How to Clean Up From A Home Renovation
You have just finished your renovation project, and for the first time, you get to see your new room or area without the noise, the workers, and everything. The only problem is that even after you gathered up all the trash, there is still a bit of a mess. There is dust – sawdust, drywall dust, possibly metal or stone dust – left from all the work, and while it’s there your home still looks like a worksite.
The dust will be the biggest problem. It can get almost anywhere and be dangerous to people and pets. These tips should tell you what you need to know to clean your home to your standards and finally enjoy your remodel.
Photo Credit: Chris Lattuada/flickr
The tools
This will depend on what there is to clean. If there are any tiny metal shavings, that’s a bigger safety risk than drywall dust. For that, you might want to use leather gardening or welding gloves. Definitely don’t use anything that could blow them around. And it shouldn’t happen, but if there is a lot of dry concrete dust in the air, inhalation is a health hazard and you will need a face mask with an air seal.
Nevertheless, for almost all deep cleaning you’ll need these:
- Rubber gloves
- Eye protection
- Face mask
- Step ladder
- Broom and dustpan
- Cleaning rags
- Mop and buckets
- Vacuum cleaner
- Trash bags
- Cleaning solutions
Order of jobs
The order in which you clean things after a home remodel will be a lot like the order of a routine cleaning: top to bottom, and dry before wet.
Dry wipe your walls to get all the dust that would likely fall soon anyway. You need to get every square inch, including baseboards and molding, but you don’t have to clean deep for this step.
Next, dry wipe your cabinets inside and out and all other hard surfaces. Remember to get light switches, door knobs, curtains, blinds, fans, and anything else that couldn’t be removed while you were remodeling. The dust can get anywhere, so practically everything you see will need cleaning.
Much of the dust you’ve cleaned off so far will end up on the floor, which is why you clean that last.
Getting to the floor
For hard floors, sweep or vacuum before anything else. If you vacuum, make sure you use the “no pile” or hard floor setting, and turn off the bristle bar (if there is one) or you might not get best results. After that, you should mop to pick up any particles small enough to get through the broom and dustpan.
For carpeted floors, you’ll need to vacuum, and you might not get everything the first time so several passes may be necessary. You might also want to call a professional carpet cleaner, who would have some test equipment to make sure the dust is gone.
It’s a lot to go through, but it will all be worth it when you can safely light up your new fireplace, cook in your new kitchen, or enjoy whatever remodel job you just did. This is what it was all about!
If your DIY remodel involves flooring in the Northern Virginia area, Unique Carpet and Floor in Manassas has over twenty years of experience installing all kinds of floors as well as remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. Call us at (703) 369-1600 or get in touch online.