My husband is a GC. Some people do. You have to use your own judgement. Is he license, insured, and bonded? How long has he been in business. Have you talked to others who have used him? My husband has people that leave out of town for months at a time while doing a job. Some stay home all thru the job. Lots of people give their keys or garage door opener. Most business men are not going to touch your things if he values his business I, would put away all valuables. If there will be alot of people going in and out.

My husband is a GC. Some people do. You have to use your own judgement. Is he license, insured, and bonded? How long has he been in business. Have you talked to others who have used him? My husband has people that leave out of town for months at a time while doing a job. Some stay home all thru the job. Lots of people give their keys or garage door opener. Most business men are not going to touch your things if he values his business I, would put away all valuables. If there will be alot of people going in and out.

Sorry it posted twice.

Adding to what Shar wrote, I found as my own GC that it helped to be around my subs as much as possible to answer questions and avert possible disasters. Sometimes little things come up during the day that don't seem like a big deal to the person doing the physical work, but may mean a lot to you. Better to be present for little questions and guidance than to try to undo hours of work and $$ of material at the end of the day.

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

My DH and I both work full time so we had no choice but to give our garage code to GC. Before we started our project, we took some valuables out of the house and stored personal paperwork out of sight / easy access. Also, password protect your computer. We met with GC daily, either in morning or before they left for the day.

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.

Does he seem trustworthy to you? I was in and out a lot during the work. The first week or so that he was here, I made sure to be around 100% of the time. Once I was satisfied that he knew I was watching things closely, I'd leave from time to time. Before I would be gone, I would touch base with GC, ask him what was going to happen that day and make sure we were in agreement about what was going to be done and what to expect.

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!

It depends on the contractor. Of course when we were building all kinds of people came and went. As the house got more done, we had an excellent trim carpenter who kept an eye on things for us. But over the 3 years it took to build, I think we lost a push broom and gained a T-square.

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.

GC is alone in the house.
Most would not last long if they weren't honest - who is going to hire someone with a reputation for sticky fingers - and word gets around!