We clean ceilings first and floors last

We work from the ceiling down

When the last trade packs up, a new house or a fresh remodel looks finished, but it is coated in fine dust. Sanding drywall puts that dust in the air for weeks. It settles on the tops of door frames, inside cabinet boxes, along window tracks and on every fan blade. We start at the highest point in each room and work down. Anything we knock loose falls onto a spot we have not cleaned yet, instead of onto a floor we just finished.

Dust comes off dry before anything gets wiped wet. Drywall dust is powdered joint compound, and a damp rag turns it into a thin white paste. That paste dries as a haze on cabinet doors and dark countertops. So we vacuum with a soft brush first, from light fixtures down to baseboards, then go over each surface with a damp cloth. Skip that order and the house looks clean for an hour, then streaks show up in the afternoon sun.

Floors come last, and they get more than one pass. The first vacuum pulls up the grit that would scratch new hardwood or vinyl plank under a mop. Then comes a damp mop, with the water changed often, because mop water gone gray with dust only spreads a film across the floor. Glass and mirrors get wiped until the dust and fingerprints are gone. We also peel the stickers and labels off new windows and appliances, which is the step people notice when they walk in.

• Dust vacuumed off ceiling fans and door tops
• Cabinets and drawers wiped inside and out
• Window tracks and sills cleared of grit
• Stickers and labels peeled off new fixtures
• Floors vacuumed first, then damp mopped

Air vents keep pushing out builder dust

Builders often run the heating and cooling system while the drywall is being sanded, so the ducts pull that dust in. After the house is cleaned, the system cycles on and blows some of it back out. A day later there is a gray film on the counters and a ring of dust around each ceiling vent. It looks like the cleaning missed a spot. The dust actually came out of the ducts after the cleaning was done.

Middle Tennessee summers make this worse. The air conditioning runs hard from late spring into fall to pull humidity out of the house. Every cycle moves more air through dusty ducts. We wipe down the vent covers and the large return grilles where the air gets pulled back in. It also helps to ask your builder for a fresh air filter before the cleaning day. A filter packed with drywall dust stops catching anything, and the system blows it back into clean rooms.

Timing matters here too. If painters are still touching up trim, or the flooring crew has one room left, the dust is not done yet. Book the cleaning after the last trade is out and before the furniture comes in. Cleaning around a sofa and a bed takes longer, and dust settles into fabric where a damp cloth cannot get it out. An empty house with the trades gone is the one that stays clean.

Red clay tracks in on every boot

New homes around College Grove and Nolensville go up on bare clay lots. Until the sod is down, every boot that crosses the yard brings clay in with it. Dry clay turns into a fine reddish dust on the garage floor and the entry tile. Wet clay gets pressed into new grout lines, where it stains if it sits. In a rainy winter week, the mud comes in faster than anyone can sweep it out.

Clay gets the same dry first treatment as drywall dust. We vacuum it up before any water touches it, because a wet mop turns clay dust into an orange smear. Grout gets a soft brush and clean water, a little at a time, so the stain lifts out instead of soaking deeper. Unsealed concrete in a garage can hold some color no matter what. When a stain is set, we tell you, rather than scrub the surface raw.

The houses out here vary, and each kind leaves its own mess. Custom homes on acreage around College Grove often have tall foyers and long runs of windows, which means high ledges and a lot of glass. Brick and fiber cement siding get cut with saws on site, and that fine gray dust drifts in through open doors. In spring, tree pollen adds a yellow coat to every sill if the windows stay open.

Remodel dust spreads beyond the work area

A remodel is harder to clean than a new build, because the family is still living in the house. Contractors hang plastic around the kitchen or bathroom, and the dust still finds its way out. It slips under doors and gets pulled into the air returns, then lands in bedrooms at the other end of the hall. Older homes in downtown Franklin can have plaster walls, and cutting into plaster throws off a grittier dust than drywall does.

So a remodel cleaning covers more than the room that changed. We clean the work area from the top down first. Then we follow the path the crew walked every day, from the door they used to the room they worked in. After that come the rooms closest to the work, since they catch the most drift. Most people who clean up on their own stop at the kitchen or bath, and that is why the dust seems to come back.

New finishes need a gentle hand. Fresh paint can take a few weeks to fully harden, so painted walls and trim get a soft damp cloth and no scrubbing. New cabinet doors get dusted inside the hinges and along the top edge, where dust sits out of sight. A light haze on new tile comes up with clean water and a dry towel. A heavy grout film is a job for the tile setter, and we will point it out when we see it.