Question from hellokitty
Hi Debra! Thank you for the wealth of knowledge you are providing. I am trying to create a safe home for my family and your site and book have been of great value.
I want to have the Mexican tile and solid wood floor of my house sanded and polished. Is this a toxic process? I am mostly concerned about the dust particles. I will choose non toxic products for the polish/seal but I don’t know what to do about the dust particles after the sanding.
My wife has MCS and I we small children and pets. What would you recommend? Thank you!
D.K
Debra’s Answer
That amount of dust is a a dust hazard, not necessarily toxic, but a hazard from the amount of particles in the air.
I’m assuming you are going to have the sanding done by a professional. I’ve never had my floors sanded, but I imagine they should have some method of controlling the dust they are creating. That would be a question I would ask before agreeing to have them do the work.
There should be no residual dust from the job, but I would give the house and every surface a good vacuuming after the sanding is done. They should do that anyway, because they don’t want to have any excess dust around when they are applying the new finish.
I have had the wood floors in my home sanded and refinished. Some of them have been done twice. I found the process to be extremely toxic. The sanding dust gets on everything. The equipent used removes most of the dust, but it is far from perfect. I had to wash down every surface in my home. The new finish will take time to outgas. We chose waterbased Bona “Traffic” for it’s low toxic level. The smell was terrible. I could not enter my home for the 21 days it took to outgas. After it finished outgasing it was fine. It did not continue to detect an odor as I had with the solevent based product we had used the first time.
Choose a company that does dustless sanding. Their sanding tools are equipped with vacuums that pump the air and dust right outside to their trucks. A google search of dustless sanding in your area will tell you more.