I’ve had a couple experiences lately working with contractors and they’ve both been really good. Both times I’ve noticed how very important clean up is when a contractor is working. It’s not just important at the end of the job. It’s important at every phase of the job.
When we’ve commissioned someone to work on a new project for us, we’ve likely waited a really long time and saves money to make the addition or change to our homes. What makes clean-up even more important is if the contractor is working inside our homes.
I recently had someone re-do all my flooring on the downstairs. This was a multi-day project. The exacerbating factor is I have a very nosy Springer Spaniel that really liked the contractor and seemed intent on inspecting absolutely every piece of hardwood the contractor brought in. And, of course, she created her share of glue paw prints on the new Bruce hardwood floor before she figured out it wasn’t much fun to clean glue off her paws.
Not only did the contractor genuinely seem to like my dog but I could hear him show affection to her when I was on a different floor. I offered to clean the gluey paw prints and he would never let me.
Every night when he left, there were no boxes, no buckets, and no tools left in my house. I knew that must have been frustrating to have to set up again each day but he knew the importance of making it easy to live through a renovation.
The other experience that really rung true with me was some local masons who were working to help a soon-to-be Eagle Scout work on his Eagle project. I watched them as they cleaned the area after a long day’s work. The older mason even took several minutes sweeping the dust out of the bushes that lay very close to the stone wall. They had stone dust on them. But, I was amazed at the care and detail that went into every bit of detail. Surely rain and wind would have removed the dust from the bushes quickly enough but it was important for him to remove the dust himself.
That was even more meaningful for me because of the Boy Scout mantra – “leave no trace”. It’s actually my son who’s working in conjunction with the masons to build the stone wall for his eagle project. I found out when commenting about the amazing clean-up that the elder mason who was working on the wall was over 70 years old. Now that’s impressive.
How well the contractors clean on a day-to-day basis is likely something you won’t know until you experience it. But, if your contractor takes care of all these details