How CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Chicago Was Born in Chicago
Back in 2013, we were working as a technician for another outfit when a call came in that still sits with us. A homeowner in Oak Park had paid another company three weeks earlier for what they were told was a “complete duct cleaning.” The house still smelled like dust every time the furnace kicked on. We opened the main trunk with our camera and found packed debris six feet in from the boot. The previous crew had run a brush at the first register, collected their check, and left.
That night we called the CleanRun headquarters and asked what it would take to bring the brand to Chicago. We had seen enough. The coupon-model companies were treating ductwork like a car wash, and homeowners had no way to know what they had actually bought. CleanRun’s standard, photographing every run before and after, was the only system we trusted. We opened this branch because Chicago’s old housing stock, its balloon-frame bungalows and mid-century ranches with original galvanized ductwork, deserved work that could be proven, not promised.
Tomas Reyes’s Personal Connection to the Air Duct Cleaning Trade
We got our start the way a lot of people in this trade do, holding the flashlight for someone who knew more than we did. The tradesman who trained us was a retrofit HVAC installer in his sixties who had worked the South Side since the seventies. He never explained anything twice, but he let us watch him balance a system by feel, listening to the register whistle change as he adjusted dampers. The first time we ran a camera through a duct and saw decades of construction debris, dead insects, and blackened fiberglass insulation coating the inside of what a family was breathing, the smell hit us before the image did. Warm, metallic, ancient. Like opening a wall no one knew was hollow.
That was over ten years ago now. We’ve cleaned runs in Greystone basements where the original 1920s ductwork was held together with furnace tape and hope. We’ve found bird nests in Hinsdale attics and enough drywall dust in new construction to fill a shop vac twice over. What gets us out of bed isn’t the grime, it’s the moment we show a customer their after photos and watch their face change. The suspicion relaxes. They can see it.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be doing something else with our hands, something where the result is visible and the standard is objective. Carpentry, maybe. But ductwork has this hidden quality that appeals to us. The system is the lungs of the house, and most people never think about it until it fails them or makes them sick. We like being the person who shows them what’s really in there, who leaves it clean, and who can prove it.
Meet Tomas Reyes - The Person Behind Every Job
I’m Tomas Reyes, Owner and Founder of CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Chicago. I’ve been in this trade for more than ten years, trained on Rotobrush and Nikro systems, and certified in both residential air duct cleaning and dryer vent exhaust work. Before we opened this branch, I spent three years as a lead technician diagnosing airflow problems in Chicago’s vintage housing stock, from the narrow crawl spaces of Evanston to the slab-on-grade ranches of Oak Lawn.
What separates our work from a corporate franchise technician is simple: I’m the one who answers when something goes wrong. I live in this city. My crew and I drive our own trucks. When we quote a job, I’m the one who signs the scope sheet. On weekends you’ll find me at the Humboldt Park farmers market or working on a 1987 Honda motorcycle that I’ve been restoring badly for three years. That bike teaches me patience. Some things can’t be rushed, and ductwork is one of them. Every customer gets my direct commitment: if the photos don’t match the scope, we come back until they do.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Chicago Homeowners
Our promise is the Haven Standard, and we treat it like a contract, not a slogan.
Clause 1: Have it in writing. Every job gets a flat price per system, a written scope of work, and a warranty document before anyone touches a register. We learned this the hard way early on, watching a competitor quote $89 over the phone and invoice $600 on site. That doesn’t happen here because the price is fixed before we arrive.
Clause 4: Evidence on every job. We photograph every run before and after, timestamped, and email them to you by end of day. In 2018 a customer in Skokie called us back because she couldn’t believe the difference in her daughter’s allergy symptoms. We pulled her file and sent the photos again. She framed one of them. That’s the standard.
Clause 5: No surprises. No door upsell, no “while we’re in here” pressure. If we find mold or a collapsed duct, we document it, stop, and call for authorization. The scope you signed is the scope we complete.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license their state requires for residential HVAC cleaning work.
- Insured & bonded - Coverage is maintained for property damage and worker injury, because we’re working in your home with powered equipment in tight spaces.
- Years of local experience - Our team has worked Chicago-area duct systems for more than a decade, from postwar bungalows to new construction with flex-duct runs.
- Strong local reputation - We serve repeat customers across the North Shore, western suburbs, and city neighborhoods who refer us to family and neighbors.
These credentials matter because duct cleaning happens inside your walls, with high-RPM brushes and compressed air, around your furniture, your pets, your children. A homeowner can’t verify the work with their own eyes until it’s done. Licensing and insurance are the minimum threshold for letting someone into your home with that equipment. The documented record we leave behind, that’s how you know it was done right.
Rooted in Chicago
We’re based here, not dispatched from somewhere else. Our service area runs from the lakefront condos of Evanston down to the brick ranches of Orland Park, with regular work in Elmhurst, Lombard, Downers Grove, and Glenview. We’ve cleaned ducts after the spring pollen surge that hits the North Shore hardest, and we’ve pulled construction debris from new builds in Bensenville where the drywall crews finished before the HVAC was sealed. Chicago’s climate means we see frozen condensate lines in January and overloaded pollen filters in May. We know which neighborhoods have the original asbestos-wrapped ductwork and which ones switched to flex in the 2000s. This is our market. These are our customers’ homes.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Chicago, serving Chicago and surrounding communities since 2013.