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Drywall Dust Cleanup

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BlueCrabContrct

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
All-

I had a drywall company come in on a basement refinish. Needless to say I forgot to make sure that they would protect the floors from dust and they didn't cover it up. The floors are still concrete and unfinished but I need them dust free for the tile/carpet/hardwood that is going in in a couple weeks.

Anyone know of a good solvent to use to remove the dust for good? Water and soap doesn't really work obviously.
 
#4 ·
One can concoct a very good solvent
for drywall dust by combining
Hydrogen and oxygen in a ratio of
2 molecules of hydrogen
to one of oxygen.
It has proven to be fairly inexpensive as well.
 
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#5 ·
on this jobs think about renting a drywall vacumm sander. portercable makes them.they work really well.but make sure you use a 220 pad and rough it up with a new sand block.or it scrathes too much.prevention works better than cleanning
 
#11 ·
Did you add a vapor barrier to the walls for the moisture that's going to seep through and collect on the inside panel of the drywall? Otherwise, you're going to want to address that now before the drywall is covered in mold too. When you do the floor, make sure you install a vapor barrier- preferably a polythylene floor. Our company uses ThermalDry floor tiles, which have a vapor barrier as well as a thermal break that will make your basement floor about ten degrees warmer than the concrete surface. They interlock, so if one becomes damaged, you can remove it yourself and replace or relocate it without having to scrape adhesive or grout. We have finished carpeted and tile finish as well as the unfinished subfloor. There's a really good chance that someone in your area uses ThermalDry too.

BlueCrabContrct said:
All-

I had a drywall company come in on a basement refinish. Needless to say I forgot to make sure that they would protect the floors from dust and they didn't cover it up. The floors are still concrete and unfinished but I need them dust free for the tile/carpet/hardwood that is going in in a couple weeks.

Anyone know of a good solvent to use to remove the dust for good? Water and soap doesn't really work obviously.
Click to expand...
 
#14 ·
typical clean up of dust and spots of drywall mud is an 18 inch scraper and a sweep up the materail. then you can run a shop vac over the floor. then you can mop it with staight water but there will be several passes. if there is stains on the floor it will be coverded up by the flooring.
 
#15 ·
Cheapest and best way

Save your coffe grounds in the fridge for a week, keep em wet.
Then flood mop the floor, using a scraper if neccessary, and then wet vac it up.
Let the floor somewhat dry then dump on the coffee grounds (great sweeping compound) sweep the entire floor pushing the pile as you go. After that, rinse mop the floor. Add some D-Limonene to the rinse water if you really hate dust (orange concentrate "ROCKS!" for removing any calcium building compounds, even from your hands) [bleach is for bacteria and ammonia is better for grease].
The floor will be free of dust after that.
 
#17 ·
Done lots of cleanup and the current site has the flooring guys squawking a bit about the "white spots". Always scrape and sweep but sometimes cant keep everyone happy, so I poured about 3 buckets of "hot" water on the "white spots" and moved it with a stiff broom while brooming the problem areas a bit. Vaccuum up mess as best you can the rest will dry in time and hopefully the floor guys will stop the squawking as they can damn well do their own floor prep next time. Just how much responsibility should us drywallers take beyond scraping, sweeping and sometimes vaccuming the corners and boxes for the painters? damned floor guys!
 
#18 ·
Mudshark said:
Done lots of cleanup and the current site has the flooring guys squawking a bit about the "white spots". Always scrape and sweep but sometimes cant keep everyone happy, so I poured about 3 buckets of "hot" water on the "white spots" and moved it with a stiff broom while brooming the problem areas a bit. Vaccuum up mess as best you can the rest will dry in time and hopefully the floor guys will stop the squawking as they can damn well do their own floor prep next time. Just how much responsibility should us drywallers take beyond scraping, sweeping and sometimes vaccuming the corners and boxes for the painters? damned floor guys!
Click to expand...
You get paid to install and finish drywall, not mop floors. If you’re mopping floors you better be charging extra
 
#19 ·
Thank God you finally replied. He's been waiting 12 years to hear your feedback. Staring at his computer screen day in & day out, hoping against hope that you'd actually take the time to offer up your insights. Well done.
 
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