Fine dust threatens uptime by shorting components, corroding contacts, and clogging cooling paths. During fit-out or maintenance, even brief releases can settle inside equipment or circulate via cooling units.

Understand the risks

Construction dust, fibres, and zinc whiskers from raised-floor components can be conductive or corrosive. Particles as small as PM2.5 lodge in equipment and are hard to dislodge without damage.

Control during works

Isolate live racks with temporary barriers and maintain positive pressure in white spaces while creating negative pressure enclosures where cutting occurs. Use tool-mounted extraction and select low-dust methods such as core drilling with capture.

Airborne control and filtration

Deploy air scrubbers with high-efficiency HEPA filtration (H14 where sensitive electronics or fine dust dictate). Position units to sweep air across work fronts and away from intakes. Size on airflow under load and maintain pre-filters to keep performance stable.

Housekeeping and materials handling

Avoid compressed air near equipment. Use anti-static, H-class industrial vacuums on floors, cable trays, and under-floor voids. Fit sticky mats and change them frequently to stop track-in. Bag debris before moving it through live areas.

Verification and restart

Log baseline PM readings before work, track during, and confirm a return to baseline before taking barriers down. Inspect filters in cooling units for fouling and replace if contamination is evident.

Practical takeaways

• Maintain pressure strategy: positive in white space, negative in work zones.
• Use captured drilling and tool extraction for all penetrations.
• Run HEPA air scrubbers and service pre-filters frequently.
• Vacuum-only cleaning with anti-static, H-class units; avoid air lances.
• Verify PM levels before recommissioning equipment.

Disciplined containment, high-efficiency filtration, and vacuum-only housekeeping protect uptime and reduce post-work cleaning in critical environments.