I just completed building a new home, and unfortunately, the closer I got to completion the worse the relationship got with the contractor. He ended up walking off the job and one of the contract items left undone was a complete housecleaning. The house has primarily oak floors that were sanded and urethaned early in the finish, then marred, so one of the last jobs he did was to resand and refinish them. The entire interior (painted plaster walls, painted ceilings, painted trim, windows, lights, fans, etc) is covered with a light brown sanding dust. Can anyone recommend an efficient method or products to clean the dust off the various surfaces, especially the walls and ceilings, or do I need to hire a professional cleaning crew? It does not vacuum off, only wipe off.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Smart construction decisions and material choices can significantly improve occupant safety and survival in the event of a fire in the home.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Fine Homebuilding Magazine
Fine Home Building
Follow
-
Fine Homebuilding
Dig into cutting-edge approaches and decades of proven solutions with total access to our experts and tradespeople.
Start Free Trial Now -
GBA Prime
Get instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.
Start Free Trial Now
- Home Group
- Antique Trader
- Arts & Crafts Homes
- Bank Note Reporter
- Cabin Life
- Cuisine at Home
- Fine Gardening
- Fine Woodworking
- Green Building Advisor
- Garden Gate
- Horticulture
- Keep Craft Alive
- Log Home Living
- Military Trader/Vehicles
- Numismatic News
- Numismaster
- Old Cars Weekly
- Old House Journal
- Period Homes
- Popular Woodworking
- Script
- ShopNotes
- Sports Collectors Digest
- Threads
- Timber Home Living
- Traditional Building
- Woodsmith
- World Coin News
- Writer's Digest
Replies
Hire a crew who has expierence with new construction cleaning.
They can do a better job than you as they are used to doing it and since your post is now 6 hrs old they would have been done by now.
Yeah, hire a crew and send the bill to the contractor.
Dan's suggestion might be good, but only if the guy will pay. If not, you've either got another big fight on your hands, potentially involving the legal system, or you're stuck with a considerable bill.
So ask yourself about the likelihood of the contractor paying, and if not, start looking for a bulk supplier of rubber gloves, sponges, and rags.....
If there's a written contract that says things will be left clean then there's a pretty good case.
Only part of the whole story was posted, why did the contractor have to refinish the floor to begin with?
We know that the floor was "marred", but how did it get that way and who was to protect the floor during completion.
To the other extreme...
I once built a house for a couple. Nice people, and everything came out good, but right at the end they were very anxious to move in and the wife in particular being unemployed and living 2 blocks down the street had gotten a little too envovled in the building process. There was no closing since they owned the land - so there wasn't really an official legal handing over of the keys so to speak. So, the last item on my list was the exterior power wash which included the garage floor. It was all caked with drywall mud and some little bits of general construction debris. So, they started moving their stuff in. I told the lady (who I dealt with mostly) that we needed to take the stuff out of the garage and put it in the house for about 1/2 a day so the power wash guy could do his thing. I had already had to postpone the power wash as she was having a fence put in. She said "no" to the garage power wash - the garage could just be left dirty - it would be fine. I told her - "No - I am the builder and it is still MY house as we hadn't received final payment, and I am not finished so I will be over there in an hour to move the stuff out of the garage" and I also told her "Please don't get in the way"!!! :-) . As it turned out the husband helped me (it was a lot of stuff)., power wash guy was in and out and everything was good. Later that day she and I looked at each other with a mutual sheapish grin....
Can anyone recommend an efficient method or products to clean the dust off the various surfaces,
Bucket of water, some soap, a few rags a ladder, and some elbow grease.
What's so hard about that. ?
BTW, re: I just completed building a new home - what you meant to say was "I just had a new house built (by a bozo?)" , YOU obviously did not build it yourself.
Swiffers