Living at home during a renovation

Is staying home realistic for your project?

There's no single rule. The question is how much of the house stays usable and whether the people in it can tolerate the disruption. Use this as a starting point, then talk it through with whoever will run the job.

Staging the house before work starts

• Define the work zone and agree on where it ends. Doors that will stay closed or sealed should be named in the plan.
• Pick one access route for workers and materials, ideally a side or back door, so the rest of the house isn't a hallway.
• Clear and store belongings from the work zone and from the access route. Fragile items on shared walls can vibrate loose.
• Agree on a materials staging spot such as a garage, driveway or a room that's being renovated anyway.
• Ask about daily cleanup and work hours so you know what the house will look like each evening.
• Plan where the dumpster or debris goes. Placement on a street or sidewalk can need permission; ask the contractor who arranges it.

Keeping a kitchen and a bathroom working

Losing the kitchen is the part most families underestimate. A workable temporary kitchen usually has a refrigerator, a microwave or countertop cooking appliance, a place to wash dishes, and a cart or folding table for prep. A laundry sink or a bathroom sink can handle dishes if no other sink is free.

• Plan simple meals and stock disposable or easy-wash dishes for the busiest weeks.
• Set up the temporary kitchen away from the dust path and close to an outlet that isn't on a circuit being worked on.
• In a one-bath house, ask whether the work can be sequenced so the toilet is usable each night, and what happens on the days it can't be.
• Ask the contractor to tell you in advance when water, power or gas will be shut off, and for how long. Shutoffs should be done by the trades doing the work.

Dust and noise

Construction dust travels farther than people expect. Ask how the work area will be contained: plastic sheeting or temporary walls, zippered doors, floor protection along the access route, and covering or isolating heating and cooling vents in the work zone. Ask how dust will be cleaned up at the end of each day.

In older homes, dust can carry lead. EPA notes that renovating older homes may create large amounts of lead dust, that projects creating even a small amount of dust can pose health risks, and that settled lead dust can re-enter the air when the home is vacuumed, swept or walked through. That's why containment and the cleanup method matter, not just how clean the floor looks.

For noise, ask which phases are loudest (demolition, tile cutting, flooring installation) and roughly when they'll happen, so you can plan work calls, naps or time out of the house around them.

Children, pets and older relatives

• Keep children out of the work zone at all times, including evenings and weekends when crews are gone. Tools, open floors and debris stay behind the barrier.
• EPA describes young children as the most vulnerable to lead, partly because they crawl on floors and put objects in their mouths. If your house was built before 1978 and the work disturbs paint, ask your pediatrician whether children should stay elsewhere during the dustiest phases.
• Give pets a quiet room far from the work, or arrange boarding for demolition days. Make sure everyone knows which doors must stay shut.
• For older relatives or anyone with breathing problems, plan around dust and noise peaks and keep a clear, well-lit path to the bathroom and exits.

Two-family homes with an occupied unit

When one unit is lived in, the work has to be planned around another household, not just your own.

• Shared systems: find out whether the units share a water main, gas line, electric service, heating system or drain stack. A shutoff for your unit may also affect the other one.
• Notice: give the other household a written schedule of loud days and planned shutoffs.
• Shared spaces: keep common halls, stairs and the building entrance clear and clean, and protect them if materials pass through.
• Rentals and lead: in New York City, Local Law 1 of 2004, administered by HPD, sets lead-paint duties for owners of some tenant-occupied units, including units in one- and two-family houses built before 1960. If you rent out the other unit, read HPD's guidance or ask a professional how it applies to you.

Planning an occupied two-family job, step by step

In a two-family house, the work affects two households: yours, and the people in the other unit, whether that's family or a tenant. The questions below are about logistics and the order of conversations. They are not tenant-law advice; your obligations to a tenant depend on the lease and the law, and are a question for an attorney or the relevant agency.

Shared access. Decide which entrance, hall and stair the workers use, and whether the other household's route crosses it. If materials or debris pass through a shared hall, ask how it will be protected and cleaned, and whether the route stays passable at all times, including for emergencies.

Utility interruptions. Ask the contractor to map which shutoffs serve which unit before the schedule is final. A shared water main, gas line, electric service or heating system means a shutoff for your work can reach the other unit too. For each planned interruption, ask for the date, the expected length, what will be off, and the backup if it runs long. Shutoffs are done by the trades doing the work, not by the household.

Dust zones. Think in three zones: the sealed work area, a buffer such as the access route with floor protection, and the clean living areas of both units. Ask where the barrier will be, how shared vents or ducts that connect the units will be handled, and how cleanup will be checked. EPA's lead-safe work practices for regulated renovations include containing the work area to keep dust and debris from leaving it, and thorough cleanup followed by a verification procedure.

Lead notices in a pre-1978 house. Under EPA's RRP Rule, firms renovating target housing must give the Renovate Right pamphlet to owners and occupants no more than 60 days before the work begins. When the owner does not live in the unit, an adult occupant must also receive a copy, and when work is in common areas, each affected unit must be notified in writing (by mail, hand delivery or posted signs). Ask the contractor how they will handle these notices for the other unit.

Lead-safe work in homes built before 1978

EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule covers homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978. Under it, anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in those buildings must be certified in lead-safe work practices, and that includes small firms and sole proprietors. EPA's Renovate Right pamphlet explains these requirements for homeowners and tenants.

• Ask the contractor for their EPA lead-safe firm certification before work that disturbs paint.
• Ask how they will contain the work area and how they will clean and verify cleanup.
• Don't sand, scrape or demolish painted surfaces yourself in an older home before the paint has been assessed.