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Our home is in desperate need of paint before the rainy season. We rent a suite on the bottom floor of our home and are booked solid until October. Our contractor is about to take on a huge remodel so he wants to get our painting done sooner rather than later. I’m worried he’ll get buried in the remodel and we’ll not be able to have this work done before the rain. He only does one project at a time. He’s giving us an unbeatable deal on the work. I’m conflicted. Part of me thinks it would be smart to wait until October when I can block off dates so we don’t have a guest while painting is going on. I don’t want to risk losing superhost status and I don’t want to put my guests out or stress them out. Part of me wants to get the work done now. Re: noise, we had construction going on next door for a long time and it was unpredictable, I warned guests and gave refunds when the noise was particularly obnoxious and we had no problems. We’ve had a transportation project going on on our cross street for weeks. No one seems to mind, though I do warn them.
I was thinking of checking in with guests about the work to see how they might respond and offering a discount to them. At this point I’d let them stay here for very little, next to free, just to ensure we can get the work done. Am I kidding myself thinking that this is okay to do? I’m not sure how I would feel as a guest. I might be understanding, I might be bummed.
Our suite is tiny and cheap for the Bay Area and very close to BART (subway). People come here to sightsee and are mostly out of the unit all day. It’s not a luxury spot where people just want to hang out inside all day. My painter assures me that he’s done tons of work on apartment buildings and is always considerate re: noise. There won’t be scaffolding and all kinds of materials everywhere, he did my neighbor’s house and was very quiet/clean. He starts work at 9am not 7am. Whew.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated! I may just risk it and tell him we can’t do it until October but if there’s a chance that I could work with guests and get it done soon, I’d rather do that. Is it a jerk move to spring this on guests though?
Those hours are more than acceptable for noise. I don’t think I would tell guests anything beyond that you’re having painting done. I also wouldn’t offer and refunds or discounts. How do you imagine a quiet, neat painter would interrupt your guests stay?
Thank you for this! You sound so reasonable! I had built it up in my head to be this terrible inconvenience for people. I’m mostly worried about the days that he’ll be sanding and pressure washing. The dust from the sanding. There will be some siding that he’ll need to replace in the back but not along the wall near the room. And, I can have him work on that wall when people are out. I’ve seen posts in the forum before about people having work done on the property (albeit it was louder work, like drywall tear downs) and others have spoken up about how they would be put off by this as a guest. Your response makes me feel better.
I agree with @MissSwan – I do not think a painter is going to bother guests, particularly – it’s not like he’s hanging sheet rock inside the house! I wouldn’t say any more than “having the place painted”. No refunds, no special concessions. When guests check in tell them the painter won’t start work until 9AM, to cause the least inconvenience.
Our neighbors lawn mowing company is louder than our painter ever was!
I have a few days blocked off in July and I think he can take care of most of the sanding those days. We discussed it today. He’s very flexible about working around guest schedules. If I do do the work, I’m going to try and get the loud work done when guests are gone. I think I’m going to go for it. I hear you @KenH, yesterday our Waste Management people cruised by so slowly and sat outside for like 5 minutes at like 7am blasting Snoop Dogg’s Bow Wow. I live in a commercial district in Oakland, it’s not quiet here. Trains blaring by, BART going by, fireworks, car alarms, kids. It’s the city…I think the painter is probably not such a big deal. Thanks you guys. I welcome all points of view though so if I’m missing something feel free to call me on it.
