Author Topic: Removing paint chips/ lead dust from small carpet area...with hose?  (Read 3355 times)

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Offline birddog

  • Posts: 14
There's a small area of my carpet that runs along a baseboard (25' or so) that has some small paint chips and dust from the baseboards. Unfortunately, the 6" x 25' area of carpet along the baseboard doesnt regularly get vacuumed, mostly because there's furniture in the way. I had the paint tested for lead, and was not surprised it was positive, but relieved it is well below EPA's hazard level. Still any lead is not good and I want to be as safe as possible as I clean up.

I have a CT 15 and am thinking of using just the hose to tackle this problem. I know that a beater bar would be ideal -- I did order the turbobrush, which needed a 36 hose, so I got the cleantec to get the hose plus the extensions for the wands...but none of them seems to fit the turbobrush. I am going to ask festool tomorrow, but I have tried every conceivable way of making the pieces work and they don't, and the plastic extension tubes seem a little wonky and difficult. I use a miele with hepa filter and turbobrush to clean the rest of the carpets regularly, and love the sturdy metal wand and that all attachments literally click into place. (I was surprised the festool cleaning attachments did not do that!)

I am hoping someone has advice on this. I think the direct suction from the CT 15 hose would be sufficient to remove most of the dust, and it is do-able for this small area, altho my back might be unhappy for a couple days. I'm pretty sure I cant wet the area first as the moisture would ruin the hepa filter, but I don't have a wet vac, only a bissell carpet cleaner, which I likely will try to clean the area with afterwards.

Thanks for any suggestions.

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Offline woodferret

  • Posts: 537
Just a note, miele heads fit on the plastic festool wands.  Doesn't lock, but friction fit is fine.

Offline Cheese

  • Posts: 11039
1. There's a small area of my carpet that runs along a baseboard (25' or so) that has some small paint chips and dust from the baseboards. Unfortunately, the 6" x 25' area of carpet along the baseboard regularly get vacuumed, mostly because there's furniture in the way. I had the paint tested for lead, and was not surprised it was positive, but relieved it is well below EPA's hazard level. Still any lead is not good and I want to be as safe as possible as I clean up.

I have a CT 15 and am thinking of using just the hose to tackle this problem. I know that a beater bar would be ideal --2. I did order the turbobrush, which needed a 36 hose, so I got the cleantec to get the hose plus the extensions for the wands...but none of them seems to fit the turbobrush. I am going to ask festool tomorrow, but I have tried every conceivable way of making the pieces work and they don't, 3. and the plastic extension tubes seem a little wonky and difficult. I use a miele with hepa filter and turbobrush to clean the rest of the carpets regularly, and love the sturdy metal wand and that all attachments literally click into place. (I was surprised the festool cleaning attachments did not do that!)

Thanks for any suggestions.

1. The 203809 Turbo Brush is 10-5/8" wide and there is a gap of 3/4" on each side of the brush head. So you'll still not pick up anything within 3/4" of the baseboard. I'd vacuum with the Turbo and then install the crevice tool to cleanup the remaining chips/dust.






2. I have the same equipment, except I have the stainless extension tubes and everything fits together well. No issues at all.

3. Yes the plastic extension tubes are wonky but if they're fairly new, maybe your dealer would work out an upgrade? The worse thing he can say is no.  [smile]

I also have Miele vacuums for household use and I periodically swap between Miele tools on Festool hoses and Festool tools on Miele hoses.

Offline birddog

  • Posts: 14
Thanks Cheese! I did not realize that some Festool and Miele accessories are compatible. I'll look into the metal extension tubes, thanks for the suggestions.

Offline Packard

  • Posts: 2731
Apparently, as long as you have a HEPA filter, you are good to go.

I just went with the first authoritative source (nothing special about Minnesota).

https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/lead/fs/cleaningup.html#

You can use a special vacuum cleaner called a High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter (HEPA) vacuum to clean up lead. The HEPA vacuum has a special filter that can pick up and hold small pieces of lead.


Offline Coen

  • Posts: 2352
1. There's a small area of my carpet that runs along a baseboard (25' or so) that has some small paint chips and dust from the baseboards. Unfortunately, the 6" x 25' area of carpet along the baseboard regularly get vacuumed, mostly because there's furniture in the way. I had the paint tested for lead, and was not surprised it was positive, but relieved it is well below EPA's hazard level. Still any lead is not good and I want to be as safe as possible as I clean up.

I have a CT 15 and am thinking of using just the hose to tackle this problem. I know that a beater bar would be ideal --2. I did order the turbobrush, which needed a 36 hose, so I got the cleantec to get the hose plus the extensions for the wands...but none of them seems to fit the turbobrush. I am going to ask festool tomorrow, but I have tried every conceivable way of making the pieces work and they don't, 3. and the plastic extension tubes seem a little wonky and difficult. I use a miele with hepa filter and turbobrush to clean the rest of the carpets regularly, and love the sturdy metal wand and that all attachments literally click into place. (I was surprised the festool cleaning attachments did not do that!)

Thanks for any suggestions.

1. The 203809 Turbo Brush is 10-5/8" wide and there is a gap of 3/4" on each side of the brush head. So you'll still not pick up anything within 3/4" of the baseboard. I'd vacuum with the Turbo and then install the crevice tool to cleanup the remaining chips/dust.

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)


2. I have the same equipment, except I have the stainless extension tubes and everything fits together well. No issues at all.

3. Yes the plastic extension tubes are wonky but if they're fairly new, maybe your dealer would work out an upgrade? The worse thing he can say is no.  [smile]

I also have Miele vacuums for household use and I periodically swap between Miele tools on Festool hoses and Festool tools on Miele hoses.

Ah yes, the Festool #203809 that is 99%* identical to the Wessel Werk TK286 that costs only €40 instead of €145

(*)The small valve door that is green on the Festool is blue on the Wessel Werk.

Now, I like to have original tools, but in this case I think Wessel Werk makes both of them anyway.  [tongue]

I recently bought the Wessel Werk TK286 and it works pretty great. Except on 3rd use someone had left some 15 cm long very thin steel wire on the floor. That resulted in a different sound lol.

I actually found out about the Wessel Werk from this forum;
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/other-tools-accessories/wessel-werk-tk286-alternative-to-festool-turbo-suction-brush-d36-ct-(203809)/msg685321/#msg685321

Festool still got the €105 as at about the same time I bought a laminate and aluminum blade for my TS 55 F  :P
« Last Edit: May 24, 2023, 04:49 PM by Coen »

Offline birddog

  • Posts: 14
@Coen Thanks for letting me know. When I was inspecting the turbobrush, "WESSELWERK" was engraved on the bottom! Will definitely buy a Wesselwerk when I need to replace!

Offline squall_line

  • Posts: 2252
The HEPA filter is one of the keys, since that will keep you from spewing the lead dust back into the room.

But, let's be honest, you likely don't need a full-HEPA certified and sealed unit like a CT if it's just a few errant chips from a small area of carpet; if it's mixed in with other dust in the bag you should be fine when it comes time to throw it all out, and you probably aren't causing a cross-contamination hazard with the hoses or anything else.

Now, if there is so much paint in the carpet that it looks like someone took a scraper to the trim, that's a completely different story.  But if there's so little that you can barely see it, you're fine with a HEPA filtered vac.

Heck, just some sticky tape or a lint roller might get enough of it up to be worth doing.

Frankly, I'm more afraid of broken compact fluorescent bulbs than I am of small amounts of lead paint chips these days...

Offline birddog

  • Posts: 14
Heck, just some sticky tape or a lint roller might get enough of it up to be worth doing.
Haha!I actually thought of using a roll of contact paper, but it's a bit unwieldy (curls up, buckles) -- if I had someone helping me, I would totally do it!

Edit: I just found out about adhesive vinyl sheets used a lot in crafting -- they are pre-cut in flat sheets which means no curling. ordered some on amazon, gonna try it out this weekend!
« Last Edit: May 25, 2023, 12:47 AM by birddog »

Offline birddog

  • Posts: 14

Ah yes, the Festool #203809 that is 99%* identical to the Wessel Werk TK286 that costs only €40 instead of €145

(*)The small valve door that is green on the Festool is blue on the Wessel Werk.

Now, I like to have original tools, but in this case I think Wessel Werk makes both of them anyway.  [tongue]


The valve door allows more air intake into the brush? So it doesn't blow out any air at all? I have only used it once, but didnt experiment with the valve door. Just checking because I am sucking up lead dust and don't want any air escaping back out. Turbo brush didnt come with any card w/ instructions. Thanks!

Offline Coen

  • Posts: 2352
Yeah the door allows for more airflow through the turbine, increasing the brush' rpm at the cost of a lesser vacuum.

But imagine the thick carpet... it might suffocate the whole no. No flow = no dust picked up + no rpm of the brushes.