Cement dust all over our house!

dotexe

-[deleted]-

DRP

I'm sure someone who has gone through similar will be around soon to comment on their experiences - a grinder is a pretty daft thing to use indoors - unless its a fairly quick job and you are able to seal up the room involved....


I know that even having some basic routing of cables for a re-wire creates a lot of mess in my experience

We isolated each room in turn and cleaned one at a time. If its pretty bad then use a face mask and open the window.

Hoover the carpets several times. Keep emptying the bag regularly to maximise suction.
Hoover and dust every surface.
Finally use a damp cloth everywhere.

ONce a room is done then put up a sheet over the door and/or tape it up.


Good luck. Sounds like your friend has been a bit inconsiderate in his preparation

maninthestreet

Vacuum cleaner and/or duster???

amersall

Be warned, you will be wiping it up for a long time yet.
I had this problem, every day there was a new "settling" of dust, drove me mad.

Mojisola

amersall wrote: »

Be warned, you will be wiping it up for a long time yet.
I had this problem, every day there was a new "settling" of dust, drove me mad.

This ^

You will clean and clean and clean again and the wretched stuff will still settle out of the air.

suki1964

Try to borrow or hire a Henry. Cement dust can kill a vacuum

dotexe

-[deleted]-

onomatopoeia99

As others have said, vacuum and launder. I'd wait a few days before starting to allow it to settle from the air. However when I put channels in for network / satellite / telecoms cabling in the main bedroom, and when the spark came and did them for mains in the kitchen, the dust really wasn't that bad outside the room it was being done in.

Intrigued by your username by the way, I had a subscription to a magazine called ".exe" many years ago!

WestonDave

You seem to have the right idea but what I would add is that once you've captured the worst of it (hovered and dusted) on each pass through, open the windows (maybe run a fan) and try to change the air in there so as to get rid of as much that is suspended in the air as possible. The fact that you've been out of the house for a few days should play to your advantage because there has been less air movement to stir the dust up. So when you go back in to start cleaning, move around as gently as you can to keep as much dust settled as you can. Also wet dusting (use a damp cloth rather than a dry duster) will capture more of it without floating it off into the room.

suki1964

dotexe wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far. So this is something I can take on myself. I needn't look around to hire someone to come in and clean.

I plan to empty each room one at a time, hoover the whole room and then wipe down the walls/ceiling. Then wipe down furniture and other loose bits one piece at a time and place back into the room.

Our hoover is a decent one with a HEPA filter too. But I am prepared to say goodbye to it once all this is done as I know all the cement dust can't be any good for it.

It's not so much the cleaning that upsets me it's the health hazards with it being cement dust. I don't want my wife breathing it in or our baby when she's here.

I wouldnt be worrying too much about cement dust short term. Hubby is a builder, he does house conversions, hes breathing it in all day ( he only uses a mask in the worse of jobs - his choice) and in his mid 50s his lungs are still going strong

Ive lived through three house renovations and even with each room sealed, the dust will get through and its horrible. You can feel it in the air and you just never feel clean so I know how you feel

Seriously do get a henry to do the first couple of vaccums, add a soft tool attacment and you can vaccum most surfaces, tops of books etc. Within a week you can go back to your own vaacumm The HEPA filter will clog completely if you dont get the worse up first ( voice of experience here)

martinsurrey

1) dont dust - hoover
2) dont move anything without hoovering it first
3) get LOTS of cheap wet wipes from tesco and after hoovering something, wipe it and bag the wipe.
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=260274300

the aim of the game is to keep all the dust from becoming airborne.