Tayal at 365-0030.