Absolutely not! He just doesn't want to pay for the fuel cost for his heaters.

I keep the furnace off during the sanding.

However, if your builder is using propane heat, beware that it puts so much moisture in the air that the mud doesn't dry well. Better, natural gas or electric heaters.

Keep the home above 55. I don't use propane heaters beyond drywall due to moisture & CO2. I'm getting my second set of home furnaces hooked up this season as paint starts next week and the home needs to be warmer. Our HVAC returns all have filters at the intake, which are changed as needed (weekly or daily) with spares on site. The cost is minimal. Cutting happens in the garage.

The "buck stops" at the GC. So explain to me the difference between "GC" and "builder" in your case. How have you defined the builder's responsibilities and is the builder hourly, flat fee or %?.

Your husband, acting as GC is responsible for everything, he can require subs to do things.

I used to to work as a project manager for a large contractor. Managing a project requires common sense, experience, and being responsible for everything.

As posted previously, drywall installation requires a min temp, also humidity. If, your GC does not know how to find that information, you should hire a new GC.

+1 to what Jeffrey Grenz said. Our builder had filters on each of the 5 returns once the furnace was turn on for heat (drywall time) and replaced a few times afterward.

The filters may protect the fan motors and heat exchangers. But the ducts before the filters will still be coated with drywall dust. That's why custom builders often have the ducts cleaned professionally before occupancy. I avoided the duct cleaning services when a tech showed me the state of the hoses they used--not cleaned and themselves coated in contaminants. (I'm very sensitive to dust and animal dander--from being around construction and my cats too much--and I treated my customer's houses the same way I would my own.)

Our filters were at the ceiling grill and filtered out dust before they could reach the ducts and boy did the filters get dirty.

Drywall dust is very fine. Any filter that would catch 100% of it would clog very quickly and need to be changed VERY frequently. I wouldn't trust anything to do that ... maybe an ultra-high MERV jobbie (or whatever similar is available). And I'd be leery of bypass around the filter, they typically don't seal quite exactly 100% to the intake grill frame.

@Teri … I didn't understand the difference in responsibilities between your husband as GC vs your "builder." This is a random list I just generated (of about 200 tasks) In my business, I am the GC & that includes all below. Some tract builders & some large custom builders might call their onsite super the "builder" and they would perform the last five tasks, but that is discretionary.

1. Meet with client
2. Develop budget
3. Bid & sign subcontractor/supplier contracts
4. Pay all suppliers & subcontractors
5. Maintain project within predetermined budget
6. Develop change orders (make owner aware of impacts of
   changes, both cost and schedule)
7. Submit, monitor, pull permits (or architect)
8. Schedule inspections, meet inspectors
9. Schedule trades, deliveries, logistics
10. Quality control (lots of sub tasks)
11. Determine interfaces of various trades
12. Provide onsite supervision as needed

If I have to pick up tools or broom, I have either failed to plan & delegate or its more expedient to use them.... but I do use both weekly. A broom is the best way to get to know your project.

My HVAC guy told me no matter what, don't turn the heater on when the drywallers are working. Let them use their heaters. Also, I taped heavy plastic over my floor vents and the drywallers step on every one of them and tore them. I ended up cutting pieces of plywood and screwing them down over the vents.

Our drywall guys had diesel heaters and the fume were terrible. It didn't seem to bother them at all, but it sure bothered me. I would open a window and they would immediately shut it. Electric heaters sound like a good bet.

My HVAC guy brought in a used, temp furnace just for the drying/sanding portion of the project. The drywall was put up last January during a typical Wisconsin winter so there was definatly a need to keep the house warm.

You need to wash any dust off the walls before you paint if you want your paint to adhere properly.

Is this okay to paint over or do I need to do something first, or is that the job of the painter?

That depends on the painter.

Rolling primer on will encapsulate any dust on the wall in the paint, as long as the dust is not obvious -- that is, you need to run your hand over it to find out if it's dusty.

Use a good primer/sealer and 2 coats of paint. I like Zinnser Gardz for primer, any quality (not ACE) brand paint for the finish coats.

Not a recipe or recommendation but we had both furnaces comissioned and running 24x7 for several weeks during drywall and painting (ya huge gas bills but was a good endurance test of our HVAC systems). Our HVAC company provided a stack of cheap filters (several in use at any given time) for all air returns and these are huge like 36x16 or 24x16. These would get very dusty and I'd frequently replace them) Besides these we have electronic and other filters in furnace (which were not turned on hence worked like standard filters). All return filters were replaced with new higher quality ones by HVAC guys and all ducts aslo cleaned during their final. A couple of weeks before we moved in I climbed up to each furnace's filter stack to check/clean their filters including multilayer electronic ones and others to check their state and was surrised to see them relatively clean, which meant even the cheapo return filters were extremely effective.

For a brand new home this size we have virtually no dust and zero dust on walls but thats another story about how; prior to move in, we had cleaners cleaning the home for over a week, despite we cleaned the floorsseveral times after we moved in, waht with movers in and out of the home for several days; a month later we are close to being virtually dust free, then again it is winter time and windows are all closed although tile work is in progress with them cutting tile under the covered deck area.