Cleaning the DUST after the builders HELP!

[MyPearlMentor]

HELP! How on earth do I get the tile & plaster dust out of all my possessions after the builders have been in? I was naive enough to think that boxes & clothes bags would do the trick. Literally everything I own is coated in a thick layer of grey dust. Luckily most of the furniture was given away first, but I need to get my sofa (washable covers, phew!) and my grey fabric bed frame /headboard clean too. All ideas gratefully recommended inc tools (wet/dry hoover?) as I gave never done this before.

Use the hoover attachment brushes, not dusters, to vac all the surfaces and soft furnishings. Hoover the carpet. Repeat . Change the filters often. Repeat daily for three or four days. Keep the doors shut to prevent dust travelling form rooms your haven't yet tackled. It does get better, honest.

i got my cleaner in for a 6 hour deep clean
professional carpet and upholstery cleaner
window cleaner

basically i threw money at the problem and it worked a treat

Humidity will bring the rest of the dust down

@LovelyDaaling thank you, I will give it a try! @probster this is also an option but it seems like a lot more than a 6 hour task at the moment…

so….. make it more than 6 hours
it was enough for mine along with the other stuff i listed

Get end of building cleaners in. They have Hoovers with proper filters built for brick and plaster dust.

They should really clean up after themselves with industrial equipment.

Spray water into the air and onto things that won't be spoilt by it. Damp dust regularly, and if you can get a professional in, do that, too.

There are companies that do Builders Cleans, sometimes called Sparkle Cleans they are experts at it. Worth every penny

Hoover everything, then damp dust. Repeat 20 times.

Or pay other people to do it.

I remember that feeling 😫.
I went and bought a henry hoover and it worked a treat. I wouldn't try and tackle it with a normal hoover (dyson, shark etc) as they can't handle the fine plaster dust. The dust will keep settling for a while so it wasn't just a one off clean in our house. Each morning we would get up to a new layer of dust. The henry vac was brilliant and I still use it for tough jobs. A high quality air purifier would help too if you can afford it. Good luck.

You just keep hoovering it over and over for weeks/months. Keep cleaning your hoover out too, they don't like builders dust, it'll block your filters quickly.

Exactly this. A Henry is your friend, they're not very expensive, last forever and are useful for many, many things.

Use many, many damp cloths and then just chuck them. You don't want all that fine dust in your washing machine.

The fine dust will keep falling, unfortunately, and months later you'll find little pockets of it that you missed. It's just life, sadly. Hopefully, the work you've had done makes up for the inconvenience!

PS If you get the Henry buy the HEPA filter bags not the paper ones.

Yep, there's a reason builder's use Henry hoovers themselves

My Henry is putting a shout out for you to get one of his mates!! Use the pointy attachment & the small rectangle one, don't bother with the round brush one.

buy a roll of blue cloth (not the blue paper one) I throw them in a bucket of water, rise them out by hand, dry them & reuse them. They rinse out really well & I can't cope with only using them once then landfill!

it's an energy & time v money issue. Use whichever you have a better supply of.

what have you had done? Are you pleased with it?

See if you can rent an industrial hoover, damp cloth dusting as previously suggested do not try dust it just moves the dust back into the air! keep doors closed to stop it getting into other rooms - if you are ever doing work again you can get sealed door frames from amazon which are great!

Yes completely agree @ForPearlViper
A roll of cheap cloths would be a great idea for damp dusting.

Op I see you mentioned a hydrovac but I doubt that would be up to the job. A traditional mop and bucket would be better for this. Just keep changing the water regularly.

I've recently had kitchen and wet room fitted and every workman had a Henry!
When they left for the day, there was not a spec of dust left, so I would invest if I were you