Plastic goes up before anything comes down. On the first morning of any interior demolition job we set spring-loaded Zip-wall poles at every doorway into the work area and hang 6-mil poly between them, taped at the ceiling and the floor, with a zippered door so the crew can get in and you can't wander through by accident.
Floors that stay get Ram Board. It is a heavy fibre sheet, taped at every seam and at the baseboard, and it takes a dropped tile, a rolling bucket and six weeks of boots without letting grit through to your oak. Carpet that stays gets a self-adhesive film under the board. Stair treads get their own pieces, cut to the nosing.
On sanding days a negative-air fan goes in a window, pulling air out of the sealed room so fine dust drifts toward the outside instead of under the plastic into your hallway. It is loud. It is also the difference between wiping one room and wiping the whole house.
This is the part most crews skip, because it takes about two hours and nobody pays for it separately. We put it in every estimate as its own line so you can see it. It is what clients mention first when they call us back for the next room.
