Selecting building materials, appliances and fixtures isn't the only thing consumers need to think about when they build a home. They'd do well to consider how to protect these supplies, too.

Theft from construction sites is a persistent problem, and consumers, contractors and law-enforcement officials are wrestling with how to protect property and thwart thieves. The National Equipment Register, an insurance-industry organization, estimates between $300 million and $1 billion in heavy equipment is stolen each year. David Shillingford, NER president, says those figures don't take into account the hand tools and materials from residential projects. He says pilferage problems are "worse than five years ago," in part because unlike heavy machinery, small tools and materials aren't registered. "Small items are easier to steal than bulldozers," says Mr. Shillingford. "This only makes the risk of theft that much worse."

Victims and investigators say professional and amateur thieves looking to resell materials and tools are to blame. These may include site workers and even neighbors.

"We are having a problem with theft, and it's happening more than it used to," says Terry Layman, a crime analyst for the Orlando, Fla., Police Crime Analysis Unit. "A lot of our builders are being hit. Thieves are taking everything."

Carolyn and Jay Peters, who built a home in the late 1990s in Chicago's Austin area, a gentrifying neighborhood of town homes and single-family residences just west of the downtown Loop, know about site theft first-hand. Burglars returned repeatedly to their property while it was under construction, and materials disappeared on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

"Appliances would come down the street in a big truck with 'Whirlpool' on the side," says Ms. Peters, owner of a kitchen- and bath-remodeling business. "You could see people looking at the truck." The Peters's washer, dryer and refrigerator were unloaded into the garage -- and were gone the next morning, recalls Ms. Peters. She and her husband then began to request deliveries be made in nondescript trucks.

Site theft prompted the Peters to change the flooring in their house. Several pallets of wood flooring delivered to their home and left to acclimate to local humidity disappeared overnight. Frustrated, the Peters switched to prefinished laminate flooring that could be installed the same day it was delivered.

Some heists were daring daylight raids. "We had plumbers working under the sink below an open window," says Ms. Peters. "When they came up for other tools, those would be taken, too. If it wasn't glued or nailed down, it was gone."

The Peters plowed ahead with their project anyway. "We knew there would be theft" anywhere we decided to build, says Ms. Peters.

Contractors and other workers accept job-site loss as inevitable -- regardless of the neighborhood they're working in.

Contractors and consumers should count on some amount of shrinkage, or material loss, on every job, says Eric Meyers, co-owner of Meyers-Bradick Associates, a general contractor in Memphis, Tenn. He recalls one memorable instance at a prior home site in Maryland when brazen thieves backed up a truck to the front door of a home and proceeded to steal appliances and other items.

"They even had the nerve to ask the neighbors for assistance with the heavy stuff," says Mr. Meyers.

Dennis Szigeti, co-owner of Leader Builders, a construction firm in Bend, Ore., says minor theft -- a couple of two-by-fours, for example -- is easily overlooked. "It's hard to know when small amounts are taken," he says. "We have to trust that things will stay put, but we don't have the ability to know all and see all."

When builders do see a rise in construction-site burglaries, they try to pass the word to colleagues via informal phone trees, says Mr. Szigeti. Police action can stem the tide, if only temporarily. Mr. Layman says the Orlando police issue a crime bulletin when the city identifies a developing problem with job-site theft. This "stops the activity" he says, but "sooner or later after we lessen the intensity, thefts start back up or shifts to another area."

Tool theft, which contractors say has been on the increase, hits builders particularly hard even if they carry insurance, and some of the cost to replace tools and materials ends up being passed on to consumers.

"We carry builder's risk insurance, but if you make a claim, it drives your rates up," says Tom Riordan, a partner in Robert Balkman Homes, a custom-home builder based in Plano, Texas. Mr. Szigeti says he doesn't file claims for the same reason. "If tools are stolen, I just go out and buy new ones," he says.

Similarly, the Peters paid for replacement materials out of their own pockets; tools foisted from their contractor weren't covered by their homeowner policy. Ms. Peters says if they had reported the thefts, they risked a hike in insurance premiums.

Just as many contractors carry builder's risk insurance, consumers should consider a cost-of-construction rider on their homeowner's insurance plans, says Jeff Nagel, a product manager with Allstate Insurance in Northbrook, Ill. The rider covers most losses during construction.

Who's behind most construction-site theft?

Sometimes teams of professional thieves prowl construction zones in trucks and vans looking for "easy-in, easy-out" homes. But often, it's an inside job. Albuquerque police detective Anna Torres says many of the culprits are the construction workers and subcontractors. "They know the job site, what's inside, and how to get at it," she says.

Many thefts occur at the end of the day as workers are leaving or cleaning up. "This makes it hard to tell whether [the workers] belong there or not," says Sgt. Christopher LaBoo of the Orlando, Fla., police department. "It's easy to walk off with things because they have the keys, or they might work for the contractor or subcontractor, because most times there's no sign of breakage. They may have taken items they just installed that day."

Mr. Riordan believes the incidence of theft is tied to local economies. "The better the economy, the less theft you have," he says. "When people are out of work, you will lose lumber and appliances."

It's difficult for police to collar thieves unless a witness reports a crime in progress. In neighborhoods under development where witnesses and police patrols are scarce, thieves can move quickly from home to home.

By the time Albuquerque police are dispatched to a burglary in progress, many criminals are already gone, says Ms. Torres.

Mr. Shillingford says recovery of even big-ticket items like front-end loaders and earthmovers is tough because the manpower to follow up on such crimes just doesn't exist. "The recovery of items seems to be moving in the wrong direction because police resources are stretched too thin," says Mr. Shillingford. "Theft is easier to get away with than it was five years ago."

The Peters's Chicago experience illustrates the difficulty in defeating would-be burglars. As they drove to their home site, the couple saw custom windows and doors -- stolen from them a few days earlier -- installed on a nearby house. They reported the theft to police but were met with a dose of reality.

"The police said if we pressed charges, [the thieves] would do it again, and worse. It was pure intimidation," says Ms. Peters.

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