By Jacqueline Sergeant

BUSINESS WRITER

You name it, and Scott Nelson will likely tell you he and his crew have found it while on the job cleaning ducts.

Dead rodents, birds' nests, dead pigeons, cigarette butts, construction debris, sawdust, mold, a fruit tray with the fruits intact. These are just a few of the items that they have stumbled upon while on duct-cleaning jobs.

And there was the time when Nelson received a call from a customer who wanted him to retrieve a family member's favorite Matchbox car, which got stuck in a duct.

Nelson, president of Air Doctors, Inc., an air-duct cleaning company in Allenhurst, has been making house calls cleaning ducts for the past four and a half years. He takes pride in knowing that he work prevents customers from falling ill from asthma, allergies, and other respiratory ailments.

"The duct system is the respiratory system of the house, so you breathe whatever is in it and that triggers allergic reactions", Nelson said.

According to the National Air Duct Cleaners Association in Washington, D.C., heating, refrigeration, and air-conditioning systems can act as collection sources for a variety of contaminants, such as fungi and bacteria, that have the potential to affect health. The association recommends cleaning the system frequently as a way to improve indoor air quality and to allow for more efficiency.

Nelson and his crew use the "source removal" method of duct cleaning, a process which involves using a high-powered filtrated vacuum system and compressed air. The system collects all the contaminants, usually from a "collection machine" in the basement. Each individual register and grill is cleaned with a high-pressured air driven snake that sucks out the debris.

Air circulated into the house is considered hospital-grade clean, Nelson said. Sanitizing is done after the ducts and furnace have been cleaned.

Nelson, Ocean Township, who also has operated Oceanside Service, Inc. - a separate heating, cooling, and refrigeration business for the past eight years - got into the duct-cleaning business after customers began asking him to recommend a duct-cleaning company. He could not.

"I would get about five calls a week from people asking for a duct-cleaning company, but I could think of no one to recommend them to," Nelson said.

So Nelson took matters into his own hands. For about two years, he did research and attended expositions on duct cleaning. He soon was on his way to starting Air Doctors, Inc. A $35,000 loan from the Small Business Administration got the business off the ground.

Both businesses, formerly in Ocean Grove, have been in Allenhurst for the past two years. They employ 11 workers.

"We went into business to server our customers, and we have gotten tremendous feedback," Nelson said.

Air Doctors is one of two certified duct-cleaning companies in Monmouth County, according to the National Air Duct Cleaners Association. The other is Guardian Power Cleaning, Inc., Freehold.

To become an association member, companies must demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge and a through understanding of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning cleaning systems by passing the association's examination.

The association warns customers to make sure the company they choose to clean their heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is in good standing with the association and the local Better Business Bureau. Customers are also warned to avoid advertisements for "$99 whole house specials and other sales gimmicks".

Nelson said he is well aware of those sales gimmicks and is constantly up against advertisements for $99 whole house specials", but that has not had much negative effect on his business, he said. In fact, he says his business has grown at a rate of 100 percent per year.

Cleaning jobs can run anywhere from $100 to $30,000, Nelson said. An average home cleaning job runs anywhere from $300 to $600, he said.

About 80 percent of Air Doctor's customers are residential. The others are commercial and institutional, Nelson said. Some of his bigger customers have included the Wall Township and Bradley Beach school systems.

Len Van Arsdale, buildings and grounds supervisor for the Wall Township School District, said he was "totally satisfied" with the job done by Air Doctors. "They came in and did what we wanted. School was in session at the time, but they worked around everybody. They are an extremely pleasant company to work with," Van Arsdale said.

Van Arsdale said the school had contracted with another company to do the job. But they left a mess", he said. "Air Doctors has top-of-the-line equipment, and they really did a good job."

Nelson's approach in walking customers through a job, which includes arming them with literature about proper duct cleaning, has no doubt helped his business.

"I come out and I estimate every job. I explain it to my customers so they can see the value in our service," Nelson said.

That style won over Ocean Township resident Arthur Berodyn, who called five companies before deciding on Air Doctors.

"Scott gave me a thorough evaluation. In my opinion, it was the best company to do the job," said Berodyn, who had the 28 ducts in his nine-room split-level Colonial-style home cleaned last week. The nine hour job costs $525.

Nelson recommends cleaning ducts every three to five years. He estimates that about 90 percent of homes have never had their ducts cleaned.

"It's a very unhealthy situation if you don't have it done. Very few people think about it," he said.