To say something to our contractor

[Kate8889]

For context: I am super sensitive to cigarette smoke, it makes me cough to smell it and I feel like I can't breathe.

We have a basement upgrade going on. The installer for the drywall is smoking in our driveway in his truck with open doors right near the open garage. I can no longer step into the garage without having a coughing fit. Would I be a difficult client if I say something?

No. It’s your property so ask him not to smoke on it!

We just had an extension completed at our house and there were usually between 4 and 8 guys working on site each day. They ALL smoked. Every single one of them (I assumed in the end it must have been a pre requisite for all the firms employees!) and the project took 6 months. Fortunately they all sat right at the end of the driveway and didn't smoke near the doors or open areas so it didn't ever come in the house it was just when I arrived and left that I could smell it. Could you just ask them to move a bit further away? so it doesn't come in? You are the client at the end of the day so if you tell them they can't smoke anywhere onsite it is absolutely fair enough but its nice to keep them slightly on side if possible!

Does it matter if you’re a difficult client? I mean of course if he wants to smoke and you ask him not to he’s going to be pissed off. But with the suffering it’s causing, do you care?

you can’t please everyone.

My paternal grandma had this same sensitivity and was quite aggressive in telling people (at the bus stop etc) to move away from her or to put out their smokes, to the point of snatching cigarettes out of peoples hands and stomping the cigarette into the ground.

It did not earn her a good reputation among the neighbors and I want to avoid being like that.