Adventures in building

[indigo_rose99]

Construction folk don't worry about the dirt. Or the sawdust, because they will just generate more. They don't pick up the nails and screws and blobs of grey stuff. The empty drink cans and half empty bottles of water accumulate in unlikely corners. If there is a broom, they don't use it, because where would the piles of trash and dust and dirt go? There is no dust pan to transfer it to a trash bag...

We still lack carpet, and unlike tile (which requires at least a flat surface to stick to), there is no motivation for the crew to clean up the floor before throwing down the pad for the carpet.

So today we packed up trash bags, brooms, dust pans, swifters, knee pads and lots of water, and went out to the new house to clean. It took us almost four hours... And we probably would still be working on the outside if the rain hadn't slammed in (Texas rain does not drift in like a friend, it crashes over everything with wind that grabs the trash from your hand before you can make it to the dumpster).

I got most of the debris out of cabinets and sinks, which will save us later cleaning and plumbing problems. We swept up unbelievable amounts of dust, dirt, plastic wrappers, and chunks of wood. Ugh.

Comments

[reedrover]

I'm surprised that your builder isn't responsible for trash. That is really odd and rather awful.

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I think the builder is... but the individual workers are not. So if your job is to install a stove... your job is not to clean the area before installing it. And since practically all of the workers are specialists, none of them clean. T said he saw the tile installers cleaning up (vacuuming) before they laid down tile, but that was to get the tile to actually stick. Any cleaning that is not necessary to accomplish a job? Nope.

So if your job is to install plumbing? Why bother cleaning out the sink of debris before running the water to test the system? Yeah, you don't care if the pipes later get clogged because of the that debris. That is months away!