All went well today. Here's my question. Do you guys leave your contractors at your home alone while they work? My schedule is somewhat flexible but there are times when I must be at work.

Thoughts?

You can explain how you want things done, but somethings can get lost in translation. I learned the hard, expensive way.

This was vey hard for me, but now I know my GC and staff well and trust them to do their job. Nonetheless, I think the message / vision "getting lost in translation" is a big issue. You have the way you want it done, the GC interprets what he thinks you want, and the staff is told what to do. Renovating is overwhelming. My electrician ran wires without asking us exactly where to put outlets and now we have to have some redone. After the dust settled, I noticed two outlets were placed right where I want to put a built in window seat bench which was planned from day one. Just one example of many that occurred even with daily interaction / oversight. Most are small things thankfully.

The times that the subs were here without GC, I never left them alone. They didn't earn that kind of trust from me.

That reminds me...time to change the code on the garage door!

For the remodeling of the old house, the guy was on site by himself all the time...in fact it was winter and he shoveled his way in more than once!

For the most part, they are hard working and honest. In fact, my contractor works too hard to be dishonest. And if he's the only one around, if anything goes missing, he knows he'll be to blame. The time to be careful is when there are multiple trades on site as they can then blame each other...and it seems the honest one always gets blamed.

If you're not home, don't tell them when you're coming back so you can surprise them and see what they're up to.

But the comments above are absolutely right....all along the way are decisions that have to be made and if you're not there to make them, they will do it for you, and not always as you had planned. Communication is key.