How Will My Life Be Affected During Construction? Living with Construction in Maryland & Washington D.C.

When you undertake a remodel of your home, it helps to know what to expect. Living in a home while it’s under construction certainly changes your daily experience. Winthorpe endeavors to mitigate the impact our construction practices have on your daily life, but we still like to prepare you for what’s ahead.

So….. how will your life be affected during construction? We’d like to say you won’t even notice we’re there, but despite our best efforts, that won’t quite be true. Many folks are very surprised at how much work (and mess) is involved with the demolition portion of a project. If we’re adding a room onto your house, we might build the majority of it externally and not until the final stages will we tear into the main house where it’s adjoined. Still, there’s no pretty way to tear out a wall, and it does create some dust. It’s our job to clean up as we go and keep the chaos to a minimum.

Expect sub-contractors to be coming and going during the day. High-traffic pathways may get covered with plastic sheets to protect them from work boots. You’ll learn to accept the sight of a rollaway trash bin and a port-a-potty on your property, as well as contractor’s vehicles at your curb. You may have to move all the furniture out of a room and store it in your garage, another room, or a storage unit. It may be advisable to temporarily box up some personal belongings, dishes, or art to protect them. Each project is unique, and we’re happy to discuss each step of yours and what to expect life to be like.

Dust Mitigation

To keep the demo or drywall dust to a minimum, we utilize a couple of different methods. First, we install plastic “curtains”, which are taped from ceiling to floor. We work on one side, you live on the other side, and the curtain corrals the majority of the dust on our side. Second, we use an air filtration system, called BuildClean. This circulates air non-stop, capturing dust and particles in a HEPA filter. So, we not only take care of the dust you can see, but we mitigate the particulates you can’t see, for safer, more comfortable living.

The Realities of Dust

No builder wants their clients to live with dust, and we do everything we can to keep it at bay and clean it up. But the reality is that construction work causes dust. Thus, we feel it’s better to be forthcoming and set realistic expectations. There’s going to be dust. And we’re going to do absolutely everything we can to minimize it for you.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

On many construction projects, you may continue to live in your home while we renovate or add a room. When we remodel a kitchen, we’re usually able to set up a temporary kitchen in the dining or living room, so you can still cook while your kitchen is in process, and therefore can continue to live in the house. That being said, there are projects of greater magnitude where you may either elect to move out for the duration of construction, or where we will recommend you do so based on the reduced livability of the home during the proposed project. In those cases, it may not just be unpleasant, it could also be unsafe.

Doing It In Stages

It’s quite possible to remodel the majority of a home without your family having to move out. If you’re truly comfortable with prolonging the construction process, we can begin at one end and shift in stages, so there’s always a bedroom and a bathroom available while the rest is in flux. It means living with some level of demolition for a longer period of time but saves the expense of renting a hotel or apartment. It isn’t for everyone, but it is an option.

The Final Clean

No matter the type or intensity of your project, we don’t just finish the job, pack up, and leave you with a mess. At the end of every project, Winthorpe conducts a final, thorough clean. If yours is a larger worksite, we’ll hire a cleaning company to come in and make everything sparkle so you can fully enjoy your newly completed home.

We promise you there will be dust, but we also promise to take it all with us when we’re done!