Is your renovation contractor clean enough for you?

Is your renovation contractor clean enough for you?

In the movies you see the contractor who shows up and destroys the home, there’s holes in every wall, it’s pandemonium. Everything is covered in dust and dirt and there are workmen walking around everywhere ruining the floors. By the end of the movie the house looks perfect and everyone is happy.

Well in the real world, when the contractor acts like that, it doesn’t turn out very well, actually it turns out rather badly for everyone involved.

If you hire the right contractor then the following is what your home during the renovation should look like;

• Site meetings with the homeowner and the principles that are doing the actual work so that everyone knows where they are not to go and what they are not to touch.

• Plastic installed over doorways to minimize dust from drifting into non construction areas. If it is a high traffic door zippers can be installed to make access easier.

• Furnace vents and cold air returns sealed with tape and plastic.

• Either removing of all furniture from the construction area or the draping and tarping of all furniture.

• Rooms designated as clean rooms where personnel items of the homeowner will be stored.

• Craft paper or other floor protection installed on all carpets, tile and hardwood flooring to protect from damage.

• Debris bin on site so that construction waste is not piled on the lawn.

• A clean up is completed at the end of every work day to minimize the chance of dust entering other parts of the home.

• Garage pails or debris boxes placed on the floor so that waste is thrown into some instead of on the floor.

• If scaffolding or major demolition must occur on hardwood floors plywood is installed to protect it from impact damage.

If you are going to live in your home while the renovation is proceeding then you and your contractor should be coming up with a plan to do the renovation in stages that will allow you to still have access to the washrooms and bedrooms. This can be easily accomplished with construction of certain parts of the home first and other parts near the end of the project.

In an extensive renovation to minimize cost sometimes you as the homeowner have to find a place to stay that isn’t there to allow the contractor to do their work efficiently and to also keep you safe.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.