Originally Posted by
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he's losing jobs left and right... long before any recession hit. he was being undercut on price with lower cost labor. people buying based on low bids, not quality of work or reputation
This is what's happening in all the trades. The harry homeowner these days doesn't know what good highly skilled construction work looks like. Its like comparing bad to worse. Not to pick on anyone here but the country is letting and getting cheap help in from out of the borders. I have been to those countries and places and SEEN how they do things. I'm been flown out of the states because of the big difference of how Mexico and Puerto Rico builds not to mention other countries. No add , we as contractors have to stay competitive and get CHEAP labor for help. So who ends up hurting because of this in the long run, customers.
On top of that add the Big Box stores selling the "do it yourself kit" "Get your Man a SAW for Christmas he's Mr handy Man. Ive been in many developments that there garages are filled with tools and the " sears work bench" and they build what? Then I run into the handy man that calls me for work and Mr. handy is now an expert on how I should build his addition. He has read " How To" on the Internet.
Whats killing the trades is simple and its been way before the hard times now. Heres the list.
The first beginning to that effect was the "Bob villa Show" etc etc. All the how to shows.
Then the big box stores popped up. Here it was Hechenier/ builders square/Home depot?Lowe's etc.
Now there was less work for the contractor. I started in the 70s, I've lived and SEEN the transition. I remember getting called to add shelves in a home or put up a fence etc, small pointing jobs etc. Ask the old contractors on this site in plumbing. how much work they lost over the big box stores for selling a faucet and the home owner installs it or tries. When he can't its OFF to the Internet contractors, or the " How Toos".
So America brought this on themselves. The REAL Contractors in this country are dieing along with old skills that will be forever forgotten.
Heres a good one. How many tradesmen out there know when replacing an old rotted sill to take his circ saw and measure back 5/8+ and saw a kurf under the sill long ways. This stops the water cohesion under the sill so the rain water doesn't drip back into the house and is stopped by one tiny saw cut.
This is an Excellent site for real prof to answer questions to help out the 'harry home owner" I have personally wondered how much damage I'm doing to the tradesmen here an a this service to all in that aspect. "hurting my predecessor"
It's a weired thing. Many of the questions here are because of bad construction workers which in turn are more out there because of cheap labor and the price is the bottom line for Harry Homeowner. I see less and less pride in workmanship and its ALL about price and quantity, not much about quality. I hope that doesn't get to the Doctor level and what if it did??
An old story: This factories heating and air condition kept braking down They called service men after service men. Spent many "thousands to try to get the system to run right. Well this old worn out tradesmen said I can fix your problem. It will cost $ 6,000 to fix. factory said go head and how long will it take? The repair man said not long. He went to his truck got out a wrench, tightened up a bolt on the system. and said/ " there you go fixed" pushed the button and she ran smooth. The factory was happy but said to the man. "Were aren't paying you $6.000.00 to turn a bolt" The tradesmen said " Oh turning getting here and turning the bolt was a service call and 1 hr min labor. That's $150.00. For the work. The $5,850.00 was for the knowledge for knowing which bolt to turn out of 50,000 bolts on the system."
So should he not help the suit and tie so to speak and now he taught them which bolt to turn and now he's out of work for any other service calls for the same problem.
So this is reality and how the trades are dieing in highly skilled tradesmen/builders
Good highly skilled tradesmen will be HARDER than finding a good doctor at some point. My first trade is a Mason and a REAL stone Mason. How many of MEs are left????? masonry is not like studding a wall in. ( No offense to real framers/layout men)
I'm a General Contractor, 28 years all in house. Highly skilled men work for me. Getting hard to keep it going. My youngest skilled worker is 38, Most all 45 and up.
My town founded in 1718. We have been noted for some of the best construction skills in the country. We have tons of homes on the national registry not to mention our steel company has received national bridge awards. I'm kind of in that barometer area of losing what my town was noted for. "highly skilled tradesmen" to many have retired or died off, and no one to replace us. One of the reasons I help answer on this site because there are some
highly skilled tradesmen here to kick around in our world ideas and share them, and on turn help someone.
Sorry for the long post but maybe it needed said.