Three days of drywall mudding non stop and I finally get why people hate it

I spent 48 hours straight last weekend patching holes from a pipe leak in my basement in Akron and the sanding dust got into everything including my coffee mug. Has anyone found a trick to keep the dust from spreading through the whole house or is that just part of the deal?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace4191mo ago

Does it feel like every home project these days just trades one problem for another? I sealed off the room with plastic sheeting and painter's tape, still found dust in the microwave.

finleyk871mo ago

Yeah I used to think I was just bad at prep work, but you're making me wonder. I did the same thing with drop cloths and plastic over the doors, found a film of drywall dust on my coffee mugs in the cabinet next door. This problem just follows you around no matter how careful you try to be.

paulperry9d ago

Has anyone else had better luck using that blue painter's tape with the special release technology for the plastic sheeting, or is it just me? I tried the same thing as you, @grace419, and what finally worked was taping the plastic directly to the floor with heavy duty tape and then running a box fan in the window to create negative pressure. The real trick is you have to seal every single gap, not just the door edges, because that dust finds its way through the tiniest crack you didn't even see.