How To Clean Up After A Home Renovation

Making renovations to your home is a big deal and as exciting as it is, there can be a major mess after the project is complete.The cleaning up process doesn’t have to be a hassle, especially if you have a plan to tackle the mess. To save yourself time, get some garbage containers before you start the job and call around to get an idea of garbage bin rental prices if you have a sizeable amount of material to dispose of. Cleaning up is not typically up to the contractor unless you specify it to be in the contract, so chances are you will be responsible for clean up.

What Does Most of the Clean Up Material Consist Of?

Figure out what most of your mess is made of. If most of it can go in garbage containers, that’s a good thing, but if a lot of it is recyclable, getting a bin to sort the waste is your best way to tackle the job. Basically, you have three options to choose from: Find a friend with a truck, clean everything up yourself or hire a professional cleaning/hauling firm.

What Does Clean Up Entail?

Usually, there is a long list of things you have to take care of during a post-construction clean up.

Sweep and vacuum everything, including all walls and ceilings
Wipe everything down with soap and warm water. This includes all fixtures, hardware like knobs, baseboards and mouldings, and any appliances, even though they were probably covered
Dust and wipe down windows and doors, including frames and tracking
Clean the insides and outsides of all cabinets
Remove any trash and debris (this is where it comes in handy to know garbage bin rental prices)

You will have to decide if you have the time and want to expend all the effort to do the job yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

A Deluge of Dust

There’s no way you can get around it. There is going to be a lot of debris to clean up and in its wake—a lot of dust. Using a standard vacuum, even the most heavy duty one you can buy in a conventional store, probably won’t get the job done the way it should be done. If you do want to tackle it yourself, either use a shop vacuum or be prepared to vacuum more than a couple times, unless you want to be breathing dust for months.