We clean construction dust top to bottom

We work from the ceiling down

Construction dust keeps falling for days after the last saw stops, and it lands on whatever sits below it. So we start at the top of every room. Ceiling fan blades, air vents, light fixtures, the tops of door frames and the crown molding all get dusted first. Then we move down to the walls, the window sills and the cabinets. The floors come last, because everything above them drops onto them while we work.

Drywall dust is the hardest part of this job. It is finer than flour, and when it meets a wet rag it turns into a gray paste that smears across paint and dries in streaks. That is why we vacuum every surface we can reach before a damp cloth touches it. A house that gets wiped first and vacuumed later looks clean for an afternoon, then shows a white film once it dries.

The dust also gets into places nobody checks during the walkthrough. It sits in the bottom of kitchen drawers and packs into the tracks of sliding glass doors. We open every cabinet and drawer and clean it inside, and we vacuum the door and window tracks before we wipe them. When the job is finished properly, you can run a finger along the top shelf of a closet and it comes back clean.

• Ceiling fans, vents and light fixtures dusted
• Drywall dust vacuumed before any wet wiping
• Cabinets and drawers cleaned inside and out
• Window and sliding door tracks vacuumed out
• Floors vacuumed first, then damp mopped

Florida humidity makes construction dust stick

Around Plant City the air stays damp for most of the year, and a house under construction usually has its doors open for weeks. That moisture settles on every surface inside. Drywall dust and fine sawdust cling to a damp surface instead of sitting loose on top of it. A quick dusting that works in a dry climate just moves the dust around here. So each surface gets vacuumed, then wiped with a cloth that is barely damp.

The air conditioner is the other problem. If the system ran while drywall was being sanded, it pulled dust into the return and pushed it through the ducts. Turn it on in a freshly cleaned house and the vents blow that dust back onto the counters within a day or two. We clean the vent covers and the return grille. If the filter is packed with dust, we point it out, because a fresh filter stops most of it.

Summer afternoon storms make a second mess. Workers walk in and out through wet sand all day. The sandy soil around Plant City ends up ground into the entry and the garage floor. Sand scratches new tile and wood floors when a mop drags it across them. We sweep and vacuum the grit up first, so the mop only has to lift the thin film that is left behind.

Block and frame houses leave different dust

A lot of houses around Plant City are concrete block with stucco outside and drywall inside. When a contractor cuts into a block wall for a new window or door, the dust is gray and heavy. It settles low, along the baseboards and in the grout lines of tile floors. That dust is gritty, so we vacuum it out of the grout before any mopping, or it turns to mud in the lines.

The older frame houses near downtown Plant City are a different job. Many have original wood floors with small gaps between the boards, and remodeling dust works down into those gaps. Wet mopping pushes it deeper and can swell old boards at the edges. On wood we vacuum along the grain with a soft brush first. Then we wipe with a cloth that is only just damp and dry the floor as we go.

The new subdivisions going up around Plant City bring their own list. A brand new house has builder stickers on the windows and appliances. There are paint drips on the tile and caulk smudges on the tub, and every cabinet box has dust inside. We peel the stickers and take paint specks off the glass with a razor scraper held flat. The cabinet boxes get cleaned before your dishes go in. Leave the stickers on and the Florida sun bakes the glue onto the glass.

Missed dust shows up after you move in

Construction dust keeps drifting for a while after the work stops. It slides off the tops of door frames and blows out of the vents. That is why the order matters so much on this job. If the floors get done before the fans and vents, the floors need doing again the next morning. A clean that looks finished at five in the afternoon can look dusty again by breakfast.

Kitchens and bathrooms need the most care after a remodel. New tile often has a dull haze of grout on its face, and new fixtures come with fingerprints, tape and dried caulk on them. We clean the haze off the tile and wipe the fixtures down gently, because new finishes scratch easily. The inside of the oven and the refrigerator get wiped out too, since construction dust gets into both of them.

At the end we walk the whole house with the lights on and look at the surfaces from a low angle. Light coming across a counter or a floor shows dust and streaks you would miss standing right over them. Anything we find gets cleaned again before we leave. Then the house is ready for furniture, and the dust you would have found a week later is already gone.