Loft conversion....stair breakthrough day: do we stay or do we go?

[Elibean]

Those of you who have experienced this (I can't really imagine it, but am told its grim), would you a) go out for the day but come home in the evenings, and camp out as best you can? or b) stay at a B&B for a night or two, locally so one of us can nip back to clean/pick up nappies etc?

Bearing in mind the dds are 1.5 and 4.5

Someone please tell me its not that bad, my DSIL has put the frighteners on me...

Anyone?

okay..it depends on how they do it..we had our ceiling pulled down (100 yrs lath and plaster) and it was horrendous..all the walls and doors, even if loosely covered, get filthy. You will be living in dust, especially if there's a breeze. We exited for a week (our dds were 15 weeks and 4) but I have to say I think they'd have been more careful if we'd stayed (perhaps). Get them to put a totally enclosed curtain with a zip they can go in and out of, if you can..we didnt know about this but a neighbour had it done ands got her builders to use one and she had so much less dust. I still think we're living with the fallout actually, despite it being 2 yrs ago..our house never is dust free but then it depends on how much you clean. We exited cause of the youngest' age. If you do exit, make sure you go back every night to check on whether they've sealed up doors, etc. If you use the enclosed curtain idea, you might be able to stay with the kids, otherwise, no.

definitely go ... we are in the middle of it too. everything will be covered in dust no matter how careful they are ... good luck!

We stayed, but they'd boarded up the section that the stairs were going into so the crap was pretty much contained. Still pretty grubby, but we're not ultra-fussy! DCs were about the same age as yours are now BTW.

Be warned when they get to plastering stage though - plaster dust gets everywhere!

Oh god

I've booked a B&B for a night, but can extend it to two if necessary....apparently the worst days are the one the hole gets made, and the next (when they're building the stairs)

Thanks for the zippy curtain info, will ask builders about that - they are friendly!

We are going to seal all doors with wide masking tape, and chuck a few dustsheets over things inside rooms for good measure. Will dust really get through taped doors?? Yikes...

dd2 is prone to breathing problems, and has mild asthma

Go, go, go. It makes such a mess. We had this done two years ago. We covered every surface in the house and shut doors but the dust was everywhere.

Can you get help with child care so that you have some cleaning time when you get back in. Make sure you have pizza delivery number to hand, we couldn't use the kitchen until I had cleaned it - everything was covered in dust (and my standards 'aint that high).

We made ourselves scarce for the day and although the builders did a great job clearing up it was still dust city.
Our vacum cleaner never recovered..............:-)
My kids were much older than yours and I think if I was in your position I would take the B&B option.

OK, I hear you, we're going

Do you think one night away is enough?

And, did things that were in drawers/wardrobes get dusty too, or are they safe?

My SIL said their sealed rooms were pretty much ok - dusty, but not awful, and not the black greasy dust that first came down. So maybe I've been lulled into a sense of false security after all

And, thanks.

And yes, I do have some help until the evening, though I have to get the kids' rooms ok on the second day for them to sleep in...or at least one of them...I'm panicking now...

Looks like fish and chips then [dd2 won't eat pizza). Ah well, has to be one redeeming feature....

Just comming out of this - they finished our loft 2 weeks ago. My advice is to go away for as long as you can! We went to my parents for 6 weeks as DD was/is so small (9 weeks when they started). They were finished the "worst" when we came back but were still building. BUT everything will be dusty. Put dust covers on everything you can (incl downstairs) and seal up DCs rooms if you can. And even once they've put the stairs in and plastered the building work will still be incredibly noisy. Plastering is also a massively dust-making process. To be honest, I wish we'd stayed out of it for another 2 weeks but my parents are in South Africa so we had to come back as the flights were booked... And our builders were pretty nice and seemed to try their best to make the house reasonable for DD.
Sorry, hope that's not too gloomy! Hope for sunny days so you can all go sit in the park for the day!

O god!

Well done for surviving, esp with such a teeny LO

We're going to seal all the rooms in the house - have ordered 75mm masking tape - but we can't stay away for long, just not practical.

Plastering....I hadn't thought further than the Big Ceiling Breakthrough