Before paining new drywall...

[The Money Pit]

Should I clean off as much dust from the sheetrock? If the dust isn't a big deal, I'll start to paint immediately. But if it's better to clean the rock before I paint I will. It's very time consuming and I need to get it done. My building permit expires on 12-31-06. I've only got 3 more inspections left.

 

[Bill K]

Yes it is best to remove as much dust for a qualityand long lasting paint job. Old white t shirts slightly damp work well, wrap one around the head of a pole sander to wipe down the walls helps speed thing up a bit.
Make sure to prime first!
Bill

 

[sharpshooter]

You can take a broom to it.

 

[The Money Pit]

I'm vacuuming it. I'm about 1/2 done with the downstairs. It's taken me about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I hate doing it. BUT it's got to be done. It's just time consuming and I'm the only one working on it. I've still got the rest of the downstairs then the upstairs & bathroom. Maybe 3 more hours total. Then I've got to clean the up and downstairs floors. THEN I can prime and paint. Ugh.

 

[MyDomain]

I used this combo to pull off all the dust...

http://www.shopvac.com/detail.asp?id=202
http://www.shopvac.com/detail.asp?id=203
http://www.shopvac.com/detail.asp?id=328

 

[MyDomain]

Beat me to it!

 

[PAToyota]

Ever since I first used one of these Porter Cable drywall sanders, I'd never do drywall any other way:

You aren't left with dust coating everything (including yourself) and everything is nice and smooth.

 

[Down Under Bloke]

PAToyota is on the money. I have sanded a few walls and ceilings in my time (it *****) the dry wall sander is great. I can't hire one locally so for the bigger jobs I just get a contractor do the lot.

The result achieved with the sander is excellent and no mess

 

[MyDomain]

Ever since I first used one of these Porter Cable drywall sanders, I'd never do drywall any other way:

You aren't left with dust coating everything (including yourself) and everything is nice and smooth.

Do you rent it or own it? Just askin'

 

[The Money Pit]

If only my finisher had used one. The dust on the walls isn't that bad. It's the sheer square footage that has to be vacuumed that's a PITA. I finished the downstairs ceiling and walls. I've got the upstairs left and then I can start cleaning the floors, prime and paint, trim out, hang doors, finish the bathroom, lay the padding & carpet, put up railing, hook up the water & sewer and have the HVAC finished up then I can call for my final inspection. That's all.

 

[PAToyota]

I've been renting one - although for the number of times I've rented it I would likely have been better off just purchasing it. And then renting it out to others!

 

[rworkman98]

I've never heard of a drywall sander before, but it sounds like a great idea. Is it pretty easy to use correctly?

 

[BowtieNut]

I just opened the garage doors and used my leafblower to get rid of the dust. I'm sure it didn't get every last speck of dust, but I think it got at least 95% of it. Very messy, but it only took about 20 minutes to do the whole 28x48 garage. Kinda looked like smoke pouring outa the garage while I was doing it, but when I painted I didn't notice much of any dust left.

 

[PAToyota]

The drywall sander has a rotating head and connects up to a vacuum - they come together from the rental place. Pretty simple to use and sure beats sanding by hand - although the unit does get pretty heavy after a few hours. I did the downstairs shop (over 1000 s.f. of drywall) in one weekend and then the upstairs shop (less floor s.f., but actually more wall s.f. due to partition walls) the next.

 

[Toxicscrew]

Painted many houses and commercial buildings and never cleaned the walls beforehand. The dust is usually so fine when you put that first coat on it is gone. Buy good paint and use two coats, primers not really necessary.

This being said I can see the possible benefit of wiping/vacuuming the walls down. The vacuum head was not really created to clean the wallsm but to keep the sanding guys lungs clean.

 

[logical]

I did the leaf blower deal too...in fact that's all I did inside the house too when I built it. The primer will absorb any fine dust.

 

[The Money Pit]

I'm a stickler for some things. I ended up vacuuming the walls off with my shop vac and vacuuming the floors up too. I scraped as much mud off the floor as I could. I'll mop up the rest once I've got everything else done. I'll prime this weekend and get most of the painting done. Hopefully. Slowly but surely. I need to get the progress pictures up and post them.

 

[snorvet]

I've done leaf blower and wipe down with rags. But whatever dust was left was easily soaked up by the primer.