Shouldn’t a contractor tell you to clear a room to protect personal belongings or should I have known this?
I hired my brother, a professional contractor, to build a closet in a large room that was furnished with workout equipment (treadmill, eliptical machine, etc.), television, full size bed and an expensive portable fan. – I insisted that he charge me his regular rate, and when he offered, I told him that I don’t want a discount because I am family. – I came home the other night to the entire contents of my room being corroded in saw dust (since he did all of the cutting inside the room). I did clear the space that I knew he would be working, but he never once told me that I would need to cover or move all of the items to keep them protected, and obviously, since I don’t do this for a living it never once occurred to me that any of my personal belongings would be affected. – I spent over 3 hours cleaning every piece of furniture and when I told him that I was upset, he got a MAJOR attitude and basically said it was common sense for me to cover or move everything.
What do you think?
Well grammaB, since you say that I am not smart enough, as I like to think I am just not experienced enough with these types of situations (didn’t really appreciate the personal attack granny). Why should I have ever considered that I would have such a mess to clean up. My brother does this work everyday for a living and didn’t think to mention it to me and you are telling me that I should have known that this would have happened – no gratitude here and I never said it was a job well done either granny.
A professional Contractor that works in an occupied residence will always clean up their own mess.
A) your brother is not a professional
B) is an ass for giving you grief when you complained
C) will not go far if he continues sawing lumber in a furnished residence without taking precautions to protect the residents belongings.
D) ALWAYS have a contract with a contractor that states he will protect your propoerty and clean up his mess.
You probably should have covered it up anyway. However, he also should have mentioned it. He may have overlooked it because you are family so he might have just assumed you knew instead of treating you like any other client.
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He should have covered everything or done the cutting outside as i do.
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This happened to me when I hired/fully paid a friend to install my faux hardwood flooring. He sanded out the tile grout at the entryway and dust/film went throughout all the air ducts and covered EVERY surface first and second story in my home. And, I had just finished spring cleaning a few days prior to that. I was irrate for quite a while but now I know for the next time. And he suggested no protection of air ducts or belongings before starting the project. It sucks. Sorry for your situation.
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I’m sorry to tell you, but your brother is right. You should have known that you should protect your belongings.
On the other hand, your brother should have seen that you were not smart enough to have known this, and advised you that your stuff would be affected by the sawdust he would be creating.
In the future, you should ask the contractor if there are any specific preparations you should make before the job is to begin.
For now though, you should THANK your brother for a job well done, and apologize for your lack of gratitude.
Good Luck with this situation with your brother.
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A professional Contractor that works in an occupied residence will always clean up their own mess.
A) your brother is not a professional
B) is an ass for giving you grief when you complained
C) will not go far if he continues sawing lumber in a furnished residence without taking precautions to protect the residents belongings.
D) ALWAYS have a contract with a contractor that states he will protect your propoerty and clean up his mess.
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A professional would
A- clean up his mess
B-do ALL cutting outside.[exception to the rule such as condos etc. where it would be extremely time consuming]
C-cover everything with drop sheets
D-leave the home cleaner than when he got there
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home renos 20yrs
First, a good contractor wouldn’t do any sawing in the room if possible, as it not only leaves a mess that must be meticulously cleaned up after the job is done (and a good contractor DOES that), but it is poor ventilation for him AND coats your air ducts/systems with dust.
Aside from that, he could SEE the items were in the room and uncovered… A real professional would cover them himself or at least notify you that you need to cover or move them before he got to work. However, it sounds like your brother wasn’t thinking when he started sawing and now wants to blame it on you. Being family, he probably thinks he can do that and get away with it. But, you are paying him at his professional rate, not family rate. I’d take him up on that family discount, if I were you. Oh, and never, ever hire him again.
The other possibility is that this was some sort of revenge or to "teach" you something…
Either way, yet another reason to not mix business and family….
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Your brother was being unprofessional. I just had contractors leave my house today after remodeling a bathroom and you’d never know anyone had been in my house doing remodeling when they left. EVERYTHING was covered and they had dropcloths everywhere they needed to walk. They even hung damp sheets over the main doorways to trap the drywall dust from sanding the mudded seams! When I asked if they wanted me to cover everything before hand they told me it wouldn’t be necessary…they had all the supplies and actually preferred doing it themselves.
Your workout equipment has gears and motors that could be damaged from all the crap in them now…is your brother willing to reimburse you for it?…I didn’t think so…
I’d go with the person who said to go ahead and pay him the discount rate…tell him you took YOUR clean up fee out of the original cost
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Every professional I have ever worked with has advised me to put objects of value out of harm’s way… and then they continued to protect the surface of EVERYTHING! And they have NEVER sawed wood inside the home, always outside.
Ignore granny… there will always be people in this world who will try to make it up their ladder of success by using attacks on others as the rungs of the ladder, never realising that this doesn’t make them bigger people but rather, smaller and trite.
No, you shouldn’t have known. Your brother should have told you. And if he didn’t tell you, then it was up to him to protect your objects. The only thing you’re lacking in is experience, not intelligence. So take that, granny… your name fits you, by the way…
As a professional, I would have fired your brother’s butt so darn fast, your head would have been swimming. And I would have hired professional cleaners to pick up his mess and I would have deducted it from his check. It’s simple: you’re either a pro or your not.
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he is the professional and should have done it or told you, what he did was either stupid which is not good for him, but at least it wasn’t malicious or just plain mean
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I think you should have done it yourself, it’s common sense.
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I’m a 37 year experienced painter and licensed contractor here in Florida..We clean our work area DAILY…no matter how small a mess….When doing a bid and there are belongings and furniture in the area I ALWAYS ASK..will you be covering your items and moving the furniture if necessary, or do I? I explain It will cost slightly more if I do, but you will be responsible for the items if they are not covered properly if you choose to move them… I have seen a few carpenters try to cut inside, and sometimes while we were painting..They get chased out real quick…If the outside room allowed and the wether was good..he should have cut outside..and if not..POSSITIVELY ABSOLUTELY MOVE AND COVER THE STUFF OR INFORM YOU TOO..I wonder how many jobs he has been chased off from due to this?
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37 year experienced painter