Attic dust....what to do?

[railman]

Hi

I have recently purchased an 80 year old californian bunglow with the original tiled roof.While strippping some plaster from the walls I moved the ceiling cornice and a grey matted dust began to fall out. Would it be advisable to get the attic vacumed professionally, what advice can you give to minimise this and is there any danger to move in and leave this until we completely renovate next year ?
cheers

[woodsprite]

Firstly, I reckon if its been there 80 years another one won't matter. BUT if you are worried, I reckon get a cheapo $29.00 vac from Godfreys, mask up, and get up in the roof space and do it yourself if there is room. Take a few garbage bags up there with you to empty the vac into. You will probably do just as good a job as the guy who charges you $150.00 to do it.
Jeff

[Ashore]

Hi

I have recently purchased an 80 year old californian bunglow with the original tiled roof.While strippping some plaster from the walls I moved the ceiling cornice and a grey matted dust began to fall out. Would it be advisable to get the attic vacumed professionally, what advice can you give to minimise this and is there any danger to move in and leave this until we completely renovate next year ?
cheers

Mate I bought a good quality vax and did my attic space, with the advantage I now have a good vax for the shed and if SHMBO wants the carpets shampooed the vax can do that as well.
Firstly though I installed a large manhole and ladder and after vacumming out, about 3 tonne I reckon , ( mine had an origional tin roof) I layed yellow tounge and now store the suitcases toys etc up there.

As to leave alone for a year or so no probs unless there are rats, pigeons or wongo pets up there.


Rgds

[tameriska]

Umm, hopefully not, but is there insulation up there? With the age of the bungalow, do you need to consider the possibility of asbestos?

[woodsprite]

Hello again. That grey dust is likely to be only dust - or the powder that wood borers have left behind or maybe the fallout from a bit of dry rot. Not likely to be raw asbestos. The ceiling will probably have a good couple of cm of it. Best bet is to find the person hole and have a quick look around the roof space - if you even suspect it is asbestos, get a pro to move it. However I would be very surprised to find raw asbestos in the ceiling.

There may be insulation up there, but you will discover this when you poke your head through the person hole. There will be one or two cobwebs

A tip: if you are doing the big reno next year, get your sparky to install a double power point in the ceiling space ( or a light and switch). I just use an old bedlamp plugged into the ceiling power point and I can reach the point from the top of the ladder, so I always have light when I go into the ceiling.

The other tip - if you can, make a big person hole. We have a 1200 wide passage way, and when we replaced the ceiling years ago, I built a new acccess hole the width of the passage and about 900 the other direction - means I can get the head of the ladder, me, and a box of junk up there safely. One edge of the coever is hinged so it falls back into the roof space and is stopped at about 100 degrees by a light timber frame.

Jeff