Builders - do they clean up afterwards?

[Leicesterpiggott]

We are having some work done at the moment. Kitchen and bathroom refit plus a few other small jobs. The builder originally said it was a 3-4 week job. We are now at the end of week 5 and nothing is completely done. The kitchen is still unusable so we are still washing up in the bath. The ruling in the bathroom isn’t finished so there’s dust and rubble everywhere. At the end of each day they just leave it with dust and rubble in our bedroom and landing, stairs etc. The front of the house and the garden are full of buckets of builders crap. There’s rubbish everywhere. As fast as I dust it comes back. It’s on everything. So a couple of questions. Should they be clearing down each night and how much should I expect them to clean up at the end of the job? I’m slowly going mad. Thanks.

I think you need to sit down with the builder and talk through some expectations. Including a timescale on work.

They should try and keep it clean as possible is hard with work going on upstairs and downstairs though.

For example for a period of time we had the back of our house sealed off and they used the side but once they started upstairs too we had to move out.

We had a double storey and side extension done so a big job and the house was pretty much out of bounds all over. Only two rooms didn’t have any works done and they were used as storage.

We have had a lot of building work and all our builders have been tidy and cleaned up at the end of the day. Dusting around the house where they aren't working would be my job though.

Currently having loft conversion done and wall taken out - pretty messy business and dust spreading everywhere really but the builders clean up every evening - brush up the area they are working, Hoover. There is still endless dust but I appreciate their efforts. They usually wash up their coffee cups too! They are rewarded handsomely with an endless supply of biscuits. I would be annoyed if they didn't even try, knowing that you are living there. It's different if the house is empty. I'd have a word.