How Much Care Do or Don’t Contractors Take When Working In A Customer’s Home
jimmiem
| Posted in General Discussion on
One of my pet peeves is when a contractor does work in my house and doesn’t take care to keep things clean or clean up after himself. I’ve found cigarette butts left in my driveway, electrical wire pieces, dirty finger prints on walls, dirty footprints on carpeting, etc. Do these guys treat their own homes the same way? Am I hiring people who are the exception to the rule? I’ve had a few contractors who have actually cleaned up after themselves and it does leave a lasting impression…..would definitely hire them again and recommend them to others. What are the messy guys thinking…or aren’t they thinking?
Replies
Oh boy........
I do not live or work in your area, so there's no answer on whether or not your bad experience is the norm.
Here, there are those that do take care of the places they work. It is not unusual to see shoes off or those disposable booties put on upon entry to look at the job. This is a good sign right off the bat. What happens upon the job start may continue.......
All the following are conditions that have nothing to do with the actual job, but everything to do with the experience.
door mat and drop runners at start of the day from entry to project area.
protect and possible damage from occurring - doors removed, pictures down, other decorations/dacor cleared, floor protection as necessary. Being carefull is one thing, beating the odds......a whole different ballgame.
hvac shut off or other methods to keep job location dirty air being pulled into the rest of the house.
drops under any tool or material locations.
job proper isolated to keep debris and dust consolidated.
if we're afforded the customers bathroom, I'll pull up the fancy throw rugs and put a drop down there as well. You as the homeowner should change out the white towels with gray.
at end of day, cleanup of job area so the damn homeowner doesn't nose around and track crap around .
pull up the drops on the way out the door, shake and make available for tomorrow.
hopefully remember to turn on the hvac.
now, are you willing to pay for this?
Some aren't. When price is king, some things fall by the wayside. A bigger kick in the balls, you pay for it and don't get it.
The attitudes and brains of the workers are hard to figure. My usual subs all know the procedure but on occasion I'll use the customers preferred tradesperson. I'll meet them and explain our method and offer them the use of the door mat and drops. Some understand and take care of the area.........a couple don't. This also adds the possibility of some minor damage occurring. In the end, I'm responsible. Rare case, the customers guy owns up and offers help.
Don't forget, vehicle fluid leak? Cardboard under as soon as you pull in.
OH, WOW
I would pay for that. I have never hired based on price alone. Forgot about the fluid drips in the driveway.....only had 1 guy refuse to park in the driveway when I told him it was ok to do. Occasionally when working in the basement some will ask for access through the builk head to avoid tracking through the house and some will not. I like your work habits and the fact that you will let a customer's preferred sub know what your expectations are.
Yeah, it's all over the map, and unfortunately there's no way to predict, other than to get good recommendations or perhaps demand certain measures in a written contract.
Some will tromp in and out repeatedly without taking off obviously dirty shoes, others will spend 10 minutes setting up carpet runners for a 30-minute job.