# "Blowing out" a basement shop



## daviddoria (Feb 3, 2013)

I occasionally read that it is a good idea to (perhaps annually) give your shop a real "deep clean" where you aim a big fan out an exterior door and spray down everything in the shop (including storage shelves, etc.) with an air compressor. Is there any equivalent to this for a basement shop with no windows/exterior doors?

I have one of those DIY air cleaners that is a box fan with a furnace filter in front of it - I turned that on and did a little compressed air blowing, but the dust basically just seemed to settle down back where it was rather than getting sucked up by the fan+filter (the room is obviously just much too large for the box fan restricted by the filter).

Any other tricks you guys have found for a situation like this?

Thanks,

David


----------



## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Maybe a floor drying fan and a long length of flexible HVAC hose


















and some duct tape!


----------



## daviddoria (Feb 3, 2013)

Haha interesting idea, but that'd be several hundred feet across a basement, up some stairs, and back across the main floor, so somehow I don't think even that fan would cut it


----------



## TroutStalker (Mar 6, 2009)

I use my leaf blower.


----------



## daviddoria (Feb 3, 2013)

But how do you collect the dust that you blow into the air? Doesn't it just get spread around?


----------



## intelligen (Dec 28, 2009)

It's probably a given, but first I'd sweep and vacuum as much as possible. Then you can knock all the dust into the air with a leaf blower or compressor and use a HEPA air cleaner filter it out. if you don't have an air cleaner you can build your own filter box and attach it to your dust collector, floor drying fan, or whatever.

If you have a good filter on your HVAC system, I suppose you could also turn the HVAC fan on and let it recirculate until the shop's air is filtered…assuming you have an air return in your basement shop.

Do you have a clothes dryer in the basement near your shop or ideally in the same room as your shop? You could open a door or window somewhere, hook your dust collector's exhaust up to the dryer vent, and purge the dusty air that way. Or if you don't have an exhaust nearby in the basement, you could just go ahead and install a dryer vent in the shop specifically for this purpose.


----------



## Ghidrah (Jan 20, 2015)

Sweeping and vacuuming my shop is good enough for me, I got so much junk hugging and hanging from walls I'd have to clear it all out 1st and that ain't gonna happen.


----------

