The days of sanding drywall and letting the dust fly (or float) are quickly ending. With the advent of the HEPA filter and the vacuum sander, there is really no need to use old sanding practices in most remodel or renovation projects.
The real advantage of the vacuum sander is that it captures the dust at the point of creation, as opposed to creating an enclosure to contain the airborne dust (see Zip Wall Enclosures).
This is the key to the real time savings because there is very little clean up - because there is very little dust allowed to escape from the point of creation..
Very little dust at all
The better the attachment, vacuum and more experienced the sander with the system, the more dustless the system will be.
Tools of the Trade
Shop vacuum
You can use many different brands of shop vacuum to achieve good drywall dust control. The key ingredients are the filter and collection bag.
Filter
You must use a high efficiency filter to capture the fine dust created by sanding drywall compound. This means a HEPA filter - as a rule. Standard, inexpensive shop vacuum filters will allow a lot of fine dust to escape through the filter and blow out the exhaust port. . HEPA filters will capture 99.97% of the fine dust down to a very small 0.3 micron size.
HEPA filters are available for many popular shop vacuum brands including: Shop Vac, Ridgid, Craftsman, Vacmaster and many more brands. See Shop Vacuum Filters.
Vacuum Sanders
Most of the vacuum sanders used for drywall dust control use sanding screens in conjunction with a series of grooves and channels in the sanding head which allows the dust to be drawn through the grooves / channels into the vacuum.
Hand sanders
These are the easiest to use and the cheapest. For most drywall repairs and small remodel projects a hand sander may be all you’ll want to use. Easy to control, you simply sand without a lot of pressure applied (which will cause scratching of the drywall compound). I use fine sanding screen, combined with a circular sanding motion for a smooth, scratch-free finish.
Drywall Repairs
I use the hand sander totally for most drywall repair jobs. You can use the hand sander from a step ladder (or with stilts if you are a pro drywaller) for high sanding. The hand sanders are less cumbersome and easier to control than the pole sander versions. I do as much with the hand sander as possible, and only use the pole sander when necessary.
Pole sanders
If you are doing large areas and a lot of high walls and ceilings you will want to use a vacuum pole sander.
There are two types of pole sanders: one that uses a hollow vacuum pole (usually telescoping) and the other (see Hyde version) which uses a standard painter’s extension pole which screws into a “hand sander” and the dust is pulled through an external hose (rather than through a hollow tube/pole).
The advantage of the Hyde type of pole sander is that you can reach higher ceilings using whatever extension pole you need for maximum reach. You can use any acme threaded painter’s telescoping pole with the Hyde sander.
Using a vacuum pole sander takes a bit of adjustment to get used to the drag created by the vacuum hose countering your sanding motion. Since the hose is attached to the extension pole, you have the weight of the hose in the form of drag or resistance to your sanding motion. The drag is something you can get used to, but you need to be aware of it. The hand sander is much easier to get acclimated to in terms of hose drag.
The mechanical vacuum pole sanders (Dustless Technologies pole sander and the Porter Cable) eliminate the need to move the pole (for the sanding itself) as they use either electricity (Porter Cable) or the suction of the vacuum (Dustless Technologies) to create a mechanical sanding orbit. This eliminates the counter drag of the hose in the sanding operation and minimizes fatigue. These are for the professional drywaller who needs to do a lot of pole sanding on new construction.
Noteworthy differences between the two mechanical sanders is the round Porter Cable sander will not sand corners and the square Dustless Technologies sander will (for the most part - some hand sanding may be needed).
The Porter Cable has a more powerfully, electric motor driven sander head vs. the Dustless Technologies sander, which is a vacuum suction (turbo) driven sander and much weaker in terms of the sanding action. The price of the two reflect the markets for which they are best for. The Porter Cable is priced for the professional drywaller using it everyday for bigger, new construction jobs. The Dustless Technologies pole sander is about half the price, but better suited for lighter use and smaller jobs.
Related Articles: Dust Free Drywall Repairs
Dust collection bag
You MUST use a dust collection bag when vacuuming fine dust or your HEPA filter will plug up in a matter of minutes. The purpose of the collection bag is to capture most of the larger dust while allowing the vacuum to breath.. The collection bag will allow very fine dust to pass through it because it is a bit more porous than a HEPA filter, leaving only the very fine dust to get captured down stream by the HEPA filter. This two-part filtration (collection bag and final HEPA filter) allows the vacuum to maintain it’s suction and yet still filter effectively.
Vacuum Sanders
Drywall Sanding Attachments
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Vacuum sanders work well for remodel jobs or new construction as well as on drywall repairs.
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Sanding Drywall - Drywall Dust Control
The Role of Vacuum Sanders
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Note: Do not sand or disturb surfaces painted prior to 1978 as they may contain lead paint. See EPA Lead Page for more information on the hazards of lead and safe work practices.
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