I guess I'm fortunate in that I've never come across painters who painted over any of my plates (on a new job, that is...I cut painted on plates off of the wall on a regular basis). I've actually seen them pull our plates off when they needed to paint so that they wouldn't mess up our job. That being said...don't put up plates too early. Make it a point to develop a relationship with the contractor as early as you can so that they know that for them to do a good job, they need to be in contact with you. It really doesn't hurt to stop by a jobsite every now and then to take a look at the progress and look out for potential future problems...like plates being painted over. Don't plate a wall until is has been painted.

Also, though I don't have the experience that many of you do, I would advise everyone to assume that other subs on a new job are stupid and don't care. If you don't want something to get cut, do what you can to make it obvious that something isn't supposed to be cut. That includes talking to other subs.

When we left wires out of the wall. We usually coiled it up and placed a trash bag over with tape. Basically made it as a "hey, don't touch me." While I was there, the other contractors all moved it as they painted or whatever, but none of them cut it off.

KOT