Weakest rant ever: What ever happened to craftsmanship?

[rivan]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
edit: No, I take that back - forgot that you said it was a 2 year old roof. It should NEVER have leaked if they did the work right.

Well, I can see coming back once. Maybe twice. 6x is just stupid.

Originally posted by: Fritzo
LOL- same here In fact, the builder of our house still comes out to make adjustments even though it's a year out of warranty (he just wants to make sure everything is right).

Our Dish Network installer set up our wires so everything is in the wall- he had some pretty cool equipment with cameras to do this.

Anyway, maybe you're going with the cheapest contractors and paying the price?

Absolutely not. Price is an object, but not even the top priority. Sometimes (like with the HVAC - since it was mostly covered by a home warranty, and the DTV install) we don't have a choice in contractor.

Originally posted by: Dirigible
I'm with you OP. You really have to watch most of them.

Like Muse (who lives close to me apparently), my house is a 1910 craftsman with a lot of nice details. The previous owner was an artist that did work himself with a lot of care. I'd like to keep my house nice, but it sure takes a lot of energy, time, and attention that I don't want to spend.

I'm always shocked at the level of apathy. In my own job, back when I was paid by the hour I frequently spent time I knew I couldn't bill to make sure things were done right. When I do come across someone who cares and does good work I make sure to praise them and pay a little extra after it's done.

I'm the same way - I've been overpaying my mechanic for years, and always in cash.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

As a GC, I can speak to a couple of these issues:

Roof leaks as others said can be near impossible to diagnose at times. I've had jobs where the roofer had to return several times to troubleshoot a flat membrane roof, and a complicated shingled roofline could be even harder.

The epoxy injection you had done cannot be done on cracks less than a certain width. it is possible that the crack you are talking about cannot be injected.

 

[amdskip]

Since you are talking about construction, who should I call to repair my fascia? It's too high and hard to access to do it myself. Basically a couple pieces blew off before I bought the place and it was never repaired. I also need them to make 2 holes in the sidewall with a holesaw for venting my bathroom exhaust fans which currently just go in the attic which is a big no no.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
As a GC, I can speak to a couple of these issues:

Roof leaks as others said can be near impossible to diagnose at times. I've had jobs where the roofer had to return several times to troubleshoot a flat membrane roof, and a complicated shingled roofline could be even harder.

The epoxy injection you had done cannot be done on cracks less than a certain width. it is possible that the crack you are talking about cannot be injected.

I sympathize with the flat roof deal. I've been patient and will remain so. But 6 trips in two years is frustrating.

On the cracks, the whole thing's roughly the same width (if anything, the leaking part - where he bid, is wider than the rest); when questioned about why he didn't bid on the other branch of the "Y" his response was 'Oh, yeah. You're right. I should include that on here, too'. Obviously we won't be using him.

 

[Red]

I work in new home construction in Florida. I advise homeowners to thoroughly inspect any homes built from 2003 to 2006 because of the housing booms. Some superintendents were building 40 to 50 homes at one time... the contractors were WAY too busy to do a quality job. They had to slap everything together so fast to move on to the next home.

 

[Fiat1]

HA, craftsmanship & pride that went out with the 60's
today most service company employees just want to know is it time to go home yet.
And hay dude I'm only 10 min late.

 

[AndrewR]

I know what my in-laws have done for some fairly major work on their house is they know a very reputable general contractor and hire him for everything -- he takes care of the subs. Since he's reputable and stands by his work, the subs are the same way, and they've been very pleased with the results in every single case (kitchen refurbish, master bath refurbish, deck conversion to sunroom).

I'm buying a house within the next year -- you haven't made me excited about the possibility of doing work on it!

 

[sdifox]

Craftmanship was there when the contraction workers were paid by the hour. Now that they are paid piecemeal, volume is king.

 

[FreshPrince]

for old construction, I always suggest hiring an extensive home inspection crew....it'll be expensive, but you don't end up with a house full of hidden secrets.

sorry about your situation

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
I know what my in-laws have done for some fairly major work on their house is they know a very reputable general contractor and hire him for everything -- he takes care of the subs. Since he's reputable and stands by his work, the subs are the same way, and they've been very pleased with the results in every single case (kitchen refurbish, master bath refurbish, deck conversion to sunroom).

I'm buying a house within the next year -- you haven't made me excited about the possibility of doing work on it!

Hiring a competent GC is the way to go if you possibly can if you have complex things to accomplish. If you can't, you better be prepared for a lot of work.

 

[BigJ]

I work in a big box home improvement store and I have to say it's a combination of the homeowners and contractors.

I have plenty of uninformed homeowners come in asking how to correct a problem that is a result of a contractor doing some work. Such as tying into circuits when putting in new receptacles lights, and now the breakers are tripping. Or an "electrician" running lamp cord in the wall when wiring a light switch/light.

On the flip side, the contractors will come in and tell me how they have to try to cut costs because they're being bid down by someone who subcontracts all his work to a foreman with a group of illegals. While it still may be technically correct and legal, the things they've explained to me aren't really the best way to do things.

Then you have the case when both the homeowner and the contractor decide to not do the right thing. I had another contractor (there with his client) who wanted to run 6/3 NM-B (not UF) underground in 3/4" Sched 40 PVC Conduit out to a pool house, on a 150ft run. There were two glaring mistakes with this, plus a lot of potential problems I'm not going to list. He really needed to be using 6/3 UF or individual strands, but they decided on NM-B (Romex) solely because of price. So because he wanted to save $140 on wire, the contractor and the homeowner are going to run into big problems down the road. Of course, there were no permits pulled and there will be no inspection of the job (I asked the homeowner). When I told the homeowner to go around the corner and ask the licensed electrician we have on staff, the contractor said there was no reason because he "knew what he was doing." I left it at that and sold them their wire.

 

[RESmonkey]

[Burns] Release the hounds! [/Burns]

 

[bctbct]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Since you are talking about construction, who should I call to repair my fascia? It's too high and hard to access to do it myself. Basically a couple pieces blew off before I bought the place and it was never repaired. I also need them to make 2 holes in the sidewall with a holesaw for venting my bathroom exhaust fans which currently just go in the attic which is a big no no.

you probably want a carpenter for the facia boards and its likely against code to vent the exhaust fan thru a sidewall.

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: bctbct

Originally posted by: amdskip
Since you are talking about construction, who should I call to repair my fascia? It's too high and hard to access to do it myself. Basically a couple pieces blew off before I bought the place and it was never repaired. I also need them to make 2 holes in the sidewall with a holesaw for venting my bathroom exhaust fans which currently just go in the attic which is a big no no.

you probably want a carpenter for the facia boards and its likely against code to vent the exhaust fan thru a sidewall.

No building code here, its not a good idea to vent it through the side eve, and this is the sidewall above the bathroom so in the gable of the house. I'm not making a hole in the roof for this.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: rivan
I mean FFS - does noone pay any attention any more?

prescription drug use up

 

[HannibalX]

How old is your house? From my experience American builders stopped building high quality homes in the 1950s. Every home I have lived in newer than 1950 has been terrible. I have lived all over the USA.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: milehigh
We bought a newer home with a lot of the same issues. Really don't notice stuff until after you move in...water problems, leaks, poor craftsmanship...

It all looks good from far but its all far from good.

I think thats the standard ALOT of people build to these days.

yeap. some do it to save money and just don't give a shit.

a contractor baught up a bunch of property and built mabye 50 houses (wich sold for 300-400k). then skipped town. After a year people were haveing major problems with the houses. from leaking roofs,basements to a few having plumbing so bad that sewage was flooding basements.

3 houses had to be torn down (less then 2 years old) and a few others are in such bad shape they have spent a few hundred grand redoing them.

they sued the crap out of the guy but they won't get a penny from him. Though he did agree to pay to have the "warentee" uped to 10 years (NON-TRANSFERABLE). people in the area were having trouble selling the place.

Wow.

That has to be illegal somehow.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I would say that 75% of the houses I see are pieces of shit. Oh, and I hate to inform you, but you paid WAY over the true market value for that shit and the value is decreasing by the day.

 

[wirelessenabled]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
How old is your house? From my experience American builders stopped building high quality homes in the 1950s. Every home I have lived in newer than 1950 has been terrible. I have lived all over the USA.

My house built in 1986. Great construction and craftsmanship. Oh did I tell you that my house was built by a contractor as his retirement place? His plans didn't work out but I have a great house built like a fortress.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: wirelessenabled

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
How old is your house? From my experience American builders stopped building high quality homes in the 1950s. Every home I have lived in newer than 1950 has been terrible. I have lived all over the USA.

My house built in 1986. Great construction and craftsmanship. Oh did I tell you that my house was built by a contractor as his retirement place? His plans didn't work out but I have a great house built like a fortress.

Score. My cousin bought a contractors home and it's great.

 

[Stiganator]

Glad my 4 uncles all run essential building services, one is an electrician/plumber, 2 do general contracting and cement work, 1 does building inspecting, and my dad is a general carpenter but specializes in suspended ceilings, dry wall, and finishing. Not to mention, 1 aunt sells insurance and always gives us good deals, 1 is an interior decorator. We're pretty much set. All the family homes are top notch.

I plan on designing, building my house from scratch. That way only I and ATOT will know about the secret passages.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: rivan
? We hire the gas company (union dudes - you'd think they'd do it right - they were 30% higher than their next non-union competitor)

One of the biggest myths going. Going union only guarantees you PAY more, not GET more.

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
How old is your house? From my experience American builders stopped building high quality homes in the 1950s. Every home I have lived in newer than 1950 has been terrible. I have lived all over the USA.

Our house was coincidentally built by my wife's grandfather before she was born. It's pretty solid, no real problems other than age. He had split from his partner because the partner wanted to maximize profit by minimizing quality and her grandfather wanted to build quality houses for affordable prices.

At one time her grandfather owned 10,000 acres of land on Lake Lanier (Georgia). He bought it for $30K . Sigh, if only he had kept it all, we'd be multimillionaires.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider
How old is your house? From my experience American builders stopped building high quality homes in the 1950s. Every home I have lived in newer than 1950 has been terrible. I have lived all over the USA.

Built in 1940. The bones are great. Most of the rest is in great shape.

The things I don't have an eye for are the ones that are catching me right now (aside from the well-hidden crack in the basement wall - intentionally obscured by the seller) like landscaping issues - bad grading, etc causing water issues. I'm not the sue-happy type, and even if I were, by the time I paid for the lawyer to win I wouldn't be coming out that far ahead.

Originally posted by: grrl

Originally posted by: rivan
? We hire the gas company (union dudes - you'd think they'd do it right - they were 30% higher than their next non-union competitor)

One of the biggest myths going. Going union only guarantees you PAY more, not GET more.

I guess the last of the old school union pride in craftsmanship really is gone/nearly gone. I thought they might be an exception; apparently not.

 

[alkemyst]

You get what you pay for in these cases. Too many people shop the lowest price for labor and wonder why the job sux. Worse are the one's going for "HANDYMAN 555-555-1212" nailed to some light pole.

I'd call the top builder's in your area and ask who their sub is for whatever job you need.