Remove Sheetrock dust from Concrete ?

[thedon67]

GarageMahal has been sheetrocked but now I am left with a fine layer of dust. I could sweep until the cows come home, but I don't think this will do it. I think I need some sort of wet process.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Don

 

[RSO 34]

Wet process won't do it so unless you want to hire some laborers who have the patience and equipment, you will need to use brooms and a shopvac and get ready to repeat often.

 

[beckertb]

Just pressure wash it. You don't need high psi, 2000 or so with 3gpm should do fine.

Good luck,

Ben

 

[OneRedNSX]

sweeping compound

 

[Pacemaker Kid89]

take a bucket of water and put your hand intot and just splash water here and there and sweep it. It helps alot. Plus a shopvac would work.

 

[thedon67]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to give the sweeping compound a try. Sounds like it will do the trick.

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to give the sweeping compound a try. Sounds like it will do the trick.

Sweeping compound will only work good on very smooth concrete ! My first choice would be a good shop vac with a good filter in it. Take out the filter and wet it then ring it out then vac. Repeat washing the filter if vacuum starts to deteriorate.

 

[OneRedNSX]

Sweeping compound will only work good on very smooth concrete ! My first choice would be a good shop vac with a good filter in it. Take out the filter and wet it then ring it out then vac. Repeat washing the filter if vacuum starts to deteriorate.

it will work on all of it, it just requires that you have a rougher bristle broom to get it out of rougher textured concrete...

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

it will work on all of it, it just requires that you have a rougher bristle broom to get it out of rougher textured concrete...

Yes I know but wouldnt it be easier to just go over it with a vacuum and get it with one pass then to have to throw down sweeping compound then sweep it all up again ? Then there is the cost of sweeping compound which you just throw out after because its one time use. The shop vac is more useful and faster IMO.

 

[OneRedNSX]

Yes I know but wouldnt it be easier to just go over it with a vacuum and get it with one pass then to have to throw down sweeping compound then sweep it all up again ? Then there is the cost of sweeping compound which you just throw out after because its one time use. The shop vac is more useful and faster IMO.

so you're going to go over the garage floor with the 6 inch wide shop vac attachment versus sweeping it with a 24inch broom and that way is going to be faster?

trust me, i used to work at lowes having to clean up that kind of junk all the time and the best two ways to do it are with sweeping compound or a sort of soapy mixture misted onto the floor and allowed to barely dry so that the dust becomes too heavy to 'float' in the air and can be swept up. the shop vac is just a big pain in the butt to do a garage floor; i'd just get the leaf blower out and forget about it before I did that...

 

[thedon67]

I am now a big fan of the sweeping compound! It worked like a charm. My concrete was relatively smooth and it was very easy to use.

Thanks for the tip. Now my silver NSX won't be transformed into a white one.

 

[D'Ecosse]

... i'd just get the leaf blower out and forget about it before I did that...

This is how I clean up my garage when routing MDF - that stuff creates the finest powder imaginable when routing!
I vacuum up as much as I can with the Shop-Vac with HEPA, then just open the garage door & blast what's left out with the leaf blower.
I usually leave the Shop-Vac running for a while after I close the garage door and just let it continue to filter the air.

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

so you're going to go over the garage floor with the 6 inch wide shop vac attachment versus sweeping it with a 24inch broom and that way is going to be faster?

trust me, i used to work at lowes having to clean up that kind of junk all the time and the best two ways to do it are with sweeping compound or a sort of soapy mixture misted onto the floor and allowed to barely dry so that the dust becomes too heavy to 'float' in the air and can be swept up. the shop vac is just a big pain in the butt to do a garage floor; i'd just get the leaf blower out and forget about it before I did that...

I been in the building trades for over 20 years and yes sweeping compound is king when the floors are smooth which seems to have been the case with TheDon so he was lucky that he was able to get the most out of the compound but in cases where the dust is recessed into a cavity where it does not come in contact with it your just making more work and throwing away money. To each there own because no matter which road you travel you will eventually arrive at the same destination.

 

[thedon67]

You should have seen the cloud of dust created when the garbage man emptied my trash container this morning!