We remove construction dust before sanding floors

Drywall dust settles long after the work

Sanding drywall fills the air with a fine white powder, and it does not all land at once. It drifts through the house for a day or more, then settles on door tops and in window tracks. Some of it gets pulled into the air return, and the system blows it back out later. So change the air filter once the contractors are done. If the old filter stays in, the house can be dusty again the week after we clean.

We start high and work down. Ceiling fans and the tops of door frames come first. Walls and baseboards come after that, and the floors are always last, because everything above them drops dust on the way down. A vacuum with a fine filter goes over each surface before a damp cloth touches it. Wiping drywall dust wet turns it into a paste. That paste smears across paint and dries in pale streaks that are harder to remove than the dust was.

New work also leaves small messes behind. Paint specks on window glass come off with a flat blade held low, so the glass does not scratch. Labels on new sinks and light fixtures leave a sticky film when they are peeled, and that film grabs dust within a week. Fresh tile often has a gray haze of grout across its face. That haze wipes off easily in the first few days, but it gets much harder once the grout fully cures.

• Drywall dust wiped off every ledge and vent
• Paint specks taken off window glass
• Sticker film cleaned off new fixtures
• Hard floors checked before any sanding starts
• Worn floor finish lightly sanded, then polished

We check the floor before sanding it

Some hard floors can be sanded and some cannot, so the first job is finding out what is under the dust. Solid oak can take a light sanding many times over its life. Engineered wood has a thin wood layer glued over plywood, and sanding too deep cuts through to the plywood. Vinyl plank and laminate only look like wood. Sanding either one ruins it, so those floors get cleaned and never sanded.

Around Kernersville we see all of these, sometimes in the same house. Older brick ranch homes often have oak strip floors, and a remodel sometimes finds them under old carpet. Newer subdivisions lean toward engineered wood and vinyl plank. An addition built onto an older home can put two kinds of floor side by side. We lift a floor vent cover and look at the edge of the board to see how thick the wood is before anything touches it.

The finish gets checked too. Some floors only have a scuffed top coat, and a light sanding and polish brings back an even shine. Others are worn through to bare wood along the walkways, and that wood has turned gray. Polish does nothing for bare wood, because there is no finish left for it to renew. We tell you which kind of floor you have before we start, so the work matches what the floor needs.

Humid summers change how wood floors behave

Kernersville summers are humid, and wood floors soak up that moisture from the air. Boards swell a little in summer and shrink back when the heat runs in winter. That is why thin gaps open between oak boards in January and close again by July. During a remodel the doors stand open and the air is often off, so the floor takes on even more damp. Sanding goes best after the air has run for a few days and the wood has settled back.

Many houses here sit on crawl spaces over red clay, and a damp crawl space pushes moisture up into the floor from below. The edges of each board rise higher than the middle, which flooring people call cupping. If a cupped floor gets sanded flat, the boards dry out later and the middle ends up higher than the edges. So we do not sand a cupped floor. The moisture problem under the house gets fixed first.

Damp air also slows the drying of a fresh polish. On a muggy day we ask you to keep the air conditioning on, since it pulls moisture out of the room. Nobody walks on the floor until it is dry to the touch. Stepping on it too soon leaves sock prints and dull patches that will not buff out. A dog crossing the room leaves a trail of paw prints, so plan to keep pets in another room for the rest of the day.

Job site grit scratches the floor finish

Piedmont red clay sticks to work boots, and every trip in from the yard drags some of it across the floor. Mixed with sand and drywall crumbs, it acts like sandpaper under each step. That is why the path from the front door to the kitchen often looks dull after a remodel while the corners still shine. Floor paper and rugs help, but they slide around, and grit works its way underneath them.

Before any sanding, all of that grit comes up with a vacuum and a damp mop. One small stone caught under a sanding pad can drag a curved scratch across the room, and that scratch shows through the polish. The fine dust the sanding makes gets the same care. It is vacuumed from the floor and wiped off the baseboards. Dust left behind dries into the polish as tiny bumps you can feel under bare feet.

We clean with safe, green products, and after construction that choice matters more than usual. A house fresh from a remodel already smells of paint and glue, and harsh cleaners add another layer to the air. Small children and pets spend their days close to the floor, so they get the most contact with whatever is used on it. Green products take off the dust and grout haze without adding strong fumes to rooms that are still airing out.