How Liberty Bell Air Duct Cleaning Greater Cleveland Was Born in Cleveland
It was a Tuesday in March, about seventeen years ago, and we were standing in a ranch house on West 65th in Detroit-Shoreway, watching a woman cry at her kitchen table. She’d paid another company $800 to clean her ducts after her grandson’s asthma attacks got worse. They’d run a shop vac for twenty minutes, sprayed some vanilla-scented fog, and left her with a bill that ate half her monthly Social Security. The ducts were still packed with construction debris from the 1970s. Her grandson was still wheezing.
We were working for someone else then. A bigger outfit with a call center in Texas and technicians who changed every six months. That day, we cleaned her system properly—took four hours, pulled out enough plaster and mouse droppings to fill a bucket, showed her the before-and-after with our camera. She tried to pay us. We wouldn’t take it. She made us coffee instead, and we sat there while she called her daughter to say the house finally smelled right.
Driving home through Cleveland that night, past the West Side Market with its lights still on, we knew. The industry was broken here. Too many bait-and-switch operations, too many franchises sending kids with no training into people’s homes, too many homeowners paying premium prices for work that made things worse. We promised ourselves: if we ever ran our own shop, we’d do it with our hands, our name, and our word. No call centers. No upsells. Just show up, do the job right, and sleep soundly. Liberty Bell started six months later in a garage in Parma Heights.
David Martinez’s Personal Connection to the Air Duct Cleaning Trade
David didn’t stumble into this work—he was practically raised in it. His uncle Hector ran a small HVAC crew on the near West Side through the nineties, and David was the kid holding the flashlight, passing tools, listening to men talk about pressure differentials and static readings while the smell of warm sheet metal and cutting oil filled cramped basements. He was twelve when he first crawled through a crawlspace in Clark-Fulton, the dirt packed under his nails, his knees aching on the concrete, and felt something click. The system was a puzzle. The homeowner was counting on you. When you got it right, you could feel it in the airflow.
After high school at Lincoln West, David worked construction, then warehouse jobs, then spent three years installing cable—anything to pay rent in a city that wasn’t making it easy. But he kept helping Hector on weekends, kept feeling that pull back toward the mechanical, the tangible, the work where you could see what you’d done. When Hector’s knees gave out and he closed the business, David realized he’d been preparing for something without knowing it.
What gets him out of bed isn’t the money. It’s the moment—happens maybe once a week—when a customer walks down to their basement after we’ve finished, and you see their shoulders drop. The house feels different. They didn’t know it could feel different. Seventeen years in, and David still goes home and tells his wife about those faces. If he weren’t doing this, he’d probably be fixing old motorcycles or teaching shop somewhere, something with his hands and a visible result. But he’s here, in Cleveland, because this city raised him and this work chose him, and he’s not done yet.
Meet David Martinez — The Person Behind Every Job
David Martinez, Owner & Lead Technician
David still climbs every ladder, still runs every camera, still personally inspects the trunk lines on every whole-house cleaning we do. He’s state-licensed, trained in NADCA methods, and certified for both residential and light commercial systems. But what separates him from a franchise technician in a wrapped van is simple: his name is on the door, and his cell number goes to his pocket.
He’s the guy who’ll notice your dog’s name on the tag and ask about them later. Who’ll take his boots off without being asked when he sees you’ve got new carpet in Parma Heights. Who spends Sunday mornings restoring vintage stereo equipment because he believes things built to last should be kept alive. That same patience goes into your ductwork—he doesn’t rush, doesn’t cut corners, doesn’t send someone less experienced to finish what he started.
His commitment to you: “If I wouldn’t run my own family through this system, I won’t tell you it’s clean. That’s the only standard I know.”
Our Promise to Cleveland Homeowners
Honest pricing, no surprises. We learned this the hard way. Early on, we quoted a job in Rocky River over the phone—standard ranch, sounded straightforward. Got there and found a collapsed flex duct behind the master bedroom that needed repair. We did the repair, ate the cost, and changed our policy that day. Now we inspect first, quote firm, and stick to it. If we miss something, that’s on us, not you.
Quality parts that last. We specify Aprilaire and Honeywell accessories when filtration upgrades make sense—not because they pay us, but because we’ve seen the cheap stuff fail in Cleveland’s freeze-thaw cycles. We use Abatement Technologies HEPA equipment on every job because we’ve watched what happens when containment fails in an occupied home.
We stand behind every job. A woman in Seven Hills called us back three months after a cleaning, worried about a smell. Turned out her water heater was backdrafting—nothing to do with our work. We fixed the venting anyway, no charge, because she’d trusted us and we don’t leave people stuck. That’s not a policy in a handbook. That’s just how it is.
Our Credentials
State-Licensed & Fully Insured
We’re state-licensed to perform air duct cleaning throughout Ohio, and we carry full insurance and bonding. No exceptions, no gaps. When someone works inside your home—handling your air, your family’s breathing environment—that paperwork isn’t bureaucracy. It’s your protection.
- State-licensed — Ohio requires specific standards for HVAC-related services; we meet and exceed them.
- Insured & bonded — Accidents are rare, but you’re covered if anything happens on your property.
- 17+ years in business — Survived recessions, pandemic, and Cleveland’s brutal housing market because we do what we say.
- 501 verified reviews, averaging 4.7/5 stars — Real customers in real neighborhoods: Lakewood, Euclid, Glenville, Hough, Elyria. Read them. We’re proud of every one.
Here’s why this matters to you: an unlicensed operator with a rented machine can damage your ducts, void your HVAC warranty, or leave contamination worse than they found it. We’ve been called in to fix those messes in Cleveland Heights and Detroit-Shoreway. The homeowner always pays twice. Check credentials first. Sleep better after.
Rooted in Cleveland
This isn’t where we work—it’s where we live. David’s kids went through Cleveland Municipal Schools. We’ve sponsored Little League teams in Parma, donated cleanings to the West Side Catholic Center’s transitional housing, and stood in line at Sokolowski’s before it closed and at Nate’s Deli after. We know the difference between the housing stock in Hough and the bungalows in Lakewood, the balloon framing in Glenville and the postwar ranches in Seven Hills. That matters because your ducts are different depending on when your house was built, what materials were used, and how Cleveland’s lake-effect humidity has treated them over decades.
When you call (877) 516-9047, you’re not getting a dispatch center. You’re getting David, or someone he’s trained himself, driving from a job in Rocky River or Elyria to your door. We’ll show you what we find. We’ll tell you the truth. And we’ll still be here when you need us again.
Written by David Martinez, Owner at Liberty Bell Air Duct Cleaning Greater Cleveland, serving Cleveland, Lakewood, Elyria, Euclid, Parma, Parma Heights, Hough, Rocky River, Seven Hills, Glenville, Detroit-Shoreway, and Clark-Fulton since 2007.