Here in Milton Keynes, we work with many fantastic builders who I would confidently recommend to any of our clients. But sometimes I hear that a project has been left in a bit of an untidy fashion!
At the completion of a building project, or at the end of a building day, you may hear your builder say he has cleaned behind him.
A cursory glance of firstly the area concerned followed by a chance meeting of your builders eyes may well illicit the words, “a builders clean that is” from your builder as he rapidly makes his way to his pickup truck.
So what does a builders clean actually mean?
Unsurprisingly there is no British or European standard for this term and it will be hard to pin its exact meaning down. There are some cynics who actually believe the two words should never exist in the same sentence. This is a little unhelpful since a negative prefix can be useful to clear up any misunderstandings. Although this may be the only thing that does get cleared up.
OK, lets get serious. If you want your builder to clean properly you will have to make it very clear what you expect before you enter into your contract. If you expect your builder to clean your house, his building site, to any degree normally associated with habitation, you are going to pay dearly for it. Look at it this way, your builder is on say £140 a day which is approximately £20 per hour. Would you pay a cleaner £20 per hour? Probably not.
Given that your builder has tendered for the work, and presuming he wants the work, his quote will be competitive. He will not therefore allow for this expensive thorough cleaning at the end of the project or even at the end of each day unless you make it clear what you expect, you are willing to pay for it and you have made this absolutely clear to all the other competing builders.
A word of caution here though, the word clean is subjective and so will be difficult to enforce in a legal way. In fact it would be so difficult to legally define or enforce that the only people who would clean up would be the lawyers.
I am sorry to say that you may be best advised to accept the situation, bid your builder good evening, get the dustpan and brush out and say to yourself it will all be worth it in the end.
Featured photo courtesy of OnTask