To leave a tradesman in the house alone

[noitsnotme]

Need a bedroom decorating and struggling for holidays from work, and free weekends. I've left decorators in on their own before, but they were friends of friends. The guy I have quoting me tonight, is just a local business. Googled him and looked up his FB page. Not known to me at all.

Do you leave unknown tradesmen in your house while you go to work? I can pop back at lunch.

My DP is a tradesman and he's on his own in houses most of the time and usually all day.

I wouldn't be happy about leaving any trades people alone in the house and that includes cleaners.

But that's just me, I'm a suspicious old cow. I'd much prefer to be home so I could keep an eye on things.

Yes, I would leave them alone. I've done it loads of times and it's fine. I've even left them a key so they can lock up if they leave before I come back from work. Just don't leave obvious valuables lying about.

I do, but lock up any valuables just in case. Like pp said I've even left them my key to lock up.

I do, but this is MN where people don't open their food if they don't know who it is, so I'll probably be in the minority

their door, stupid phone!

I do. I always make sure we're both very, very clear about the work to be done and completely on the same page though, because you can come home to a lot of mistakes if not. Not necessarily tradesmans fault either, lots of people are just terrible at describing what they want so it's a problem if they aren't there to oversee.

I have done. They are from established businesses that have been around for a while.

Do make sure they are using the right materials for the job before leaving them though. My parents had their bathroom retiled and my mother didn't think to check, and when she went up with tea part way through the morning found the tiler had been sent with some really ugly, yellow, shiny tiles that were absolutely nothing like she had ordered. He'd got halfway around the room by that point. It all had to come back off the walls.

Really depends on what valuables you have, and whether you'd risk unknown tradesman breaking in later with his mates to get your TV/Jewellry/Ipad/car like what happened with my neighbour.

DH is a tradesman and gets the keys to multimillion pound mansions, he's even been allowed to pop out for a coffee (not something he usually does) in a £250k car.

He still gets people worried about him being left alone in their houses!

I'm thinking about having him and all our staff DBS checked so we can at least reassure nervous customers we're not criminals!

I normally arrange to be at work as I can't bear having the noise and mess with the kids around

Your dh is probably a trusted tradesman to those millionaires/they don't give a fuck if anyone takes anything. The OP is booking blind off the internet.

I do fairly regularly, even had work done whilst on holiday and builder skyped us on holiday to show us a problem. Trades people rely on good reputation and word of mouth. To be honest I'm sure they'd rather just get on with it.

I do leave them. Couldnt manage otherwise as I work full time and the work I just had done on my house took weeks.

Nothing terribly valuable. However the PP, who mentioned clear instructions has reminded me of when we were moving in here and I left someone to paint DS bedroom. It was to be blue on top and about 1/6 yellow at the bottom with the line between each being wavy. I'd bought an under the sea theme pack, so the bottom was sand, the top part was water. I came back and they had done it 50/50 straight across, blue on the bottom, yellow on top

However, said tradesman for this job was meant to be here at "back of five" and hasn't arrived

I almost always go out when we have builders in, but I typically just tell them that I work from home and have several work-related calls that I'll be taking upstairs.

It works because our house is tall and skinny so they have no idea who is home.

My dp is a tradesman and is mostly left alone in houses, his guys are also left unattended which works better for them as they can get on with the job and get out.

We left our plumbers and electricians alone in our old house and this one, as being home wasn't an option for many reasons.

DH often works in people's houses while they are out. He is DBS checked by age concern, you could look at their list of tradespeople.

Yes. Had a 3 month building project so no way I could be here all the time. In fact we left them the key and went on holiday for a week near the end of the job!

Current builders were given a key so they could let themselves in and use the toilet if I was out! They took the key home each night in case I had already left before they arrived in the morning.

I had carers for my DD working in my house for many years. They were not employed by me (agency). I have had to learn to trust people in my home - I just make sure that any paperwork and valuables (not that we have many) are locked up and out of sight.

Did years ago and they stole from us, so haven't since.

If you do it, lock away all paperwork and anything easily picked up.

I do it all the time. It drives dw insane though. I think it's up to u and how comfortable you feel and obviously a bit of common sense.

I have the 'privilege' of being a large and somewhat threatening looking male. My wife is tall too but slender and far more safety conscious.

I think the balance is between living 'freely' and safety. The compromise dw and I get is by trusting workmen with our possessions but making it more difficult for them to get away with any wrongdoing. These are some of the things dw and I do to find compromise

Make sure the house is tidy and group valuables together so anything missing is obvious.

If u need to give a key give just the latch (Yale) key and change the barrel after the workmen are gone. (Costs about £20 and is quite easy to do)

Alternatively take the latch (Yale) completely off the door and give them just the key for the deadbolt (i.e. Chubb) to open and close the door (the Chubb will be useless to thieves on its own)

If leaving your car with mechanics leave a note on the dashboard with the mileage written down.

Thanks all. Was worried I was being totally irresponsible to even consider it. Won't be the guy from tonight anyway, since he didn't show Hopefully tomorrow nights guy knows how to run a business.