Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 27, 2010 8:19 am Our house is at gyprocking stage. The walls and ceilings have been completed. They are just flushing at the moment and then onto the cornices. I had access to the house the other day and the moment I walked through the door I was overcome with the smell of cirgarette smoke and the floor was littered with cigarette butts. As I'm sure you can appreciate the last thing I want is a brand new home that stinks of cigarette smoke. We popped a sign on the front door (saying "Thank you for not smoking inside" with a "no smoking" symbol) and the workers have completely disregarded it. We tried contacting the Site supervisor and haven't heard back from him yet. Where do we stand on this legally and what can we do? I suspect our SS won't be very helpful because it would appear that these guys have been allowed to do it in other homes. (If they had been asked not to smoke inside you wouldn't expect to see cigarette butts littering the floor inside) In WA there is a ban on smoking in enclosed public places. I know our home isn't a 'public place' but until it becomes our 'private residence' wouldn't it be considered a "workplace"? It doesn't bother me if they smoke outside but they smoke inside and don't even open all the windows and then just drop the butts all over the floor. Re: Smoking inside new house 2Oct 27, 2010 1:23 pm Sorry to say but signs are not going to do much. It is illegal to smoke in the workplace and your house is a workplace. You have every right to complain and also to report it to the relevant Occ Health & Safety. I would be disgusted by this too Re: Smoking inside new house 3Oct 27, 2010 1:29 pm Personally, I didn't worry about it at our place at plastering point. I'm an ex smoker and the lingering smell (in houses, on clothes) gives me the sh*ts these days. Plenty of our tradies smoked in our place and we couldn't smell anything after handover, and I definitely would have been able to smell it. Once it's painted, it would be a different story, but up until then, I wouldn't worry too much about it if it was me. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Smoking inside new house 4Oct 27, 2010 1:36 pm Lunchtime Sorry to say but signs are not going to do much. It is illegal to smoke in the workplace and your house is a workplace. You have every right to complain and also to report it to the relevant Occ Health & Safety. I would be disgusted by this too this is a double edged sword... the OP shouldnt have even been on site without the supervisor present.. OHS. yeah its a real pain in the butt the tradies are smoking, but once painted the smell will disappear.. after paint I doubt any of the tradies will smoke in there. Re: Smoking inside new house 5Oct 27, 2010 1:56 pm Our painters smoked in the house It was disgusting We had a walk through with our SS during the painting stage, as I was pretty peed off, and let him know it. Apparently our builder gave our painters 3 warnings, but even our builder couldn't guarantee they wouldn't continue to smoke House was handed over to us, and we could still smell it, it's disappeared now thank god. Smoking inside new house 6Oct 27, 2010 2:05 pm Our house is the same.. Smoke packets and butts everywhere. Not much we can do about it. They aren't going to exit the house to smoke. I don't mind so much as as long as they are working hard instead of stopping every 5 minutes for a smoke. As an ex smoker myself it is annoying to know that they are smoking throughout the house and I'll have to live in it later. I just hope they don't do it once they lay the carpet. Re: Smoking inside new house 7Oct 27, 2010 3:28 pm Thanks for your responses. Hmm- I can see it is obviously not an isolated case. I actually think it is quite sad that they have so little respect for what will become someone's home. Hopefully the site supervisor will be helpful but based on what others have written it sounds likely that they will continue to smoke inside even if the SS asks them not to. Quote: this is a double edged sword... the OP shouldnt have even been on site without the supervisor present.. OHS. We have keys/ access to the house because some elements of the building process are our responsibility and we have the relevant insurance cover through our business. Regardless of whether we have access or not- they still shouldn't be smoking in our home- imho. It is good to hear that others have reported that the smell does go. I've heard others say that when the paint goes on- you don't tend to notice the smell but one of the things that we took out of the building contract was painting (so my poor husband will have to put up with the smell during painting) Re: Smoking inside new house 8Oct 29, 2010 2:48 pm Just thought I would report back to say that the SS was most helpful. I am quite pleasantly surprised. He said that he was smoker but wouldn't dream of smoking in someone else's house and would expect the same from the tradies. They've been asked not to smoke inside and to my knowledge they are respecting that request. Re: Smoking inside new house 9Oct 29, 2010 4:07 pm good news.. so what parts of work are you responsible for? you don't often hear of an owner being part of the physical building process... is your other half a tradie? Yes well there solution is to blame everyone else while I a 65yr old woman with major medical problems have to just continue to boil water and wash myself in a bucket… 2 16005 If you make sure all taps inside and out are turned off, what does the water meter show if you leave it for a while. 2 20235 13 6632 |