Removing drywall dust from walls before you paint, is up there with the west jobs EVER. Its labor intensive, frustrating, and dirty. But I've got a trick that is going to blow your mind. It's crazy, but it works.

When we were getting ready to paint, I reached out to my friend Josh (you might remember him if you're a lifer, he's the one that helped me paint the exterior of the Nugget). Josh is a professional painter and works for the most sought after company in southern Utah. So I called him and I was like "hey, any tips for removing drywall dust? Cause this stuff is a nightmare."

He responded with THE CRAZIEST THING I"VE EVER HEARD.

If you look online, which I did, there are 2 methods to removing drywall dust. 1. Brushing it off the wall and vacuuming (repeated 3x) or 2. Use a barely damp rag to wipe it down. Lets just imagine what that actually looks like, thoroughly wiping down EVERY.SPOT.OF.DRYWALL…INCLUDING.CEILINGS. I mean, just sign me up for the 7th circle of hell, cause that would probably be better.

So do you want to know what Josh's trick is? Its crazy. But we did it and it totally worked.

You run water through your paint sprayer and spray the walls.

Yes, with water.

Yes, on your walls.

You spray it enough that the walls get wet, but don't oversaturate them. The drywall compound absorbs the water within minutes and its dry. We did it all over the entire Merc and it worked like a charm!

Full disclosure: The spots that I sprayed down with a heavier spray were completely dust free. I shot a video, and of course it was the wall that didn't get sprayed down enough (I was worried for the life of my camera) so there is a little bit of dust on my glove, but obviously nothing like it was before. So the results in the below pictures aren't showing it as awesome as it really is. I hate it when that happens!!

After our lengthy drywall discussions, I can say with full confidence that this method works wonders on walls like mine that are covered in joint compound. I don't know how it would work on walls that are just taped and have most of the actual drywall paper showing.

I love learning hacks like this one that save time and energy! So what do you think? Crazy? Would you try it?

If you have any questions about it, leave them below and I'll answer them!

Psst! Want to be in on the day to day decision making at the Merc?
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