We clean from the ceiling down

We clean the dust contractors leave behind

A remodel ends when the contractors pack up, but the house is not ready to live in yet. Sanding drywall makes a fine white dust that hangs in the air for hours. It lands on every flat surface, including the tops of door frames and the shelves inside new cabinets. Paint leaves specks on tile and glass, and new fixtures arrive covered in stickers and plastic film. Post construction cleaning is the job of getting all of that out of the house.

The order of the work matters more than how hard anyone scrubs. We start at the ceiling and work down, and the dust gets vacuumed off before anything is wiped. Fan blades and vent covers come first. Walls and baseboards come next, and the floor is always last, because everything above it drops onto it. Wiping first is the usual mistake. Drywall dust mixed with water turns into a thin paste. It smears across a counter and dries as a white haze.

When the job is done right, a hand run along a windowsill comes away clean. Dark tile and glass show no haze when the sun hits them. Cabinet drawers are free of sawdust, and the sliding door runs quietly in its track. Terry, who owns Serenity Cleaning, works to that standard. Ron Kroll, a customer for some years, wrote: "He finds dirt I didn't even know I had."

• Dust vacuumed off every ledge before wiping
• Vent covers and ceiling fan blades cleaned
• Cabinets and drawers wiped out inside
• Paint specks and stickers taken off glass
• Floors cleaned last, after everything above them

Landlords fix up rentals between tenants

Rental owners often use the time between tenants to fix a unit up. Maybe new vinyl plank floors go down, or the kitchen gets a new counter and sink. Either way the job leaves dust in every room, and a contractor's cleanup usually means a broom and a trash bag. The unit still has to be ready before the next tenant gets the keys. That last step is our job.

A new tenant who opens a kitchen drawer and finds sawdust starts the lease unhappy. Listing photos pick up the white film on a dark floor, and the unit looks unfinished online. There is a money side too. The condition of the unit on move-in day is the standard you hold the tenant to when they leave. If they moved into a dusty unit, it is hard to ask for a clean one back.

When you call, tell us what was replaced. New flooring leaves sawdust along the baseboards and in every door track. A kitchen job leaves dust inside every cabinet box and drawer, and often on top of the fridge. Knowing the scope lets us plan the order, so nothing gets cleaned twice. John Toston had Terry clean one of his rental properties in Oldsmar, and wrote that "Terry, the owner, did an outstanding job."

Florida humidity makes construction dust stick

Humidity changes how this job goes. Fine dust from drywall and grout picks up moisture from the air, so it clings to glass and cabinet fronts instead of sitting loose. On a muggy day a feather duster barely moves it. That is why the vacuum does most of the work here, with a soft brush attachment on anything that scratches. The damp wipe comes after, and the cloth gets rinsed often, so it is not carrying dust from one room to the next.

The air conditioning runs most of the year around Pinellas Park, and on a remodel that works against you. During the work, the return vent pulls dust into the ducts and the filter. After the cleaning, the system blows it back out onto surfaces that were just wiped. We clean the vent covers and the return grille, and we tell you if the filter looks packed with dust. A fresh filter before the final wipe keeps the house clean longer.

Fresh paint is the other thing humidity affects. In a damp house, new latex paint stays soft longer than the label suggests. A hard scrub can leave a shiny patch or lift the color. We dust newly painted walls and spot clean marks gently instead of washing them down. Most scuffs from ladders come off with a damp sponge and light pressure. Tell us the day the walls were painted, and we will work around it.

Older Pinellas Park homes need more care

Much of the housing around Pinellas Park and Largo is single-story concrete block with stucco on the outside. Cutting into a block wall for a new window or door makes a gray, gritty dust that is heavier than drywall dust. It sinks into carpet and settles in the tracks of sliding glass doors. Tracks get vacuumed out before they are wiped. Otherwise the grit grinds against the rollers every time the door opens.

A lot of these houses have terrazzo floors hiding under old carpet or tile. When a remodel uncovers one, it is usually spotted with carpet glue and paint drips. We clean terrazzo gently, because acid cleaners and rough scrub pads can permanently dull the marble chips in it. If the floor needs grinding or polishing to look right again, that is work for a floor refinishing company. We will tell you that before we start.

Pinellas Park also has many manufactured homes and older apartment buildings. The rooms are smaller and the ceilings lower, so dust from a bathroom or kitchen redo spreads through the whole unit quickly. If the doors were left open during the work, the bedrooms and closets need the same attention as the room that was remodeled. We check closet shelves and the tops of the blinds, because nobody thinks to cover them.

Good timing saves a second cleaning visit

A common problem on these jobs is cleaning too early. If an electrician still has a fan to hang, or the painter has touch-ups left, new dust lands on rooms that were just finished. The best time to book is after the last contractor has been through, and before furniture or a tenant moves in. If the schedule slips, a quick call to move the date is better than cleaning twice.

On a bigger remodel, it can make sense to split the work into two visits. The first one clears the heavy dust off floors and counters, so the painters work in a cleaner room. The second is the detailed cleaning at the end, once nothing else will be sanded or painted. The job goes best once the contractors have carried out their scraps and leftover material, so the floor is clear to work on.

Protective film on new appliances and window frames should stay on until the final visit. Peel it too early and dust settles on the surface underneath, where the leftover glue holds it. We take the film off at the end and clean off the sticky residue it leaves. Stainless steel and glass get a final wipe so streaks do not show. That is the last thing done before the house is handed back to you.