UPDATED PAGE ABOUT DUST: https://www.a-maxhardwood.com/blog/dust-containment-bona-atomic-trailer/
Customers Questions and Concerns About Dust
Our #1 question from customers over the years has been dust containment. Everyone is worried about dust floating around their house and being a huge nuisance after we have left. We understand this concern, we want to leave your home as dust free as possible and have made this our mission.
A-Max Hardwood View on Dust
In the past dust has been our biggest issue. A-Max has taken many steps to make sure that the dust we create leaves with us when we go. Currently with our dust containment equipment we get/capture 99% of dust before it even leaves our machines. Because of the nature of what we do it’s virtually impossible to trap all the dust within out machines and vacuums. However, at A-Max we have what we feel is the perfect combination to make sure no dust is left behind. Our system is certified dustless by Bona. A-Max Hardwood utilizes the BOna Trailer system! You can see our process below.
The Process & Machines
Prep: Before we begin working on anything we always start taping off cabinets/doors and visqueening off any hallways or open doorways. We try to leave no open areas. The goal is to keep any loose dust in a contained area so that the residual dust is easy to see and remove.
Now that everything is prepped below you can see each of our machines in action and how we have tackled the dust from each one. Our vacuum is used on the edger, buffer and orbital sanders and is rated to be 99% dust free up to .05 microns. The machine has 3 motors running at all times.
The Hummel is our biggest machine and it is rated by the company that produces it and the wood association as being 98% – 99% dust free. It has its own bag and vacuum system built in. The bag that collects the dust is rated at .5 microns. The dust it captures is so fine you can not even see it.
The Edger has been retrofitted to capture around 96% of our dust created with it. It has an in-house “dust skirt” that creates a vacuum to the floor. This allows our vacuum to create better suction and suck up just the dust created by the edger and not air and debris from around the machine. We retrofitted the rubber dust skirt to make the edger a cleaner tool and eliminate even more dust.
The Trio is also built by Lagler and is rated at 99% dust free. It also has a built in vacuum. It collects everything in a sealed canister.
The Buffer is used to polish the Gltiza we use between coats. This machine is actually not creating dust from wood but the finish. The buffer has a built in dust skirt from Clarke American Sanders. This skirt like the edger leaves it virtually dustless.
The Orbital Sander is used to go around the perimeter of your house. This is used on the Glitza as well. We have built a conversion pipe to connect it to our vacuum. The orbital is 99.9% dust free.
After Sanding is Done
Finally, between coats of the finish (Glitza & Traffic) we take time to take down all the visqueen, tape and anything else left behind. We then use microfibers and wipe down all the cabinets, walls, appliances and anything that may have collected dust. Once that is done we then do one final sweep with swiffer dry pads to collect that remaining dust. This leaves our workplace virtually dust free. There may be a little residual dust in the air but we do out best to collect all the dust we can. All the dust we can collect is removed from your home and put into trash cans so you can enjoy your house as it once was and admire your beautiful newly installed or refinished hardwood floors.
