Serving Williams Lake & Area in BC

Professional Renovations - 30 Years Experience

Cutting a Hole In The Ceiling? How To Keep Drywall Dust Contained!

Image Showing how to pinup plastic to contain drywall dustIf you have to cut a hole in a standard 8′ high ceiling for a skylight, pot lights or anything else, there is an easy way to keep all the drywall dust from covering everything in the room – or rooms if you have a slight draft in the room (and when you cut open in attic space you will get air movement). Instead of trying to cover everything in the room as I have seen many contractors and homeowners do, it is much easier to contain dust within the area you are working.

This can be done in less than five minutes and cleanup afterwards only takes a few minutes. All you need is a small roll of thin plastic 10′ wide and a few feet longer than the perimeter of the work area (see diagram below) , a package of regular sized push pins and a tarp (plastic or cloth) that is larger than the area you will be working in (see diagram below).

Please note: This system only works well on regular drywall. If you have an older home with plaster and lath or other hard material, this system will not work as it is too hard to insert the push pins into the ceiling. Older ceilings that have been painted a number of times can be difficult too – to find out, simply try inserting a push pin in a few spots – if they go in fairly easy, you are good to go, if the pins are very hard to push in and bend or tips get damaged, forget it.

How to layout plastic to contain drywall dust.

Just follow the steps below and you’ll be ready to start working within 5 minutes – works easiest with 2 people with one person pinning up the plastic and the other feeding plastic off the roll. However, if you are working alone, just measure the perimeter required, add about 3′ and cut the plastic to length before starting:

  1. Use light weight 2 mil clear plastic. The weight of heavy plastic like 6 mil vapour barrier can pull out the pins, especially if you happen to pull on the plastic a bit when you get in and out of the work area. 2 mil is lighter and more forgiving.
  2. Make sure you keep exterior doors and windows in the area closed to prevent unnecessary drafts that can spread dust throughout your home and make the plastic hard to put up (and stay up). This is really important when you cut the hole as you will likely get air trying to pull up into the attic space (or the reverse) and this will cause the plastic to pull into or away from the space you will be working in (as well as any dust inside the enclosure) – so keep windows and exterior doors closed. Let anyone in the house know so they can minimize how many times they open exterior doors while you are working (lock doors if you have to).
  3. Mark out the four corners of the hole you will be cutting out, or whatever the shape might be
  4. Spread out a tarp on the floor. The outside edges of the tarp should extend 2′  outside of the plastic enclosure you will be putting up.
  5. Unroll enough plastic so you can pin the edge of the plastic to the ceiling. This first pin should be where you plan to enter and exit this work area. Use 2 pins on this first point to prevent the plastic from pulling out when are putting up the plastic, and when you are entering and leaving the enclosure.
  6. Make sure you roll over the edge of the plastic 2 or 3 times so your pins go through 2 or 3 layers of plastic – this will prevent the plastic from tearing away from the pins.
  7. Continue to pin the plastic every 12 to 18″ or so, and about 24″ out from the hole you will be cutting (this gives you room to work and move a ladder around). If a pin will not go into the drywall easily, try a spot a few inches away, you could be hitting a screw head, or drywall joint – joints tend to be a little harder than the main drywall board.
  8. When you have pinned the plastic all the way around the perimeter of the hole to be cut, add another 24″ of over lap and cut this from the roll, this overlap prevents dust from getting out of area when you enter/exit this work area. Use 2 pins at this last point to prevent the plastic pulling out of the ceiling. If you like, with the excess plastic on the floor (about 18″ or so), you can put some heavy items on it to keep it from moving or blowing around – chairs, closed paint cans, chunks of wood, or anything you think will work that won’t get in your way.
  9. Cut your hole and remove any debris.
  10. After you cut your hole, drywall dust will accumulate on the inside surface of the plastic, lightly tap the plastic to get the dust to settle to the floor on the tarp. Now wait about 15 minutes to allow all dust to settle to the floor.
  11. Gently remove pins and slowly drop plastic to the floor within the tarped area – this will help keep any dust left on the plastic from releasing and getting into the air.
  12. Fold the tarp inward and wrap up the plastic within the tarp.
  13. Remove tarp and plastic from the room and dispose of outside the home in a garbage bag or whatever you like.
  14. That is it. If you are not painting the ceiling after, assuming you have a typical white ceiling, the tiny pin holes left over can be filled with white plaster if you like – just use a tiny amount of plaster on your finger tip and wipe excess off right away. If the ceiling is textured make sure you don’t rub off the texture when wiping excess off or you will notice this after. Quite often, if you are painting after, the paint will fill these holes – try a spot of paint on a hole to test first, if it remains filled after the paint dries, you do not need to fill these pin holes. Do not use caulking as most ceilings are a flat finish paint and caulking has a sheen that you will notice, it is also harder to wipe off all excess caulking.

The above system works every time and usually takes less than 5 minutes to setup. This is much faster than trying to cover everything in the room. Just make sure pins are inserted deep in to the ceiling drywall. Using 10′ wide plastic should allow the plastic to bunch up on the floor a bit which provides a better seal – do not use 8′ or 8′6″ wide plastic as dust will get out at the bottom. In addition use the small push pins shown on your left, do not use the large push pins as they will leave large holes that can easily be seen if not filled after.

If you do not want to buy a roll of plastic, 10′ high sheets by 12′ or 16′ wide can be used, just make sure you overlap joints by at least 24″ and try to keep this to a minimum of two joints – one for overlap on one joint and the other joint for your entrance/exit.

This system can be used anywhere in your home. If you have higher ceilings, you can do this in pieces and cut plastic to whatever length you need and then overlap joints, however, if your start getting over 10′  it might be a good idea to use a few pieces of tape on the joints to help keep them tight. Also, you may want to give yourself more room to work since taller step ladders usually require more room at the base.




   

April 24, 2010 | Filed Under Clean Up, Drywalling, General 

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