House renovation worried about dust

[dustandfumes]

So the house needs a major overhaul - think rewire, plastering, ceilings ripped down the lot. I can't move out it's just not a possibility, how bad is it to stay in the house while all this is happening ? I can go out for the day etc if needs be but will still need to sleep here.
It's the dust I'm mainly worried about when the ceilings come down and walls chipped into for rewire. But obviously it needs doing before the baby arrives !

Has anyone been in this situation?

Yes its a nightmare but can be done. Hope youve got builders sorted to do this already if a baby is on the way as it sounds like a 4-6 month job to do the whole house.

if you were able to move into rented the builders could do a quicker job but i know that may not be possible. Dont forget these things always take longer than you think! Good luck!

We just did it. I am going to say if you are chasing the walls it’s not ok to live in it.

I don’t think the baby would be harmed but your health will be. They are now saying silica in brick dust is worse than asbestos.

It’s horrific, such fine fine dust. Just don’t.

Sorry that wasn’t clear. We just did a full Reno whilst I was pregnant. We chose to live in the garage for 6 months.

Yeah I am worried about the rewire !! Do you think if I moved out for a week max it'd be okay to go back after that ? I know the dust lingers as we had a partial rewire last year which was just awful

If you're moving out for a week or so, could you rent/hire some industrial powered air filtering machines to whack on a few days before you return?
I've no idea if such a thing exists so may be talking out of my arse, but I was just looking at our air filter and thought there might be something better to filter that dust out?

It’s going to be better than nothing. But problem is you need to clean it unless you can make sure builder/electrician will do it.

It takes multiples daily attempts as some gets kicked up into the air when your cleaning, and you should really work wet to clean ( to avoid it going back in the air) but then everything gets covered in an orange paste which is impossible to get out of nooks and crannies.

You can get an industrial hepa air filter to help.

Do you really need to do the work now? It sounds incredibly stressful if you have no where else to live as their will be delays. We are currently still in our garage and now have an 8 week old here too. Sounds ridiculous but better than the house which now is relatively clean, still has some dust kicking about and we are now at final painting stages - which also isn’t suitable for a babe.

I wouldn't live in the house during a rewire even not pregnant. We had one just before I got pregnant and I don't know how it would have been possible to live in the house to be honest. They have to be in every room so it would take longer if they had to work around where we were living. If you can, rent a storage unit and pack as much as you can to reduce the amount that will get dusty. The dust does really linger but we did a deep clean before moving back in, wiped down the walls etc and we covered our bed with a dust sheet each morning for about a week after and hoovered every single day. I am asthmatic so we were super careful and I didn't have a flare up.

Do you have any respiratory issues OP? Builders dust is obviously horrible and does get everywhere but I don't think it's a particular risk in pregnancy, especially if you deep clean before moving back in.

Oh god dreading it now. Moving out isn't an option because I have to get my son to school. Didn't think about that !!
My partner has ordered one of them big tube extractor things that you shove out the window... will this be okay ? And going to have to seal off one room the best we can. I will leave the house in the worst days

Can you afford to move out, just a month or two? Why is it hard to get your child to school? Health wise you'd need to consider your young child don't forget as well as adults

Not a chance. We have a baby on the way, this reno to pay for etc. and I don't drive ! So it's not like I can move in with my mum etc as it would mean taxis twice a day to school = more money.

We did a partial rewire last year which was messy and dusty but we managed