We clean construction dust ceiling to floor

We clean after the builders finish

A renovation leaves two kinds of mess behind. The first is easy to see, like stickers on new windows and paint specks on the floor along the trim. The second is the dust. Sanding drywall throws up a powder fine enough to float for hours. It settles on every flat surface in the house, including rooms nobody worked in. Post construction cleaning is a deep clean built around that dust, and the dust takes most of the time.

We work from the top of each room down. Light fixtures and the tops of door frames come first, then the walls and trim, then windows and cabinets, and the floor goes last. The order matters because dust falls. If the floor gets washed before the cabinet tops are wiped, the next pass drops a gray layer back onto it. Then that room has to be done twice.

Drywall dust also has to come up dry before anything gets wet. Hit it with a damp cloth and it turns into a thin paste that smears across paint and dries as a pale haze. So the first pass on every surface is a dry one, and the damp wipe comes after. A floor that looks chalky and streaked the day after someone mopped it was almost always mopped before the dust was vacuumed up.

• Walls and ceilings dusted from the top down
• Paint specks and sticker glue lifted off glass
• Baseboard heater fins cleared of drywall dust
• Cabinets and drawers wiped inside and out
• Floors vacuumed dry first, then washed

Bellingham houses hide dust in different places

Around Bellingham and Franklin you see a lot of capes and garrison colonials, plus plenty of raised ranches. Most houses here sit on a full basement. Where the work happened changes where the dust goes. A basement finish pushes dust up the stairs and into the first floor hallway. A kitchen job on a raised ranch spreads it straight into the living room, because the two usually share the same open upper level.

Many homes here heat with hot water baseboard, the long metal covers that run along the bottom of the walls. Inside each cover is a row of thin metal fins, and construction dust packs into them. Leave it there and the first cold night of the season heats that dust, and the house smells burnt for days. We vacuum and brush out the fins before we clean the floor underneath them.

Newer houses and additions often run on forced hot air, and that is a different problem. If the system was on while drywall was being sanded, dust went into the return vents and came back out of every register in the house. We wipe the register covers and vacuum the openings. Dust deep inside the ductwork is a job for a duct cleaning company. If the vents keep puffing gray after we finish, we will tell you.

Massachusetts weather changes the cleanup

When a renovation runs through a Massachusetts winter, the windows stay shut and the heat stays on for the whole job. The dust has nowhere to go. It hangs in the air and drifts with the heat, so it settles in rooms far from where the work was done. That is why we ask which rooms were closed off during the job, and we check the ones that were left open.

Winter also brings the driveway inside. Workers walk in and out all day, and their boots carry road salt and sand across the floors. Salt dries into a white film on hardwood and tile. Sand is grit, and it scratches the finish when someone drags a mop over it. On a winter job the floors get a dry vacuum to lift the grit first, then a wash to take off the salt.

Summer brings a different problem. On a humid day drywall dust takes on moisture from the air and clings to walls and window glass instead of wiping off clean. New paint and caulk also need time to cure. Scrubbing paint that is only a few days old can leave a shiny patch on a flat wall. We ask when the last coat went on, and we go gently on anything still fresh.

A finished cleanup leaves no dust behind

Timing trips up a lot of people. Clean too early and the house is dusty again by evening. That happens when the painter still has touch ups left, or the electrician still has cover plates to put back on. The right time to book is after the last trade has packed up and the work is finished. If one small job is still left, tell us when you call, and we will plan around it.

When the job is finished, you can run a finger along the top of a door frame or a window sill and it comes away clean. The glass has no paint specks or sticker glue left in the corners. Cabinet shelves and drawers are free of sawdust. The floor feels smooth under bare feet, and there is no gray haze on dark counters when the afternoon sun comes in low through the windows.

Skip a step and it shows up later. Dust left on top of the kitchen cabinets drifts down every time someone opens a door nearby. Dust left in the baseboard fins comes back as a smell when the heat comes on. Paint specks on a window get harder to lift the longer they sit. Sticker glue bakes harder onto the glass every sunny day it stays there.