Totally unacceptable. When we gutted our condo and redid it back in 2010, our GC made sure that it was swept and cleaned daily and we weren't even there most of the time

Hi Flo! We have a GC AND a project manager! We have shared our frustrations with both regarding this issue. The pics I sent were actually after they "cleaned up" believe it or not. We just feeI powerless at this point. It's like they just don't care. I haven't even mentioned the damage they caused to our home with their carelessness and the crappy quality we have seen on some of the work, yet! That is for another post!

I'm probably going to get pummeled for this....but the home construction industry is not necessarily filled with people who are graduates from the Miss Manner's School of Social Etiquette.

I have similar stories as you, unfortunately.

Some people are wonderful, upstanding citizens who I am comfortable leaving unsupervised in my home. However it seems a good portion are people whose parents were not interested in teaching them how to conduct themselves in other peoples' homes.

IF they are doing reasonably good work - you know, aside from leaving garbage strewn about your home - then I would grit your teeth and deal with it as best as possible. You have to accept that construction is a dirty business anyway, and so a certain amount of filth and debris is going to happen.

Honestly, this is the sole reason I'm holding off on doing some reno right now. I just don't currently have the emotional stamina to deal with people trashing my home.

I've had numerous contractors on my property, from small repairs to replacement windows, deck rebuild, skylights installed, new roof, hardwood flooring, new kitchen. None of them has left a mess like that shown in your photos.

Are you living in the house? It's possible they are not as careful with crap left around from one day to the next if the homeowners aren't there every day.

Having to clean up your workspace every day, in the middle of a job, just to mess it up again the next day takes and wastes time. Re-modeling is messy. Learn to live with it. You are just delaying the job by requiring cleanup time daily. Any room that is having work done in it, belongs to the workmen until they are done. Close your kitchen or whatever and call Grub Hub.

If they're coming back next day to finish up, I don't really have a problem, as long as they clean after the job is finished. One day last week my project manager stopped by, noticed the mess without me mentioning it, said it was unacceptable, and called crew back to clean up, vac, etc, even though it was in a part of the house we can't access.

In my experience, depends on the contract. I have had work done with no intermediate cleanup, and work done with cleanup every day. Those conditions were in my contracts. I have also had to dispose of debris myself, the debris was neatly piled, but my contract did not specify removal.

Since that bothers you, review your contract. If there is nothing in your contract, you are not being unreasonable, but you are asking for something you did not pay for.

In the olden days, the trades had helpers, rescission ended that practice and the trades lost a half of generation of tradesmen.

It is definitely a balance. I have tried to make it easier for our trades to keep the area clean and it works most of the time. Multiple large garbage cans, dumpster close to house, construction strength plastic garbage bags, multiple brooms, dust pans...even a shop vac. I also am not opposed to helping them out myself, or picking up while I'm walking the property. In one circumstance the guys worked especially late and got a ton done that was a timeline issue. I told them to go ahead and leave, and I'd clean up. It allowed me to show how clean it could be, as well as showed I wasn't asking them to do anything I wasn't willing or capable of doing. Construction is messy, but being sloppy/disrespectful is not acceptable.

It is not acceptable. I would ask them to leave, and then get it cleaned up, One it is all cleaned up,you can check to see what is damaged or needs redoing, and deal with that part.

We had a specific conversation about this with our GC before we began. We agreed treat we would do some of the clean up every day to save some money-I’d rather they work on the stuff only they can do for their full day here rather than spend the last 1/2 hour sweeping when it’s easy for us to make our kids do that :). With that said, they have been much neater and tidier than what I’m seeing here, even when we come home in the middle of the day while they’re still working.

What Sara ^ said.

Average hourly wage of a finish carpenter is $26. $20 an hour for a drywaller.

$12 an hour for a housekeeper.

I would advise against doing much of any clean-up on a daily basis. The workers know where they left such & such. Don't move anything! Don't toss anything...they may need that empty box, packaging, etc. To retrieve #'s, style lots, etc. in the event that they need more of it.

Basically, you have temporarily relinquished the space to being their workplace and you just need to accept the fact that although you may own the bldg., their workspace is, to a degree, off-limits.

It might help you to frame this in the context of cooking. Some cooks are neat, clean as you goers. Other cooks are hugely messy with the kitchen looking like a disaster area and clean-up happens after the meal is over. In the end, the only thing that matters is the quality of the product.