# Buildclean review



## madmax718 (Dec 7, 2012)

my luck I'd just get the rep.

You think you could take a pic of the motor area? Im curious as to if there's any new fangled wizardry inside.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

tjbnwi said:


> Seeing as you're spraying paint, I wonder if can rig up the Allergo to a box for a makeshift spray booth/area?
> 
> 
> 
> Tom



That would def work. Done that in a spare room at my house. Kind of why I'm keeping it around as it's handy for when a lot of air needs to be moved fast.


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## BBuild (Oct 10, 2012)

BCConstruction said:


> That would def work. Done that in a spare room at my house. Kind of why I'm keeping it around as it's handy for when a lot of air needs to be moved fast.


Have you had any issues with overspray getting on the outside of the house or is it sucking out mostly fumes?


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## tjbnwi (Feb 24, 2009)

BBuild said:


> Have you had any issues with overspray getting on the outside of the house or is it sucking out mostly fumes?


By the time it went through the machine it should be dry fall. 

I've never seen the unit, but I'm guessing there are filters in the Allegro.

Tom


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

I use a 1 micron filter but as Tom says the paint is dry and it kind of looks like drywall dust coming out the duct when filters not on.


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## madmax718 (Dec 7, 2012)

realized my surface measurement for flat filters was wrong. Its significantly more, as its pleated. possibly 2-3 times as much surface area.


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## mgb (Oct 31, 2008)

Im sure I could do some research, but does anyone know off hand what kinda sq. footage these units can handle?

Even with nearly every tool running dust collection I see that there's always very fine dust floating around. I'm sure breathing that in daily for the next 30 years wouldn't do me any favors.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

mgb said:


> Im sure I could do some research, but does anyone know off hand what kinda sq. footage these units can handle?
> 
> Even with nearly every tool running dust collection I see that there's always very fine dust floating around. I'm sure breathing that in daily for the next 30 years wouldn't do me any favors.



I'm in a 100sqft bathroom currently and it's working very well. I'm running 2 in a 320sqft kitchen next week and I'm assuming it will have no problem between the 2 units. One will be in the demo area and one setup up as negative pressure to pull air through the area. 

I will let you know next week how it goes. 


I got my second unit Friday but it's still got that annoying surging sound. I spoke to the rep Friday and he's getting back to me as the owner said this issue was fixed. Low/auto is unusable for me currently. The 4 people who one is me who have heard it so far all said the same thing. That's annoying/is it meant to do that/it's making funny noises. 2 were HO's and one my wife so it's not just me be over critical. 

On medium and high though is way less evident and in sure they are the 2 settings it will be on mostly but still it's annoying.


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## charimon (Nov 24, 2008)

mgb said:


> Im sure I could do some research, but does anyone know off hand what kinda sq. footage these units can handle?
> 
> Even with nearly every tool running dust collection I see that there's always very fine dust floating around. I'm sure breathing that in daily for the next 30 years wouldn't do me any favors.


 For scrubbing you want to exchange your air 6-8 times an hour. 
there fore the CFM is based on room size. 
Work area control you want to place the unit near your source to direct air flow from the operation to the filter unit keeping fine particulate from entering the general atmosphere. This is where machines with intake ducting capability have advantage.
Another time when intake ducting makes sense is in small space restoration. If you are working in a small bathroom where space is tight it is often easier to duct in an 8" intake from the hall way than try to bring the scrubber it self.

If you want to save $$ on larger remodels you can likely rent units from your local carpet cleaning equipment company. The other posablility is to buy your primary scrubber of choice Ermator in my case, buildclean or other brands, and look into the Drieze Velo and Hepa kit for additional cfm
https://www.drieaz.com/_dec/DEC_Product_Base.aspx?decID=1979
https://www.drieaz.com/_dec/DEC_Product_Base.aspx?decID=2127

You can get into this for under $450 shipped using amazon. The Velo is a very popular airmover used in the Restoration/Carpet cleaning industry where the company made a HEPA retro kit.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

Well 3rd machine turned up today. It's running so much better. Im actually very happy with it now. Still does a weird surge thing but no where near as often as the other 2. The other 2 are on jobs and one was a demo job and one a drywall/mud job and both worked flawlessly in sucking up dust in the air. 

I'm gonna do some DB tests so people know in the future how loud it is compared to a dust extractor. It's pretty quite and no louder than my air mover fans.


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## madmax718 (Dec 7, 2012)

mgb said:


> Im sure I could do some research, but does anyone know off hand what kinda sq. footage these units can handle?
> 
> Even with nearly every tool running dust collection I see that there's always very fine dust floating around. I'm sure breathing that in daily for the next 30 years wouldn't do me any favors.


Ya, definitely wont. Plus it gets everywhere. On your clothing. You take it in your truck. You bring it home. Your kids breath it. 

I've run a box fan setup (not the fancier V shaped) but just a simple box fan with a taped on (With masking tape for easy removal) and a furance filter. I've sat it right behind the miter saw. By the end of the day, the filter was caked with fine dust. This is with a vac hooked up. Granted some saws are better at extraction (mine sucks) but if your running your vac without either a dust separator or a paper bag, the fine dust clogs the filters quick. I went from Hero to zero in only a few cuts on some laminated flooring. That clogged up so fast the vac had no power anymore.


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## gbruzze1 (Dec 17, 2008)

Question to guys running the buildclean or any other air scrubber...

Have you considered advertising dust free remodels? I think customers would be inclined to pick up the phone and find out about a dust free kitchen renovation. Everyone seems to say how happy and amazed the HOs are when they walk in with these machines, why not awe them before the job starts, and drum up more potential customers? Could be a good way to justify charging a premium for your services. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## overanalyze (Dec 28, 2010)

gbruzze1 said:


> Question to guys running the buildclean or any other air scrubber...
> 
> Have you considered advertising dust free remodels? I think customers would be inclined to pick up the phone and find out about a dust free kitchen renovation. Everyone seems to say how happy and amazed the HOs are when they walk in with these machines, why not awe them before the job starts, and drum up more potential customers? Could be a good way to justify charging a premium for your services.
> 
> ...


I wouldn't ever advertise dust free...just asking for a crazy to rip you a new one when they find dust. Now I would say dust containment and management systems...


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## charimon (Nov 24, 2008)

gbruzze1 said:


> Question to guys running the buildclean or any other air scrubber...
> 
> Have you considered advertising dust free remodels? I think customers would be inclined to pick up the phone and find out about a dust free kitchen renovation. Everyone seems to say how happy and amazed the HOs are when they walk in with these machines, why not awe them before the job starts, and drum up more potential customers? Could be a good way to justify charging a premium for your services.


The InVogue term is DustLESS. One of the goals for this year is to shift focus from tile setting to dustless tearout and prep for others.
In my case the scrubbers are just one part of the equation. The Vacuums are the expensive item. Add in 15-20 zip poles and several dust door kits. The overhead investment requires you to charge a premium.


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## madmax718 (Dec 7, 2012)

unless its RRP, there's no requirement for a HEPA vac. Unless I missunderstood the rules nothing stops you fromtear out, vac up with a regular vac, and then finish with a HEPA.

By far, active dust management, barrier walls, floor protection, wall protection in my opinion are primary to any air scrubber system. Its like how you can still have dust on your HEPA air purifiers, sitting right on top, right next to it, etc. Dust will stick to surfaces, way beyond what your air scrubber can pull in and filter. THe air scrubber will handle those super fine particulates. 

If you guys have ever ground down thinset without active dust management (i.e. a dust shroud) you know that the whole room fills with thinset dust very quickly. Yes, the air scrubber will get a lot of it, but that takes time. Also the heavier particulates settle on EVERYTHING. Whereever you walk, move, all over your clothing, when you hug your kids, etc. 

I once used an old guy to do some carpentry work, and the inside of his reg cab pickup had fine saw dust over everything. Obviously he wasnt doing work in the cab itself, but it was just dust on his body being tracked from the jobsite into his vehicle. 

Can you upsell your jobs with it? Absolutely. Can you tack on a premium? Sure, setup of the dust barriers, flooring, walls, door corners, taping up, its still labor cost. 

Just be careful of the under bidders. A lot of home owners dont understand that without proactive dust management methods, they will be cleaning for days, weeks, even months finding debris and dust. Be wary of the man with no vac.


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## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

Mine does the power cut out thing too. I just assumed it was how it sampled the air for the speed setting. I guess I should call them up?


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

aaron_a said:


> Mine does the power cut out thing too. I just assumed it was how it sampled the air for the speed setting. I guess I should call them up?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Well my new one don't do that and the owner said it was fixed on the new ones. I'm waiting on them to get back to me about sending back the 2nd one to exchange. My wife didn't even say anything when I was testing the replacement. After she figured it was she said that sounds much better.


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## builder2345 (Aug 31, 2010)

Hey BCC, just checking in for an update now that you've had them for a little while ... 2 thumbs up? I'm planning on buying an air scrubber in the next week or so, so trying to make a decision on which one


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

So far so good. Finally got 2 machines that don't have the power cycling issue and very happy with them. 

Done a few tests in best layout. 

One machine I run in the area I was working creating dust. The other one I put in another room adjacent to the one I was working and taped off. I then had that creating a negative pressure. 

The one working in negative pressure mode was catching vastly more dust than the one that was in the area I was working creating the dust so when you can run them in negative pressure mode. 

Here's a picture of the layout when running them in separate areas. I am currently running them both in negative pressure mode and they are working good. I will get a picture tomorrow side by side so you can see how dirty the filters are. 

Customer feed back has been great. 

The current job they are amazed there is zero dust in any rooms from the work. Their cleaner even mentioned how clean the house was too as she normally hates cleaning houses as demo is going on. 

So basically they are already paying for them self. I charge $400 for 2 machines or $200 for the one machine depending on layout of jobs and size.


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## charimon (Nov 24, 2008)

BCConstruction said:


> So far so good. Finally got 2 machines that don't have the power cycling issue and very happy with them.


Some how the second statement makes a lie of the first. How many were shipped messed up?


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