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Tips & Techniques

Wall-Hole-Dust Collection

Instead of letting drywall dust settle on the floor and vacuuming it up later, collect it right at the hole.

By Charles Miller Issue 270 - Oct/Nov 2017

Drilling holes in walls to install anchors for paintings or mounting flat-screen TVs means producing drywall dust. Rather than letting the dust settle on the floor and vacuuming it up later, I collect the dust right at the hole. I use painter’s tape to stick the top flap of a small cardboard box to the wall directly below the hole to be drilled. Then I set the drill to a low RPM setting so the dust isn’t spun afar. The dust drops straight down the wall, over the tape and into the small box.

When drilling multiple holes on different walls, there’s no need to replace the tape on the box lid. The adhesive will stick to the wall several times before needing to be refreshed with a new strip of tape. And if you don’t have a small cardboard box, a makeshift container can be molded from a piece of aluminum foil or taped together from a scrap of heavy paper.

— Mike Guertin, East Greenwich, R.I.

Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller

From Fine Homebuilding #270

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  1. carpenter393 | Jun 16, 2019 04:46pm | #1

    I tape (with painters tape) an envelope under the location of drilling, open the flap, tape it to the wall, open the envelope, drill, but as Mike says, slow down the drilling!

  2. 2morweeks | Jun 17, 2019 11:01am | #2

    An enve...what? Did you say an envelope? What the heck is an envelope? Can you get those online...or do they have to be fabricated?

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