Is it normal for builders to use all your stuff?!

[theyoungvisiter]

We have builders in at the moment - the first crew came in two weeks ago to sort out a damp problem and I was really surprised to find they pinched borrowed loads of our tools to do their jobs!

They used my brand new extendable paint roller to wet down the plaster (it's now covered in lumps of plaster and I'll have to buy a new roller). They used my kitchen bucket for mixing their cement, and my mops and brushes for sweeping up cement - in fact they took off with my dustpan and brush which I was a bit peeved about, though I think this was a mistake.

I thought this was a little weird but put it down to eccentricity, anyway now an entirely different company has moved in to renovate the kitchen, and THEY have also started using my stuff!

They used my garden spade to hack tiles off the wall, they also borrowed my extendable paint roller to wash down the plaster, and they are currently using my extremely posh garden trowel as a plaster-stirring device. I have had to retrieve my hammer, my cold chisel and one of my screwdrivers from their tool box (which they have bent somehow).

Is it me? Do all builders do this or am I naive and it's totally normal to use a householder's tools on their premises? I thought they would bring their own equipment!

[nowwearefour]

our builders used our brush and dustpan and brush (the brush never re-appeared) but apart from that they used all their own stuff (including a vacuum cleaner of their own). This seems neither normal nor acceptable to me!

[PuppyMonkey]

When we've had the builders in, they've always brought their own stuff.

[theyoungvisiter]

Ok well glad to know it's not just me finds this weird!

It's just so strange that BOTH companies have done this. One is a family company but the other is a major national outfit.

Should I get strict? What do I say? [wimp emoticon]

They are really nice so I don't want to sound mean. I just find it odd that if they need a plaster washing roller, they wouldn't bring one of their own?

[SlobbyBOB]

No any decent guys would use their own gear.

Hide your stuff away.

As you have already found your stuff becomes
theirs and you can bet at the end of the job if you are not around it will some how get lost in the back of their van.

[ChippingIn]

NO - they should not be using your stuff!

I would either just grin & bear it if they are doing a FAB job, then replace them when they've gone (no bonus to builders though) or if they aren't doing a FAB job - tell them the cost of replacing your bits & bobs.

Cheeky feckers!

[Hassledge]

This is bizarre - I've had many builders in over the years and they've never used our equipment. The difference maybe is that our tools are all in a garage they have no reason to go into, so they wouldn't know the tools exist, IYSWIM.

[theyoungvisiter]

this is the thing - we've only just moved in so all our stuff is kind of scattered around because we're doing DIY jobs at the same time.

And the garden stuff is all in the outhouse (attached to where they are working) until we get a shed. So it's kind of hard to hide it away.

I suppose I could just keep moving it back to where it was until they get the message!

Not too bothered about the cost of replacement - other than the roller and the dustpan and brush nothing is really damaged, just a bit grubby.

But it is odd... I suppose it's the fact that our stuff is just lying there next to where they're working, so when they put their hand out for an appropriate tool... bingo!

[PuppyMonkey]

Perhaps you could go over next time they're working at your place and just go: "ooh it's so weird I need my xxxxx and I can't find it anywhere. You haven't got a spare one have you??" and maybe that will shame them into admitting they've used it and you can express quiet surprise and maybe they'll learn their lesson??

[DisparityCausesInstability]

Not normal and it would piss me off, a good builder should have their own equipment - most builders wouldn't want to use domestic products because they just wouldn't be up to the job!

[GrendelsMum]

I think that's really inappropriate. I would be absolutely furious if they did that.

Am I right in thinking that so far, you have had the following taken or ruined:

• a garden spade - £15
  
• a good quality trowel - £15
  
• a mop bucket - £5
  
• a screwdriver - £8
  
• a dustpan and brush - £5
  
• a paint roller - £5
  
• a mop - £5
  
• a brush - £5
  

This is incredibly unprofessional.

You need to speak upfront to the site manager that they DO NOT take your stuff, they DO NOT use your things, and that you need the things that they have damaged replaced on a like for like basis.


My builder asks if he can use my vacuum in special circumstances, because he appreciates that it isn't appropriate to use a domestic vacuum on a building site.

If anyone dared use one of my trowels for stirring plaster, I would have their balls for little dangly Christmas earrings and wear them to Midnight Mass.

[theyoungvisiter]

I just asked my sister if she'd ever experienced this and she said yes, every builder she's ever had has done this. And her last lot (incredibly expensive conservatory rebuild) mixed their concrete directly on her kitchen floor - on top of the newly laid £££s reclaimed Victorian quarry tiles and left her to scrub it off when they'd gone.

So perhaps it's a London thing...

[LadyBiscuit]

I have got through two brooms and dustpans and brushes with builders - well, when I say I have got through them, I mean they have. I think a lot of them assume tools/equipment lying around belongs to them so you have to put stuff away if you don't want them to use it. Can't you put it all into a plastic box with a lid on it? I have to say that I would be absolutely furious if any builder touched my precious garden tools!

I've only ever had building work done in London so perhaps it is a London thing as you say

[Fizzylemonade]

I had builders in and they never used anything of mine despite having access to it all.

They brought their own brushes, big tubs for mixing cement in, a henry hoover for cleaning up, their own mugs/tea bags/sugar/milk & stereo dust sheets, everything. The site was left tidied and clean at the end of every day.

We are in Yorkshire BTW. Builders should have the tools to do their job. You wouldn't expect a plumber to come round and ask you for some copper pipe or a carpet fitter to ask if you had a stanley knife.

I would ask the builders not to use your stuff. Depends how brave you are

[DukesOfTripHazard]

I have a lovely new Hetty because the builders kept using my Henry and just said take it off the bill. Some do, some don't. If it's important to you, stand by your guns. They also bought me a dustpan and brush to replace mine that they'd wrecked. Then they wrecked that one . I just took a few quid off the bill and replaced anything they'd sullied. They seemed to expect it. They were are and will always be a bunch of London rogues who happen to do very good work a bit more slowly than they said they would.

[theyoungvisiter]

"They were are and will always be a bunch of London rogues who happen to do very good work a bit more slowly than they said they would."

Dukes - do you think we have the same crew?!

That description is pretty much spot on. Except they are actually being bloody fast (suspect there is not a lot of work out there at the moment).

The plasterer stayed until 9pm last night (Sunday) in order to finish the plastering so that the electrician could start, because I said it was so important to me that the job be finished in good time for Christmas.

Bless.

[SparkyUK]

This has happened with every team of builders we've had in. Drives me crazy. Really gets me that our ladders have gone every time - they aren't cheap to replace and there's always been more than one team in when they've gone walk-about so no one has ever owned up to it.

[DukesOfTripHazard]

Theyoungvisiter, I wonder. How many front teeth does the plasterer have and does his name start with O?

[MrsHypDip]

Almost the opposite here, we had the builders in a couple of years ago and still have their oil radiator here and they have only just in the last couple of weeks picked up their ladder!

The only thing they used of ours was an outdoor brush but they left it behind when they left, so all OK!

If I was you I would move all my "tools" when they weren't around and then they would have to source them somewhere else ie bring their own!!

[ReshapeWhileDamp]

I'd be livid. They'll have ruined anything that came into contact with cement, for instance. Charge them for it.

[TheNextMrsClaus]

Buckets and brooms seem to be fair game here, but at least they asked each time if they could use them.

And I have never got through so much sugar in my life.....

[oneortwo]

I don't think its normal, last time I left out a broom and hoover and radio for them to use and they still used their own. If something is ruined they should pay IMO

[Pinner35]

I've had loads of building work done over the years and other than a broom, nothing of mine has ever been used. I'd be furious. Do they ask permission before they use the items?

[jalopy]

No. They should use their own equipment. Lock your stuff up.

[Catchthewind]

They are being lazy feckers and trying to save their own stuff - the point is, equipment such as this does get ruined in the course of a job. So they know this and are using yours so theirs doesn't have to be replaced.

They are probably counting on you to be too polite to say anything/not notice.

If it were me I would notice and say something.

I've only had a laundry basket ruined, used for transporting rubble and was really cross about it but those builders were a lost cause anyway. They messed up the job they were meant to be doing and lied about it so I had to finish it myself. They also probably charged the landlord for materials when I paid for them myself.

Never, ever again.