People can not afford to take 3 months off to stay home and watch a contractor’s every move in a bath remodel!. This is why selecting the right general contractor is so critical. Ask him if his employees and subs are background checked, if you still have concerns. Most of the larger firms do that and fold it into their overhead. Most of the small ones do not, and you have to rely on the stsndard screening, above.

I had the luxury of being able to work from home during my kitchen and
3 bathrooms renovations. We had already picked out our carpenter, Jim, and later found out that our experienced kitchen designer loves to use Jim, as he is quite the craftsman and fusspot! I did not watch him work most of the time, as I was working. My husband is retired and he did not feel the need to watch over him. Jim knew where we were in our home, in case he needed us. Well, my kitchen and bathrooms came out fantastic. Jim became a friend too.

Everyone leaves there house during a renovation. this is normal. i would not worry at all (except no reason to tempt fate by leaving cash or valuables out near where people are working ;). Remember their livelihood depends on word of mouth.

As a mom myself, I think it might be harder to remain in the house with a young toddler while this work is completed. Renovating is loud and doesn‘t stop for naptime. There is dust and there might be random materials like cut tiles or equipment like saws that might need to be out and accessible that could be dangerous. Work sites aren’t an ideal place for little ones.

Leaving a crew in your home shouldn’t be an issue though.

Absolutely make sure that your valuables, including important paper documents, checkbooks, account statments etc, are secured and hidden. I was the victim of a "reputable" contractor's worker when I had to leave him in the house alone for a short time - he stole jewelry. Possibly less chance when there is more than one worker present, but still....

I agree with raee. We had a major remodel done of the kitchen/living area of our home. Bedroom area was not involved. Very reputable contractor who we hired through a highly ranked architect. We were out of the house all day. I was concerned but DH wasn't. Discovered months later that a lot of my good jewelry--stuff I kept in drawers/closet as I didn't wear it much--had disappeared. They were also not supposed to be using our family bathroom as there was one in the walkout basement. Someone used it, turned on a vintage exhaust fan/heater (we had tape over the switch to prevent use) and started a fire in the attic. Contractors may be reputable, but subs can be a different story, especially if they are left unsupervised for long periods. If I ever needed workers in the house again I would be sure to lock away valuables and have an indoor security camera.

Thank you!

"Someone used it, turned on a vintage exhaust fan/heater (we had tape over the switch to prevent use) and started a fire in the attic."

Tape over a switch is hardly a solution. That should have been fixed immediately.

And remember please, correlation is not causation. Just because there were workers and subsequent missing jewelery doesn't mean the workers stole it.

Joseph Corlett, I never said that the workers stole anything. We never made any accusations, just ate the loss. I shared this story as a cautionary tale. Since the only people in our home during the construction period were DH, myself and our child I don't think it's unreasonable to question if workers who had unfettered access to the house may have been connected.

Regarding the bathroom fan, we were planning a reno of that space next. We had it inspected prior to purchasing the house 10 months earlier and were told it did not work . It was going to be replaced when we redid the bathroom. We never used it the thing--and fully taped off the switches. I am not, however, blaming whoever turned on the fan for starting the fire. I am blaming them for using a family's bathroom that they were specifically instructed not to use. A perfectly fine bathroom was provided for their use.

One final addition to our remodeling saga with the reputable general contractor. There was a large dumpster in the drive way to collect demolition/construction material. This of course was at our expense. It took a while to fill it up the first time. After the first dumpster was replaced we noticed how quickly it was filling up again, despite most of the demolition being completed. DH looked in one day and saw old tires, computers, beer cans and other trash beneath construction materials. We called the GC. He told us it was most likely one of our neighbors, as he was familiar with this happening on other jobs. We scratched our heads as we couldn't imagine which of our neighbors would do this. A few days later we found more trash, but the culprit foolishly discarded magazines and boxes with mailing addresses. We called the GC again and told him what we found. He played dumb at first but on pressure from DH apologized and said he would tell his subs to stop using our dumpster.

I recommend asking previous customers of the contractor vs solicitating comments on the internet. Why did you add haha to your original post?

@Joseph Corlett, LLC - remember please, correlation is not causation. Just because there were workers and subsequent missing jewelery doesn't mean the workers stole it.

LOL... Your statement depends on the words "just because." Maybe you should consider that @teeda had reasons other than just timing to suspect the workers... you know having actually met and interacted with them and all. So, just because @teeda didn't list every reason they suspect the workers doesn't mean there are not other reasons.

BTW: Correlation is a term used to establish a linear connection between two variables. The saying, "correlation doesn't imply causation," means just because two things increase or decrease at a similar rate doesn't mean one is increasing or decreasing in response to the other. I suspect you are trying to assert a post hoc fallacy.

There is a positive correlation between rising ice cream sales and more drownings in Michigan in summertime. Eating ice cream does not cause drowning.

There is a positive correlation between missing jewelery and workers in the home. That does not mean the workers stole the jewelery.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC - With all due respect try to see the difference in your two examples.

"There is a positive correlation between rising ice cream sales and more drownings in Michigan in summertime."

Those are two linear variables. Because you have two lines with a slope... So you can say that as ice cream sales rise so do drownings in Michigan. That is a correlation, two things that have a proportional relationship in frequency... e.g. a rise in one is a rise in the other.

"There is a positive correlation between missing jewelery and workers in the home."

What you are actually saying here is... as the number of people having work done increases so do the amount of jewelry missing. @teeda certainly didn't say that and I have never seen anything that says that, but I will take your word for it. However, that is certainly evidence that one shouldn't allow workers in their home unsupervised whether or not they are the cause.

"That does not mean the workers stole the jewelery."

Correct, your first sentence means that the likelihood of having things stolen in your home increases as the amount of workers in the home increases. However, your first sentence doesn't actually infer causality, it is just a trend.

You are actually asserting a post hoc fallacy (post hoc ergo propter hoc) by incorrectly asserting correlation does not imply causation. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is Latin for: after this, therefore because of this. A post hoc fallacy means that just because B happened after A, it doesn't mean that A caused B. This is different than correlation.

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In a purely academic exercise that will interest no one other than myself. The adage, "correlation doesn't imply causation," is typically misused. It is not meant to illustrate any spurious correlation, it is meant to illustrate that the independent variable could actually be a dependent variable.

The classic example when I was in school, was: As the number of golf courses in a community increases so does the divorce rate. Someone could assert then that golf courses caused divorce, which is probably wrong. It is more likely that both the number of golf courses in a community and the divorce rates in a community were dependent variables of something else, likely average household income or amount of leisure time. So the adage reminds us to consider other possible causes for the correlation of both variables rather than simply assuming one variable causes the other.

My 2 cents... I used to teach a class on fraud, a portion of which, was about asset misappropriation (stealing). I am also a member of the ACFE (I get the newsletter and all).

Hiring the right contractor isn't sufficient to prevent theft, it isn't even close really. People tend to steal when they have motive, opportunity, and can rationalize the theft. In my experience, people can "Robin Hood rationalize" just about any theft from someone who hired them. Certainly, the point at which someone will steal is altered by their personal integrity, but personal integrity is difficult to determine. Consider that church employees (including religious leaders) have high incidence of theft and you quickly understand that it is impossible to determine in advance who will steal.

I would leave workers in my home, but remove items that could be perceived as valuable and could be removed without detection. I would place jewelry and small electronics in a non-obvious hiding spot and regularly verify the contents are still there. If you have a child it is the perfect opportunity to inform the workers that you have nanny cams in several rooms and just want to let them know that they are being recorded in certain rooms. If these rooms also have valuables that is just a coincidence.

I find a bit of goodwill goes a long way to improving outcomes, so I treat workers with respect and never as a bother (even though any work is necessarily bothersome). I try to keep cold drinks and lunchmeat in a fridge and invite them to help themselves to drinks, lunch items, and snacks. Give access to the microwave, coffee maker, etc. It doesn't cost me much and certainly doesn't hurt.