CLEANING UP QUARTZ DUST – WHERE TO START

Cleaning up a mess, any mess, has a certain order.

But not everyone knows where to start.

Is there a starting point?

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Cleaning up a meth-house seems like an easy task.

A house on a dark dead end road starts attracting people late at night, all night, every night.

They come and go in a short time span.

Sometimes they drive down, sometimes they park and walk down.

Sound suspicious to you?

A neighbor has video of a drug deal in front of my house.

Shocking, I know. When you live in the ‘hood what would you expect?

But my house is located on a hill among other hilly houses all jammed in so more people can feel good about their address.

In the normal world my cul-du-sac would hold six or seven houses; I’ve got two.

When the meth people started zombie walking after their last hit started wearing off, one neighbor started calling the non-emergency police line.

Since then I’ve had two SWAT teams in front of my house, someone sentenced to prison, the meth house sold, the meth-estate sale held.

Local police warned residents about interfering with the meth folks.

“They are unpredictable and you might get shot.”

It’s been going on for years and years with no relief until now.

Everyone packed up and moved on.

We’ve had a month of clear air. Now the red car is showing up again; the mule is swaggering up the street; the email chain is on high alert.

Is it Morning In Meth Town again? All of the legal cleaning up didn’t work?

Where to begin. Again.

 

Cleaning Up Someone Else’s Mess

I’ve had some work done.

Not that work, not botox and filler kind of work.

The kind of work done is dusty: Saw dusty, tile dusty, quartz countertop dusty.

Most of the dust stays in the driveway, but not all.

The crew cleans up after each day and I clean up after them.

 

Follow the BoomerPdx Clean Up Rules:

Wife: When are you going to clean up. You said you’d start an hour ago.

Me:

Wife: Are you there? Where are you?

 

I’m out vacuuming the driveway, then blowing it off, working my way to the kitchen where the most quartz dust is.

Quartz Dust?

Our contractor cut our quartz countertop in our home over two years ago. He cut the hole where the stove goes, everything else was cut off the property. What is the likelihood of acute silicosis?

As the others have pointed out, your likelihood of silicosis is zero from this incident unless you had your face right up in the dust cloud while the cutting was going on and you never cleaned after the contractor left so that the remaining settled dust could be stirred into the air every time you use your lawn blower inside the house. 😉

Your most dangerous moment during the cutting (assuming you were hovering and snorting the cloud) would have been inhaling burned epoxy fumes.

 

I started in the driveway, then the walkway, to the hallway, to the kitchen.

I wiped every surface with a rag and water.

The quartz dust clings to vertical surfaces, so wipe all the countertops, cabinet doors, inside the silverware drawer.

Next I’m climbing on top of the counters to wipe down the wall decorations, ceramic chickens, and cabinet tops.

Hot Tip: If you run an air cleaner, make sure the filter is out of the plastic bag for best results.

 

Set Boundaries On The Clean Up

Remember, you’re not cleaning up the world, just your part that you can’t live with.

If it’s construction dust you’re working on, start out beyond the dust in the driveway and work in toward the cutting and grinding site.

Start on the sidewalk. Suck up all the dust on the driveway, the garage, in the house.

Mop the floors, vacuum the rugs and furniture.

Get that shit out of there.

Since the kitchen countertop got grinded on for a new sink, that’s where the most of the dust settled.

No one wants to eat quartz dust; no recipe in the world ever included a sprinkling of quartz dust.

 

Review: Identify problem for cleaning up.

Set boundaries of the infected area.

Use tools that don’t spread the problem.

 

In cancer surgery the doctors call it ‘margins’ where they cut out the cancer and a little extra.

If the margins aren’t right, you go back for more surgery.

In house remodeling it’s called re-sale value where you fix a little and expect a lot in return.

Kitchen and bathroom and more?

In marriage it’s called listening without interrupting.

If you find a lump on your body that wasn’t there last time you checked, see a doctor.

You want to make some home improvements? Call a contractor, but call a designer first. (Hey Christoff)

If you’ve been married so long you know how to finish the other person’s conversation before they even start?

Because, ‘I know that look.’

Every stage of each event, from cancer surgery to home remodel to marriage communication, should come with a counselor’s number.

People need to talk it out.

They need someone to listen.

More accurately, people who aren’t writers need someone to listen.

We writers let things settle in so we can fret and grind and use the distress in our work.

I’ll be cleaning up for the wife so she gets clear air; cleaning up for the dog so she doesn’t spread dust everywhere every time she gives a shake; and cleaning up for me because I have hygienic standards that don’t include living in a quartz dustbowl.

The problem: dangerous dust.

The solution: clean it up.

The outcome: A happy home.

But what if after all the work, the extra work, and the additional work, you don’t have a happy home?

Then you’re not finished.

Clean all of your cleaning tools and start over. Quartz dust is very fine.

Wife: Remember when Mt. St. Helen’s blew?

Me: I do.

Wife: This silica dust is like it blew in our kitchen.

Me: At least we avoided the pyroclastic flow.

Wife: You worry about that?

Me: All of the time. Don’t you?

Wife: