The first day of a project is the day homeowners dread: strangers in the house, dust, noise, and a hole where the bathroom used to be. Call (201) 676-3099 or book a free estimate.
The first day of a project is the day homeowners dread: strangers in the house, dust, noise, and a hole where the bathroom used to be. Here's how day one goes with First Call, and every step we take to keep the rest of your house clean and safe while we work.
The day before
You get a text with the arrival time, the foreman's name, and what to move. Small things — the stuff on the bathroom counter, the pictures on the hallway wall, the breakables in the cabinet next to the kitchen — you move. Furniture, we move. We tell you where the dumpster and the truck will sit and whether water or power will be off tomorrow. A pet or a nap schedule to plan around? That's the night to tell us.
7:30 to 8:00: arrival and the walk
The crew shows up at the time we texted. The foreman — the same one who measured your job — walks the plan with you: what happens today, what's going to be loud, what's going to be off, and where we'll be by the end of the day. We confirm the scope sheet together so nothing's assumed. Then we photograph the walls, floors, driveway and lawn we'll be working around, so there's a record if a question comes up. You show us anything we shouldn't touch.
Protection before a single tool starts
- Heavy floor protection taped down along the whole path from the door to the work area, stairs included
- Plastic zip-walls sealed across the doorways of the work zone, with a zipper door so it's never left open
- Every heating and AC vent inside the zone covered, so demo dust doesn't ride the ducts into your bedrooms
- Furniture that stays gets covered; furniture that can move gets moved
- A dust-extraction fan on the worst demo days, venting out a window
- Shoe covers in the living parts of the house, every trip
- Smoke detectors near the work covered during the dusty hours and uncovered before we leave
- Plywood under the dumpster so the driveway isn't cracked; tarps over the shrubs, the AC unit and the windows below a roof
- A clear line the kids and the dog stay on their side of
What demo day actually sounds like
Loud, from about 8 to noon. Sledgehammers, a reciprocating saw, tile coming off a wall in sheets, debris into the dumpster. If you work from home, take the laptop to the library that morning. By afternoon the loud part is over and it's cleanup, capping pipes and checking what the walls were hiding.
Water goes off for an hour or two while we cap the lines — we tell you right before, and it's back on before we leave. Power goes off to the circuits we're touching, and the whole panel only for the short window an electrician needs, on a day and hour you know ahead of time. If the bathroom we're rebuilding is the only one in the house, the schedule tells you exactly which nights the toilet is out, and we keep it to as few as possible.
By job type
Tub or shower out, tile off, walls open to the studs, the subfloor checked, the plumbing capped and flushed. If we find rot or old galvanized pipe, you get a photo and a priced option before anything is added — never a surprise on the invoice.
Appliances disconnected and moved, cabinets and counters out. The temporary kitchen we set up with you the day before — microwave, coffee maker, the fridge rolled into the dining room — is home for a few weeks. Cabinets are on site before demo starts, so you're never waiting on a delivery with no kitchen.
Tarps down, plywood over the windows, the dumpster placed. We strip in sections and the roof is dried-in with membrane and underlayment before the crew leaves. No open decking overnight, ever. The magnet sweep happens every day, not just the last one.
Windows go one opening at a time — pulled, flashed, set, foamed and trimmed the same day, so you never sleep with a hole in the wall. Siding comes off a wall at a time, and every wall we open is wrapped and weather-tight before dark.
Demo of anything old, then the moisture fix, the framing and the rough plumbing and electrical. The furnace and water heater keep running — protected, not moved, unless the plan says otherwise.
Panel work gets a scheduled window with the power off. Furnace and AC swaps take a day, and we don't leave you without heat in January — the old unit runs until the new one is ready.
The end of every day
- Debris out, tools stacked, the work zone swept — every night, not "at the end"
- Plastic still up, floor protection still down, so tomorrow starts clean
- Water on, power on, the house watertight
- A photo update text: what happened today, what's tomorrow, anything we need from you
- The foreman's number, in case something comes up overnight
What we ask of you
- Park on the street on demo day so the dumpster and the truck can get in
- Keep pets somewhere calm — an open door and a scared dog is how someone gets hurt
- Kids stay on their side of the plastic
- Be reachable by text for a quick decision — a tile layout question, a valve height
- Don't pull our protection up to check on things; ask the foreman for a look
Same crew tomorrow, and every day after
The people who set up day one are the people who finish the job — one dedicated licensed crew, the same foreman, no rented subcontractors. We schedule the inspections and meet the inspector, so you don't take a day off. The itemized price can't change without your signature on a written change order. And the last day is the first one in reverse: protection comes up, the house gets cleaned, and we walk the finished job with you item by item before you release the final payment.
Questions people ask next
Do I need to be home on install day?
For the first half hour, yes — the walk-through is where the plan gets confirmed and you show us what to protect. After that, no. Most of our customers go to work. Be reachable by text for the odd quick decision; the photo update comes at the end of the day either way.
What if you find something bad behind the wall?
You get a photo and a written, priced option before anything is added. Nothing changes on the price without your signature on a change order — the Price-Lock Guarantee. We inspect behind the walls before we quote, so most of what we find is already in your number.
Will my whole house be covered in dust?
No. The zone is sealed with plastic, the vents inside it are covered, we run extraction on the dusty days, and we clean every night. Some fine dust finds a way — it always does — so we wipe down the rooms next to the work on the last day.
How long will the water or power be off?
Water: an hour or two on the day we cap the lines, and it's back on before we leave. Power: only the circuits we're working on, and the whole panel only for a short scheduled window on electrical jobs. You'll know the day and the time before it happens.
Need a licensed contractor near you?
If you searched “licensed contractor near me” anywhere in New Jersey, that's us. First Call Contracting is based in Paramus and sends its own licensed crew to all 21 counties — written price before work starts, no deposit, a real person on the phone 24/7.
Day one, done right.
Every project starts with protection and ends every night with a broom. Book your free in-home consultation and you'll have the plan in writing before a single tool comes through the door.
Or call Alex direct: (201) 676-3099