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[DragoonKain]

I'm redoing a bathroom and installing tiles, and I had to rip up these old carpet tiles, and underneath the padding was so worn down they're so old, it was ground down into like a fine powder. I went to use a wet dry vac and while it was running the hose popped out and the stuff shot EVERYWHERE and I mean everywhere. It's a tiny bathroom and every square inch of it was covered in black powder, it looked like soot. I had an N95 mask and goggles on though so hopefully I didn't breathe a lot of it in.

I had a friend over helping though and he didn't have a mask or goggles. He wasn't in the room when this happened, but he came in after when it was settled. Curious if he should see a doctor about it, I don't know if that stuff is dangerous.

I spent hours cleaning the surfaces of everything, I think I got almost all of it. I'm so pissed because I put a brand new sink and toilet in there just 2 days ago, it was brand spanking new and one mishap and they were both covered in that nasty dust.

The wet dry vac is broke, the hose is damaged, it won't stay in. Should've checked it before, but I'm an idiot so I didn't. Should I use a mop to clean this stuff off the floor or buy another wet dry vac? Some of it is powder and some of the padding is still hard on the floor so I don't think only one method of cleaning will work.

And should I and my buddy be concerned about our lungs? We haven't been coughing so that's good I guess.

 

[nush]

Wipe it up by hand with a damp cloth that you regularly rinse out into a bucket of water. Then go over with a scraper to get the hard bits of padding off the floor, make sure you damp it forst so you don't kick up more dust. Don't worry about having breathed some of the dust in, it's not asbestos.

 

[EverydayBeast]

 

[Thaedolus]

This reminds me of the time I used my shop vac to get ash out of my traeger which still had hot embers in it…

Anyway you and your buddy are probably just like the dust particles: fine.

 

[p_xavier]

You used a dry/wet vacuum that was the cause of your issue. You need to vacuum with something like s Dyson with a HEPA filter.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Call Tim Taylor

 

[LMJ]

What you needed to do was saturate the dust before vacuuming...

I've cleaned grills professionally for over three years, and we soak the crap out of the Ash in the bottoms and then the wet/dry-vac wouldn't have had any issue...

Food for thought for the future

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Your friend will be fine. But yeah, he should wear PPE in the future.

Sweep up what you can before applying moisture.

 

[Burnttips]

The glue used to hold the tiles down could be asbestos. Should have someone come in and test it. The carpet would have to be from the 70s. If it's not that old don't worry and clean it up.

 

[RJMacready73]

The glue used to hold the tiles down could be asbestos. Should have someone come in and test it. The carpet would have to be from the 70s. If it's not that old don't worry and clean it up.

Yeah don't do that or it'll end up costing you a clean fortune if it turns out to be asbestos, you'll be grand with a one off exposure if it is, just damp cloth it all away and go take out a healthy life insurance policy