Eight professionals walk us through how they deep clean hard-to-reach and often overlooked areas around the house. These challenging projects often require specialized skills due to the accumulation of grime over time. Think clearing out an air vent that hasn't been touched in almost half a century or restoring a roof that’s been neglected for nearly three decades. These specialists prove that some things — like excavating sewage pipes — are best left to the professionals.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Some areas around the house are easy to clean, but it's often the out-of-sight jobs that are the hardest.
00:06 One of the most challenging aspects of deep cleaning these spaces is the build-up of grime over time.
00:13 Air vents that haven't been cleaned in roughly half a century require special tools, for example,
00:18 and a roof that's covered in nearly three decades of moss calls for a skilled technician.
00:24 Neglecting these spaces can have consequences.
00:27 The accumulation of debris in these hard-to-reach areas can cause structural damage,
00:32 spark fires, or even induce health hazards.
00:36 Watch as eight specialists share expert tips of the trade
00:39 and explain what it takes to deep clean decades of household grime.
00:44 Duct Heroes is an air duct cleaning company in Illinois.
00:51 Many of its clients have never done a single air duct cleaning, and today's job is no exception.
00:57 These vents haven't been cleared of dust and debris for a century.
01:02 As soon as we walked in, we see the old vents, the furnace, how old it was.
01:08 Before even opening any of the vents up, I knew how bad it was going to be.
01:12 You know, he said 47 years of dust, probably over 100 years, to be honest.
01:20 If you look at a vent and you see dust on the actual vent, that's a clear sign that
01:28 the ducts have probably never been cleaned and they're pretty filthy inside.
01:32 We like to start on the very top of the house and work our way down.
01:36 That tool that we're using, we call it whiskers.
01:40 The whiskers are just made out of rubber.
01:43 The end of it's attached to an air compressor,
01:45 and you have air just coming out through the rod, out the little whisker thing.
01:51 [whirring]
01:58 So what you're looking at right now is just me pulling
02:02 chunks of dust out that have probably been in there for over 100 years.
02:07 There was too much dust to be putting it in the vacuum,
02:10 so I literally went in there with my hands and grabbed probably like five pounds of dust.
02:18 Isn't it gnarly? Like, look at how much dust that is.
02:21 It's just so sick, honestly.
02:24 This is the back of the dryer, and you guys can pretty much see
02:40 there's an endless amount of, like, coming out.
02:45 There's a few reasons why you should get your dryer vent cleaned.
02:48 It's a huge fire hazard, and your clothes will dry more efficiently.
02:53 It's well worth the money to just pay to get it cleaned every year.
02:56 The vacuum is on throughout the whole process,
03:13 and what we're doing is blowing all that dust and debris closer and closer to the vacuum.
03:18 This house in particular had 18 vents.
03:29 Most of the time, I think probably 75% of the time,
03:33 the houses that we go to have never been cleaned.
03:37 People just don't think about it, you know,
03:41 getting your air ducts clean isn't like a regular thought that comes to your, you know, head.
03:46 The dust you typically see in your vents is,
03:49 most of it is actually human skin cells.
03:53 Yeah, it's pretty gnarly.
03:55 So right now we're done, and everything's pretty much good to go.
04:04 You're pretty much going to see a brand new home, honestly.
04:11 You're going to feel much better.
04:12 Your health is going to be better.
04:15 I actually got a phone call after that job, and they said all their allergies went away.
04:21 It's just a huge health benefit, honestly.
04:25 You might not notice, like, the small stuff, but your body does.
04:30 Moving underground, there are the sewage pipes,
04:37 which after heavy use are in need of significant cleaning.
04:41 And repairs.
04:42 Instead of digging underground or having to do any demolition to replace or clean sewage pipes,
04:49 Kenneth Koss cures them from the inside.
04:52 He's a plumber from Norway who specializes in pipe relining.
04:56 This blue tube you're seeing is being pushed through a faulty sewage pipe using pressurized air,
05:02 which will create a tough new pipe inside of the old one.
05:07 This technique can be used to fix cracked, leaky, or old pipes.
05:11 Some signs that a pipe needs to be inspected include sewer odors, slow drains, and constant
05:17 clogs.
05:17 Pipe relining is a quicker method compared to replacements,
05:21 and it only takes two workers to complete the job.
05:24 Workers start by inspecting the inside of the pipe with a tiny camera.
05:30 They're looking for any cracks or leaks.
05:36 Once they assess the damage, they'll clean the pipe with water and a rotating chain.
05:40 This breaks up any caked on rust, dirt, hair, sewage, and oil inside the pipe.
05:48 All this buildup shrank the size of the pipe, making it difficult for waste to flow through it.
05:54 Now that all that waste has been removed, the pipe is back to its original size,
06:00 which will allow the new lining to stick.
06:02 Now the relining process begins.
06:05 The workers measure the pipe and cut a piece of felt lining to roughly the same size.
06:09 A vacuum pump sucks out any air from inside the felt so that it can be filled with epoxy resin.
06:25 They mix the resin by hand.
06:28 Now that there's no room for air bubbles, which weaken the resin, they fill it up.
06:32 Epoxy resin is super strong and resistant to chemicals.
06:36 It's also a good choice to prevent roots of trees or plants from getting in the pipes and clogging
06:41 them.
06:42 And since resin starts as a liquid, it can be used to repair pipes of any size.
06:51 The team flattens the lining and puts it in a compressor.
06:55 The compressor uses pressurized air to shoot the lining into the old pipe.
07:17 Once it's in there, the lining is inflated so that it sticks to the walls.
07:21 A new pipe starts to form inside the old one.
07:24 It cures and hardens for four hours with the help of pressurized air and heat from a steamer.
07:30 Then the lining is deflated,
07:33 trimmed,
07:36 and then pressed to a thickness of about 1/4 inch.
07:41 Then the lining is deflated, trimmed, and removed, leaving behind a new pipe inside.
07:50 The pipes can be used as normal once the job is done,
07:54 and no water will be able to get in between the liner and the original pipe.
07:58 The finished product can last over 50 years, which is twice as long as a brand new PVC pipe.
08:09 Gutters are some of the most important things to keep clean, especially before winter.
08:14 I'm Brodin, and I own a business in Connecticut called The Gutter Guys.
08:20 Today I'm going to show you how to clean gutters with wet and dry debris.
08:24 So when we clean a gutter with wet debris,
08:35 nine times out of ten we want to clean it by hand.
08:39 The reason why is when it's wet, it typically is very muddy,
08:43 and there's a lot of what we call shingle dust or grit in the gutters,
08:48 and it's literally a mud.
08:49 And when we blow them when they're wet, it makes a muddy mess all over the house.
08:53 We want to clean them by hand for that reason.
08:55 So that is a gutter that is completely jammed with leaves and debris,
09:03 and the downspout was completely covered.
09:07 When we released the debris out of the downspout and got that gutter cleaned,
09:11 all of that rainwater that was in the gutter just started to flow
09:16 very heavily right down the downspout, as it should.
09:18 So oftentimes when we do a gutter cleaning, not only do we find leaves,
09:26 but we find plants so big that we actually call them trees sometimes growing right out of a gutter.
09:32 We're actually pulling out a big plant,
09:35 and you can see the whole root system come right out with it.
09:38 Certain types of trees give off these little things that come off the tree
09:44 and will grow another tree, and when those land in the gutter,
09:48 it's a perfect environment for that to grow.
09:51 It's a classic sign that your gutters have not been cleaned in years.
09:55 It also puts a significant amount of weight from the whole root system growing in the gutter,
10:00 on the gutter, which in turn will pull that gutter off of the fascia board,
10:06 which is actually the board behind the gutter that the gutter is mounted to.
10:10 Wet debris is usually just saturated with water.
10:16 Water will overflow at the gutter and get into your basement and create cracks in your foundation.
10:23 Once water does find its way into your basement, it wreaks havoc.
10:30 Here, the water that's flowing out of the downspout at the bottom
10:34 is the end result that we are looking for.
10:36 So that water will flow down and out as it properly should.
10:40 When we see dry debris, the reason why that debris is dry
10:49 is because there has not been any rain in the past, I would say, week or so.
10:54 So when we clean a gutter that has dry debris,
10:56 oftentimes we will use a hand blower and blow those gutters out
11:00 because it does a really good job of just getting everything out of the gutter,
11:04 whether it be leaves or sticks or curly stuff that comes off in the spring.
11:08 Depending on the pitch of the roof, we will get on that roof,
11:11 start our hand blower and walk across that roof line,
11:14 hand blowing out all of the debris out of that gutter.
11:17 Sometimes the debris is very compact and it's thick.
11:23 That's a classic sign of maybe a couple of years
11:27 that somebody had not had their gutters cleaned.
11:29 We stick to one type of ladder and that's an aluminum ladder.
11:34 The aluminum ladder does conduct electricity,
11:36 so it's very important we stay away from power lines
11:39 when we are moving aluminum ladders.
11:41 We could get severely electrocuted, but certainly deadly,
11:45 which is why we mark the power line areas with flags
11:49 before we start a gutter cleaning,
11:51 because you're looking where you're walking,
11:52 so you don't look up to see the power lines.
11:54 So it's very important for us to have a reminder that power lines are there.
11:57 We will often drop a penny down the downspout
12:02 just to know that that downspout is free and clear
12:05 because we can see and hear it go all the way through and back out at the bottom.
12:09 And we know that we're in good shape.
12:11 The best advice I can give a homeowner is to be proactive and not reactive.
12:19 Typically, when you're reactive, it's too late.
12:21 Damage has been done.
12:22 The water may already be in your basement.
12:24 It may already be in your home.
12:26 And it's just not a good way to maintain your house.
12:31 Water is seriously detrimental to your house.
12:34 And the main cause of water is from your gutters.
12:38 So if you keep the gutters free and clear,
12:41 and you do consistent cleaning,
12:43 whether it be two or three times per year, which we recommend,
12:46 you will never have any issues with water in your basement
12:50 or ruining your flower beds or rotting out the fascia and soffits of your home.
12:54 Just stay on top of gutter cleaning.
12:56 Perhaps even worse than a clogged gutter full of leaves
13:01 is a pool that hasn't been cleaned for six years.
13:04 Watch as Myles Laplin cleans out one of the dirtiest pools he's ever seen.
13:09 All right, then.
13:11 Had a DM come through.
13:12 Can I help sort out this pool?
13:14 Which actually looks more like a pond, I know.
13:17 I was half expecting to see a fish swimming around in the bottom.
13:20 There was plants growing in there, like pond plants.
13:23 They thought maybe like when they were cutting the grass
13:25 and they had the doors open, maybe little bits flew in
13:28 and like seeds or whatever just went into the water
13:31 and bits start growing and stuff.
13:33 So maybe like that, but who knows?
13:35 We're going to empty and clean it out.
13:37 Drop it in the submersible pump first,
13:40 and we'll be back the next day.
13:41 Nice and empty, but not nice and clean.
13:45 Time to get to work.
13:46 I'm going to jump in, have a look at the damage first.
13:49 Yeah, so once the pool was empty,
13:51 we brushed them into a corner with a big brush,
13:56 shoved them out into a bucket and threw it on their compost heap.
14:01 The main difference between cleaning an indoor and an outdoor pool is
14:04 normally you don't get any sort of debris in an indoor pool.
14:07 Obviously, this one had plants growing in it.
14:10 It took about five or six years for this pool to get like that.
14:14 But for an outdoor pool, that would probably only take maybe a year,
14:18 year and a half for it to get like that state.
14:20 So before we emptied the pool, this was actually floating.
14:30 So when we emptied it, it's sort of like
14:32 the plants had started attaching themselves to the wall.
14:34 Then jet washing the walls and the floor.
14:43 Quickly have a guess at what pitch is tiled in on the floor.
14:45 I went for a dolphin.
14:47 Turns out it's a sea lion.
14:50 That's pretty cool though.
14:50 Coming up nicely, but there's still some stains left over.
14:56 So what we're going to do is mix up some acid in a bucket of water.
14:59 Scrub that all over the floor and walls.
15:02 Then we're going to jet wash the surround.
15:07 Jump back in the pool, rinse that down.
15:10 Get the big hoover out.
15:13 Start hoovering up all the last little bits.
15:16 So I've got a bucket of water.
15:17 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:18 I've got a bucket of water.
15:19 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:20 I've got a bucket of water.
15:21 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:22 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:23 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:24 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:24 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:25 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:26 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:27 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:28 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:29 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:30 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:30 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:31 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:32 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:32 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:33 I've got a bucket of acid.
15:34 [Music]
15:45 So that is a chlorine dispenser
15:48 and you can fill that up with the chlorine tablets
15:52 and it slowly dissolves the tablets
15:55 feeding chlorine into the pool.
15:57 You could fill up the chlorine feeder with the tablets
16:03 but it won't give your pool instant chlorine.
16:05 You'd then put in the granules to give it that initial chlorine dose
16:11 and then the tablets will slowly dissolve
16:12 bringing up the chlorine level as well.
16:14 That is, well some people think it's me adding colour to the pool.
16:26 Is that what makes the pool look blue?
16:29 Is what some people message me.
16:32 But actually it's algaecide
16:33 and that is to prevent the growth of algae.
16:38 So that is a Gelli Cube
16:43 and it's a water clarifier.
16:48 Also it removes phosphates from the pool
16:51 and helps with chemical efficiency.
16:55 What it does is help put like a layer,
16:57 pick up small particles,
16:58 therefore making the pool a bit clearer.
17:01 When you initially put salt in a pool,
17:04 a freshly filled pool,
17:06 it will take around a week
17:07 for the salt to be generated into chlorine itself
17:12 and the process is called electrolysis.
17:30 It looked as if it had just been finished from like new built.
17:34 The tiles were like nice and blue,
17:37 nice and white tiles,
17:38 very clean looking.
17:39 A hundred times better than what it did when I turned up.
17:44 This was all within maybe half a day's work.
17:47 I mean I've seen green indoor pools
17:49 but never an indoor pool with anything growing
17:53 other than a little bit of algae.
17:58 A home's exterior is best cleaned with a good power washer.
18:02 My name is AJ Joyner, owner of Advanced Pressure Washing LLC.
18:06 Today I'm going to show you how we clean the exterior
18:09 of a client's dirty home step by step.
18:11 We, in general, we offer exterior cleaning
18:16 but the main services in the residential field
18:18 are house washing, gutter clean out, concrete cleaning.
18:23 Those are the main ticket items
18:25 that we solicit to the residential client.
18:27 (upbeat music)
18:34 The condition of the fence structurally is great
18:37 but as you can see, it's covered in mildew and algae.
18:40 Wood is very particular
18:41 because if you use too much pressure
18:44 you're going to cause a lot of damage to the surface.
18:46 So to treat it, we just use water.
18:48 We actually use moderate pressure.
18:50 We make sure always to go with the grain.
18:53 This keeps us from furrowing/damaging the wood.
18:56 (upbeat music)
19:10 The driveway is terrible, covered in mildew and algae.
19:14 The chemicals we normally use is called sodium hypochlorite, 12.5%
19:18 or better known as full shock/industrial bleach.
19:24 We normally dilute that down to a 50/50 ratio in our buckets.
19:27 This kills the mildew and algae, that top layer,
19:30 when we pre-treat, it kills that almost instantly.
19:33 (water spraying)
19:38 This is called a Whistler Wash Deploy Surface Cleaner.
19:41 That metal tubing actually rotates around on a swivel.
19:46 That's the item that I use to actually clean concrete.
19:49 (upbeat music)
20:04 From there, we'll actually go around washing the trim
20:07 around the brick and other areas the surface cleaner couldn't reach.
20:10 And then we will post-treat with a detergent again
20:14 to get any organic stains that are left behind.
20:16 (upbeat music)
20:22 After we do the driveway, we'll then do the front patio and sidewalk.
20:27 Also, sometimes if the client wants, we'll also do the curbs along the drive.
20:31 (upbeat music)
21:02 (upbeat music)
21:04 The house is in pretty good condition,
21:05 but there was a few spots that we noticed that were pretty bad
21:08 with heavy and thick mildew and algae.
21:10 On a house, we use roughly about 10% sodium hypochlorite
21:15 mixed with about 90% water.
21:19 So the black on the brick is actually just really thick mildew and algae.
21:24 This is caused by moisture and shade
21:27 allowing for such big mildew and algae to grow.
21:30 (upbeat music)
21:43 When we wash a house's exterior, we wash the roof,
21:46 the outside of the gutters, the side of the home,
21:49 the windows, the doors, anything that's on the side
21:53 or attached to the home itself.
21:56 (upbeat music)
22:10 So we're finished. We finally got the job done.
22:13 So roughly this job took us about four and a half hours.
22:17 Everything looks amazing.
22:19 The client was beyond happy with the job that we have done.
22:22 You can clearly see everything is transformed into a new clean state.
22:27 My personal suggestion, instead of trying to do it yourself,
22:31 is always hire professionals
22:33 because you're dealing with some very strong and dangerous chemicals
22:36 and it can become dangerous when in the hands of someone not experienced.
22:41 (upbeat music)
22:47 Next up, Sid Partridge of Partridge Exterior Cleaning in the UK
22:52 walks us through what it takes to remove moss from a roof
22:55 that hasn't been touched in nearly three decades.
22:58 Here I'm beginning to scrape the roof,
23:02 so I'm trying to remove as much moss as possible.
23:05 This is what I'll be doing for the bulk of the day
23:07 and this is the hardest part of the job.
23:09 I have the tool that I use.
23:10 It's basically a flat metal blade,
23:12 angled to one side, which means I can get the edge of the tile,
23:16 which usually carries a lot of the moss,
23:18 and scrape the bulk surface of the tile at the same time.
23:21 I use sort of a side-to-side motion and it is very taxing on the body,
23:25 so it takes a long time to build up the endurance and strength to do it.
23:28 So on this roof, you'll see a lot of brown and green.
23:31 This is the moss.
23:32 You'll also see a lot of white spots people think is fur droppings,
23:35 but this is white lichen.
23:36 Moss is terrible for roofing and roof materials,
23:40 especially in the UK, as we get a lot of damp weather over here.
23:43 So it just tends to grow and fester more
23:45 and it will grow in between the cracks of the tiles.
23:47 Now, when you have hot weather turn into cold weather,
23:49 the moss will freeze and expand and then end up cracking the roof tiles,
23:52 which can create holes, leaks and things like that in the roof.
23:56 So this part of the job where I'm on the scaffolding was the hardest.
23:59 So I use a 40 feet extendable pole with the scraper attached on the end
24:04 and I was almost at max extension.
24:06 So the scraper itself is quite heavy and the pole itself is quite heavy,
24:09 so having that out at a near horizontal level for a couple of hours is very difficult.
24:14 And as soon as this was done, I was relieved and happy to move on to the next part.
24:18 So what I'm cleaning here is a four bedroomed house.
24:22 It's got big, flat concrete tiles,
24:24 so these are some of the best tiles to come across to clean.
24:27 The surface area of them, and because they're completely flat,
24:29 it's very easy to get the moss off.
24:31 You do not get roofs better than this.
24:32 So it's rare that you'll actually get away with using a broom to clean a roof,
24:37 as usually the moss is very, very stuck on
24:39 and it's typically just used for cleaning up.
24:41 However, on this job, the moss was coming off easy.
24:43 So in certain sections, it can just be easier
24:46 just to try and sweep off a majority and then sort of fine tune it with a scraper.
24:50 So the typical cleaning chemicals that I use in my roof cleaning work
24:58 is a chemical called a biocide.
25:00 What this essentially will do is destroy any of the organic growth left on the roof,
25:05 and it has a residual cleaning effect once I'm gone as well.
25:08 So there's no rinsing it off, you leave it on the roof to fully dry and soak into the tiles.
25:12 This will get anything that we can't get to by scraping,
25:14 so anything that's left in the gaps,
25:16 any sort of really stubborn stains and marks that are left on the tiles also will slowly degrade.
25:21 So the brush that I'm using here is a basic water fed pole that most window cleaners would use.
25:25 That's all you need.
25:26 It's got four jets in it,
25:27 which will fire out the chemical mixed with the water onto the roof.
25:30 And the brush is just used to agitate that chemical,
25:33 which will help it foam up as you can see.
25:34 This helps it stick to the roof more as it's a natural surfactant.
25:38 So what I'm doing here is I'm applying the biocide solution to the roof.
25:42 Now this is diluted at 25 to 1 with water.
25:46 So for every one litre of biocide, I use 25 litres of water to dilute it,
25:50 ensuring I'm covering every square inch of this roof,
25:53 making sure it's completely soaked in.
25:54 A lot of mistakes people make is not putting enough on,
25:57 and they're left with a very patchy roof.
25:59 So it's really important to get complete coverage
26:02 and make sure all of the tiny little gaps are completely soaked.
26:05 So if you don't fill all of the gaps on the roof with the chemical,
26:09 then the moss will regrow with a vengeance.
26:11 The important part is making sure anything organic on this roof
26:14 is completely absorbing this chemical.
26:16 So once the biocide completely soaks and dries in,
26:19 you would never even know it was on there,
26:20 and your results will start to come after a few weeks.
26:23 The main thing is trusting in the chemical,
26:25 because it definitely will do its job.
26:26 So it's important to have your roof cleaned,
26:33 because the build-up of moss will over time damage the tiles on the roof,
26:37 which can lead to cracks, damp, leak,
26:40 all sorts of issues in your home that you really don't want happening.
26:43 And if the problem is not treated early enough,
26:46 then it can lead to very expensive roof repairs in the future.
26:49 As far as time scale on how often should my roof be cleaned,
26:53 it is pretty much a one-time deal for the majority of the process,
26:57 as long as it's being kept on top of.
26:59 And in future, it would just be a light chemical treatment,
27:01 just to keep anything at bay.
27:03 So the first step is getting it done,
27:04 and then it's a case of maintaining it.
27:06 [Music]
27:13 Even the household appliances we use to keep things neat,
27:16 like washing machines, need to be cleaned.
27:19 Back inside the home, we see what it takes to remove the build-up
27:23 of detergent and softener that can wear down machines if not cleaned properly.
27:28 I am Derek Dennis.
27:29 I specialize in repairing and cleaning washing machines,
27:33 dryers, any major appliances.
27:35 [Music]
27:37 The two main types of washing machines that I work on are top loaders and front loaders.
27:41 I'm going to show you how I clean them.
27:42 [Music]
27:44 So this top load washer is, I would say, between 15 and 17 years old.
27:49 This machine here hasn't been cleaned, I would say, ever since it was purchased.
27:53 The biggest problem with this, the abundance of buildup from,
27:56 you know, excessive use of detergent, fabric softener, all the buildup you see,
28:00 that's what causes this big ring around the top.
28:02 The water doesn't come up that high.
28:04 That's why you see the different levels.
28:06 And then, you know, the buildup of mold.
28:07 The perfect ideal circumstance for mold and mildew buildup is moisture, darkness, and heat.
28:14 So common buildup in these machines due to overuse of high efficiency detergent
28:19 and fabric softener, which you don't need.
28:21 This big buildup, you're going to get rust, you're going to get mold, mildew.
28:25 Two tablespoons of high efficiency detergent and no fabric softener will make your machine last
28:32 ages longer than if you're dumping a cup or two of fabric softener in.
28:36 It doesn't get your clothes any cleaner.
28:38 I highly recommend cutting out fabric softener in your laundry regimen.
28:42 The reason that I'm so against fabric softener is,
28:45 when you use fabric softener, the reason that it works is the reason that it's bad.
28:50 So it builds up like an oily residue because those enzymes have been trapped inside your shirt.
28:54 And so that's what causes it to smell.
28:56 So it's not because of you, but eventually the overuse of high efficiency detergent
29:01 and fabric softener will cause your clothes to smell, even if they're clean.
29:04 So anytime we maintenance the machine,
29:07 we want to make sure that we're unplugging it from any power source
29:09 and it's good to cut the water off.
29:11 So generally we start from top to the bottom.
29:14 The main thing is removing the tub and cleaning the inner and outer baskets.
29:19 That's where all of your smell comes from.
29:20 With these direct drive machines, a lot of times we have the legs are rusty
29:26 and we'll either scrape them down and repaint them,
29:29 make sure we knock the cobwebs out, all that kind of stuff.
29:32 Sometimes we'll find a little baby stock.
29:33 You never know.
29:34 We like to use toothbrushes, different style brushes.
29:38 You have pointy brushes, flat brushes.
29:40 They all have different jobs, but brushes are very key.
29:44 They're vital to everything we do.
29:46 So the brushes really help to get in there and, you know,
29:48 kind of get in the corners and the crevices to clean all this mildew and mold out.
29:52 Sometimes the pressure washer doesn't get inside the balance ring
29:57 and we have to put some bristles in there and kind of really put some elbow grease in it.
30:01 My favorite cleaner is Pine Sol, Bleach, Lysol.
30:05 Vinegar is more of what I recommend for people to use through a washing cycle.
30:11 White distilled vinegar has acidic compounds that help kill some bacterias.
30:16 When we pressure wash, first we start the outside.
30:20 We can get a lot better into the balance ring.
30:23 A pressure washer, the water finds its ways into all the crevices
30:27 and it does a much better job at pushing out all this mold and mildew and detergent buildup
30:32 and fabric softener buildup all the way out the holes.
30:34 Then we can just rinse it out the inside and we have pretty much a brand new basket.
30:38 So the steam cleaning comes, usually comes after the pressure washing
30:42 just because we want to get kind of a final clean.
30:44 The best thing about the steamer is, you know,
30:47 the water comes out at a super high temperature and that helps to effectively sanitize
30:52 any of these crevices or cracks or anything that we can't just clean with a pressure washer or bleach.
30:57 So the front loader, the cleaning process, it's similar but it's a lot different in the disassembly
31:03 and just the orientation of the basket.
31:06 I can't remove a basket all the way from a front loader.
31:09 I can only clean the front half.
31:10 The old school top loaders are built like tanks.
31:13 The front loaders are not, but they clean your clothes better.
31:16 They generally don't need as much cleaning as a top loader
31:20 because of the orientation and the way the water spins inside.
31:24 And the water actually keeps the tubs cleaner.
31:27 The biggest part of the smell that we see is from pump building up lint and debris in there
31:32 and people not cleaning it out and then you stay with the smell
31:36 or because people don't wipe out their door seal every time they use the machine.
31:40 They keep the door closed and then that just builds up a mildew smell.
31:44 As long as you keep the door open and wipe the door seal out and, you know,
31:48 run a washer cleaner tablet through once a month or so,
31:51 white distilled vinegar, it's not going to smell.
31:54 I can guarantee it.
31:55 So with this front loader, it actually has a clean out spot for the lint.
31:59 This is what protects your pump and this is what keeps helps keep the smell down internally.
32:04 Pull the door down.
32:05 We drain the water out of this little,
32:06 this is the drain hose that actually pulls whatever water is left inside the pump.
32:10 And then we take the filter out, clean it out, and that's it.
32:13 It's that simple.
32:14 I recommend doing this every 30 days, at least every six months.
32:17 And this is going to prevent odor.
32:18 It's going to keep the, it's going to keep your washing machine lasting a whole lot longer.
32:22 The average lifespan of pretty much any washer says two and three years before the bearings go out,
32:28 you know, just because of, and that really comes from the overuse of detergent.
32:32 So when the detergent breaks down that oil and grease,
32:35 it'll cause the bearings to get rusted, rusty,
32:38 and then your washing machine will sound like a jet plane taking off.
32:41 That's bad bearings.
32:41 It's really hard to get to if you can't physically tear these things down and clean them yourself.
32:46 So the best thing to do is preventive maintenance.
32:48 Two tablespoons of detergent, no fabric softener at all.
32:51 But if you have to use it, make sure you dilute it by 50%.
32:53 You know, when I sell a machine to somebody, I want them to have the faith that I have
32:57 sold them the cleanest used washing machine that they can possibly buy.
33:00 Finally, we have the dry vents.
33:05 These can become packed with lint and dust with regular use over time.
33:10 Here's how the professionals tackle the job.
33:12 My name is Aaron Cotton, and I am the owner and operator of Dry Vent Superheroes of New Orleans.
33:19 My name is Sophia Giordano-Scott.
33:21 I'm the co-owner and business manager of Dry Vent Superheroes of New Orleans.
33:25 Today, we're going to look at how to clean out a dusty dryer vent.
33:30 The main thing that gets basically conglomerated in the vent pipes is a lot of either dead skin
33:37 cells, pet hair, children's glitter, regular hair, just dust, dry detergent,
33:43 anything that can stay and stick on our clothes that can come off in the wash.
33:49 The worst is always going to be any pet clinics.
33:52 You're cleaning towels daily, and you're not just cleaning towels,
33:54 but you're cleaning towels full of pet hair, which is usually thicker and coarser and
33:59 sometimes more oily than human hair.
34:01 The metal brush not only breaks it up, but it kind of catches as well.
34:04 So it caught all that hair, and you can see as I pull it out, it's just almost a whole
34:10 dog that it seems like I pulled out.
34:12 It was literally just mounds of hardened pet hair and lint inside all the way to the exit,
34:18 and then that exit had about four feet of bird's nest just compacted at that end.
34:23 Because there was no vent cover on the end, it was just an open tube.
34:26 So it took us about two hours to clean the vent in entirety, get everything out.
34:31 We scoped it with our little camera about six times, trying to make sure we got every
34:36 little piece out of there.
34:37 As the lint just gets stuck in there and it builds over time, the heat can't get out,
34:43 so the heat just stays there and accumulates right there and it condenses.
34:48 And that's actually how a fire would start.
34:51 Part of our inspection when we first go in is to make sure, is this vent connected within
34:58 the wall?
34:58 We only use these types of vents.
35:00 They are metal but also flexible, but they're the only type of connection hose vents that
35:04 can actually contain a fire as opposed to the foil vents.
35:08 If you look on the back of your dryer, most dryers will say, "Don't use a foil vent,"
35:12 and most people just don't read that warning.
35:14 We get behind the dryer and we take the metal tube that's behind the dryer and we take
35:18 it off and we inspect to make sure that the inside is either dirty or clean because you
35:24 either want to clean it out or replace it.
35:26 The second step would be to put our rods with the brushes into the wall with the camera.
35:33 We can see inside the wall of what's going on and the customer can see as well of either
35:39 how dirty or how clean it is.
35:40 You can definitely tell almost how long it's been because if it's only been like a year
35:44 or two, maybe like a little or nothing at all, but when we're getting to like the three
35:49 to five years or plus, you're getting literal mounds of stuff that's coming out.
35:54 You know, it's almost like from a molehill to a mountain of stuff that you're getting
35:58 out and you're like, "Wow."
35:59 It's really gross if it's 10 plus years.
36:01 So after we inspect it and see how dirty it is, then we take our brushes with our rods.
36:09 So it goes inside the wall and our drill basically just cleans everything out.
36:13 We call this the vent polisher brush.
36:18 It has this metal teeth at the end.
36:20 So when that goes through your vent, that's going to polish your vents as well as clean
36:24 it.
36:24 So it's going to make it even harder for lint to stick in the future.
36:26 When we take our Hubbit Filter vacuum cleaner, we make sure that no dust gets in the air
36:33 for either us or the customer to breathe in.
36:37 No cleaning solutions or chemicals, just the brushes and the Hubbit Filter vacuum cleaner
36:43 really does the job.
36:44 And then once all that's done and clean, we turn towards the inside of the dryers.
36:50 We get all the lint that might've been stuck in there.
36:52 We go back and we take our aluminum tube here and we put everything back from the wall to
36:58 the dryer.
36:58 We do use heat safe tape on all of our repairs or connection hoses.
37:04 We do also use clamps.
37:05 The reason why we use both is because you want your dryer vent to be able to be unhooked
37:09 every year and clean.
37:10 We pushed the dryer back and then we checked under the lint trap.
37:14 We definitely found a lot of weird stuff coming from the dryers, especially under the lint
37:19 trap.
37:20 I've had one employee as we were cleaning, he pulled out a whole silver chain.
37:25 I found money, like $5 and a couple of $1 bills.
37:29 And then of course we get the not so fun stuff, bird eggs and wasp nests.
37:33 That's usually towards the outside of the house, not like in the dryer itself.
37:37 Also storm damage.
37:39 Whenever we have a bad storm, hurricane, and something gets impacted in the vent or the
37:44 roof comes off or something, you're probably going to get water in your vent, in which
37:47 case you need a professional to come and take that out because it's going to be really
37:51 nasty water mixed in with all that lint.
37:53 So we've had multiple customers tell us, "I've been in this house for over 10 years and I
37:59 haven't even thought about cleaning it out."
38:02 They're like, "Why are my clothes still wet?"
38:04 A lot of the times it's not your dryer, it's in fact that line is just clogged up with
38:08 all the lint and hair and everything.
38:10 The most important thing to do with keeping up your dry event is definitely to get that
38:14 annual professional cleaning.
38:15 But in addition to that, cleaning your lint trap with every use is the biggest one.
38:19 I would say the most satisfying is leaving with the customers all happy and smiling and
38:27 knowing that they're safe, that their house is safe, and that their product is going to
38:32 work as they want it to.
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