Air duct cleaning in nursing and care homes

What makes ventilation in elderly care different from an office?

In an office, people are present during the day; in a nursing home, residents are there day and night. You notice a dirty system sooner there, and you cannot simply empty a ward for a day. On top of that, the building is divided into many small units: every room has its own bathroom with an extract valve, and corridors, living rooms and the kitchen each have their own ducts.

• Many small ducts: short extract ducts per room, often with one or two bends.
• Commercial kitchen: grease build up in cooker hoods and ducts, just as in hospitality.
• Vulnerable residents: dust and noise must be kept to a minimum during the work.
• Humidification: where it is present, a risk analysis and a legionella management plan are part of the job.

Which rules apply to air ducts in a Dutch nursing home?

There is no statutory cleaning frequency for ducts in long term care. There are, however, rules and guidelines that determine what you must be able to show.

According to its scope description, the new EN 15780:2025 does not apply to medical facilities. Whether a space in your organisation falls under that depends on its use. For residents' rooms, corridors and the kitchen the standard can be a useful benchmark; agree this with your building services consultant.

Rooms and bathrooms: nursing home duct cleaning room by room

Most of the work is in the extraction from bathrooms and toilets. Those ducts are short and narrow, so a large machine with a 30 metre shaft is often unnecessary there. A step by step plan per room:

1. Agree a time slot with the ward, for example while the resident is in the living room.
2. Cover the floor and the furniture around the valve.
3. Remove the valve and clean it separately with soapy water, as Milieu Centraal (Dutch public information centre) also advises for homes.
4. Close off adjacent valves with foam caps, so that dust does not travel to the room next door.
5. Clean the duct with a compact brush cleaner or a compressed air nozzle, with extraction on the duct.
6. Refit the valve at the correct setting and note the room in the logbook.

For these short ducts, PD4 duct cleaning tool is a logical choice: the PD4 is driven by a cordless or mains powered drill and has a shaft of 2.5 to 7.5 metres. If there are many bends, the the Intelligent Airnozzle for cleaning contractors cleans ducts from 30 mm and its camera shows whether you have covered every corner.

The commercial kitchen: measuring grease and proving care home ventilation cleaning

The kitchen of a care home behaves like a commercial kitchen. Grease adheres to the inside of extract ducts and can catch fire during a pan fire. The quality mark scheme drawn up by NVRL with TNO explicitly names care homes and hospitals alongside hospitality and offices.

Kitchen ducts usually require wet methods; according to Eurovent, dry methods are mainly sufficient for supply and general extract ducts. More on grease and fire risk can be found under kitchen extract cleaning.

Corridors, living rooms and central ducts

The central supply and extract ducts above corridors and living rooms are longer and have a larger diameter. An electric brushing machine is more efficient there. The Danduct Clean DC4 for cleaning contractors cleans round and rectangular ducts of 100 to 600 mm up to 30 metres deep, also vertically and through 90 degree bends. Fit access panels in logical places. Eurovent advises inspection openings no more than 10 metres apart or after no more than two bends of 45 degrees or more, and openings on both sides of dampers, filters and fans, among other components.

Which brush stiffness you choose depends on the duct material. Soft brushes are intended for fibreglass duct board and sheet steel. An overview is available under ventilation duct brush.

Limiting dust and noise for residents

Residents with lung complaints or dementia react to unrest and dust. A few practical agreements help:

• Work with continuous negative pressure on the duct. If you exhaust indoors, use HEPA filtration of 99.97% at 0.3 µm.
• Communicate with the ward beforehand and put a short explanation on the door.
• Schedule noisy parts during the day, outside rest periods.
• Tidy up immediately per room, so that no dust is left on textiles.

A short briefing for care staff also pays off: they know which residents need extra reassurance and which rooms are best left for later in the day. How to close off and extract sections is worked out in detail under duct sealing and extraction for cleaning contractors.

Which equipment do you choose for a care organisation?

The PD2 is also in the range; Lamers can give you the specifications. If you want to see everything side by side, go to compare duct cleaning kits for cleaning contractors. Acute care with operating theatres has extra requirements; these are covered under hospital ductwork cleaning.

Fictional example: a care home with sixty rooms

Fictional example. A care home with sixty rooms, two living rooms per floor and a commercial kitchen wants to get its ventilation in order. The facilities team spreads the work over four weeks: one floor per week, a fixed group of rooms per day. The kitchen is scheduled separately on a day when the hot meal is prepared elsewhere, with grease measurements before and after. The central ducts are done during a weekend. Afterwards there is a note per room in the logbook and a photo report of the kitchen.

For an estimate of the costs, see prices for ductwork cleaning. Other sectors are listed under sectors that need clean air ducts. Questions about the right machine? Through request a quotation for cleaning contractors you can also submit a callback request.