Is It Safe to Hire In-Home Workers?

As a part of maintaining good social distance, many people are limiting who they bring into their homes. But this can lead to a bit of anxiety when you need to bring in some extra help to do jobs around the house. Plumbers, electricians and other contractors can’t do their jobs without access to your home’s internal space, but is it safe to bring workers inside when they also have to visit other homes and businesses as a part of their job?

Contractors want to keep themselves and their crew safe on the job, so almost any contractor you hire can be expected to follow appropriate safety protocols while in your home. With that said, there are things that you can do to help ensure that everyone remains safe when you have to bring in workers for necessary tasks around the house.

Necessary Questions

Before hiring a contractor or anyone to work inside your house, take a few moments to ask about their safety policies. You can ask about things such as whether they or their crew wear masks or ventilators when on the job or while dealing with customers. You can expect most contractors to have a safety and masking protocol in place, though it’s possible that you may encounter one or two who don’t want to take these precautions on the job. Asking them a few simple questions can help you identify those contractors and workers who will respect your desire to stay safe, and who will be careful the entire time that they’re in your home.

Cleaning and Sanitizing

Before contractors and in-home workers are scheduled to show up, take the time to clean up the area where they’ll be working and sanitize any surfaces that they’re likely to come into contact with. This makes it easier for them to do their jobs safely. It also demonstrates that you are willing to show others the same considerations that you wish to be shown as well. Some contractors will sanitize the areas they work in at the end of the day as a courtesy, but if they don’t, then you should carefully sanitize the area after any workers have left each day.

Masking and Distancing

Ideally, any workers who are in your house will wear a mask or other protection while they are inside. At the same time, you and your family should put a mask on whenever you’re in the same part of the house where work is going on. Additionally, while you should stay away from work areas whenever possible, it’s important to maintain proper social distance from workers when you do have to go into that part of the house. If you need to talk to the contractor or other workers, be sure to do it from at least a 6-foot distance or take the conversation outside if the work is happening in an area where proper distance is difficult to maintain.

Post-Work Cleanup

Once work is wrapped up and the work crew is gone, be sure to check the work area to see if there is any additional cleanup needed. Most if not all of the cleaning should have been done by the workers while wrapping up, but it’s possible that some materials will remain that need to be disposed of. Wear gloves and a mask when handling any packing material or other items that were left behind by the work crew. You should also sanitize the entire work area unless you know for sure that the workers sanitized everything just before they left. While it may seem like extra work, it helps to ensure that there aren’t any contaminated surfaces left behind.