ZipWall KT20 20 foot Loaded Poles for Dust Barriers, (Pack of 2)

These ZipPoles are a great idea, however I was disappointed by the lower build quality of one of the components - the head pieces (according to Zipwall's website). I don't doubt that other people are bending these pieces with regularity when you consider that they sell replacement "head" pieces on their website. Here is my experience. I was locking in plastic sheeting in one of the slider pieces during the first use and the slider piece broke. The slider pieces which you use to secure the plastic (or other barrier) is not made very well and is susceptible to bending/breaking. I would advise you to use as thin of plastic sheeting as necessary for your job. I was only using 3 mil thick plastic sheeting and it managed to break on me. In my opinion, 3 mil is a reasonable plastic sheeting thickness. So after noticing that one of my slider pieces broke, I also noticed that by the end of my project, two more were bent (when the black plastic turns white and get flimsy). The last one of the four managed to make it through a few uses unscathed so that's 25% of the slider pieces making it through without bending or breaking. What is disappointing is that I ordered this set well in advance knowing that they *could be* useful for the floor refinishing/sanding that I am doing, but by the time I get around to using them for the first time, it has been just over 1 month (1 month and 2 days) since I bought them so they are ineligible for a return to Amazon. All I expect is for them to send me a couple more of these head pieces. The poles themselves seem to be good quality and I will give credit where credit is due. The idea behind these ZipPoles is excellent, and besides the head piece issue, my experience has otherwise been pretty good. Although these poles *can* get the job done effectively, it would be worthwhile for ZipWall to manufacture the higher quality head pieces. You don't want to have to worry about them bending/cracking on account of the thickness of your plastic sheeting/visqueen. On the flip side, if you use sheeting that is too thin, you run a higher risk of the plastic tearing. I think 3 mil should do the trick if you're careful, but anything thinner may tear too easily and anything thicker is that much more likely to bend those head pieces into which the slider/grip pieces fit and hold your sheeting when locked in. Right now, I am in the process of trying to contact the manufacturer of the ZipPoles for the replacement head pieces, and I hope they will be easy to deal with. I will follow up to advise everyone about how easy OR difficult it is to get replacement head pieces based on this 1-year warranty that they offer. My rating is primarily due to the disappointing component (head pieces) despite the rest of the set being of decent quality. If the head pieces were better quality, I could see giving this product a 4 or 5 star rating. In my opinion, a product is only as good as its weakest link, and in this case, the weakest link is the poorly made head piece. **********6/22/2011 UPDATE********** I spoke with Christine at ZipWall. She was absolutely great!!! She called me back the following day after I sent an email. I returned her call at my earliest convenience, and she was extremely diligent about getting me some new head piece parts on order (FREE-of-charge and without any fuss). She was very polite, professional, and understanding of my needs and desires for this product. ZipPole product concept & its capabilities - 5 stars ZipPole quality (poles themselves) - 4.5 stars Head piece quality - 1.5 stars (they work, but are susceptible to bending/breaking) Christine @ ZipWall - 5 stars Getting new head pieces to replace my old bent/broken ones - 5 stars! Overall, I have updated my review rating to 5 stars (up from 2 stars) and my rationale is that this product is very good one, and despite its shortcoming (header pieces), their customer service is great and they made the problem right by sending me new header pieces hassle-free and free-of-charge. These ZIpPoles are a product which can effectively do what it is intended to do (which is awesome for containing job site debris among other functions) as long as all of the components maintain their integrity. Thanks to Christine & ZipWall for making things right with me. ----- Just a final comment about how great Christine was - she even gave me a cool suggestion about other uses for the ZipPoles - for supporting (muslin) backdrops for photography which is great because my wife does a lot of photography. My concern, of course, is that the thickness of those muslin backdrops could bend the header pieces, but I will try this very carefully to see if it's a possibility without compromising the head.

These poles, although advertised as "cheap", are surprisingly light, sturdy, and well made for their intended purpose; holding up plastic sheet to keep dust contained, and they are just perfect for that task. I bought two sets of four poles for my project. The shipping boxes only had a couple bands of tape holding them shut, but all the parts were factory fresh and no parts were missing or damaged. The ceiling feet firmly snapped on to the top of the poles, held the plastic sheet in place as designed, and held snugly against my 8 foot high flat textured ceiling. The twist locks on the poles all worked well. A pole about every five or six feet provides a reasonable seal against the ceiling. I suppose zippers and ceiling "cross members" or tape would make a tighter seal if needed, but I've kicked up a whole lot of dust and, so far, not much, if any, dust has settled outside the work area. I'm really happy with these poles! No comment on the non-slip feet since I have carpet and am not using them. No comment on the zippers since the "tucked in flap" is working well for me and I'm not using the zippers. No comment on the carrying cases since I haven/t had a chance to use them yet. Since I'll probably store them in the attic until my next Harry-home-owner project, I'll likely just put the poles back in the shipping box. But I guess if one was carrying them from job to job, or otherwise using them fairly often, the storage bags would be pretty handy. I also bought a roll of 2 mil plastic sheet 10X100 feet (plenty left over for the next project). Oh, and for the floor, a couple of "one tuff" plastic/paper drop cloths. My task was to block off the center section of my living room to repair the ceiling drywall, an area about 8 X 13 feet. I planned on a pole in each corner and two more poles evenly spaced on each of the 13 foot runs. Here's what I did: First, I pre-tensioned a pole about half the spring length and then used it as a guide to pre-tension the rest of the poles. I then cut a length of plastic about 45 feet long. I started at the entrance corner to the planned work area and wrapped the plastic from one corner to the next on the outside of the poles (securing the plastic to each additional pole as I went), leaving about a foot of plastic hanging out past the first pole. I only unfolded the plastic as much as needed to attach it to the top of the poles as I went, letting it overhang toward the work area about 8 or 10 inches over the top of each pole. When I got back to the starting corner I used a fifth pole a few inches away from the first (starting) pole to secure the final stretch of plastic, which I left about 3 feet long (past the starting pole). I then unfolded the plastic the rest of the way to the floor and, after moving the poles so the plastic was taunt, I tucked the plastic under the foot of each pole and then fully compressed the spring on each pole. As expected, the plastic was drooping down from the ceiling about an inch or so on the long runs, so I put up two more poles evenly spaced on the "far side", and the remaining pole in the center of the other long run; all of them fully tensioned. This seemed to snug up both sides against the ceiling pretty good, so I determined to leave the eighth pole a few inches from the starting pole, without putting the plastic under the foot of the pole, but, instead, slipping the end of the plastic between the first and final pole. This made a quick and convenient way to get in and out of the work area (without using zippers). The whole setup process took about an hour, more or less, and the poles, plastic, and drop cloth do a really good job keeping the dust contained.

I used this product to create a partition in my kitchen for some rather substantial demolition. With just a roll of 10' tall poly, I was able to seal off an old staircase from the rest of the room, leaving the kitchen functional and clean, while I removed 1.5 stories of 105 year old plaster and lathe. For anyone that's demolished plaster and lathe, you'd know that it's an impossible amount of dust that happens to be incredibly stubborn and impossible to remove and wash off anything/everything. Using some strapping and taping up some poly was not going to be an option for me. I received the product in very good condition, unopened, new and complete with all parts and accessories (I only say that due to other reviews I saw here). The zipwall performed fantastically. I installed it myself without help in about 20 minutes (could have been faster if I were hurrying), and it was intuitive and easy. The included zipper (mine had 2) worked really well for a secure entry/exit, even though I stupidly installed it upside down. The poles are high quality, light, operate with ease, and were very sturdy, including multiple accidental bump-ins with me on the inside of the bubble. For those considering the higher end version of the zipwall with the steel poles, I can't imagine how heavy duty an environment would justify more than what these are. I used all 4 poles for about 15 feet of "wall," mostly because of the odd configuration I required to keep the kitchen circulation functional while the partition was installed. The ceiling is at 8'6, though I think another 12" of height would offer the same results. The sheets held tight to the ceiling between poles without the foam accessories or any tape. I used the zipwall double-stick tape to really tighten up the edges at the walls. I'd probably recommend a 3M version, as this didn't have a ton of stick to it. It's worth noting, that too much stick could be a problem too in a finishes space and pull paint off a wall. It did hold well enough for me with a little extra pressing. My only regret, which was not a product issue, was that I didn't take enough care with the extra slack of sheet at the bottom. I would have rathered left the slack at the top, rather than rolled up at the bottom. For my very messy job, it ended up getting in the way and dirty in the bubble, and compromised the seal a bit at the bottom a bit. A neat 4" fold would have been plenty for a nice tight bottom seal, rather than rolling up 12" or more. Highly recommended for in-home air barrier for dust containment.

System works but zipper needs some work, not really reusable!

These were perfect ! We had a hard wood floor put in our addition that is right off the kitchen. We have a (very mischievous) cat and a little dog that we needed to KEEP OUT of the area while the 3 coats of polyurethane were applied (with a day of drying between each application). There is no door between the rooms .. I found these one very late/early morning when I couldn’t sleep and was thinking about how to make a temporary wall so that we didn’t have permanent paw prints in our beautiful new floor. These were easy and effective! We did put cases of Selzer and a few other heavy items along the plastic on the floor because the cat did attempt to get through multiple times.. These kept all the sawdust out of the kitchen while the sanding was happening and all the pets out of the addition while polyurethaning. They are well worth the investment!

IAAAC (I am an abatement contractor). Containment barriers are very important to me, as is speed and efficiency. ZipWall SLP's make it possible to quickly erect barriers which are compliant with regulatory law. I was pretty surprised that Amazon carries these, so I ordered two (2) packs. They arrived promptly and whole, and I have not had any malfunctions with them or any problems of any kind. The price easily beat all local supply houses. These poles are great for heavier containment barriers such as 4-mil or even 6-mil thick polyethylene barrier sheeting. Just bear in mind that if you're pressing up against a delicate ceiling (such as acoustic texture) that you need the foam rail accessories that go with these poles. The number of poles you need is determined by the size of your containment area, as well as the negative pressure differential of that versus outside air. If you are under no negative pressure, poles can be 4-7 feet apart to just act as dust barriers. If you can rig up a fan to the barrier wall, though, it really helps. By lowering the pressure inside, you prevent the migration of dust to other areas. This can have small but very visible effects that make life easier. Say you're renovating your own home. Drywall dust, wood particles. Big mess. If you don't setup barriers, this dust can float around your house and get on EVERYTHING. That's where these poles come in. You setup a few from floor to ceiling (they reach to 12' on this model) with some plastic and you're going to find much, much less dust in other areas. Add a HEPA filtered vacuum (hose inside, vacuum outside) and you now have lower atmospheric pressure inside the barriers. This means that even if you open the plastic flap closing it, air will move inward, mitigating the spread of dust. These poles are of higher quality than the ones with the red plastic stem connecting the head to the pole. Be wary of the rubber feet on the bottom of the pole. They're there to protect floors, but if you're not careful when moving the poles they may come detached. I recommend this product and Amazon is a very convenient place to get it.

I needed to cordon off my dining room to make a dust barrier because my bedroom wall was being demolished and replaced. So after reading the favorable reviews of the zip wall, I decided to purchase them. They created a complete dust barrier and are very easy to install. I added extra painters tape around the ceiling and the sides of the plastic to really keep the dust out. While the zip wall poles come with the zippers it’s really not practical if it’s gonna be more than one or two days I ended up ordering the zip wall door works perfectly. It’s money well spent for the peace of mind.

Bought this for my home improvement/ repair business and it works great. It keeps dust controlled sets up super easy and make me look very professional. Seem to be great quality really like the design and spring loaded end. Will definitely be buying more of these