I have major respiratory issues, and my kitchen remodel has been a big issue for me healthwise. There's no escape from the dust in my place, because it's a loft space that's completely open. What I did was invest in a hardcore air purifier to remove as much of the dust from the air as possible. After much research, I got the IQAir HealthPro Plus, which seems to be as good a residential air purifier as one can buy. It's kind of big and expensive, but I'm sure I'd be in far worse shape without it here. I probably should have invested in one long ago, remodel or not, because of my sensitivity to airborne particles.

If you don't have any sort of air purification going on in your house, it may be something you want to consider. It sounds as though you would benefit from it even after the remodel. Good luck to you and your family; I hope the process is as painless for you as possible.

Get the best furnace filters out there (no, they aren't cheap) and change them weekly. I would seal the work area off with plastic drop cloths and, if possible, don't let your workers come through those plastic covered areas. Get a shop vac with HEPA filters and clean the area every night after the work is done - you wear a mask, too, during the cleanup. If possible, don't let workers do any sawing inside your home - can they have a garage/patio area to work in? Cover your beds daily with plastic drop cloths so at least when you're all sleeping, your faces won't be buried in dust particles. If necessary, cover hanging clothes, too.

Then, after the remodel is complete (as far as the new building goes), get the pros in to clean out and disinfect all your vents.

Doing all of this will help, but it won't be perfect. It seems like dust finds it's way through solid walls and floors no matter how hard one tries to stop it! Good luck!

We have friends that did a huge remodel. They did most of what is suggested above, but they ran not 1, but 4 HEPA filters in various locations around the house.

And, while I don't have any experience with the product linked below, it seems like a better way to put up plastic barriers than just tape. I saw these advertised in the latest issue of Fine Homebuilding Kitchens&Baths

Good luck!!!! We look forward to pictures of progress - dust and all.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zip Wall

Hi Buehl - all 3 of my boys have asthma and all 5 of us have allergies. We just went through the process and I can honestly say we had no problem by taking a few steps:

In openings where the trim will remain on and intact, have your contractor seal w/ heavy plastic any and all such openings - do this on both the inside and outside of the openings and also tape down the plastic on the floor of both sides as well as the ceiling. (similar to the Zip Wall shown in the link above)

In openings where the trim, mouldings, etc will be taken off and new ones put down, for the demo phase and until the drywall needs to go up, have your contractor build temporary walls to cover such openings - they can use drywall board or plywood - do this on the renovation side of the opening and then seal with plastic on the finished side of the opening.

Have your contractor put a large industrial box fan in one of the windows (or openings to the outside) of the renovation area and have him turn it so that it sucks dust out of the house

Have your contractor put a filter screen over or inside the air vents in the renovation area.

Change your furnace filters (and use the expensive ones as suggested above!) weekly or at least every two weeks.

Get a HEPA air cleaner for your DS's bedroom and run it all the time

Consider pre-finished or at the very least off-site finished materials (floors, cabinets, trim, etc)

Choose low-VOC paints and stains

Consider emptying a garage spot and dedicating it to your contractor for the duration of the project - most of their cutting work, etc was done outside of the house and that helped (with the dust AND noise!)

Consider hiring a cleaning company for the duration of your project to come in weekly and clean the "finished" part of the house -- a big expense but well worth the investment (keeps that darn nebulizer in the closet!!)

Like you, we couldn't move out but I will say that for the first 48 hours of demo, we did leave for a big slumber party at some friends - even so, we all suffered a bit but adjusted quickly in the first day or so that we were back...I think just all the old insulation and framing smells got to us.

Lastly, just really communicate well w/ your contractor that this is an issue for you and I'm sure he and all the subs will work with you to make it all good.

GOOD LUCK!!! Can't wait to see pictures....
Honestly, as bad as it all sounds, the worst parts were only demo and dry wall.

We are constantly DIY and I have bad allergies and react to everything. What we do:

We have a couple of the Holmes or other brand (I forget), $40 air filters around the house - they now make them for $65 with a washable filter, which is much cheaper in the long run. The cheap ones make a huge difference and I found no difference with the more costly ones. Put one in each bedroom, and other room, including the room after they are done working for the night. We saw in the house as it's cold out and it's fine. They also make huge filtering systems for woodworking but we don't have the space. Jet and Sears are the leading brands.

Plastic barriers - get the heavier grade plastic and just tape it well to the walls. They make plastic zippers - use TWO for each door or they rip out really easily after a few days, especially with kids running around. Make sure to try to tape it to the floors. We got some at a speciality contractor store, but I got a few more at Home Depot. (about $8 each plus plastic)

Cover floors in surrounding area and in demo area if you are not redoing the floor with the big roll of floor/paining/roofing paper - depends on the store where it will be - it looks like red/tan mailing paper. Use tape to seal inbetween cracks - makes much easier so floors don't get dammaged and if you have cracks in the hardwood it doesn't flow to the basement and make the basement dusty.

Make sure they clean up every day or you do. It makes it so much easier to keep things clean if you constantly are cleaning vs. waiting and cleaning. (We have tons of tools frequently used in the basement but they look new).

Swifters - wet and dry help. The best shop vac I found (HEPA is nice but they are big and $$$). The best one is the Stinger - sometimes you can catch it at half this price at Home Depot.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100021998

It cleans really well and since the filters are 3 for $5, you are more willing to change more frequently. It is light weight, which helps if you have to lift it high up and it is much more powerful than it looks. We have a fancy Sears brand that rarely gets used anymore as this is my favorite for everything. Also, when you dump it out and change the filter, wash it down and that helps. We've had ours over a year and it's still going strong after lots of frequent use.

And, lastly, wash down everything with water every few days and make sure after they demo before they put in the cabinets that they clean as they make dust drilling and most contractors don't worry about that as it's behind the cabinets. We cheated and got some help with only hanging the cabinets and the guy laughed as he and my husband worked and I stood there in between helping with my Stinger making sure every nook was clean.

The Zip Walls look cool if you don't have walls to attach plastic to, but they are very $$$ - I think they are about $100 each or something when I looked at them last.

Here is a link that might be useful: My favorite tool

A sensitive and respectful contractor ought to be able to provide you with the dust control you seek. Zipwall is good, as is dust control film from 3M industries.

I have been in houses and apartments where sloppy and uncaring contractors have been working and others where careful and caring contractors have been working. A caring contractor takes the time to isolate the work space and control dust migration. You usually will pay a premium for the service however...or it will be worked into the overall price.

I'm not sure where you live so I don't know if this is practical but one thing we did was to turn off the central HVAC during the demolition and for some of the other work - our GC suggested that we at least turn it off during the day. It did need to be on when they were doing the dry wall and painting and we kept it on for the rest of the project as the weather turned colder. We live in Northern California so our cold weather isn't extreme.

Another thing that really helped - our GC's crew would sweep up each day before they left. They really left the place pretty tidy each day. The painter didn't do this and that was the the only time we had trouble with dust spreading through the house - it's surprising how much dust your feet spread even if you don't think you are going in and out of the room that much.

Our kitchen/family room had a door to the back yard which was what the crew used and our GC insisted on putting a porta-potty on site so the crew never needed to walk through the rest of the house. I was surprised as I had assumed the crew would use our powder room, but having no traffic from the work area through the rest of the house really helped with dust control.

The GC put plastic over the interior doors to the construction area and on days when they were doing something particularly dust or fume spreading we also put a towel under each door to block the crack at the bottom.

We had very little problem with dust or fumes migrating. Also, some of the modern paints are much better as far as fumes. I've had breathing problems in the past with the smell of fresh paint so that was what worried me most but this stuff was fine.

Buehl,

Looks like you are getting some good advice. In fact, it would be great if they could be summarized and added to a FAQ page. Do we have one?

Anyhow, just to add to the above, the building inspector gave us a good tip. Even better at catching the dust than plastic is a dampened old blanket. So, perhaps in front of DS bedroom door, you could hang one during the day, and wash it at night. Dust just slides off the plastic sheeting, the dampened cloth will trap the particles.(I hung a plastic sheet behind as extra insurance.) We had the fan going as suggested and I think that made a HUGE difference!

And, that reminds me, time to go change our furnace filter! :>)

Thanks for all the advice! My DH thinks it's overkill to change the filter every week or two, but I'm trying to convince him otherwise.

I usually just tape up the vents close to where we are working and it isn't a huge issue so we don't have to shut down the entire house (we only turn it off to do the windows why heat the house with big holes in the house). I always check our filter as we're doing heavy sawing and sanding in the house and it never needs changing more than once a month. I usually stick my hand down the vents with the stinger and clorox wipes and there isn't much down them that I would think there would be (after I did it when we moved in and they were nasty).

One other thing to consider...

During our demo, over several weeks' time, there were only four days when there was really a ton of dust:

1. The day they tore out all the old cabs and tore down the original wall and tore up the wood floor.

2. The day they chipped up the original tile from 1942 (nasty smells, too).

3. The day they dug the trench in the slab for the new plumbing and electric to the island. This was BY FAR the worst day.

4. The day they finished the drywall.

The first and fourth days listed above were pretty dusty, but the second and third days listed were REALLY BAD. This was after the contractor took a lot of precautions with sealing off the affected areas. Our bedrooms were OK, but the other living areas weren't. This was also in north Florida during the winter (mostly daytime temps in the 60s), so we could turn off the heat.

That said, if you can identify which days will be the worst days in your timeline, I really think it would be worth it for you and your son to go check into a hotel or stay with a friend. I think the other days would probably be manageable, depending on how careful your contractor is and how extensive the demolition is. But on the bad days, I was pretty uncomfortable, and I don't have any respiratory issues. I can't imagine what those days would have been like with asthma.