Can a flooring project truly be dust-free?

Since the old days of renovating my own home, my goal has been to avoid the tiny debris, otherwise known as divorce dust. Divorce dust gets its name because of the amount of stress it puts on people to live in dust for the duration of their renovation projects. Now, my wife is a marriage counselor so I have enough awareness about what stress these things have on families, so I want to spare my clients from that as much as possible.  

Needless to say, my goal as a flooring guy is to mitigate dust as much as possible, because I would never want to contribute to the demise of any marriage. I am not the only one in the industry working hard to minimize divorce dust ( “dust” for short). It is trendy now in the marketing of construction tools to focus on being “dust free”. Dust Free Flooring. Dustless Sanding. “No Dust” Hardwood Refinishing. Guide to dustless sanding. The click bait for contractors is endless.  

The obvious essential tool to prevent dust is a vacuum. Now, I love great vacs, so I recently attended a promotional workshop for the very popular RONDA 200H Power vacuum. The presenter explained that if we really want to take the dustless dimension of the work seriously, we should think about this tools big brother, the RONDA 2800H, as an alternative. Hmmmm, I was intrigued. I was shocked and allured by the fact that it has three (!) motors, instead of one. But wait a second. All of this power comes in a 65 kilogram package (without accessories). And to top it off, the presenter explained we would get “pretty close” to dust free. What?! Pretty close?! Alright. So I need a crew to move this beast around, then I might need a bigger van also to transport it. And once I have a crew and a bigger van, we can also hope that in older buildings it won’t start blowing the fuses with its three motors?! And then, I will get “pretty close” to dust free? I see now. I’ll stick to the “little brother” kind of vacuums, thank you very much. And I will still prevent divorces.

Rest assured that contractors are trying to make your life lower stress by minimizing dust in your home, and many will invest in tools to prevent much of it. But bear in mind that even the fanciest of tools won’t prevent it altogether, so take a vacation, go on a date, or call a counselor if needed, but we will get through the divorce dust season to your great new floor.