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lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Deathwing said:
Is this all born out of a society that promotes college over trades?
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I think you hit the nail on the head right there. For quite a while in North America kids who go to trades programs rather than a four year university have been looked down on, and even considered not as smart because they're going to do "manual labour." This is absolute bullshit. I have more education than most, have taught at a couple elite universities, and now I'm fixing houses and I like it so much better than what I was doing. People need to remember that without trades people the would would stop.
 
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Lanx

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lurkingdirk said:
I think you hit the nail on the head right there. For quite a while in North America kids who go to trades programs rather than a four year university have been looked down on, and even considered not as smart because they're going to do "manual labour." This is absolute bullshit. I have more education than most, have taught at a couple elite universities, and now I'm fixing houses and I like it so much better than what I was doing. People need to remember that without trades people the would would stop.
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Captain Suave

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lurkingdirk said:
I think you hit the nail on the head right there. For quite a while in North America kids who go to trades programs rather than a four year university have been looked down on, and even considered not as smart because they're going to do "manual labour." This is absolute bullshit. I have more education than most, have taught at a couple elite universities, and now I'm fixing houses and I like it so much better than what I was doing. People need to remember that without trades people the would would stop.
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Anyone who has tried to hire a tradeseman recently is acutely aware of this. I can barely get plumbers or electricians to return my calls because they have as much work as they want at almost whatever they feel like charging. At this point if you've got a job less than a full house remodel it's very nearly cheaper and faster to just buy the tools and figure out how to do it yourself.
 
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Burren

Burren

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Kobayashi said:
Just trying to get a visit from the Porsche rep based on my post history...

Bad joke, got the reaction it deserved
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Homie, even if you buy a half dozen cars from them you're unlikely to get the "privilege" of ordering a car.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Captain Suave said:
Anyone who has tried to hire a tradeseman recently is acutely aware of this. I can barely get plumbers or electricians to return my calls because they have as much work as they want at almost whatever they feel like charging. At this point if you've got a job less than a full house remodel it's very nearly cheaper and faster to just buy the tools and figure out how to do it yourself.
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There's such a shortage it is crazy. Other folks I know who do similar work to me can not find people to work. No one has the skills. And if they do, they're stupidly lazy. I know folks who will say a guy's a good worker if he just shows up. It's so hard to find people. If you don't want a complete kitchen remodel, or a huge master bath remodel, the larger companies won't touch you. We need not just people who can do the jobs, but people who are willing to go out and change light fixtures, do small repairs, all of it. I have several clients who are elderly and not able to walk well, so can't get on a ladder. I happily show up to do small things like change lightbulbs, change the filter on their fridge water, whatever. I also get so bloody pissed when people rip off folks, especially elderly. People prey on them. One of my clients had a guy show up to replace their sump pump. $225 show up fee, he got paid, then left to get parts and never came back. That kind of shit happens so much.
 
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BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Deathwing said:
I've had some thoughts about this as it's been a frequent issue since buying a home. My dad has more know-how and tools than I do. I don't know how he compares to his dad. I've done a terrible job at imparting my limited knowledge to my kid, in part because he hasn't shown interest and I know it won't stick if he's not motivated. This is the main reason I'm worse at it than my dad. So, it's frustrating that I don't feel proficient enough to fix stuff around my own house. AND it's really frustrating that I realize I won't become proficient in some of these things because I won't exercise the skills often enough. How often do you replace a roof? Yes, I realize that's bad example, but I picked it for long time window and relatively specific skills.

That said, I have no problem paying other people to fix stuff. My career exists in part because lot of people decided to pay other people to deal with computer issues. If I were to guess, I'd say some part of your viewership is frustrated at the unreliability and/or cost of people they'd like to pay to fix things, so they feel they have no choice but to do it themselves.
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I live 50 miles out of town so the problem with getting tradespeople to come out here is much worse. We finally got a guy to do a remodel at my Mom's house but we had to wait a full year for him to get to us. Other people will just give us a ridiculous quote rather than saying they don't want the job. I can't blame them. If you have all the work you can handle in town, why would you want to drive an hour to get to work every day? And if you find out you need a part you can't get it until tomorrow unless you want to drive 2 hours so you have to buy extra shit so you have everything you might need or risk wasting a lot of your day.

Luckily my brother was an electrician before he came back to the ranch so that part at least we can get done. He also does a fair amount of electrical work for the neighbors, not because he wants to, but because he knows they can't get anyone to come out to their place for a small job.

I also have the problem with the DIY stuff. Given enough time and YouTube videos, I've been able to remodel my house by myself, but it took me a *ridiculous* amount of time and a lot of the work is far from perfect. Usually by the end of the project, I'm getting somewhat proficient, but I'm not going to go back and redo the first shit I did and it will be years before I have a reason to do it again at which time I will nearly be starting from scratch. I love buying the tools so that part I don't mind.
 
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Julian The Apostate

Julian The Apostate

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Kajiimagi said:
Yep when I bought the place I have now (all ROCKS baby!) there were still 4-5 pine trees still alive. Fuck them I had them ripped out. Contractor was like 'are you sure these are nice trees'? I told him he was welcome to take them to his house as long as he filled in the root bulb hole.
Fuck a tree and double fuck a pine tree.
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this you bro?

1752923137767.jpeg
 
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Burren

Burren

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lurkingdirk said:
There's such a shortage it is crazy. Other folks I know who do similar work to me can not find people to work. No one has the skills. And if they do, they're stupidly lazy. I know folks who will say a guy's a good worker if he just shows up. It's so hard to find people. If you don't want a complete kitchen remodel, or a huge master bath remodel, the larger companies won't touch you. We need not just people who can do the jobs, but people who are willing to go out and change light fixtures, do small repairs, all of it. I have several clients who are elderly and not able to walk well, so can't get on a ladder. I happily show up to do small things like change lightbulbs, change the filter on their fridge water, whatever. I also get so bloody pissed when people rip off folks, especially elderly. People prey on them. One of my clients had a guy show up to replace their sump pump. $225 show up fee, he got paid, then left to get parts and never came back. That kind of shit happens so much.
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I got a GC via a mutual friend. They are good, but taking 3 times longer than they should:
 
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lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

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Burren said:
I got a GC via a mutual friend. They are good, but taking 3 times longer than they should:
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This is typical, too. People take on more jobs than they can do, so they spread themselves thin and take long to get anything finished. Getting a contractor through a friend is the best way.
 
Lanx

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everything about this video is scary as fuck


i'm guessing the hvac drain was clogged and they didn't have a shut off attached
 
BrutulTM

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The furnace is in the attic? That's what basements are for.
 
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Falstaff

Falstaff

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We have two air conditioners so I have one of those in my attic and the other in the basement. Mine leaked the first summer I bought the house but luckily it came right down through a smoke detector so minimal damage and a nice built in warning.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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BrutulTM said:
Well they should.
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do not come to florida...

unless you have a stupid amount of money like this one crazy rich dude - he came from up north and was like "I want a basement in my new house" and he was building- already had land etc. found a builder crazy enough to dig down and build essentially a water tight boat of a basement for this dude, cost a fortune, but that's his money...have fun bro.
 
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Captain Suave

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BrutulTM said:
Well they should.
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Basements are necessary only if you are building in an area subject to frost heaving. If you've got high water tables or seismic activity basements can be a bad idea.

Siliconemelons said:
this one crazy rich dude - he came from up north and was like "I want a basement in my new house" and he was building- already had land etc. found a builder crazy enough to dig down and build essentially a water tight boat of a basement for this dude, cost a fortune, but that's his money...have fun bro.
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Watertight or otherwise, in his shoes I'd worry about hydrostatic pressure pushing his house out of the ground like happens to people who empty their pools without following the right procedures.
 
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Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Captain Suave said:
Basements are necessary only if you are building in an area subject to frost heaving. If you've got high water tables or seismic activity basements can be a bad idea.



Watertight or otherwise, in his shoes I'd worry about hydrostatic pressure pushing his house out of the ground like happens to people who empty their pools without following the right procedures.
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Yeah, it was a stupid rich eccentric person - it was not like a 2000sq ft footprint w 2000sq ft basement - it was a combo of a “real” basement- some build up of land- and not the complete footprint of the building.

It was mostly a part of a discussion I had about people with too much money. The person was a home automation and AVL installer and thought it was funny when some something mentioned “in the basement” and it was a residential.
 
Kajiimagi

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Yeah I realized BrutulTM BrutulTM was talking out his ass. I've never lived anywhere where the soil / weather allowed them mostly because I've lived where it's warmer. I don't do snow (tm) !

Siliconemelons Siliconemelons story reminded me of a building we did in Myrtle Beach SC. It's ocean front on 82nd Ave and when we built it , it was called Marriott Ocean Resort. They have a parking deck that's below the water line. When it rained (which is EVERY DAY in the summer), the bottom of the parking deck, including the stairwell , would flood. These geniuses were out of Missouri and had no idea about well much of anything. So their brain trust idea of a fix was to install a permanent dewatering pump. That did dry up the flooding , and it pumped all the water out of the neighboring housing development's pretty pond. They did not appreciate my 'fix' for the stairwell flooding, which was to put up plexiglass and pop fish inside & call it a feature.
 
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BrutulTM

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Kajiimagi said:
BrutulTM BrutulTM was talking out his ass. I've never lived anywhere where the soil / weather allowed them mostly because I've lived where it's warmer. I don't do snow (tm) !
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Move out of your shit hole country. I was in California for a while until I wanted to live in a house but since they aren't affordable and don't have basements in California I left.
 
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