Teri, unfortunately I’d ignore it. If you say something to remind them some will go out of their way to put their butts anywhere anyway so it’s a losing battle imo.

When we built our home decades ago we came in at one point after drywall has been installed and one worker had drawn on the hallway ceiling. He could actually draw well so no harm no foul as it would be covered with paint.

However a few years later when needing to clean the ducts, the person cleaning them found fast food and condiment wrappers in them. Not so nice.

Tell the builder or supervisor. Every day if you have to. They should then tell the workers. We had to deal with this from the neighbors' build and the GC started to avoid us, but we tracked him down anyway. Trash, butts, ugh. The only time we corrected the crew directly was when they were still loudly installing floors right outside my toddler's window at 8:00 p.m.

Bring it to the attention of your General Contractor or your Architect . . . and ask if your General Contractor has fire insurance.

I had the same problem for a brief moment. Then I made it a point to tell all workers before hand what the expectations were, and that a cigarette butt on the ground was extremely disrespectful and dangerous. Technically it is the GC's job to maintain the job site, but nothing is more effective than the homeowner who his unapologetically determined to make sure there is no nonsense/littering, smoking etc. They only take things as seriously as you do.

I put a sign out that said "for the love of all that is holy, put your cans / bottles here" on the recycling bin. Seems to have worked.

I trust they're not throwing them into any open piping or plumbing which may be in existence. You may want to check that. Been there...

When we did the first and biggest remodel of our house nearly 34 years ago, I watched the workers arrive a couple of mornings, and then watched them take the cigarette tray from their pick-up truck, open the truck door and dump it right on my grass in front, where they'd parked. When my contractor (a woman) arrived later, I complained to her about this. She went to her car and got a few plastic trash bags, went to the workers and handed one to each, and told them to get out their on their hands and knees and pick them all up. She asked them if they would do this at their own houses. They all said they did there, too, but their wives didn't much care for this habit. She said she'd testify in their wives behave when the wives divorced them all. They didn't do it again.

We had a terrible problem on the Vineyard one summer. An enormous house was being built on the lot across our very narrow street. The workmen had big trash cans available, but chose to leave their food wrappers all over the ground, many with food in them. There is a huge skunk problem on the Vineyard and my dog got skunked as these were "skunk magnets". I called the contractor and told him he or his workers could come de-skunk my dog the next time he got hit unless they did a better job. They did.

I think they must all live like pigs at home. I pity their wives.

I hate to say it but allot of subs don't have a HS education. I would put up a sign in the front yard saying that 'all' cig. butts must be put 'here' or you will be fired. Cig. butts can be very dangerous on building sites. I would also have cams on trees on the property.

If the occasional cigarette butt on the ground were my worst construction site headache, I'd count myself lucky! Just no smoking inside the house.

But then it's hard to recall a project that didn't involve cleaning up bodily waste --even though there's always a clean portable on-site.

Watch them like a hawk. It's your home, or soon to be. You are not out of line. Schedule a meeting on the site with the GC. Tell him this is unacceptable and to fix it.

I don't tolerate this from my people. I give them some leeway during the day, but it better be cleaned up before they leave for the night. A messy worksite, including trash, is an unsafe worksite. Most of the people I work with seem to Vape on job sites. That's less obnoxious.

If you have a GC, tell them to take care of it. Warn them that if they don't, you will speak to their subs directly. I carry trash bags with me and hand them out with instructions as to where the dumpster or trash can is located. Don't be shy.

On weekends, I go to the job site, poke around, and pick up things when no one is around. That's the time to check behind the drywall and look into the HVAC vents.

This is all assuming that you own the land. If it's a tract house, it's out of your hands. They hire people who clean up the sites. Subcontractors honestly forget this when working on a private job site.

Word of warning, never open a drywall bucket. You will be surprised what may be in it. Lots of construction workers won't use the porto potty. The drywall guys are famous for this kind of behavior. Don't ask me how I know.

Well, I wrote this note and left it on the porch where all the workers could see when they come to the house. The two that came today were very receptive and kind, and said they were sorry and would not do it anymore. the Builder will be another story. he's on vacation and when he gets back I'm leaving the sign there. he gets an attitude sometimes but fortunately my husband doesn't like this habit of flicking their cigarette butts all over our yard either. will update once the Builder has returned!

Lucky we had 90%+ non smoking subs/workers, Since I hate smoking and butts, I made it clear to each group its my way or the highway; it is our funds, our home, our design and our choice. I had/have several security, monitoring and two way voice cameras inside and out, which was extremely useful for emergency communications; the subs/workers did not like it for sure however it kept them from any wrong doing or mischief and instead they did an amazing job.

Tell your GC to stuff his butts in his pants pocket. They're his, not yours. If he cops an attitude, tell him no smoking on the job. You will start deducting the cost of clean up from his fee. If it was me, I'd do that anyway. I can't abide smoking.

Better have multiple buckets. One on each side of the house, and one outside the portapotty.

I would also suggest that you change the signage. You are asking people to please put their butts in the pot. While good manners are a good thing, this needs to be a statement and not a question. Put butts here.

As a woman, I see other women asking nicely and wondering why they don't get the expected response. These people are primarily male and they need to be told what to do. Tell them. Don't ask.

Our house is surrounded by forest, and Oregon is at high risk for forest fires (I refuse to rake, and nature abhors a vaccuum). When we built, I told our builder that ours would be a non-smoking site, indoors or out. He told me that all of their sites are non-smoking, as their insurance requires it. Of course, there was nothing to stop them from dumping fast food wrappers or pouring dry wall compound where it went into our chicken run...

Outdoors skip it....if indoors it needs to be addressed. As Mark memotioned you can jokingly ask about their fire insurance

There you go site dependent.

They stripped 8” of topsoil around my house roughly 15’ out so cigarette butts landed in mud. If we’re talking butts on subfloor I’d be raising hell

" jokingly"??

omg