Clearing up House after Building Work - Help!!

Shortie

Hi everyone

I do join in the Flylady thread, but haven't for the last week or so as we've been preparing for building work in our house

I was hoping for some ideas on where to start the clean up operation :eek:

The current situation is this:

We're having the front chimney breasts taken out, which naturally generates TONNES of dust. To be fair there is little that has seeped out in the rest of the house as the doors were sealed etc, but it has still escaped.

Everything from our bedroom (one room being de-chimneyed :rotfl: ) is in my little boy's room and the spare room, and everything from the living room (the other room being de-chimneyed) is in the dining room.

Where on earth do I start on clearing the dust? I have a feeling I'll start the wrong way and end up making more work for myself than needed. I know there will be dust still settling for weeks to come, but I figure once I've cleaned, it won't be too bad to keep on top of.

I'm thinking of doing this in each room, in this order:

sweep the floors
clean the windows and ledges
dust the walls and skirting/dado-rails
sweep floor again
mop floor

Is that topsy-turvey? I have a dyson but want to try and avoid using it as I don't want to blow it up with the sheer amount of brick dust! :rotfl:

Any suggestions very welcome

Uniscots97

When I was getting building work done, to clean up afterwards i started at the top of the house and worked my way down. Starting with ceilings then curtain rails etc then walls, then window sills then skirting boards, lastly floors. I did all rooms upstairs then downstairs. Hope this helps.

Uniscots97

I used one of those swiffer sweepers for the ceiling, it made it really easy and then the cloths I just binned.

belfastgirl23

Top down is def the way to go. I'd also try to do top to bottom once (rough clean) then top to bottom clean-clean if you see what I mean. Cos dust does rise a little as well.

I'm assuming all the work is finished tho, if not I'd just take the rough off the floors and leave it like that.

BTW is this very expensive to do? I'd love to do it in our upstairs rooms...

16011996

i agree with top to bottom, and when we had new patio doors put in, i found value wet wipes were ace at collecting dust off curtain rails, top of cupboards etc. might be owrth a try.

katieowl_2

One way to help settle the dust is to use a water sprayer in the air.....obviously it makes a mess on the floor...but it does help to settle the dust

Regards

Kate

lil_me

Try vacuuming instead of sweeping, instead of moving the dust around. I have hard floors now but still vacuum them after realising half or it just went airborn!

Top to bottom is the way forward, water works, I know many builders who do it themselves.

Psykicpup

if the work isnt completely finished I would go for a quick swipe with a damp cloth or duster tied to the broom (to help 'lay' the dust) & then not bother too much more until alls finished inc any decorating BTW
If its all over then again with damp cloth swipe ceilings upstairs then curtain rails then walls - working your way down each room & down the house in general - you will probably have to do this at least twice the first week after completion & then at least once again the following week - I dont know where bricck dust goes to hide from you but it manages to surface again for ages after lol

Shortie

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

Top down is def the way to go. I'd also try to do top to bottom once (rough clean) then top to bottom clean-clean if you see what I mean. Cos dust does rise a little as well.

I'm assuming all the work is finished tho, if not I'd just take the rough off the floors and leave it like that.

BTW is this very expensive to do? I'd love to do it in our upstairs rooms...

Hi.. no it's so far been much cheaper than we thought. £155 for the skip and then £100 per day labour. Materials so far were about £100 (over guess). We think the final plastering will be done tomorrow so £500 labour for 5 days labour. All in all I guess it'll be £800... then there's the decorating too ..

Edit: that was for living room and front bedroom.

Shortie

Hmmm... reading the posts, it sounds like a pack of valu bcuse J-Clothes, and a bucket of saopy water is a best first attack. Thing is we'll be doing a week then of decoarating, (which won't be so bad as it'll be 'keeping' on top of by then) but at least I can make a decent, correct start this way!

Thanks!

belfastgirl23

Shortie wrote: »

Hi.. no it's so far been much cheaper than we thought. £155 for the skip and then £100 per day labour. Materials so far were about £100 (over guess). We think the final plastering will be done tomorrow so £500 labour for 5 days labour. All in all I guess it'll be £800... then there's the decorating too ..

Edit: that was for living room and front bedroom.

That's a LOT cheaper than I would have thought. I was worried you'd end up having to underpin the chimney or something?? Must think about it Thanks