Planning to remodel? Walls aren't the only things that will need to come down. Your cleaning standards and routine will need some retooling, too.

 

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"There are four major components of a remodel,'' explains Dana Milner, owner of Dana Milner General Contractor, an Albany remodeling company. "Money, of course, is first; workers coming in and out constantly, next; third is noise; and finally there's dirt — and lots of it. You can't have remodeling without dirt. It's impossible.''

But that doesn't mean you have to live under a fine-dust-and-dirt mist until your cool new kitchen or buffed-out bathroom is complete.

"I think you have to relax your standards a bit during the process,'' says George Sundquist, a general contractor for 30 years and co-owner of Sundquist Associates of Redwood City with his son, Erik.

"If you're a very fussy housekeeper, you have to relax and anticipate that it's not going to be perfect for a time,'' Sundquist says. "And certain stages of work are going to be worse than others — such as during Sheetrocking and the sanding of unfinished wood — that sort of seem to send dust everywhere.''

Still, Sundquist and Milner, like many Bay Area remodelers, take great pains to explain thoroughly to homeowners how to minimize airborne particles in their lives and on their precious possessions.

Although most contractors come clean on just how dusty and dirty the next three months (kitchen or bath remodel) to a year (whole home redo) or more of their lives will be before starting work, the smart homeowner leaves nothing to chance. Ask the contractor up front about the daily, weekly and end-of-job cleaning routine and have cleaning responsibilities written into the job contract if you require more than the company's usual routine.

Early Understanding

"It's very important to get these details nailed down in the beginning,'' Milner says. "It's almost like a prenuptial agreement. And with us, as part of the divorce settlement, we'll always come in and clean up the house.''

Exactly what dust busters can you expect your crew to come armed with? Some or all of the following: plastic sheeting, some with zippers (to allow access yet limit dust filtration to sealed-off rooms) affixed wall-to-wall or frame-to-frame with special blue tape designed not to take your paint or paper off with the coverings; floor protectors, such as 1/8-inch-thick plywood floor (called floor skins in contractor lingo), Thermaply or some other sturdy material; and foam and tarps for draping over banisters leading to and from a work area and any furnishings that haven't been removed from the home.

"The first thing we do when we arrive on site is to protect the surfaces,'' says Jeff Moroso, a general contractor for more than 25 years and owner of Moroso Construction in Pacifica. "We put down floor skins and tape them together. You could drop a hammer on the floor and it wouldn't hurt it. Not that we would ever drop a hammer on the floor, of course.''

Next, Moroso, like most conscientious contractors, isolates the work area from the rest of the home with at least one wall-to-wall or frame-to-frame dust buster covering.

"We actually create a second barrier about 3 feet away to keep the dust down,'' he says. "Sometimes it's relatively simple — we'll seal one or two doors to the rest of the house. Other times, we'll have four, five, even six doorways covered with the zippered plastic.''

But do even the most careful coverings keep dust at bay?

"No way,'' Moroso says. For that reason, he, Sundquist and Milner suggest homeowners take all pictures, art objects and knickknacks off walls of the room to be worked on and those walls shared by adjacent rooms. Hard-to-clean items such as knickknacks, silk flowers, plants and crystal should be stored in the garage or offsite if possible before the work begins.

After all, it's a whole lot easier to wrap up little things and put them in a box than it is to dust them once a week during a project.

If possible, furniture from the room being worked on should be moved far from the work area. Give upholstered pieces special care by draping them in plastic. Dust that permeates such materials is extremely difficult to remove and can cause problems for allergy sufferers long after the final dumpster is hauled away.

If moving them out isn't an option, however, you can corral the furniture in the center of a room and batten down the hatches by covering (all the way to the floor, please) with a tarp or sturdy sheet. Tape it as airtight to the floor as possible, using the blue contractor's tape.

Finally, Sundquist says, take a moment to cover and seal your heating or air-conditioning vents to keep dust from settling in for the winter.

"And anything that has to do outside of that we handle automatically,'' Sundquist says. "We seal off the room, do a daily cleanup. Automatically.''

A Weekly Once-Over

Once the walls are clear and the furniture covered, just what sort of dust should you prepare for once work begins?

"In general, the dust we're talking about will respond to normal cleaning methods,'' says Moroso. "It's not sticky; it's a very dry, fine powdery dust.''

Which may explain while even the most stringent of measures — such as tarping and zippered plastic doors and daily cleanups by your departing crew — can't keep it all out.

For that reason, Sundquist, of Sundquist Associates in Redwood City, suggests following up your work crew's weekly cleanup with a surface cleaning of your own if a dusty weekend at home is too much to bear. A wet, clean cloth run across shelves and flat surfaces can get rid of most dust. If you'd like to vacuum, be sure to pick up any wallboard chips, hardware remnants and building debris first.

But if you can overlook the dirt, feel free to take a few months off from the cleaning routine. After all, once the crew completes its final cleanup, you'll have a cleaning of spring variety — the one where you hit every surface nook and cranny — to tackle.

It will take a deep vacuuming in addition to dust duty to get your home's old surfaces as sparkling as the new ones. But don't raise your cleaning expectations to their former level just yet.

"This kind of fine dust can keep stirring up and settling down for months afterward,'' says Milner. "Then again, since this isn't a life-or- death situation, maybe you can just overlook a little dust.''

And be content with coming almost clean for a season.

Top Tips for a Cleaner Remodel

• Move furniture, knickknacks, art and hanging pictures out of the room being remodeled even if you're not remodeling the whole room. They'll stay safer and much cleaner.
• Ask family members and guests to leave their shoes on a mat next to a cordoned-off area before entering clean zones. Why let the dust you've worked so hard to seal out come walking in on the soles of shoes?
• Be sure to keep Fido or Kitty safely away from the work site. They'll track in pawfuls of dirt if they're allowed to prance through after the carpenters leave.
• Move green things far from the work area. Plants that can't be relocated during the project will need to have their leaves washed to clean off dust and debris — daily if possible — and should be misted regularly to keep them healthy.
• Consider making a date with your carpet cleaner for the day after the workers make their final departure from your home to return your carpets to their original — or better — state of cleanliness.