We're building a house: how sad is it to have clean up after grown adults?

Question

Why are construction workers so bad about littering, even dropping cigarettes on the floor IN the house?

Answer 1

a good contractor and crew will clean up at the end of every day. im not saying spotless but trash and scrap building materials should be dealt with daily and a thorough cleaning at the end of the job

Answer 2

Went through a renovation and became our contractor's cleaning crew. Embarrassed him into action. Amazed at what materials & tools were left everywhere, including out in the rain. We salvaged a lot. Would recommend you ask the builder to use a magnet sweeper when they are completed to find all the nails they drop on the ground. Hope you have a no payment, til completion contract. Also have an independent home inspection by a qualified new construction inspector before final payment. Yes, sad but shows the disorganization of the builder and the quality of the workers he finds. Many may just be day labor he picks up to fill in. All normal. As long as he has qualified people doing the main work - should come out just fine. Hang in there.

Answer 3

Apparently you believe in some idyllic world that just doesn't exist. Sure, when I'm remodeling a house we cleanup every single day, but that's just not realistic on a new construction job. We do cleanup in different stages when it is necessary, and that costs money. Do you want to add to the cost of your new home by having it cleaned on a daily basis? I doubt it. Let's face it, we contractors have to work as best we can with the less-educated workers that are available. These are the same people that litter our highways and leave trash and cigarette butts in their own houses and yards. They don't see a big problem with their behavior and your frankly not going to change their minds. We put trash cans and dumpsters on the job sites to little avail. But that's the labor pool we have to work with and it's not going to change. Plus, construction isn't the only sector of work that deals with these attitudes. It's pervasive in our culture, just ask the planet and take at look at any street intersection (cigarette butts by the zillions) and see what all of us are doing to our primary house -- earth! By the way, lots of folks are affording these new houses that the workers themselves cannot afford by selling them and addicting them to products that pay their high salaries. It's the American way!

Answer 4

Not quite sure what you are trying to ask here. But it isn't that sad really considering it is a construction site we are talking about here. This is perfectly normal on most amateur construction job sites where there isn't a professional contractor involved. If there is a professional contractor involved then why bother even wondering about this? If he/she doesn't have a problem with it, why should you? Yes, even though it is the building of a house, that still translates to a construction of a site. Ummm, okay if you hired a contractor and paid money for one then you have to tell the contractor you do not wish for this to happen anymore and if he continues you are going to hire another contractor to do the job. It is simple if he wants to keep the job he will skip to it. Ummm, you didnt pay him up front did you??

Answer 5

I'm not sure, but it's not just you. We just had a roof put on this fall, and there were cigarette butts and half full bottles of Mountain Dew (and such like) all over the place. Surely construction workers everywhere can't be this inconsiderate though. Could be we just didn't luck out in that department.

Hope their work is decent, at least.

Answer 6

until the house is finished, they probably dont really consider it to be your home yet, so they are treating it like a job site. I definitely would not make final payment to this contractor until he has TOTALLY cleaned up once he is finished with the construction.this kind of sloppiness and disrespect is completely unacceptible, and i would consider the job incomplete until its cleaned to your satisfaction. Ive been thru this (my yard was full of nails, cigarette butts, coke cans, fast food wrappers,etc) and I clearly told the foreman that there would be no final payment til the job was DONE. thats why its important to pay only in installments, then you have the leverage you need to force them to do what common sense and courtesy should dictate but doesnt seem to in their case.

Answer 7

I know this is just terrible, terrible, terrible, I myself went through the same thing just 6 months ago. I was building 50 miles from where I was living, and once I would get to the site, it usually took me a couple of hours just to clean up someone else's mess, before I could go about my painting.

Answer 8

One would think they would be embarrassed. They aren't. We have been through it. A little advice. Video tape the mess before you clean up. Take your camera and meet with the contractor.Show it to him. Ask him why he doesn't require his workers to clean up after themselves. Ask him if you document your clean up hours if he is willing to deduct your time at ten dollars an hour from the total bill.

Answer 9

my family has built many homes and i would suggest that you post several signs that ask for each tradesman to clean up after himself and you should provide garbage cans or an area for trash.ive worked on homes where you cant eat,smoke, or listen to loud music on the site .signs were posted on these sites and most people respect the rules when they are written.

Answer 10

First thing you need to do is post a NO SMOKING inside sign. Talk to the foreman if there is one and ask if they are going to be cleaning up their mess. Seems to me, it is part of their job.