Home extension - ridiculous amount of dust!

[Nononon]

I've started a topic on this earlier as am panicking about the amount of dust all over everything in my house after having an extension. At the knocking through stage we moved out but when I go back it just depresses me seeing the state of the place.

Has anyone else been through the same? I'm also paranoid now that it could be harmful in some way - especially if the builders missed some asbestos. It is a 1930s semi - is this likely?

Does anyone have any advice on cleaning up the dust? Also would you clean up and use baby items such as a crib, bouncing chair etc that were in the loft (albeit in plastic bags/boxes when the work was done). They are covered in dust also as the extended roof joined into the new roof.

I'll probably post this in chat too for traffic.

We are coming to the end of a kitchen extension. Victorian house, no asbestos, LOTs of dust. It's demoralising. What stage are you at?

Some of the dust will me cement or plaster, not brick dust, and when they cut plasterboard that produces dust as well.

Friends have used a post-build clean up crew, for about £100, which was good value for money and got the worst of it, but warned it does tend to settle again after that

Buy or borrow a Henry Hoover, best for plaster dust and be prepared to wipe everything down. Several times. It's miserable, but it does get clean eventually. Unlikely to have asbestos in a 1930's semi. We had an asbestos flue pipe in our side stack and that was it (and quite unusual to find). If we had gotten rid of everything that got dusty/dirty my eight week old would have nothing to sit in, sleep in or wear. Just wash and wipe.

The builders cut through last week. We have one door-sized opening downstairs in our living room, and one upstairs in what used to be DD's bedroom.

The dust was bad in the two rooms, but the rest of the house wasn't too badly affected. We had totally emptied both rooms (hired a storage unit which will cost us a bit financially) and laid plastic dust sheets with other dust sheets on top in the living room. We also totally taped up the TV (wall mounted) and fireplace with tape and plastic sheets.

The main thing we have noticed is that the house seems to suck heat out of it at the moment. It is so cold! We also bought an industrial hoover (cheapy one from screwfix) which was great for getting up the worst of the dust.

We shake the dust sheets out once a week.

It does kind of settle out with time. You just need to keep on hoovering and damp-dusting.

I don't really care any more. Our kitchen table is right next to where the wall came down, so there is plenty of dust, and big holes in floor, and the new part of the room doesn't even have a floor yet, just joists over bare earth. I'm just glad that I can no longer see the sky from the landing outside the bathroom :-)

Were halfway through a total refurbishment and Im sitting here freezing as we have no heating and hot water until tomorrow, the dust is absolutely everywhere, holes in the floor and walls, Im dreading having the clean up at the end, but some lovely friends and neighbours have said for a few glasses of wine they will come in and help

I quite enjoyed having an excuse for the terrible state of the house...

Marmite I'm with you (a bit) on that one. Having half the house uninhabitable means I only have half the cleaning to do!

"Has anyone else been through the same?"

Everyone I know who has had an extension built has said the same. The amount of dust and how long it kept appearing after the extension was complete took them completely by surprise.

I'm having what I thought was relatively straightforward work done and it is a fucking nightmare!!!

The whole house has been turned upside down. I can't find any of my clothes so have worn the same clothes for 3 days now.

I've told the builders it has to be finished TODAY.
Not tomorrow, not Saturday, TODAY!!!

Otherwise there may be blood shed.

We've had builders in our house since January. They are supposed to be finishing next Friday. As work has got less 'big' the state of the rest of the house has improved; we had some pretty bleak moments along the way. The builder himself has just said today that the house is startng to look like a normal house again. But we still have one room in chaos, where we've been storing things from around the house, and dust in lots of places. We also need a new stair/landing carpet and to paint our hallway as they are rather knackered from the work!

I have become addicted to those disposable fluffy dusters - they remove the dust instead of moving it about and then you bin them with all the crap on them. Wilkos do their own brand refills. But the dust keeps falling for weeks. I won't unpack anything until 6 weeks after it's all over - was burned last time...

I feel your pain, having spent the last three years restoring our period house to its former glory (oh, and the one before that and the one before that, lol!) including building a large extension, adding two extra bathroom, complete rewire, new flooring throughout etc and it does take an age for the dust to go.

The wet wipe type dusters are a godsend imho....but definitely agree that you get out of the habit of housework in such situations, not to mention personal hygiene - we were without heating and hot water for nearly six months!!! - boiling kettles, saucepans etc to fill a bath is no fun, I can tell you!