Cleaning question

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johnnymnemonic

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When renovating a condo and cleaning up debris, is the contractor obligated to clean the debris gathered on the ceiling of the apartment below?
 
When hiring a contractor there should be a defined scope of work that outlines who is responsible and what is to be expected, including everything from payment to materials used. If you are not satisfied with the performance of your contractor, fire him and manage the job yourself. From other posts , there seems to be a level of mistrust and miscommunication. The conversation should be between the contractor and you, you are the boss, you are paying the bills, your expectations are the ones that should be meet..if they are realistic. These are things that should be talked about before the project begins, not during.

I understand your concerns about dust, cleaning up of debris, inspections and the stress of renovation. Communication is the single biggest factor to making a renovation run as smooth as possible.
 
Maybe I should fire the contractor. Then again, that is bound to cost more time and money. Were those unlimited, I would probably fire the contractor and hire the most expensive one.

Straight from the contract:

Special Clauses
Because an infant will live on the premises post renovation, the entire unit must be free, upon completion, of lead, asbestos, and other hazardous particles, per current accept living and health standards. This includes particles that may enter the apartment from its floor or ceiling with the passing of time. To the extent hazardous materials exist that may become airborne and cannot be removed or contained per the generally accepted standards, the Owner must be notified in advance and allowed to attempt removal or containment using third parties. If any hazardous particles are deemed containable but not removable, the Owner must be notified in advance and allowed to attempt the removal option. Delays caused by such reasonable attempts at removal or containment shall not result in additional costs from the Contractor. The cost of the Work shall be reduced accordingly as indicated in Paragraph 6b.
Click to expand...

Now, is the contractor supposed to clean that debris, some or all of which would have been produced during his demolition?
 
It's easy...just tell em...no cleaney no checky.

Realistically the guy is a bum. If you keep your customer happy with the little things like ..well, vacumming. You have a potential repeat customer.

Take the high road, and start over. Work with him to create a line of communication, be fair, but stearn. And remind them nobody wins but the lawyers if it goes to court....because you will hold out on the check.

Good luck,:)
 
I always figured that the clean up should be sufficient enough that you can't tell that they were there other than of course the repairs and what not. At least that's always been my mentality. Do you have a picture to share or you have already cleaned it up?
 
Here are a few pictures I took two weeks ago. To me, they show debris + dead animal right underneath the insulation. To be fair, the picture is taken at the edge of the insulation, in an opening, so some of it could still be removed. I kind of doubt it, though, given the general speed of the work.

Nov 13, 2011 (1).jpg

Nov 13, 2011 (2).jpg

Nov 13, 2011 (3).jpg

Oct 30 (3).jpg
 
More pictures from that time are attached. These suggest general cleanliness, which means that after my pictures were taken there was likely no more cleaning done, hence the dead rat would still be there.

Nov 13, 2011 (10).jpg

Oct 30 (19).jpg
 
While it may be frustrating, I personally wouldn't see the dead animal as the contractor's responsibility. That was something that happened unrelated to their work, and out of their control. I wouldn't hold that against them because its not really their place to clean up stuff like that because its not "their mess." The first set of pictures showed what looked like a lot of saw dust and stuff, but it was in a crawl space from what I could tell. They probably should have cleaned it a little better than they did, but looks like an area that normally doesn't get any traffic, so even though they probably should have cleaned, I can see where they may have thought it wasn't that pressing because it wasn't exposed to the general public. Hope I am making sense and not just rambling.
 
SnellExperts said:
The first set of pictures showed what looked like a lot of saw dust and stuff, but it was in a crawl space from what I could tell..
Click to expand...

This is not a crawl space, it looks like a lath and plaster ceiling, Some of the keys are still in place, but the plaster has been removed and probably replaced with sheet rock.

What I don;t understand is the insulation. It looks like he put a very thin layer on top below the floor. How is it supposed to hold there? It is already sagging. Why did he not put the full R19 (that's 10 in?) in? Air circulation?
 
I was wrong - R19 is only 6in. How deep is the bay? If the depth is 10in, then it would take R30 batts to fill all without compressing. I would like to know if there is a reason he is using R19 and sticking it to the top. It looks like it will sag and drop down.
 
It also looks like some of the bays are far less then the width to the insulation and it's just jammed into place instead of ripping it to width.
Is that CDX plywood going to be used as a sub floor?
CDX would be fine for a wall or roof sheathing but not as good for a sub floor.
It's got open knots and voids in the core will cause soft spots in the underlayment, cracks in the tile or grout if you go with tile.
It would have been far better to use T & G underlayment rated plywood or better and cheaper Advantec subflooring. Advantec will hold up to moisture, will not delaminate, more stable then plywood, no voids.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm beginning to get worried about the subfloor too, just about now. But to stick with the topic, I don't know how deep the space is, but it's definitely space between my subfloor (the plywood that you see) and the neighbor's ceiling. The insulation that was put there is held into place with metal threads that are put in here and there. Are you saying it's standard to fill the whole space with insulation?

As far as the subfloor, I'll open a new thread.
 
If there's a cono below you then the inslation is more for sound control then anything else. The heat from the condo below you is going to be helping you heat yours, since heat rises. But if the insulation is compressed it will do nothing to deaden the sound transfure or keep heat in or out.
R19 is fine but I would have used staples instead of insulation hangers and had the vaper barrier facing up not down.
 
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