Does anyone else just hate having workmen in the house?

I used to put tea, coffee, milk, kettle, sugar in conservatory and say help yourself rather than running after them all day. Tell you what they had a lot less tea breaks 🤣

Sorry not read all replies but word of advice, hide your vacuum cleaners! cement dust etc will destroy a motor or make it a horrid job to overhaul.

Don't stress about it. Go with the 'flow' literally and keep dreaming of that luxurious bath you'll have at the end of it.

Rosalyn69

I hate it but my husband insists on making them coffee and engaging them in conversation. Nightmare.

Workmen need drinks making for them every hour- it is hard work doing manual stuff. Do you not make drinks for workmen then? Are they not humans, to you?

I don't mind it but my daughter hates it.

We always make drinks for workmen. Our decorator said some clients don’t even let him use the loo!

Yes hate it as son has OCD so its a whole rigmarole of asking them to wear shoe covers then me cleaning everything down afterwards where they might have touched! (And dont get me started on the 'no longer having to wear masks' thing!)

Since covid (see reasons above) if they are doing a long job i would offer them bottles of water or cans of pop.I'd let them use loo but again, i'd be having to clean it all down after.

Grammygrammy- why would they need drinks every hour?surely they dont take that many breaks?

Not keen - keep putting things off and saying we are fine but sometimes you have to bite the bullet. I hate that they always seem to start so early and leave the doors open all the time. Also they always seem to need loud music so I worry about the neighbours. I try to be up before them so feel tired all day! I try to make us a little comfy corner and get on with some craft work or computer chores but feel uneasy all the time. I wouldn't be happy leaving them to it and I like to provide drinks and snacks so feel on duty all the time. I think I'm getting worse too!

Nannan2

Grammygrammy- why would they need drinks every hour?surely they dont take that many breaks?

It's not so much a break as a drink to hydrate and encourage. Physical labour is hard. Why don't you go and do an hours physical work in the garden right now then after an hour, ask yourself to go without a hot drink before doing the next hour. Wow. Some stinking attitudes here.

I hate having workmen in the house, I always feel I have to be doing jobs as well and I don't like the invasion into my personal space.
But I would like to say well done for actually finding someone to do the work. It's so difficult to find anyone who'll even give a quote never mind actually turn up to do the job!

Totally agree it's a nightmare! Would never dream of leaving a workman in the house alone even if I thought they could be trusted. So I hang around trying to look busy, feeling like a spare part in my own home and of course make umpteen cups of tea & coffee. Feels like a real invasion of privacy and I absolutely hate it. Could do with some decorating at the moment but can't face the thought.

I don`t like having workmen in the house but put up with it as it often results in something better. Re workmen using my loo, there were two very pleasant men having to do a nasty digging job outside in the communal area, freezing cold. I said to them to just ask if they need the loo and they did and I was glad to have helped these two nice human beings. My neighbour made them mugs of tea

Having someone in for general servicing, boiler etc is fine. Having a decorator in for the whole interior over 6 months was really hard but not his fault, he was a lovely young man. It was being upside down for so long that I hated

Last house I had a full new kitchen, that was hard but I stayed out of the way in a snug, just coming out to make tea on a portable hob

re times for drinks. I never offered too often ie hourly. I asked them at what time they would like a drink and it ended up generally at arrival, 10ish, lunchtime, 3ish and maybe at pre hometime

When the decorator was here, I said he could have the bathroom as his, for paint storage, loo etc. I had my space and he had his

Keep them supplied with tea or coffee, and buy a tin of biscuits!

Having a new roof at the moment, terraced house so material for the old roof and new one straight through the house. Planned since we bought the house over a year ago, so decided not to do any cleaning for the past month in anticipation. Just a well as bedroom ceiling fell down, which we half anticipated. Now we're going to have to clean and redecorate. Used to look forward to choosing colours, carpets and so on but these days it feels like a horrible amount of work and effort. Other half does DIY so at least not getting anyone in, can just do it in our own time.

I do hope and trust the bathroom concerned doesn't contain the only toilet in your home.

I have always hated having to ask workmen to vacate the bathroom so I could use the toilet!

Apart from that, having workmen in does not particularly bother me. I shut doors to contain the mess as much as possible, but mainly so I don't have to hear their transistor, as there taste in music has never marched with mine, and so that I know where the cats are.

I did once have to ask a workman whether he had seen one cat after he had replaced a partition, He hadn't, neither had I, and guess where said cat was? On the other side of that partition in an attic accessible only through a very heavy trap-door and a very long ladder. Given the choice the workman preferred to open up that plasterboard again. I had asked him to check with me that both cats were safely locked up before he put the partition back in place!

My suggestion would be to find some task you can do at the other end of the house, and tell the workmen where you will be if they have any queries.

I don't think it likely that they have either the time or the inclination to pry into your drawers and cupboards, but I never leave money or private correspondance lying around when I have workmen in.

Better safe than sorry!

Our last home was a “project” - 150 years old and neglected. I can remember sitting in one of the porches and crying because I thought I’d never have my home back. This house also needed a lot doing (we’re gluttons for punishment!) and, though they were all lovely people, I was so glad when they’d gone. As Sue said, try to find a cosy haven for yourself and hide away there. Give them a tin of biscuits/sweets and make lots of coffee! It’ll be worth it! Good luck.

I don’t enjoy it, even though the tradesmen have always been very pleasant. I give the keys to one particular Decorator, but to no one else, partly because I don’t think it’s fair to them in case I mislay something and they get the blame. I make tea/coffee every 90 minutes or so but I do have one rule, and that is that they can all afford earphones so I do not expect to have to listen to their radios. (Roofers excepted). On a slightly different note, 0H and DS wore suits to work, whereas
these guys probably undressed straight away into the washing machine when they got home and wore clean clothes every day (thank goodness), so I wonder what an earth their laundry bills must be!

I loathe workmen in my home no matter how clean or organised they are! I cannot wait for them to finish a job as I find them intrusive even if I know them from previous jobs! My other half tends to leave it all to me as he is fairly deaf so abdicates responsibility ! Drives me mad!!!

We’re having an extension built so know how you feel ! We’ve set our builders up their own tea station with biscuits etc so they can help themselves …

My late partner was the same he used to talk to them all the time and even used to help them out if they needed it. I would keep out of the way as it made the job twice as long

My husband is a tradesman, often has clients ‘hovering/helping’, tongue has to be bitten sometimes.

over the years have of course coped with a variety of situations including living abroad and having to be able to translate what I want doing etc and coping with the endless promises of arrival times that were not met, both here and abroad. My best occasions have been when in my last house I had a little place in the garden. So I was able to do both. Be there to see what is happening and making sure that they were doing what I wanted. Available for queries, I treat everyone I hope with courtesy and how I would like to be treated, so my way is to usually make some gingerbread, leave out coffee, tea, milk sugar and biscuits, and invite them to help themselves whenever it suits them , on the condition that they please wash up after themselves and leave it tidy. Before they arrive I will have taken emergency rations to my garden hut, so the radio, china mugs, magazines writing stuff secateurs etc etc. I get them started and then disappear down the garden to regain my composure and the secateurs are great to use when you feel angry about stuff you can do little about. I make sorties to see how they are getting on every so often and return to radio 3 and the secateurs . I count the days until they will finish. Once they have gone I award myself a day off and go out and see a garden or whatever . Then the following day I reclaim my home and get it back to how I want it to be. Of course I am pleased about whatever work has been done but of course swear that is the last time - until the next time!! Of course it saves a lot of money!!!! Whenever you think there is something else that needs doing you remember the last hassle and only go ahead if it vital. I will always be divided by the wish to be in control and the wish to go away until it is all done. My day out sort of allows me to make that break and allow me to calm down and then become queen of all I survey again. You may be sure I have absolutely no interest in all these buying and redoing houses programmes, cant imagine anything worse. It could be added to the levels of hell in Dante's Inferno left to me. One more thing that I try to do. If a friend is undergoing this horror, I try to arrive with something to cheer, so maybe a cake or arrive with a chinese or fish and chips to be a picnic lunch. sometimes to be eaten in her garden or whatever or capture her for an hour away from the chaos and have all the picnic things in the car and we can go somewhere nearby with a calming view. Her telephone is allowed so that she feels that if there is some emergency they can ring her. that allows her to relax as much as she is able to . It is good to feel that we are in the same boat! If I won the lottery I still would not like people sorting it out without me doing the choosing and ordering, so no way out for me - dont see that happening soon- good luck to us all in surviving. We must raise a glass to ourselves (once the wretched job is over)

I absolutely dread it .

I'm hoping to find a suitable guy to do a growing list of jobs which need to be done .

If they aren't complaining about the last person , who installed something it's their illnesses and marital problems !