kate,
we moved into a house that had a lot of remodeling done. the ducts were pretty filthy. it will be interesting to see what the builders have to say!
have fun moving in.
kelly

I would have it done. All of us stayed sick the first 6 months we were in our home. I am sure it was off-gassing from all the new products.

The other day, I dropped something down a vent and I removed the vent to get it. I could not believe all the junk! It was if our builder had swept all the debris down it! There were bits of drywall- carpet and tons of sawdust. No wonder my allergies have been bad! We will be having them cleaned.

It really is not all that expensive to have professional duct-cleaners do a thorough cleaning. Check your contract to see who pays them, but even if out of your wallet, it will be worth every penny. IMO, most build-crews are good at building but the opposite at cleaning up, so hire a cleaning-crew for that part of the job.

BTW, I am wondering... (and maybe it's only done by the crews I've seen) the local duct workers tape something like paper over the duct openings until the grills are installed. This surely would have prevented lsst's finding sawdust etc in the duct. Don't other crews do this sort of preventive?

I will have this done as part of our spring cleaning this year. I actually am looking forward in a morbid curiosity way to seeing what comes out!

Amy

Thanks, everybody! Our ducts *were* covered, mostly, but only with a wire mesh. Let the dust in, kept big chunks out, but then many of even those covers were compromised; if I didn't cover them, no one did. Plus, we had to have a grouted tile floor  very dark grout  torn out, so I'm sure the duct in the kitchen swallowed lots of heavy, dark grout dust. It's certainly hard to pull out additional cash at this part of the build for something invisible, but I think we'll be trying to make that happen.

During the build:

Here is a link that might be useful: duct protection

That Pro Vent looks like a wonderful thing. Too late for us, though, so should we call in the pros? Could all the junk & dust in the ducts harm the furnace? (electric heat pump.)

large amounts of dust will clog the coil onthe AC, if it is a heat only furnace then it will jsut burn it off and stink for a while each time it starts.

IF you have allergies like i do, the i would opt for cleaning the ducts if i were you. i saw the inside of mine when my HVAC was replaced last year and it was VERY dusty just from normal use.