How Designers Are Approaching Safety on Residential Projects
Following COVID-19 protocols, visiting sites off-hours and working from home are some of the ways pros are handling risk
With residential remodeling continuing in most parts of the country, we spoke with interior designers to find out how they’re handling pandemic-related safety when visiting job sites and meeting with clients. Read on to hear what they said, then share your own experiences in the Comments.
Several Designers Avoid Job Sites as Much as Possible
Several designers we spoke with said they preferred to stay away from job sites if at all possible. The team at Garrison Hullinger Interior Design in Portland, Oregon, has been working mostly from home since mid-March. “Job site visits have diminished during these times, but check-ins with video calls have greatly increased,” Hullinger says. Though residential projects have stalled due to local regulations and client concerns, remote work has continued where it can. “Our projects have historically been with tech-savvy contractors and homeowners, so having screen-share meetings is very common for us,” Hullinger says.
Sometimes visits to a project site can’t be avoided, and designer Sara Barney of BANDD Design in Austin, Texas, wants to minimize risk for her team when that’s the case. “We make sure that only one or two team members go to the job site and have the proper gear — masks, gloves, sanitizer, disinfectant,” she says. “We also don’t allow the clients to be there while we are visiting.”
One concern designers raised about visiting job sites was the inconsistency in wearing masks and engaging in social distancing. “I wear a mask at all times and encourage others to do the same, but when subs are in a hot building doing tough manual labor, I understand that they find it difficult to wear a face covering 100% of the time,” says Leslie Murchie Cascino of Bonnie Wu Design in Ann Arbor, Michigan. To help protect herself and her clients, Cascino has adjusted her site check-ins to off-hours when workers aren’t there. “But I am afforded that flexibility because I don’t have kids and I am the only one on my team,” she says.
Another strategy Cascino has used, with a long-distance project in Florida, was to ask the general contractor and subs to take photos to share with her. “Before coronavirus I had planned to make at least two trips in the last several months that I didn’t get to take,” she says. Without photos, “we risk costly mistakes that could have been fixed if we were just there to see it.”
Several designers we spoke with said they preferred to stay away from job sites if at all possible. The team at Garrison Hullinger Interior Design in Portland, Oregon, has been working mostly from home since mid-March. “Job site visits have diminished during these times, but check-ins with video calls have greatly increased,” Hullinger says. Though residential projects have stalled due to local regulations and client concerns, remote work has continued where it can. “Our projects have historically been with tech-savvy contractors and homeowners, so having screen-share meetings is very common for us,” Hullinger says.
Sometimes visits to a project site can’t be avoided, and designer Sara Barney of BANDD Design in Austin, Texas, wants to minimize risk for her team when that’s the case. “We make sure that only one or two team members go to the job site and have the proper gear — masks, gloves, sanitizer, disinfectant,” she says. “We also don’t allow the clients to be there while we are visiting.”
One concern designers raised about visiting job sites was the inconsistency in wearing masks and engaging in social distancing. “I wear a mask at all times and encourage others to do the same, but when subs are in a hot building doing tough manual labor, I understand that they find it difficult to wear a face covering 100% of the time,” says Leslie Murchie Cascino of Bonnie Wu Design in Ann Arbor, Michigan. To help protect herself and her clients, Cascino has adjusted her site check-ins to off-hours when workers aren’t there. “But I am afforded that flexibility because I don’t have kids and I am the only one on my team,” she says.
Another strategy Cascino has used, with a long-distance project in Florida, was to ask the general contractor and subs to take photos to share with her. “Before coronavirus I had planned to make at least two trips in the last several months that I didn’t get to take,” she says. Without photos, “we risk costly mistakes that could have been fixed if we were just there to see it.”
Designers Adjust Practices to Meet Client Needs
Comfort levels vary among designers and clients. And some designers find that homeowners want no physical interaction, even with everyone in masks and at a social distance. “The bottom line is, if a client is uncomfortable with us entering their home, we will find a way to keep a project moving by having them accept deliveries and dropping smaller items outside their home so contact is kept at a bare minimum,” says Christina Byers of Christina Byers Design in Port Washington, New York.
In contrast, designer Aimee Walker of Aimee Walker Interiors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has found that clients want to meet in person now — a change from the early days of the pandemic. At first she held all client meetings remotely, on Zoom or FaceTime. She visited showrooms by appointment, with a mask on and at a social distance from the salesperson. “I did have to go to job sites to oversee some things. But it was never with clients,” she says.
Now Baton Rouge is in Phase 2 of reopening, and Walker says she’s meeting with clients in person again. The latest guidelines from the Louisiana Department of Health recommend wearing masks when in public or in indoor spaces with people not from the same household, but Walker notes that not all local businesses comply.
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Comfort levels vary among designers and clients. And some designers find that homeowners want no physical interaction, even with everyone in masks and at a social distance. “The bottom line is, if a client is uncomfortable with us entering their home, we will find a way to keep a project moving by having them accept deliveries and dropping smaller items outside their home so contact is kept at a bare minimum,” says Christina Byers of Christina Byers Design in Port Washington, New York.
In contrast, designer Aimee Walker of Aimee Walker Interiors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has found that clients want to meet in person now — a change from the early days of the pandemic. At first she held all client meetings remotely, on Zoom or FaceTime. She visited showrooms by appointment, with a mask on and at a social distance from the salesperson. “I did have to go to job sites to oversee some things. But it was never with clients,” she says.
Now Baton Rouge is in Phase 2 of reopening, and Walker says she’s meeting with clients in person again. The latest guidelines from the Louisiana Department of Health recommend wearing masks when in public or in indoor spaces with people not from the same household, but Walker notes that not all local businesses comply.
More for Pros on Houzz
See more from our Resilience series
Learn about Houzz Pro business software
Browse millions of photos for inspiration
Talk with your peers in the Pro-to-Pro discussions
Join the Houzz Trade Program
John McClain of John McClain Design works in both California and Florida, two states with differing approaches and timelines for shutting down due to the pandemic. Early on, McClain looked to the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create safety protocols for tradespeople and team members on his jobs in both states.
“We have a very strict protocol that we follow,” McClain says. “We are social distancing on the site. We’re washing hands. We’re wearing gloves. We’re definitely wearing our masks.”
Early on in the crisis, he shared the safety protocols with his team, tradespeople and clients. Among other guidelines, the protocols indicate that everyone should “please work as expeditiously as possible,” and suggests they “do not touch any furniture, accessories, bedding, etc. while on the site if not necessary to perform your work.” McClain also makes sure that all his team members have masks, as well as extras to give to any tradespeople who show up to a job site without one.
He says these strong safety protocols helped him maintain client trust and retain projects during the pandemic, and of course protect the health and safety of his clients and team members. “If I have my drapery fabricator come out and he measures for drapery, he follows these,” McClain says. “If we’re doing a tile backsplash [the tile contractor] has to follow it.”
In terms of client meetings, McClain avoided them entirely at the beginning of the pandemic and related shutdowns. Now his team is meeting again with clients, but only while wearing masks and maintaining a social distance. “We can’t require that our clients wear masks, but many of them are doing so voluntarily,” McClain says. “I would estimate around 75% of our clients are wearing masks.”