If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

Say you have contractors doing work in your house for more than a day or two. What do you do? Do you give them a key and leave them alone in the house? Or do you take off from work- have someone sit home with them for a week, or however long the project is?

We're having our bathroom renovated right now...my mother has been there with them for two weeks. It will probably be another week, and I feel bad asking her to sit there. The contractor told me that 95% of his customers just give him a key and dont sit home with him. I do trust him and dont think it would be a problem, but I'm just really uncomfortable with the idea of people in my house when I'm not there.

Message edited 5/21/2009 8:34:58 AM.

Re: If you evee have contractors doing work in your house....

i was wondering the same thing!?

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We had builders in for six months and didn't have a choice but to give them a key. We did make sure that valuables were put in a safe though and we locked the bedroom doors so they only had access to the parts of the house where they needed to work.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

we gave our contractors a key but it is new construction, I would just lock up any valuables,

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We left them in the house. We really didnt have a choice as they where there for about 3 months.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

good question & i was wondering if you do leave them a key, do you change the locks after the project is done?

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

Luckily, DW is a SAHM, so she was with them 95% of the time. We did leave them alone for blocks at a time when DW had to go to appointments. They were with us for months, so they almost became part of the family...

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

When we did our large reno, we didn't live there, so no problem, we just gave them a key. But after they were done, we had to change the locks. Right now if we have someone do work in our house, either myself or my DH will be home, or we can ask my mom to come over. For us it works.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We had our contractor in our house for 8 weeks doing our kitchen. He had been in our house before while we were there and we felt he was totally trustworthy. He owns his own business and does all the work himself. His jobs are all through word of mouth referrals and if he stole things, his work would dry up pretty quickly.

We gave him a key and he returned it when the job was done.
We had no choice - we both work and couldn't be there during the day.

In fact, we're having him back to do some more work in a month or so and we'll end up doing the same thing.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

My bro stays with them when he has his done.

My husband or I stay with them when we have work done.

My mom leaves them alone in her house.

Personally - it depends for me - I could go either way. I have a "people are inherently good" mentality.

eta: My husband always wants someone to be home with them...

Message edited 5/21/2009 11:56:51 AM.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We have done both. My in-laws are retired so they have come to the house to be there when work was being done, but with our bathroom renovation we are very good friends with the contractor, so we had no problem giving him a key.

If it were a stranger, I am not so sure - but if it is a long-term project I would probably do what the others have suggested and lock up valuables and/or rooms that they don't need access to and give them a key.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We had CAC installation recently and DH and I traded days off from work and stayed at home. As much as I want to trust them to do their job - there is too much of value in my home that I don't want it to disappear. Plus, if the contractor breaks/cracks something, I want to be there to see it and have the problem rectified instead of swept under the rug.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

our kitchen is still being installed, and its going on 4 weeks.. we will NOT leave the house while they are there.. so we take turns taking off.. it was very tough, but manageable.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

DH is a contractor and people usually let him in in the morning. He works completely off of referrals though, so people know he's trustworthy b/c of the reference.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We gave our contractors a key, but we knew the GC personally and we trusted the team he brought in and they live in town so we were completely comfortable with them. I work close to the house and my boss was flexible so I was able to run home to check on things during the day when there were questions or just to see what was going on.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

We left our back door unlocked if we were at work. We were always back by the time they finished. All valuables, cash, and important docs (social sec card, marriage license, etc) went into the safe or spent a few weeks at my parent's house.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

your bathroom is taking 3 weeks to do??? um, ok, well my father is a contractor; has had a business for 35 yeras and most people left a key, but they were all family business and very trustworthy, etc. it depends i guess if you trust the person.

Re: If you ever have contractors doing work in your house....

I'm in the middle of some construction now. I drive from Queens every morning with DS in bumper to bumper traffic- stay all day - then drive home in bumper to bumper traffic.

Unfortunately, while the worker is very good, he seems to forget everything we tell him. If I wasn't there today he would have closed one of our dining room openings today, instead of just taking out the steel frame and opening it up wider.

It was also supposed to be 4 days and now it will probably be 10 days all together. I am less than thrilled with the situation but what can you do. It's midway through thank goodness. My DH is off for the next 5 days, so he's on duty for Fri, Sat, Mon, Tue. Hopefully all I wil have to do is go back when our new doors come in (I have to make sure he puts the left/right swing correctly on each door).

Thank god it's been nice out - we've been living in the backyard because the house looks like it's been coated in powder and I can't have DS in there.

Message edited 5/21/2009 7:25:33 PM.