Possibly the most important thing for your Contractor to do is to be clean and respectful when using the common areas. These include hallways, vestibules, lobbies, elevators, outdoor and roof spaces. On our own jobs we will often go above and beyond the building’s rules, especially if the building does not have a strong alteration agreement. Leaving dust or debris in the hallways is probably the most common cause of complaints in co-op renovations.

Some multi-unit residential buildings have commercial storefront spaces at street-level, private medical practices within individual apartments, or other commercial spaces that operate within the building. If any of these spaces are adjacent your renovation, engage with the business owners directly and find out if they have any specific needs. Remember that they are operating a business and that their livelihood and reputation depends on their ability to continue doing so. There’s also a greater legal risk in causing disruption to a business where real money can be lost.

Contractors should be operating completely independent of the building’s services and systems. Renovation debris should not go out with the building’s trash, it should be carted away by the Contractor or one of their Subcontractors. Doormen should not be accepting deliveries for the Contractor, and building staff should not be cleaning up after them or performing repairs related to the renovation.

If a building does not have a dedicated service access to the apartment, such as a service elevator or stairwell with a door that opens directly into the apartment, the common hallways will have to be used for access. Hallways and common areas should only be used for access and for delivering equipment and materials, they should never be used as work areas. With few exceptions, the hallway floor should be protected every day and the protection should be removed at the end of each work day so that the residents can have a sense of normalcy when they return home in the evenings. The best and most common floor protection is ¼” hardboard, commonly referred to as Masonite in the trades. Many buildings will even call out how they want the floors to be protected and with what product in their alteration agreements.

Another important item is to protect the elevator, assuming there is one and if there is no service elevator. This is primarily the duty of the building’s superintendent or staff, but your Contractor needs to coordinate closely with them. Generally, the elevator will have a set of wall-covering pads which are made to fit and hang on little metal pegs on the elevator walls. The building’s staff is responsible for storing and maintaining these pads and for installing them at the beginning of each work day and removing them at the end. The Contractor will usually cut a piece of Masonite to fit the elevator floor and install it with the rest of the hallway floor covering. If the Contractor scratches the elevator walls or floor not only will this be nearly impossible to touch-up, but everyone in the building will see it and be annoyed, not just the neighbors on your floor.

Workers should generally be as low-impact as possible in the common areas, there should not be any loitering, hanging-out, or loud conversation. Contractors should coordinate deliveries with building staff so that inconvenience can be as minimal as possible. Unfortunately, this is not always possible (Your new fridge will be arriving sometime between 7AM and 9PM on Tuesday, sound familiar?). Workers should also make sure that their feet are clean when they leave the work area so that dust is not being tracked everywhere. The little things make a difference.

In the apartment, a dust barrier (plastic sheet) should be installed on one side of the apartment entry door. Contractors will always make noise, this cannot be avoided, but radios and loud-music can be and this will also usually be called out in the building’s rules. Demolition work should be done in one shot, and as quickly as possible rather than spread out over weeks. This is usually the noisiest and dustiest work and I would strongly recommend to every Contractor that you just get it over with. Neighbors will be annoyed by the noise and vibration, but they will eventually forget. Don’t remind them by dragging out the demolition process by doing it in phases. This is also one of many reasons it is best to bundle all your projects into one large renovation rather than becoming the resident that is “always doing work in their apartment”.

Another special circumstance that may occur, especially in the summer in NYC, is multiple projects in a building happening at once. Sometimes, the building may be doing capital improvements to common areas, the roof, or the façade. If this is the case it’s even more important for the Contractor to be diligent about following rules, to document their activities as much as possible, and to segregate their work from other Contractors as much as possible.