Need help removing paint dust from crevises in hardwood floor (vacuum cleaner, refinish)

[mamamarie]

A worker who repainted our ceiling in our foyer failed to cover our hardwood floor and the paint dust landed on the floor. He then insisted on "cleaning the hardwood" and basically scrubbed the dust into the crevises between each board. I now have white dust stuck between all my wood boards and cannot get it out. I have tried a toothbrush and even a knife but cannot remove the paint. It looks awful. Anyone have any ideas on how to clean and fix it?

[southernlady5464]

Have you tried the crevice attachment of a vacuum cleaner? Liz

[mamamarie]

Originally Posted by southernlady5464

Have you tried the crevice attachment of a vacuum cleaner? Liz

YES, the dust is crammed in there. It is not powerful enough.

[Cornerguy1]

If you an air compressor, or access to one, you could try using some high-pressure air through a small diameter blow gun.

If that removed the crud from the joints, you could then vacuum up the pieces before they found their way back down the cracks again.

An alternative might be to carefully scrape with a fine piece of wire while having a vacuum hose right beside your scraping wire to help suck up the pieces.

[Davart]

Yep a air compressor is a multi function toy ... I mean tool. Try that, wear safety glasses so you don't blow something in you eye ... this ends the safety portion of the thread.

[golfgal]

Or try a can of compressed air like you use to clean out your computer. I would worry that it is actually paint and you might have to refinish the floors to remove that.

[Davart]

If it's in the cracks you might try an artist brush and stain to cover it, if it's dried paint.

I think canned air would lack the needed PSI to really blast it out, but never know might work.