Home / Ducts by build year
McKinney had 21,283 people at the 1990 census and 195,308 at the 2020 census. Nearly all of its houses were built in that stretch, a few thousand were not, and the year on the deed says more about what is in the ducts than anything else you can check from the ground.
| Year built | Housing units | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 or earlier | 1,128 | 1.4% |
| 1940 to 1959 | 1,600 | 2.1% |
| 1960 to 1979 | 3,364 | 4.3% |
| 1980 to 1989 | 3,465 | 4.5% |
| 1990 to 1999 | 11,568 | 14.9% |
| 2000 to 2009 | 25,753 | 33.2% |
| 2010 to 2019 | 26,956 | 34.7% |
| 2020 or later | 3,783 | 4.9% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019 to 2023 five-year estimates, as published by Point2Homes. The median year built is 2007. The survey's last column stops in 2023, so the newest houses are undercounted.
A duct system in a house this age has nothing wrong with it. What it may have is the build still inside it. Drywall is sanded, trim is cut and floors are finished with the registers open, and the air handler is often run before the house is clean. Houses permitted inside the city limits since the city adopted the 2021 editions of the international codes in November 2022 were built under newer rules than the 2000s houses, so the ductwork itself is recent in design as well as in age.
The first question is the warranty. If the house is inside its builder's warranty period, heavy debris in the ducts is a builder conversation before it is a cleaning purchase. See new-build and remodel dust.
2000 to 2009A third of the city sits here. These houses are fifteen to twenty-five years old, old enough that many are on, or coming up to, a second air handler and outdoor unit. When equipment is swapped, the ducts usually stay. The day the old unit comes out, the supply plenum is open and the whole trunk is reachable in a way it never is otherwise. See cleaning before an HVAC replacement.
1980 to 1999About one McKinney house in five. If the ductwork is original it has spent twenty-five to forty-five summers in an attic. One building scientist puts the air in an unconditioned attic at up to 120 degrees or a bit more on a sunny summer day. At this age the useful question is whether the duct is sound enough to clean at all. See flex duct: clean or replace.
Before 1980About 6,100 housing units, 1,128 of them from 1939 or earlier. Many of the oldest predate central air conditioning, which means every duct in them was fitted into a building that was not designed around it. Materials and routes vary house to house. See ductwork in older homes.
McKinney houses built from the 1960s on sit on concrete slabs. With no space under the floor, the air handler and the ducts usually go overhead. One Dallas HVAC reference calls attic equipment "a defining feature of Dallas residential construction," most of all in houses built from 1970 to 2000.
That placement shapes the job. The crew works from a hatch in a hallway or a garage ceiling, the hose has to reach the plenum on top of the unit, and a two-story house with a system for each floor is two jobs sharing one driveway. The count of systems, more than the square footage, sets the price.
The county appraisal district record for the property normally shows a year built, and so does most closing paperwork. A year within two or three is close enough for this purpose.
Not by the calendar. Pull one register and look. If there is drywall dust or debris in the boot, that has been there since the build and is worth removing. If it is a thin gray film, leave it.
Age by itself is a weak guide. A thirty-year-old system with a well-fitted filter can be cleaner inside than a three-year-old one that ran during construction. That is why the first step is always to look.
Give the build year and what you have seen at the registers. A McKinney contractor tells you which of these jobs it is.
Call (469) 712-2667 Write It Down Instead
McKinney