When my drywall sanding kicked up dust into the HVAC vents

I was finishing a bedroom reno in my 1950s Albuquerque house near Old Town. I sanded the drywall joint compound for about 2 hours without covering the floor register. Dust got sucked into the return vent and blew out through every other room. My wife walked in and said 'what is that gray fog everywhere?' I spent the next 4 hours cleaning filters and vacuuming vents. Has anyone else messed up by forgetting to seal off ductwork during drywall work?

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cameron7707d ago

That "gray fog" line got me. I read somewhere that return vents are basically giant vacuums, so any dust near them gets pulled straight into the system. A buddy of mine in Phoenix had a similar mess with his garage reno, said it coated his whole house in a fine layer of drywall dust, even made his AC unit sound like it was choking. I heard the best trick is to just tape a cheap furnace filter right over the register, catches the big stuff before it even hits the ducts. Makes cleaning way easier than fighting it out of every vent.