Traditional hardwood floor sanding is typically an extremely dusty process as floor sanders, edgers, and buffers all generate high amounts of extremely fine wood dust that can be harmful to both the health of your employees, your customers, and the quality of your work. Without effective dust containment, airborne dust can cost you valuable time and money in cleaning and equipment maintenance. Older wood floor varnishes can even contain lead, which require a Certified Full-Unit HEPA Vacuum to meet EPA RRP requirements (Learn More).
That's why dust containment is one of the fastest growing demands of floor sanding customers worldwide, especially in European markets with stricter air pollution standards. Consumers are increasingly seeking out contractors that can sand their floors without the huge mess and hassle of traditional systems. They need sanders that are fast, clean, and professional.
If you can't provide a clean sanding solution for your customers, your competitors certainly will!
7 Benefits of Using A Dust Containment System
Effective dust containment is an essential safety feature of floor sanding and can be the prime competitive advantage for your business. It's easy to be skeptical of new technologies but the benefits of proper DCS can pay for themselves ten-fold! Dust-free contractors can even charge a premium for their unique services!
#1 Improved Visibility
Capturing waste at the source eliminates messy dust clouds that reduce your visibility. Now you'll be able to easily see your sanding progress and make adjustments accordingly.
#2 Improved Sanding
Leaving dust on the floor means your sander is doing twice the work, sanding both the wood as well as the dust itself. By keeping a clean floor you'll get peak performance out of your sander on every pass.
#3 Improved Finishing
Dust can linger in the air for hours and later settle onto newly stained floors, ruining the quality of your finish. With the dust safely contained you'll have a smooth, superior finish compared to your dust competitors.
#4 Improved Health
Heavy exposure to wood dust ( a known human carcinogen) has been shown to contribute to a variety of unpleasant afflictions including bronchitis, frequent colds, nosebleeds, asthma attacks, and even certain types of cancers.
#5 Reduced Maintenance
With proper control of the wood waste, your abrasives will stay both cleaner and cooler; lasting significantly longer and saving you time and money on replacements.
#6 Reduced Man-hours
Proper DCS can eliminate both time-consuming setup work (hanging plastic sheeting) and meticulous clean-up after the sanding is done. Jobs are 30% faster on average, meaning less inconvenience for your customers and less man-hours for you.
#7 Increased Satisfaction
As a dust-free contractor you can leave the home cleaner than when you started. Your customers will be more than thankful; referring you to their friends and family and giving you the best marketing tool available - word of mouth!
How to Become a Dust-Free Contractor
Many contractors may make the claim of being "dust-free" or "dustless", but very few can walk the walk and talk the talk. To truly become dust-free you'll need to follow 5 core principles:
- Contain the dust at every stage. Every step of your workflow should be sealed; from the floor, to the trash bags you carry out with you.
- Only use certified full-unit HEPA vacuums. This ensures that all air leaving the vacuum (even the motor's exhaust) is pure and clean of harmful airborne particulates. Browse OAS Vacuums »
- Use a vacuum with an airflow rate of 150-200 Actual CFM to sufficiently entrain the high volume of dust generated by floor sanders. Rely on honest "Actual" CFM measurements rather than inflated, theoretical values. Contact the manufacturer direct if necessary.
- Avoid using cloth dust bags. At best they can only contain the larger dust, while the smaller, finer (and most unhealthy) particles leak back out into the air. Additionally, the fuller the bag becomes, the smaller the filtration area; this restricts your airflow and results in more dust on the floor.
- Only use True-HEPA media filters. To sufficiently protect the health of you, your employees and your customers, your filters need to capture 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns in size. Learn More »