high dust in condo

kcopp

I did a boiler change out in a condo.
Boiler is natural draft.
One of the complaints the tenant bought up as I am doing this is that the amount of dust is high in the home.... other than a poorly sealed up envelope, is there a correcation of poor combustion air and a lot of dust in the home?

Jamie Hall

Shouldn't be. Assuming that you do have draught at all, all combustion products should be going up the stack -- and they aren't dusty anyway. Check the draught and the CO, though, just to be sure.

Gordy

Fouled dryer vent?

ChrisJ

Dry skin?

Gordy

With that pet dander......

hot_rod

road construction or mining nearby?

kcopp

Dryer is new. Electric. New venting.
No Pets.
Two people.
In a seacoast town.
Near a salt marsh.
Condo built in the mid 80's

Fred

Shedding carpet/rugs? Open windows/pollen? Is there central air/old dirty ducts?

kcopp

Windows closed in the winter. Heat is HWBB.
Natural gas. No central Air.
Tile and hardwood floors.

Fred

Almost has to be a combination of dry skin, dander, mattresses/bed linens, bath linens, clothing, upholstered furniture/dried foam padding

Gordy

One needs to define "a lot of dust". Especially with the above statements. Only other thing is dust in wall, or ceiling cavities being driven out by wind.

kcopp

Fair enough.
She dusts weekly and I did see what she is talking about on a coffee table.... very fine almost sticky type dust.
I am starting to wonder about the dryer vent not venting to the outside properly.

Fred

The sticky part is probably the result of static??

Jamie Hall

Dust, whether we like it or not, is almost as persistent as taxes. A completely dust free environment -- think lab. or manufacturing clean room -- requires high efficiency filtration and positive pressurization sufficient to overcome any possible combination of permitted openings, such as doors for entry.

Anything else and you are going to have dust.

Gordy

I'd give the dryer vent a thorough investigation all the way to the vent termination. Also how secluded is the laundry room from rest of the condo. Even with good venting the dryer makes dust.

kcopp

Well the boiler and laundry room are in 2 separate closets directly off the kitchen and LR..... no separation.

SWEI

Stack effect in the building sucking in outside air? I'd check a couple of floors with a manometer. Common bathroom, kitchen, and dryer vents are all suspect.

ChrisJ

Gordy said:

I'd give the dryer vent a thorough investigation all the way to the vent termination. Also how secluded is the laundry room from rest of the condo. Even with good venting the dryer makes dust.

BillW

Everybody seems to have covered the most common sources. It says you live by a salt marsh, and if it is in the northeast, this summer has been abnormally dry. If the windows are open, the fine dust, pollen and salt crystals from the marsh may be the source. The dryer vent should be easy to check out, but unless it passes thru the area where the table is, I doubt that it is the cause. Old carpet padding will sometimes decay into dust that gets kicked up by vacuuming. Has the dust been tested? That would give some idea of where it is coming from, and finally, is the house under a negative pressure from a too-powerful range hood or something else?