What should I check before buying a duct cleaning business?

A duct and vent cleaning company looks simple from outside: a van, a vacuum and a crew. Buyers usually check how reliably it brings in jobs and how well the equipment and people hold up. Because much of the work is a one-time visit to a home, you need to separate customers who come back from those who never will, and see what the owner personally does each week.

Equipment and its service records

Ask to see every truck-mounted unit, portable vacuum, hose, agitation tool and camera, along with maintenance logs and purchase dates. Truck-mounted rigs are expensive to repair and take the business off the road when they fail. Have a mechanic or the supplier look at the main unit. Ask which pieces are owned outright, which are financed or leased, and whether any lender holds a claim on them.

Where the work comes from

Check the lead sources as well as the equipment. Ask for a breakdown by paid advertising, search, HVAC contractor referrals, property managers and repeat customers. A business that depends on one ad account or one referral partner can lose its flow overnight. Call a few referral partners if the owner agrees, and ask whether those relationships belong to the company or to the owner personally.

Reviews, complaints and training

Read the public reviews closely for patterns, especially any mention of pressure to add services on site. Ask how technicians are trained, who supervises them and how jobs are photographed or documented. Ask what credentials the crew holds and whether any are tied to the owner as an individual. Your lawyer or the relevant trade body can confirm what the work requires.

• Equipment list with service history and any liens
• Customer list showing repeat, commercial and one-off jobs
• Lead-source records and referral partner contacts
• Review history and a log of complaints and how they were resolved
• Training records and the owner’s weekly role