Are original walls plaster or Sheetrock? Plaster is more irritating, and a little trickier. I prefer to sweep as much as possible before using a vacuum, and I use sweeping compound, which helps keep the dust in one place.

Your other strategies sound good, though I'm not sure I'd want to use a fan. With plaster in particular, I'd rather limit movement and sweep as much as possible. Vacuums tend to blow it around. Plaster can be kind of oily, not to mention hairy. You don't want that all over the place!

Oh, if you can find those foam strips used to install window AC units, they're handy for stuffing under the door. Good luck!

Dust cannot be avoided. No matter the precautions, it will be everywhere and it will continue to be everywhere for months later as well. If one is lucky enough to be remodeling during spring or fall, the vents can be taped over and the HVAC system turned off. But in winter or the heat of summer, this is really not possible. You can, however, tape over the vents if your workmen are willing to work without AC. I have chronic pulmonary problems and I just stayed as far away as possible from the worst of it.

Maybe if you don't mind the aggravation and do have somewhere to put boxes, pack up what you don't really need. Pack up the extra linens and just keep a minimum number of towels and sheets, pack up the winter clothes and the extras that you don't need, pack up the extra toys, books, teddy bears whatever you don't foresee needing for the length of time. Pack up all pictures, and extra clutter. take down curtains, lamp shades, etc

That will save you on two fronts - it will make it easier to vacuum, dust and clean when the construction is down and it will save all those things from getting dusty and harbouring it afterwards.

When we did our renos we packed up everything and put it into storage and moved out.

I wish i had known how bad it was going to be - I was really unprepared. Follow blfenton advice above. I wish I had covered upholstery, decorative pillows, picture frames, lamp shades, book shelves, curtains. Even upstairs in rooms with doors closed. Pull up all area rugs in the house. Anything and everything that can be wrapped up should be.

scottie mom: Thank goodness, I'm dealing with Sheetrock and not plaster! Oily and hairy? YIKES! What is the "sweeping compound" you mention? Does it help to keep the dust down and stick together? thought maybe sweeping would make things fly around more than vacuuming. I'll try out both and see which works better. I'm sure I'll end up doing a combination of both. I do have an assortment of insulating foam strips! Adding that idea to my list! Thanks!

Anglophilia: Luckily for me, my home uses baseboard radiators so I don't have to worry about air ducts spreading the dust around. We don't have central AC in our home either but it will be in the middle of summer. It doesn't normally get super hot where I live (in Canada).

blfenton: Sounds like I just shouldn't take the risk. I should just cover and pack up everything I can. I am storing some furniture and items I won't need during the reno at my relatives' places. I'll just have to beg them to let me bring over more now!!

brdrl: Woops, I posted just as you did! Thanks for replying too. It's been super helpful to read about others' experiences. I've never seen a home under renovation so there is no other way for me to prepare for this than to read what I can on GW! It will be a monumental task to get everything covered, rolled and packed up but I can imagine how much more painful it would be to try to clean dust off all those same items.

Cover and tape all AC ducts in the work area so dust doesn't get into the ductwork.

Cover over all furniture downstairs including lamps, pictures, etc. Or take them down for now and cover.

Thanks cpartist. No duct work in my home! I'm hoping that will make a big difference in the amount of dust travelling upstairs.

If you do need AC, is it worth it to get a window unit or two, one for the work area and another for yourself? Just clean them every day? They are under $200.

I don't think the upstairs will be too bad. We did a gut reno of our kitchen last year and they weren't very good about dust control at all, and we were not as prepared as you are going to be. LR and DR got completely filled with dust - mostly the floors. Everything was plaster in our house We didn't bother to cover furniture and honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. Lots of sweeping/vacuuming/mopping of the floors - they took the brunt of it. Eventually wiped down or vacuumed furniture too. The back of the house where our BR is - just up a couple stairs - really didn't get very dusty at all except for what we tracked in walking. We do have an ill-fitting door between front and back of the house, but I don't think they were good about keeping it closed as you have to pass through it to get to the bathroom. It really wasn't bad to live in though as we mostly hung out in the back of the house and cooked in the backyard. I did check my lead levels afterwards since I was nervous after sweeping up so much 1920's dust, but it was undetectable.

"Really, you might want to move out."

Great minds think alike.

Joseph: That WOULD make the most sense but renting a place or hotel is not an option we can afford; and, the only people who'd be willing and have space to accommodate us for that length of time is the in laws but I don't know if I could survive being in close quarters with them for weeks on end!!

lharpie: thanks for the encouragement. We plan to hang out upstairs and in the backyard most of the time. I get the sense that my reno should also be tolerable if I take all the steps I can to minimize the dust. I'm glad to hear that despite exposure to all that 1920s dust you didn't have any signs of elevated lead levels in your blood. Your house must be gorgeous. One day I hope to live in a heritage home of that age. My house was built in the 90s so I think we should be clear of lead and asbestos dust.

bpathome: It doesn't usually get too hot where I live so I'm hoping we can do without AC. We only get about 3-5 days/year when it's unbearably hot.

Sophie thanks for all the tips. I think I will end up making all that part of my "new normal" during the reno because we can't afford to move out both money-wise and sanity-wise (see my note re in-laws above)! I will definitely consider hiring a cleaning crew if the post-reno mess feels overwhelming to clean up ourselves.

Honestly, your upstairs might be ok if you don't have duct work. I would keep the upstairs room doors closed all the time, and you might want to cover with plastic and tape when they are doing dusty work. In the open areas, I would cover everything with plastic, especially things that are upholstered and can't be dusted.

We bought several 6 packs of 9x12 thin plastic sheets to keep things covered. I threw them away frequently after dusty periods.

The worst part for me was that we tracked the dust on our feet, even though we tried to be careful. The only reason our upstairs got dusty was mostly because of this.

We are done with the dusty work and just finalizing things right now. I've been cleaning frequently, but I am still finding dust in various places as I am putting things away. But it isn't terrible. Especially if you do the things you are planning on in your initial post.

You're in good shape and you're getting good advice here. Just minimize your trips through the dust zone, and keep things covered. Anything that you can send out to be cleaned or stored now, do it!

Sweeping compound is kind of old fashioned, but I think it's a better way to limit dust. It's flakes you sprinkle onto a dusty surface before sweeping The flakes grab onto the fine dust so you can get it away. Older hardware stores will sell it by the pound, and a little goes a long way. The worst thing you can do is damp mop or use a damp rag, which just creates a fine paste that will be impossible to remove. IMO, vacuums are not a great idea, but that's because I'm mostly used to plaster, which is a finer dust. And yep, it's hairy! I should post a picture of my last renovation--masonry coal chimney! Your house is pretty new. I think you'll be fine!

A good contractor will keep a tidy workplace, and that helps a lot.

best of luck to you.

p.s. Lisa (above) makes an excellent point. Most of the dust will come in on your own feet. Don't go into the construction zone!

MrsK, I lived through two renos. Both in old houses. You manage to survive it and make it work. It will be dusty, but not overwhelming if it's well taped up.

In both cases we had a separate entry we could use into the reno area so we taped everything up to keep it from the rest of the house. The workmen were only allowed in and out the back door into the work area and if we wanted to see it, we too went in and out the back door. We used old pairs of sneakers to see what was going on and changed our shoes outdoors before coming back into the main part of the house

Lisa, scottie mom and cpartist: Your replies are helping to take the edge off my dust paranoia! ;) Thank you! After the demo of the floor tile and install of the new hardwood in the front entrance, all the rest of the work will be confined to the lower back part of the house. The work crew can even access the construction zone through the back door so we can restrict access to the front door just for us to go in and out of the house.

Phew, with all your awesome tips, I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to tolerate the amount of dust in the upstairs living area during this reno.

Lisa, you've given me some EXCELLENT new ideas to add to my list of strategies. Something as simple as minimizing the foot traffic through the dust zone - makes so much sense!! I also didn't think to change out and put up fresh sheets of plastic periodically. I'm accumulating lots of eco-guilt from this reno so that may not happen as often as it should... but if the dust gets to me too much I may just give in. Thanks so much for the reassurance that the dust won't be crazy intolerable.

scottie mom: yes, please do post photos of the chimney reno! If you have any photos of "hairy" plaster dust, do share too! I'm so curious... ;) I Googled "sweeping compound" and read up on it - what a clever idea! So glad you told me about the problems with damp mopping - I was thinking I'd go over things with a damp cloth every night. SO NOT a good idea, clearly!

cpartist: I think the painter's tape is going to become my new best friend!! ;)

I'm living in this stage now, but the dust has not been nearly as described here! Tomorrow they plaster; is that when it will get bad?

Be careful where you use sweeping compounds, They contain other substances like oil or wax. Flooring manufacturers spec not to use them for glue downs. Probably the same for tiling. The residues interfere with adhesion.

@pippiep, yes. The plaster dust from sanding is the worst part. The dust from the cutting MDF filler pieces inside the house was second.

@Ms K, I understand the eco guilt. Actually, the thin plastic sheets are the LEAST of it. Those don't take up any space, so I didn't worry about them too much. Trying to get rid of all the packaging alone from the things we had to buy for the kitchen is a big undertaking. I have a car full of cardboard to take to the recycling center right now.

I've got photos of the chimney mess too, but they're not attaching. Will try later! We were putting a new floor underlayment over existing floor, so no worries about adhesion.

The dedicated pair of shoes that someone mentioned above is another great idea. I think a dedicated broom is a good idea, and those small hand brooms with dustpan too. But you won't want to use those brooms in the "clean" part of the house. So label them with a sharpie. And my other pictures should show the plastic "curtain" I made to contain dust. I did replace it once. In the grand scheme of things, it's not too much plastic. Just get the lightest weight it's easier to hang, and less waste!

also: if you and/or family are sensitive to it, common sense things like taking a shower at night before bed can really help. I've done demolition before, and you really want to get as much of the irritants off of you before climbing into clean sheets :)

OK here is the really ugly picture. Brace yourself (but remember yours won't be anywhere near as ugly as this...and we survived!)

That chimney used to vent a coal stove, so it's pretty nasty. And I had my (fantastic) carpenter remove the plaster on the wall next to the window, because it was sagging in a way that made me suspect water damage. Surprise: dry as a bone! But I was happy to replace it with sheetrock.

Oh, the door is taped and covered on the other side, and there's one of those AC foam strips stuffed into the sweep.

Did I mention the carpenter is fantastic?

Just a few weeks later. Because we were replacing the floor, it was perhaps a little easier to plan. Well, I'd planned to trash the floor because it was time, and a few tons of masonry were going to land on it. I didn't even move everything out of the kitchen for this. I just took out some essentials and covered and taped the cabinets.

Construction dust is a faint memory now. Get yourself some extra rolls of painters tape and cut up some old towels to wipe things down. You'll be fine!

We have a bunch of large indoor/outdoor mats that we usually keep at each entryway. We moved them to each doorway outside the kitchen instead (one inside the dining room, one inside the family room, one in the mudroom/laundry area, and one at the bottom of the basement stairs since our temp kitchen is down there.

snookums: thanks for the heads up. We are installing hardwood floors that will likely be nailed down but may require some gluing because they're wide planks. I'll ask my GC before I use it.

Lisa: oh my goodness, it kills me when I think about all the perfectly good materials I'll be tossing out for this reno. This is very out of character for me - I usually recycle and salvage everything I can before sending things to the landfill. From an environmental standpoint, there is no way to justify this renovation. :(

scottie mom: whoa, it IS actually hairy!! Is that animal hair or some kind of synthetic material? Why is the hair mixed in the plaster? OK, if you survived that demo, then surely I can handle mine! Thanks so much for sharing. The demo you took on was well worth it. That part of your kitchen looks fantastic! What did you use for the flooring?

pippiep: thanks for yet another great idea! I've got some old door mats in my garage that would be perfect as "dust zone" mats!

The demo has started and I'm so relieved to report that we've been able to keep pretty much all of the dust out of our upstairs living area! Due to time and budget, we weren't able to put in place all of the controls I'd originally planned but here is what's working:

• Tape plastic sheeting over all doorways to/from construction area. The sheets of poly have been, by far, the most effective dust control we've put in place. VERY impressed with how simple and effective the poly sheeting has been! We used heavier poly for the areas that would see more traffic (e.g. over doorways, our fridge) and the light stuff for items that won't be touched (e.g. window coverings, furniture).
• Use zippers for doorways we still need access to. We also put one zipper wall at the bottom of the stairs and another at the top of the stairs. With that double layer I didn't have to cover up each bedroom door upstairs nor cover/pack up all our items upstairs... thank goodness!!
• Direct a fan outside to create a vacuum to pull dust out. This helps A LOT during very dusty work like demolishing our floor tile. I just used an old stand up fan that I no longer needed.
• Sweep and vacuum with a shop vac as often as possible.
• Pack up as many items as possible and cover/tape up anything that has to remain.

So far our poly sheeting has held up very well. Even strong gusts haven't ripped them off the walls. It was very time consuming to put up but SOO worth it. We first applied painters tape to the walls/ceilings. Then we stuck the poly to the painters tape using contractor's "technical tape". Here in Canada the brand we use is Tuck Tape. I believe in the US Tyvek tape is equivalent?

I hope this helps others also having to live in their reno.

Wow, lots of helpful advice! And also? I want to crawl in a hole until our project is over. I thought we were in good shape because we've packed up our kitchen and sunroom for demo that begins on Aug 1. Guess not. I know our contractor plans to seal all entries to kitchen area with plastic and one doorway will have a zipper, but I guess I need to pack up and cover the areas adjacent as well? Big open concept main floor with family room, living room, dining room...and we have a two story foyer/family room with a catwalk that leads to the upstairs bedrooms. Ugh.

Separate entrances really helps...but you haven't seen dust until you have seen construction dust....I would cover as much of the floor in the adjacent rooms as you can with that heavy brown paper that they sell usually in the paint department at your local big-box home improvement store. That dust and any and everything ekse gets tramped through the house and it's just hard to get out afterwards...roll up any roll up rugs in the adjacent rooms and just set them aside for awhile...

kpk63: I'm so glad this was helpful in some way! I know what you mean about wanting to crawl in a hole!! Don't know how much longer I can stand washing dishes in the bathroom sink and tub!!

If you restrict entry in and out of adjacent rooms and your contractor does a good job taping up the poly (forming a tight seal) at the access points to the kitchen and adjacent rooms, you likely won't get much or any dust in those areas. I'm finding the dust only goes in the rooms where I still go in and out. Right behind one poly wall that has no traffic in and out, there is zero dust despite us "spraying" clouds of tile dust at it from the other side.

If my reno was strictly confined to the kitchen, I wouldn't have needed any poly around the stairs. My reno goes beyond my kitchen through most of my main floor, right to the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the bedrooms.

I'm also very lucky that I don't have any air ducts in my home. That seems to make a huge difference in controlling the migration of dust.

If your reno is restricted to the kitchen and sunroom, I don't think you need to worry too much about packing/covering everything in the adjacent rooms. However, in adjacent areas that you'll still be moving in and out of, a fine layer of dust WILL get on everything so I recommend packing up, covering and putting up poly walls in those areas.

Good luck!! Less than a week to go for you!