Working in occupied premises

Controlling dust while a building stays occupied

Sanding filler, keying old gloss and preparing render all generate dust that travels far further than most people expect, settling on desks, stock and soft furnishings two rooms away if it isn't caught at source. Suppression has to happen at the sander, not just at the mop afterwards.

Random orbital sander fitted with vacuum extraction hose being used on skirting board preparation

Catching dust at the point it's made

Random orbital sanders fitted with vacuum extraction remove the great majority of dust before it becomes airborne, which is a very different result from sanding freehand and sweeping up afterwards. We treat extraction-fitted tools as the default for any significant preparation work indoors.

Vacuum-extraction sanders used as standard for internal preparation
Dust bags emptied outside the building, not in a corridor bin
Hand-sanding of small areas done with a damp cloth pass rather than dry

Sealing the boundary of the work area

Even good extraction leaves some fine dust in the air, so we seal doorways and gaps around the work zone with taped polythene sheeting rather than relying on a closed door alone, which rarely seals as well as it looks like it should.

Protecting what's already in the room

Furniture, equipment and floor coverings that can't be removed get fully sheeted before sanding starts, with taped edges rather than sheets simply draped over the top. A gap at floor level is often where dust actually gets in, not through the sheet itself.

Floor-level gaps taped, not just the tops of furniture covers
Electronic equipment covered and, where possible, switched off during sanding
Soft furnishings removed from the room entirely where practical

Clean-down as part of the job, not an extra

We damp-wipe surfaces and vacuum floors within the work area at the end of every working session, before dust has a chance to be disturbed by foot traffic and spread further. This is built into the programme as time, not treated as something squeezed in if the day runs short.

How we work on this

We use vacuum-extraction sanding tools as the default for internal preparation work.
We seal work-area boundaries with taped polythene sheeting rather than relying on closed doors.
We damp-wipe and vacuum the work area at the end of every session as a scheduled task.

Questions we are asked about this

Will dust from sanding trigger a building's fire alarm system?

It can, particularly with optical smoke detectors near heavy sanding work. We ask the site to isolate affected detectors for the duration and reinstate them at the end of each session.

How much dust actually escapes with good extraction fitted?

A well-maintained extraction sander captures the large majority of dust at source, but no system is perfect, which is why we combine it with sealed boundaries and daily clean-down rather than relying on extraction alone.

Can you work near IT equipment or servers?

Yes, with the equipment covered and, ideally, powered down or relocated for the duration of any dust-generating work — fine dust is a real risk to fans and vents on running hardware.