Post-renovation cleaning
Construction dust is not dirt. It is ground stone, and it keeps coming back.
Post-renovation and post-construction cleaning in Toronto, North York, Vaughan and the GTA. Three passes, top down, until the dust stops reappearing on the day you finish.
From $250
What you are actually removing
Renovation dust is not household soil. It is ground mineral, mostly gypsum from drywall, with silica from cut tile, sawdust and paint solids mixed in. The particles are light, hard and electrostatic, which means three things. They stay in the air long after the saw stops. They cling to painted walls rather than falling off them. And they scratch, so dry-dusting a new worktop is how a brand new surface gets its first marks.
That is why a single clean never holds. The room looks finished at five o'clock, and by the next morning there is a grey film on the windowsill again, because the dust that was still in the air when you locked up has landed.
Three passes, top down, in that order
We work ceilings to floor, and we do the whole property before we repeat any of it. Dislodged dust only ever falls onto something lower, so cleaning a floor first is wasted work. Everything is vacuumed with a HEPA machine and then wet wiped, because a dry cloth on gypsum dust moves it rather than removing it.
The two places people forget are the ones that undo the rest. Light fittings and the tops of door frames hold a visible layer that drops the first time somebody slams a door. And if the furnace or the air handler ran during the works, the ducts are now a reservoir that will feed dust back into clean rooms for weeks. We clean what we can reach and tell you plainly when a duct specialist is the right call.
Price, and who this is for
A 2,000 square foot flat runs $250 to $600, confirmed before we start, with the range coming down to the scale of the work and how much of it was wet trades. Builders, landlords and contractors book us for handover. Homeowners usually book us after a kitchen or a bathroom, where the dust has quietly travelled to every room in the house.
One honest limit. We clean. We do not repair, touch up paint or polish out scratches that were there before we arrived, and we will point them out rather than leave you to find them.
How it goes
The order of work.
Clear the debris
Offcuts, tape, packaging, paint tins and the fine rubble in the corners. Nothing can be cleaned while there is still material on the floor.
High level first
Ceilings, light fittings, door frames, trim, tops of cupboards and window reveals. Working top down means the dust we dislodge lands on surfaces we have not done yet.
HEPA vacuum everything
Walls included. Drywall dust clings to paint. A HEPA filter matters here because a standard vacuum exhausts the finest particles straight back into the room.
Wet wipe and glass
Every horizontal surface wiped, not dusted, so the residue leaves the room on a cloth. Windows, mirrors and tracks last, because they show every mistake.
Second and third pass
We come back over the whole place after it has settled. The dust that reappears on the first pass is the dust that would otherwise greet your client on handover day.
Why does the dust keep coming back?
Because it was never dirt. Drywall, mortar and cut tile produce a fine mineral powder light enough to stay airborne for hours after the trades have gone home, and it settles slowly over the following days. One pass lands on a room that is still raining dust. That is the whole reason we build the second and third passes into the price instead of selling them to you later.
Can you work before the trades are finished?
We would rather not, beyond a rough clear-down. A final clean before the last bit of sanding or caulking is money spent twice. Book us for after the last trade leaves, and tell us if a snag list is still open.
What about the heating and cooling system?
It matters more than anything else on the list. A system running during the works has pulled dust through the returns and into the ducts, and it will redistribute it for months. We clean the grilles, the returns and the filter housings, and we will tell you honestly if you need a duct specialist rather than us.
Is it more expensive than a deep clean?
Yes, and the reason is passes and detail work, not square footage. A deep clean on a 2,000 sq ft flat is $200 to $400. The same flat after a renovation is $250 to $600, because the high level work and the repeat passes take real hours.
