How To Contain Remodeling Dust With The Zip Door Kit
As a remodeling contractor I learned early on that containing remodeling dust and keeping that dust out of the non-remodeled portion of your clients home is often more important than the quality of your work.
It’s a fact that construction transports fine dust particles into parts of your home that are not being worked on.
There is nothing worse than having your client tell you they want you to pay for professional removal of plaster dust from the inside a baby grand piano.
Let’s face it we all know it’s a pain to clean, not to mention that remodeling dust may result in health concerns so why not take steps to avoid it?
Many homeowners and kids with asthma, or seniors have COPD… so I always ask. That way I can tell them how I contain dust with ZipWall … this is a great way you add value when bidding.
The remodeling dust problem is even compounded with today’s recent EPA lead dust containment regulations. If you live in a pre-1978 house, dust created during remodeling from lead-based paint is another of your worries and how you approach your remodel is controlled by EPA regulations.
The Old Way: Dust Containment
For years in order to control remodeling dust at a framed opening on a job site I would attach a drop cloth to the top door trim with finish nails or tape over-lapping plastic at a doorway. The problem with these methods is they never really worked that well. Dust always found it’s way past these barriers.
Over the years I have developed strategies and researched the BEST methods to control remodeling dust. One approach is to use several dust containment products from a company called ZipWall.
ZipWall makes an ingenious dust containment system that allows you to easily and quickly build plastic dust containment walls.
Prior to using ZipWall I constructed a dust barrier wall with 2×4’s, screws and plastic. Not only is this a slow and expensive to do but it can also cause floor and ceiling damage.
Zip Door Kit : Dust Sealed Door
ZipWall used to (still does) sell zippers to tape onto plastic: you would then cut the plastic and have a zippered doorway. For the past few years I have been taping plastic over doorways and adding a ZipWall zipper to make an access door.
These zippers are still very useful when you need to access an area through a long run of dust containment plastic sheeting. The issue with these add on zippers is the time and effort it takes to. Adding a zipper involves taping / cutting plastic which always seems to find a way to jamb the zipper.
Recently ZipWall came out with a zippered doorway product appropriately called ZipDoor KIT.
It is made from 4 mil plastic sheeting and includes two pre-installed heavy-duty zippers and comes in two sizes a 3’ X 7’ and a commercial 4’X 8’, Flame retardant kit.
The two zippers can both be opened and held up by two wire hooks [provided] to allow access to the dust containment area. This is a useful feature when bringing materials or tools into the area.
A roll of double-sided tape [provided] is used to position the ZipDoor onto the doorway trim. The two-sided tape allows you to easily mount as well as reposition the door if you hang it crooked.
The plastic sheeting sticks onto the double-sided tape in the door opening to make a dust sealed door in couple of minutes. The ZipDoor is designed to zip and unzip for regular entry and exit into the work zone.
I like that ZipWall uses clear plastic poly sheeting for two reasons. The first is safety, the clear plastic allows you to see through the door as well and the other is that the clear plastic allows light to travel in or out of the work area.
Zip Door Installation Video and Review:
ZipDoor saves me time and money:
This ZipDoor kit took me a few minutes to install and is ideal for jobs where I need to create a dust barrier and sealed access doorway .
One person can install it in under a minute and subsequently reduces labor cost and if you use care when removing it, you can use it again. So far, I’ve re-used my ZipDoor three times.
I found it invaluable on residential like kitchen and bath remodeling job sites, and where renovation disturbs lead paint.
Attaching the ZipDoor Kit:
One side of the ZipWall tape is like traditional painter’s tape. It’s sticky enough to hold but does not seem to damage the trim paint. The other side was designed to hold plastic sheeting. Importantly, it lets you reposition the ZipDoor for up to an hour before fully bonding to the plastic.
ZipDoor Features:
- Pays for itself in time saved
- For standard doors up to 3’ x 7’ or
- For commercial doors up to 4’ x 8’, flame retardant
- Made from 4 mil plastic sheeting
- Two heavy duty zippers pre-installed
- Includes new ZipWall double-sided tape
- Can be repositioned easily for up to 1 hour
- Ideal for RRP requirements
- Zippers are glued-on for maximum sheer strength and durability. A stitched-on zipper can fail if pulled sharply or tugged because the stitching creates a perforation.
Overall Impression of ZipDoor:
Consider the ZipDoor as cheap insurance and part of your dust containment strategy.
In the past two weeks I’ve used the ZipDoor three times and found it super easy to install and break down. It was effective at containing the dust
we created and the double zipper door and door hanging hooks also allowed fast and easy access for materials and tools to the job area.
The pre-installed zippers worked great. They are securely attached to the plastic sheeting and seem to be of good quality. I now keep 3 ZipDoor packages and extra tape in my dust containment tool bag.
I look at ZipDoor as cheap insurance and part of my dust control strategy. If you don’t plan for and think about containing dust you WILL have unhappy clients.
Don’t forget that time spent at the beginning of the project is time and money saved later by avoiding an unnecessary and possibly an embarrassing clean up.
