How to control construction dust?
- Introduction
- Covering cold air returns
- Smoke alarms
- Dust Barrier Plastic Sheeting
- Dust barrier poles
Introduction
If you are sanding drywall compound or spraying paint in your home, you will quickly realize how dust can be a real problem. You might not realize it at first, but the dust from these projects can quickly propagate throughout your entire house. If you don’t want to spend hours dusting, wiping and vacuuming after each day of DIY progress, read on.
Covering cold air returns
If you have forced air heating or cooling, you have cold air return ducts throughout your house. Your HVAC system draws air from these ducts, which is then heated or cooled and blown out of the vents throughout your house. Think of it this way, you have input-vents and output-vents. If you aren’t sure which is input and which is output, just turn on your HVAC system and feel the duct with your hand.
Allowing construction dust to be drawn into these intake vents will clog your HVAC filter and also broadcast dust throughout your home! If the room you are working in has a cold air return and you aren’t in the position to turn off your HVAC for the duration of your project, you will want to seal off the cold air return.
Usually I mask off cold air return ducts using a wide painter’s tape. There are also specialty products available like this HVAC Vent Film.
Smoke alarms
Exposing smoke alarms to excessive dust may cause nuisance trips, or worse damage the smoke alarm. Before the dust begins to fly you will want to cover the smoke alarm in the specific room under construction. And at the end of the day, after the dust has settled, consider removing the cover just to be safe.
- Elastic plastic cover protects your smoke alarms from temporary airborn construction dust
- Fits most standard detectors with a 6" diameter and 1" height
- Fast and easy to install or remove
Dust Barrier Plastic Sheeting
You will generally want the plasic sheeting to have a thickness of at least 3 mils. I usually try to select a little higher quality sheeting that can be reused, such as this option by XPOS.
- Industrial grade polyethylene with a 3.4 mil thickness for extra durability
- Protective barrier from dust, vapor, moisture, paint and more
- Use it for indoor or outdoor project
Dust barrier poles
Telescoping dust poles can be quickly setup, adjusted and moved.
I bought the poles made by Trimaco because they have strong clips for holding the plastic sheeting. This is particularly helpful when setting up the dust barrier. When setting up, you may want to pull the plastic sheeting tight by moving or angling the pole. Without these clips it would be very painful!
They are also easy to raise and lower using your foot, again very helpful when setting them up and moving them.
You are going to need at least two of these poles, which is why they are offered in 2 pack kits.
- Works with plastic sheeting to create a dust barrier
- Heavy-duty aluminum construction
- Simply clip plastic onto the quick clip and adjust the pole to ceiling height
- Available in 12', 16' and 20' maximum lengths
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