Scope Walk-Through — Galleries

Dust Control Cleaning for Oxford Street Galleries in Paddington

Commercial galleries on the Oxford Street end of Paddington, NSW 2021 share a problem that quietly costs them credibility: fine dust settling on hung works and framed glazing within days of an install. It is almost never a question of how hard the cleaner is working. It is a question of method and timing. This page sets out how we scope a gallery so the dust stops arriving in the first place.

Diagnosis: the method makes the dust

A general commercial routine applied to a gallery puts particulate straight back into the air of a room full of unglazed works. These are the techniques we look for and remove first:

Dry sweeping the original boards, which aerosolises fine grit rather than collecting it
Feather dusting plinths and rails — the classic gallery mistake, moving dust rather than removing it
A domestic upright vacuum with no HEPA stage, exhausting fines straight back into the space
No high-dusting cycle at all, so lighting tracks and picture rails shed onto the works below
Visits scheduled mid-week regardless of the hang calendar, so deep work never happened while walls were bare

The gallery scope

A gallery scope replaces the general routine rather than adding to it. It is written around two principles: never put dust into the air, and do the reachable work when the walls are empty.

HEPA-filtered vacuuming on a slow, deliberate pass — no sweeping anywhere in the building
Damp microfibre only on plinths, benches, rails, sills and the viewing room furniture
Low-moisture, pH-neutral floor care on the original boards, no saturation and no alkaline stripper
Written no-touch zone of 400mm around any work, agreed with the director and briefed to every crew member
High dusting of lighting tracks, rails, cornices and the mezzanine underside between hangs only
Pre-opening detail visit 24 hours before each launch: glazing, floors, courtyard and amenities
Packing area and courtyard managed separately so crate dust never migrates into the hanging spaces

Working to an exhibition calendar

We ask for the hang schedule for the year and build the roster around it instead of the working week. Between exhibitions, while the walls are bare and there is nothing to protect, a deep visit covers everything above head height. During a show, service drops to light-touch visits plus the pre-opening detail. That inversion is the whole trick: most of the heavy cleaning a gallery needs cannot be done safely while work is hanging, so it has to be scheduled for the gap.

Access follows the same logic. This stretch of Oxford Street has no rear loading, so the crew arrives before 7am, unloads once, and works through before the street fills. Bins are presented to the Woollahra Council cycle rather than left on the footpath in front of the window.

What the gallery receives

A written scope covering method, product and frequency for every area, including the no-touch rule
A fixed weekly price for the in-show routine plus a separately quoted deep visit between hangs
A roster mapped to your hang schedule, not to the working week
A pre-opening detail visit locked in 24 hours before each launch
The same supervised crew, briefed on the no-touch zone before attending, on month-to-month terms

Questions galleries ask

What kind of gallery does this scope suit?

Contemporary commercial galleries of the type found at the Oxford Street end of Paddington 2021 — typically 150 to 250 square metres across the ground floor and rear courtyard of a converted terrace, with one or two hanging spaces, a viewing room, an office mezzanine and a packing area.

Why does dust settle on works between hangs?

Almost always because of method rather than effort. Dry sweeping a timber floor and feather dusting lift particulate into the air instead of removing it, and a domestic vacuum with no HEPA stage exhausts fines straight back into a room full of unglazed works.

What does the gallery scope specify instead?

No dry sweeping and no feather dusting anywhere in the building. HEPA-filtered vacuuming on a slow pass, damp microfibre on all horizontal surfaces, low-moisture pH-neutral care for original boards, and a pre-opening detail visit timed 24 hours before each launch. Lighting track and rail high dusting runs on a fixed cycle between hangs.

How does the exhibition calendar drive the roster?

We ask for the hang schedule for the year and build the roster around it. Between hangs we run a deep visit while walls are bare, which is when ceilings, tracks and rails can actually be reached. During a show, service drops to light-touch visits with a written no-touch zone of 400mm around any work.

How is a gallery scope priced?

As a fixed weekly figure for the in-show routine plus a separately quoted deep visit between hangs, both set after a walk-through. Sydney commercial cleaning market rates run roughly $30 to $50 per hour, and a gallery scope sits toward the upper end because of the method and the care required.