A new roof is exterior work that can still put dust inside the house, mostly through the attic and the ceiling openings below it. Prep the rooms before tear-off, hold the roofer to the debris and the nails, wait until the crew is gone to clean, plan on two passes, and treat anything that got wet as restoration, not cleaning.
That’s the order this work has to happen in. If you’d rather hand the final dust to a crew, tell us the square footage and the handoff date and we’ll come back with a scope and a price in writing.
Why North Texas keeps replacing roofs
Hail here is a season, not a freak event. In its Metroplex climate narrative, the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth/Dallas office writes that “the frequency of thunderstorms and associated severe weather peaks during the spring,” and that “large hail, damaging winds, flooding, and tornadoes occur nearly every year in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, but a specific location is unlikely to experience all of these events every year.” When it is your street’s turn, the roof may have to come off.
That is why our post-construction cleaning page for Dallas & Fort Worth describes the service as “Rough and final cleans after North Texas remodels, hail-season roof replacements and new builds.” The roof is the odd one out: the work happens outside, so the inside clean is easy to forget.
How an outside job ends up inside
A house is not sealed off from its attic. Tear-off shakes the roof frame while the crew is up there: grit and flakes of old roofing can drop through gaps into the attic, and dust that has sat up there for years can get stirred loose. From the attic it comes down a few ways:
- Ceiling openings. Recessed lights, the attic hatch, bath fans and ceiling vents all connect the attic to a room. Look under each one first.
- The air system. If the air handler or ducts sit in the attic, running the system during tear-off can carry attic dust into the rooms; ask the roofer and your HVAC company whether to switch it off.
- Vibration. Hammering can shake loose the dust on fan blades, fixtures and cabinet tops, and rattle frames and fragile pieces off walls and shelves.
- The garage. Open rafters, or no finished ceiling, mean a direct fall onto the cars, the shelving and anything stored up high.
- Foot traffic. Crews that reach the attic from inside walk in and out, and after a rain they cross the clay our Dallas–Fort Worth page warns about: it “rides in on shoes and paws and grinds into finishes.”
Before the crew shows up
Much of the cleanup is decided before the first shingle comes off. The evening before:
- Cover or move what is stored in the attic.
- Clear the floor under the attic hatch and put down a drop cloth.
- Take mirrors, framed art and fragile pieces off the walls and high shelves under the roof.
- Cover beds, upholstered furniture and electronics on the top floor, and close interior doors.
- Move the cars out of the garage or cover them, and cover open shelving.
- Settle the air-system question before work starts, and plan to check the filter afterward.
- Keep pets away from the hammering, open gates and stray nails.
- Photograph each room, so anything knocked over or damaged is a short conversation with the roofer.
Who cleans what
Everyone on a roof job owns a piece of the cleanup:
- The roofer: tear-off debris, the dumpster, old shingles and nails. Check that your contract spells out haul-off and a magnetic nail sweep, and walk the property with the crew lead before final payment.
- The HVAC company: the ducts and the air handler, the call on running the system, and the filter if you don’t change it yourself.
- A restoration company: anything that got wet, from a leak while the roof was open or rain through a hail-broken window. That is drying and remediation, not cleaning; we draw that line in what a cleaning company can do after storm damage.
- Your adjuster: the go-ahead before anything damaged is thrown away.
- The cleaning company: the fine dust in the rooms. Our Dallas & Fort Worth post-construction page puts it plainly: “Construction dust settles twice, so this is scoped as more than one pass. Bulk debris and anything requiring a dumpster stays the contractor’s haul-away — we say that up front rather than discovering it on site.” The long version is what post-construction cleaning does not include.
The inside clean, in order
Start when the roof is finished and the crew has packed up. Our Dallas–Fort Worth page says when: “Once tools and materials are gone. Cleaning around active work means cleaning it twice and paying for both.” A crew on the roof is active work, even with nobody inside.
Whoever does it, work top-down: fans, light fixtures, vent covers and return grilles; cabinet tops, door frames, ledges and walls; window tracks and sills; furniture; floors last. Our post-construction checklist for Dallas & Fort Worth lists “Fine dust off walls, ledges, vents and returns,” “Window tracks, sills and interior glass” and “A second pass after the dust settles again.”
The same Dallas–Fort Worth page explains the second pass with drywall dust (“Clean once and it lands again on everything you just wiped”), and attic dust can do the same: some is still in the air, or still sifting through the ceiling openings, when the first wipe is done.
Big North Texas houses: more ledges, more glass
Big houses multiply the surfaces. Our Dallas–Fort Worth page notes that “Southlake, Westlake and Colleyville run to large custom homes with stone, tall glass and long stair runs,” and that “Collin County builds fast and wide, so surfaces in Frisco, Prosper and Celina are newer but the square footage is not forgiving.” Every stone ledge, tall window track and two-story stair rail is another place for fine dust to sit.
So we would rather see the house than guess, which is why that page’s note on pricing opens with “Price follows the work, not a guess.”
When hail broke more than shingles
If hail also cracked a window or skylight, the glass gets replaced first and the clean comes after. The checklist on our Dallas–Fort Worth page covers “Window tracks, sills and interior glass”; replacing panes, repairing screens, clearing gutters and washing siding are not on it.
If rain got in, call your insurance company before you book a cleaning. The Texas Department of Insurance’s storm guidance tells homeowners to take pictures and video of the damage, make temporary repairs to prevent more damage, throw nothing away until the adjuster says so, and hold off on permanent repairs until the adjuster has seen it. Wet drywall, insulation or carpet is a restoration job, and our Terms say where we stop: “We reserve the right to refuse or stop service where conditions are unsafe for our team — such as mold, infestation, biohazards, or abusive behavior.”
What we will and won’t claim
The honest boundary: nothing on our published post-construction checklist touches the attic, insulation, ductwork, roof or gutters, so none of that is part of the clean we quote. We don’t test air or make air-quality claims; roof dust here is dust on surfaces. Whether a policy pays for an inside clean is a question for your adjuster, not for us. And we won’t tell you stories about past North Texas storms.
What we publish for this market is on our Dallas & Fort Worth post-construction page: “Every visit in Dallas & Fort Worth is fulfilled by insured, background-checked cleaners working a written checklist, and eligible completed visits include a CleanCheck report with customer-safe photo proof — so you can see the result before you are back in the room.” The same page lists “A price in writing before we schedule” and “Nothing due at booking.”
Part of the JAS operating playbook: built from our published pages, the National Weather Service and the Texas Department of Insurance, not from storm stories.
FAQ
How soon after the roofers finish can the inside be cleaned?
Once the roof is finished, the crew and materials are gone, and any glass replacement or water-damage repair inside is complete. Our Dallas–Fort Worth service page says: “Post-construction dates move, so we hold a window rather than a fixed hour and confirm the day before. Tell us your inspection or handoff date and we plan backwards from it.” After a roof job, that date is the day you need the house back.
Do you clean the attic?
Not as part of this clean. The attic, insulation and ducts are not on our published post-construction checklist; for those, call the roofer, an insulation contractor or your HVAC company. We clean what the attic let into the rooms: the dust on walls, ledges, vents and returns, window tracks and sills, and floors.
Will my homeowners insurance pay for the cleaning?
We can’t tell you, and we won’t guess: it depends on your policy and your adjuster, so ask the adjuster before you book. The Texas Department of Insurance publishes consumer guidance on storm claims and on hiring contractors afterward. This is general information, not insurance or legal advice.
Can you quote from photos?
Yes, if they are detailed. Our Dallas–Fort Worth service page says the real number “comes from a walkthrough or a detailed set of photos, because finish level and how much dust escaped containment change the work more than square footage does.” Send wide shots of the rooms under the roof and a close-up of the dust film on a dark surface; you get a written quote before anything is scheduled.