Excessive Dust! From where?

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Gang

I moved into a very dusty old house. It was quite obvious where all the excess dust was coming from. Ceiling to wall joints not taped and joined, covered with loose fitting crown molding. Floor to wall joints with large gaps and baseboards 1/2 inch above the floors. Drafty windows, dirty ductwork, Etc.

Because I work out of my home, creating a new office was my first priority. All new insulation, wiring, drywall, all seams taped and jointed, new flooring, etc. Airtight except for the vents which also have their own independent filters. Virtually no dust at all in this room. Even between the monthly cleanings of the office, you find very little dust on anything.

I renovated the master bedroom second, in like manner. Sealing everything to the hilt. Naturally, since it is a bedroom, we are handling clothing and linens in that room everyday. Yet it still gets very dusty in only a day or two.

Knowing the rest of the house is still very dusty, and there will be continuous renovations going on. I installed a small fan with HEPA filter in the ductwork to maintain a small positive pressure in this room. The reason was to keep dust from coming in under the only door to the bedroom. This filter picks up very little dust, so it's not coming in from the ductwork.

Can this much dust really be coming from clothing and linens?

I get more dust in this room, settling on furniture in 3 short days, than I get in my office in a full two months, even if I skip cleaning my office monthly.

The rooms are basically identical, the office being built as if it was a second master bedroom only smaller.

The amount of dust is just mind boggling and I have no idea where it is coming from.

Any ideas?

TTUL Gary

[Kard Krafter]

Tissues and toilet paper generate an enormous amount of dust especially Kleenex brand.

[Dawn]

Is the dust coming from you? If it's a bedroom I am going to assume you take your clothes off there, that may send dust flying about. How about the bedding? Are you using a quilt or duvet that's making dust?

[Choreboy]

I wonder if Mrs. Bonk has to dust her bedroom after entertaining you-know-who.

[sweep]

did you open your wallet?

[Mrs Bonk]

Behave!

[Choreboy]

Well, where is it coming from?

Choreboy

[Gregory Morrow]

Do you entertain crumbling old mummies, Mrs. B....???

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Choreboy

I know where some of it is coming from, the normal dust from daily life and having linens around.

But this was considerably more dust than should be expected in a sealed room.

Right now I'm running a negative ion generator which knocked it all down out of the air and now get a whole lot less dust.

In any case, a yellow haze in the dust indicated it was more pollen than actual man made dust. Figuring out how it got into a positive pressure room was baffling.

When we went to change the filter in the register/ductwork we found more dust on the top than on the back of the filter. And a little checking found that when the HVAC blower kicked off and the vent fan kicked on, it was installed backwards.

So, rather than a positive pressure in the room, it became a negative pressure sucking the dust into the room rather than keeping it out.

We turned the vent blower around only Saturday, so we will see what happens over the next week.

TTUL Gary

[Choreboy]

"Dust" is a generic term. I think the fuzzy dust that forms kittens comes from human skin, but maybe humans also produce dust that's too fine to form kittens.

I used one once when tearing open a wall full of rock wool. It worked great.

With a bagless vac, I like to dump dust into a box outside and examine it. Dust from different parts of the house is different.

I hope Marcey doesn't forward your message to your ISP. A vent is for the escape or discharge of gases.

Choreboy

[Mrs Bonk]

I seem to be entertaining you Gregory dear!

[Mrs Bonk]

With my Dyson I can see the dust, or should I say the colour of the dust. When my daughter comes to stay she uses talcum powder and the dust from the bathroom is whitish and lots of it coating everything. I have banned her from using it in my home, dreadful messy, toxic powder. I never used it for any of my children when they were babies and can't think why they wish to use it now. I wonder if Gary uses it ?

[Gregory Morrow]

It is harmful to pessaries, is it not...???

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Mrs B

Don't use it, talc or baking powder.

But I think turning the duct fan around made a big difference already.

I was sanding some joint compound in the hall and not one speck of it got into the bedroom. In fact, the area by the base of the bedroom door remained clean. The sanding dust blew into the living room that drifted near the door, hi hi.....

TTUL Gary

[Mrs Bonk]

messy old job, sanding. Even with my vacuum connected to the sander I find dust all over the house. I am dreading doing the dining room floor again.

[Gregory Morrow]

The trick to happy sanding is to remove the vibrating attachment, that way you won't get all shook up...and make sure all parts are adequately lubricated.

[Choreboy]

The subject has been covered before in this forum. The trick to happy sanding is to breathe through a swim snorkel stuffed with steel wool. One should never run an electric vacuum cleaner while sanding due to the risk of explosion.

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Mrs B

This house has real red oak hardwood floors, but the years have taken their toll, past renovations has left too many places to repair. Plus whoever did the original flooring didn't abide by normal standards of uniform placement. Normally I would repair, sand and oil the floors to make them almost carefree.

However, this time I'm covering the original hardwood with a floating floor, still in the red oak finish. Because I will be doing the whole house over time, I went with the more expensive Pergo because they will carry the same pattern. Other companies seem to drop and start lines too often to take that chance. The company that made the floor I used in the garage office has already discontinued the particular shade I used in there.

As far as the dust problem, since turning the duct fan around, we are not seeing any more dust buildup over what we would consider normal. So were happy about that.

TTUL Gary

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Thu 26 May 2005 07:55:12a, Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr. wrote in alt.home.cleaning:

What do you mean by "turning the duct fan around", and how does that help with dust buildup?

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi Wayne

Adding a duct fan inside the ductwork of each room you have completed remodeling maintains it under a slight positive pressure.

It's also beneficial in rooms where folks with allergies sleep!

Maintaining a room with a slightly positive pressure keeps contaminants from entering through cracks around window seals and from under the door.

I bought a very old post-war house that has more gaps and cracks than a sieve has holes. As I finish renovating each room, I wanted to keep the dust, especially construction dust from entering the completed rooms. Maintaining them under positive pressure will do just that.

Trouble was, the decal on the fan that showed the airflow direction was on backwards, pointing the wrong way. So it got installed backwards. Therefore it was drawing more dust into the room by creating a negative pressure in the room. Finally figured this out when I saw more dust on the top of the register filter than on the bottom side of it.

When all the construction is done, you can remove the duct fans, or connect them to individual room thermostats if you have zoned HVAC.

TTUL Gary