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Why does nobody warn you about the dust in old Albuquerque houses
I was pulling up carpet in my 1952 place near Nob Hill last month and a neighbor named Ray walked over with a shop vac he insisted I borrow. He said one thing that stuck with me: "Wet the floor before you scrape, or you'll be breathing this stuff for years." I laughed it off until my $30 respirator filter turned gray in about 20 minutes of dry scraping. Turns out half the walls in these old builds have a layer of fine grit under the carpet pad that kicks up the second you touch it. Ray also told me to keep a spray bottle of water handy and mist as I go, which cut the dust down to almost nothing. Has anyone else dealt with this on their own reno, and did you find a better way to keep it under control?
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finleyprice12d ago
Did your neighbor happen to mention what's actually in that grit? A buddy of mine bought a 1954 place over by Ridgecrest and did the same carpet pull. He figured it was just old dirt until he sent a sample off to a lab, and it came back with a mess of stuff you don't want in your lungs. What got him was the walls, not the floor. Every time he bumped one while hauling carpet out, a puff of fine gray powder came off the sheetrock. He ended up taping plastic over the doorways and running a box fan out a window with a filter strapped to it. The misting trick works, but watch how much water you use on old wood floors or you'll trade a dust problem for a warped board problem.
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