What's the etiquette when you have builders in?

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We're having a stove put in our living room. The guys are here for 2 days. They turned up at 9, I had a chat with them, made them a brew and then went out for 2 hours as was noisy and wasn't fair on dd (2).
Dd fell alseep in car so I'm now home again hiding in my bedroom on mn!
I've had another chat and made them another brew but starting to feel a bit lost!
Should I go out again? Do I hang about amd watch?

I never know, I find it really awkward. But don't stay and watch. Just say to them 'I'll be upstairs, shout me if you need me'. Or if you go out check with them what time to come back and give them your mobile no.

Yeah it's that awkwardness!

They've asked me a couple question sich as where things are so I guess I'll stick around just incase and maybe go to park 5mins away for a bit soon.
Currently tidying ds' room, which is keeping me busy!! :)

When I had my new kitchen last year, I also 'hid' in the bedroom. I only live in a tiny house anyway and they were in and out of the living room so it made sense to stay upstairs out of the way.

If you are watching them they will moan.

Give them a kettle, one mug each, teabags, jar of coffee, one mug each, carton of milk, one teaspoon, and a box of sugar cubes (not a bag of sugar) on a tray and tell them to make their own. Don't wash up their mugs and don't give them extra mugs. Show them the sink.

I would buy them a £5 value kettle and a 50p pack of teaspoons.

I'm sitting here having a cuppa with my builder & he says either is fine, hide upstairs or hang around downstairs as long as you're not in their way & don't mind the odd swear word!

Useful to be on hand in case there is a problem with two solutions and they want to ask you for your preference. If you are not around, they will just decide themselves.

Provide a working loo, tea bags, instant coffee, milk, biscuits, a kettle, more sugar than you thought possible and some teaspoons and stay out of the way is the usual etiquette.

And hide your hoover.

Provide lots of sugar. Also very strong tea bags and lots of loo roll. If you're going out, given them your mobile number and tell them to call you if they have any questions - rather than decide themselves.

Am just (I pray) coming to the end of mega building works.

Oh - also lots of kitchen roll in the kitchen. Saves them using your hand towels when they want to wash up for lunch. Quite often our builders were filthy and felt bad about using a white hand towel. Also better for cross infection too

Thanks all :)

They've had their lunch and I think they washed up in the bathroom.

I've been hoovering the bedrooms to busy myself eek! pigletjohn

I live in a bungalow so even hiding in my bedroom means they're walking past my window every 2 minutes to get to van.

They're nice blokes, seem bery professional, so no swearing so far :)

I have kitchen fitters for a week, starting today.
I have left them mugs, tea, coffee etc and a tin of biscuits to help themselves, I'm in my room if they need to ask anything, but getting a bit bored now so might go and put TV on in living room for a bit.
Dd is 14 and at school all day so just me.

I'm currently in the park down the road!
Would you leave them in the house on their own? They seem like good guys!

I will be when I pop out in a bit, mine seem like good guys too, plus it's a HA property.
I have no water which is a tad annoying.

Pigletjohn, why hide the hoover? Curious as my house is currently full of builders and I've buggered off to my mums to escape the mess/noise..now trying to remember whether I put the hoover away last night!

Yes. My builders wrecked my Hoover, mugs, stepladders

Stay near for questions and keeping an eye out.

Builders dust and grit will wreck a domestic vacuum. If you ever need to clean it up, get a wet-and-dry canister vac, with a spare cartridge filter and some disposable bags, which will delay clogging of the filter.

For example this one has a take-off socket for a dusty power tool and comes on automatically if connected.

A wet one will suck up water and even clear some drains.

A cheap one will do if it has a long guarantee and a supplier with a good returns policy.

Yes -agree with pigletjohn. Our builder has provided his own vacuum - a Henry Hoover. He told me himself to hide our dyson!

I have had various brushes wrecked. Even though they have their own, I've been quite remiss at leaving our out and they tend to get grabbed. I'm not too bothered about them as I'd rather they cleaned up and they're not too expensive to replace.

Agree about the dust going everywhere. I've tried sealing off rooms etc. didn't work and they needed in there eventually. The other thing I would say is carpets. Even with dust sheets, one of ours in particular is minging as we've had two ceilings and a chimney breast taken down as part of the loft extension. Builder has agreed to pay for two to be cleaned where some thoughtless twat chucked some tools in them. They'll be replaced if they can't be cleaned. Be aware that there will pretty much always be one worker who lets the side down. I cried and cried about our carpet (I do have a 2 and a 1 year old and am 38 weeks pregnant, in my defence!) but the builder has been very good about immediately offering cleaning and replacement if needs be so I've slightly unclenched! If not, you'd go mad!

Mine haven't touched anything so far, I keep the hoover in my room anyway, they even ate their lunch outside!

Oh - just to be clear. The rooms where chimney breasts etc were coming down had the carpets taken up. The carpet in another entirely unrelated room still ever up minging!

Thanks all, hadn't thought of that. Have texted DH with strict instructions to hide the new Dyson, we've only had it a few days!

Mine had their lunch in the van. Bit of privacy I guess.
We're ripping the carpet out soon, thankfully :).... They've already had to cut lots to get rid of the hideous 70s decorative brickwork!

If they trash my carpet HA will pay for it, and it's a shit carpet anyway, it looks fine though.
They have been so polite that I can't moan at all so far.

Also hide buckets and any tools, my last dodgy builder took my B & Q orange bucket and one of his lads informed me it was at another job and they were using it to piss in!

Yes - our builders always go out for lunch or eat in the garden so that's a relief. They only have 2 breaks a day and an apprentice makes the tea and coffee so it's not too intrusive

Be warned though: it could just be our builders but they love leaving the front door on the latch whilst they are in. Which drives me nuts with the DC.