Duct cleaning & other new house stuff

[changingseasons]

Getting ready to move into our new house in a couple weeks, and I'm trying to get together a list of stuff I need to do.

1. Obviously shampoo carpets. I'm going to order the Biokleen carpet shampoo so I'm not using a bunch of chemicals, since DD seems to be ok with our Biokleen laundry detergent.

2. Duct cleaning. I remember someone mentioning a while back to make sure and have _____ -duct cleaning done, and not ______-duct cleaning, because that kind doesn't get rid of all the allergens. Searched and searched and can't find the thread... anyone know what I'm talking about?

3. What else to get the house ready for an atopic babe?

We're going to be doing some popcorn ceiling removal, but DP will go in by himself and do that before the carpets/duct cleaning. I'm also going to be doing a LOT of wallpaper & wood panel removal. Is there anything I should know about wallpaper adhesives or anything? DD will be in the house when that happens (although probably not in the same room.)

Thanks guys! Sorry I'm coming out of lurkdom only to ask for advice.

[mamafish9]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

We're going to be doing some popcorn ceiling removal, but DP will go in by himself and do that before the carpets/duct cleaning. I'm also going to be doing a LOT of wallpaper & wood panel removal. Is there anything I should know about wallpaper adhesives or anything? DD will be in the house when that happens (although probably not in the same room.)

This caught my attention, especially the popcorn ceiling removal (which we did right before we moved into our house). How old is your house? Asbestos is a big issue (you can remove it yourself, we did, but it requires bigtime precautions). Asbestos was not added to popcorn ceiling stuff after 1972, I think, BUT they were allowed to use existing supplies, so it has been found often in homes built later than that. When in doubt, you can either test it, or assume it has asbestos and proceed with the appropriate caution. I have lots more info if you think it could be an issue.

Also, i can't recommend a whole house filter enough. I bought a really good one off ebay for about $300 - in a house with forced air, it can completely filter about 1500sq ft in about 15 minutes on the high setting. Whenever we do home renovations that involve dust, old adhesives, anything like that (but NOT asbestos), we turn on that filter and it totally sucks the air clean in no time. I'm very sensitive to chemical stuff, and it saves me whenever we do something simple like recaulk the bathtubs or whatever!

[changingseasons]

Ooh- air filter. Good call. So tell me more about the one you have. You don't keep it on all the time? Just turn it on occasionally??

The house was built in 1965, so asbestos is definitely a concern. We are not going to test, we're just going to assume there is asbestos and buy all the safety gear for DP. And that's why I'm having him do it alone, before we do the carpets and ducts and stuff. Definitely throw me as much info as you want about the popcorn!!

[mamafish9]

You're almost guaranteed to have asbestos in your popcorn ceilings (ours was built in 1964). Here's some stuff that might be helpful:

1) a great guide with instructions on how to do the work safely

2) plastic - you need 6mil plastic, we got that at lowes. It is STINKY. DH wore a hard core filter for the removal part, but he had to hang the whole house (floors and walls) in the plastic first, and he said the smell from the plastic was awful. In hindsight, he would have worn his filter for that part too!

3) mask - it's worth paying for a really good one so that you sleep well at night. We got this one. That site also sells other safety gear cheap, like the tyvec suits and gloves.

4) The right scraper. DH mostly used this one. Much easier than a putty knife, and damages your ceiling much less.

5) The key to getting the popcorn off is enough water. He used a sprayer. Our popcorn was painted (yours likely is too), so it was harder to get wet, but after that came off fairly easily. DH got 1100sq feet of the stuff down in a day (one day to prep the house with plastic, one very long day to scrape and clean up, a third day to obsessively wash down the walls and stuff in case there was anything left!).

6) It can be really cost effective to remove your own - we spent about $400 on really good equipment, and got three quotes for over $4000 to do the work. However, what is NOT cost effective, unless you have great drywall mudding skills, is to fix your own ceilings up after. We paid a small drywall contractor to come in and repair and skim coat the ceilings (he fixed loose tape, a couple of sags, and did the skim coat - a nice light texture that looks modern, clean, and very professional). Our ceilings were in really good shape, and he charged by the hour - $375 (he was FAST). We got a couple other quotes from bigger shops in the $7-800 range (probably what it would have cost with ceilings in average condition). Almost any contactor will do you a demo board so you can see what your ceilings would look like. I'm so happy we paid for a pro on that part. Then I painted the ceilings - they look awesome!

[changingseasons]

Thanks for all the information!! Sounds like a total (expensive) pita.... but it's got to be done.

[mamafish9]

Originally Posted by changingseasons

Thanks for all the information!! Sounds like a total (expensive) pita.... but it's got to be done.

Tell me about it ... You will be really glad you did it, though! We did that and bamboo floors before we moved in - and now we are totally broke, but our floors and ceilings are great .

[changingseasons]

That must have been nice to move into with everything fresh and new. We're not going to do the floors yet... but hopefully in the near future.

What would be really awesome is if the inspector tells me that the ceilings aren't actually popcorn- they're just really textured. :

So no one knows about the duct cleaning? hmmm... I might have to call around tomorrow and see what I can find out.

[changingseasons]

Thanks mamafish for posting all that great stuff. I'm finally getting around to reading that asbestos removal guide, and WOW- it really sounds like a pita. I read some of it to DP (since he'd be doing it by himself), and he seemed a little overwhelmed. Especially with our now hurried timeline of getting into the house (since our apartment is in total chaos after the flooding yesterday.) So... I'm thinking we might just have to suck it up and pay for professional removal. I guess we should test it for asbestos first then, right? Because if it's not actually asbestos (ha ha- fat chance), then it would be a much quicker project since we can skip much of the safety precautions.