Bad economy eh? No work? WTF

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

Construction Industry as a whole is lazy from my/my family's experiences
When you have the joy of watching a custom home be built then you can talk. We came up to the house every day and framers are the laziest mother****ers out there, took em WAY to long to put the house up, but like I said its custom so it was done right.

Although from Digging to Move in was about 6.5 Months

I work solely on apartment complexes, so stuff needs to get done fairly quick when dealing with 100's of apartment units. Custom home builders are a joke compared to large companies that do apartment complexes and other big jobs. The framers/joist/deckers are just faster and better at what they do. Put it this way, I can layout a 10k ft^2 building and it'll be framed, joist, and decked in time for me to be on it again the same day next week. The superintendents and framers that I have seen that used to work in custom homes are pretty clueless(most framers generally are, but custom home ones are worse than most that I know).

I guess having separate people doing each step helps them be better and more efficient at what they do. If I'm not mistaken with most homes you'll have one crew of guys doing everything.

 

[GearGuy2001 10+ year member]

I work solely on apartment complexes, so stuff needs to get done fairly quick when dealing with 100's of apartment units. Custom home builders are a joke compared to large companies that do apartment complexes and other big jobs. The framers/joist/deckers are just faster and better at what they do. Put it this way, I can layout a 10k ft^2 building and it'll be framed, joist, and decked in time for me to be on it again the same day next week. The superintendents and framers that I have seen that used to work in custom homes are pretty clueless(most framers generally are, but custom home ones are worse than most that I know).
I guess having separate people doing each step helps them be better and more efficient at what they do. If I'm not mistaken with most homes you'll have one crew of guys doing everything.

Yeah We had separate framers, plumbers, electricians, HVAC, brick layers, concrete finishers, etc

The lead guy/owner of the framer crew raced cars on the weekends but it seemed he made 3-4 day weekends out of every weekend during the summer. Although the other framer crew our GC used on his other custom homes were a bunch of mexicants and didnt do a good job so I guess it was worth the wait.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

yeah, good to hear thats not what you are doing. How much do you make an hour, or do you prefer not to say?

I'm not my own boss yet so I'm making $17.50 as of right now. I work under my dad, who has been a sub-contractor for about 25 years in the DFW area, so it's pretty nice not having a typical boss that you have to deal with every day. I've learned a lot the last few years and we've talked about me getting my own jobs when work picks up, which will give me the opportunity to make a ton more money since I'll be getting paid by the ft^2 from the framing contractor and not by the hour from my dad.

I'm really looking forward to getting my own jobs, I need the moniez to start getting into audio again.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

Although the other framer crew our GC used on his other custom homes were a bunch of mexicants and didnt do a good job so I guess it was worth the wait.

We don't have any whiteys working in construction down here...head plumber/concrete/electrician, maybe, but other than that the actual workers are all messicans.

 

[subzero 5,000+ posts]

we have a huge mix of whiteys and messicans in da constuction feild . both **** up the same. I have only seen a handfull of crew that know what they are doing. They usually work on peices prices and knock out huge custom home in half the time other crews do.

When I worked up in Pinetop AZ, I was on a crew that peiced out work. We didnt have crackerjack boxes for homes, we had luxury cabin homes that took about 4 months per home, $2mil dolla mountain side suckas. best part... No shitty competition, only top notch crews in the mountains...

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

we have a huge mix of whiteys and messicans in da constuction feild . both **** up the same. I have only seen a handfull of crew that know what they are doing. They usually work on peices prices and knock out huge custom home in half the time other crews do.
When I worked up in Pinetop AZ, I was on a crew that peiced out work. We didnt have crackerjack boxes for homes, we had luxury cabin homes that took about 4 months per home, $2mil dolla mountain side suckas. best part... No shitty competition, only top notch crews in the mountains...

My dad has some pretty interesting stories of when he had to go out of town in the mid 80's when the construction stopped in Dallas. Went to St. Louis and the framers there weren't even using bottom plate, just nailed studs into the decking...crazy, makes you wonder how stuff stayed up for years.

He's had quite a few characters work for him as well. An ex-chemist who got thrown in jail for making some sort of meth, an ex-marine with a metal plate in his head that overheated in the summer time, Mike and Mikey who were wiggers with a beat and them freestyling as their answering machine message. Best of all, Brad, a short and fat homeless guy in his mid-40's with a gigantor black **********, Inetta, as his girlfriend. Coiuldn't save money because he'd sit outside 7-11 with a couple 40's and some cigs every day after work...made some money helping someone move and Inetta told him to give her the money or she'd beat him up and take it...he gave here the money; smart man.

Add on top of that druggie superintendents who would steal bundles of wood off of job sites, crazy fork lift drivers who would smoke weed all day long(and still do), and things are pretty interesting with tons of stories to tell.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

My dad has some pretty interesting stories of when he had to go out of town in the mid 80's when the construction stopped in Dallas. Went to St. Louis and the framers there weren't even using bottom plate, just nailed studs into the decking...crazy, makes you wonder how stuff stayed up for years.
He's had quite a few characters work for him as well. An ex-chemist who got thrown in jail for making some sort of meth, an ex-marine with a metal plate in his head that overheated in the summer time, Mike and Mikey who were wiggers with a beat and them freestyling as their answering machine message. Best of all, Brad, a short and fat homeless guy in his mid-40's with a gigantor black **********, Inetta, as his girlfriend. Coiuldn't save money because he'd sit outside 7-11 with a couple 40's and some cigs every day after work...made some money helping someone move and Inetta told him to give her the money or she'd beat him up and take it...he gave here the money; smart man.

Add on top of that druggie superintendents who would steal bundles of wood off of job sites, crazy fork lift drivers who would smoke weed all day long(and still do), and things are pretty interesting with tons of stories to tell.

those were the days......

 

[subzero 5,000+ posts]

That shit is everywhere. I hardly paid attention to them. come and went...

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

OK, have it down to the top 3 and hope to make a decision by Tuesday:

(in no particular order)

#1 Price $4800 seemed like a great guy, works out of his home. BBB accredited (only means he paid them a fee) and A+ rating. Can start within 2 weeks

#2 Price $5400 Spent the most time with us came with samples of work, and supplied references without me asking. Detailed estimate BBB rating of A- did some work for neighbors about 5 years ago that I can easily go see. Can have it done this week. Has an actual storefront

#3 Price $6000 Not sure why, but I liked this guy, prolly because he reminded me of someone so I kind of need to break that tie. Works out of his home, BBB rating A-

Leaning towards #2 right now, pending seeing his work

 

[Rmsanger 10+ year member]

10% of the people in this country do 90% of the work... Unfortunately for you the people you see out of work aren't in those 10%. You're stuck trying to get quotes from the guys that use to do the coffee runs for the workers in the morning or the fegs that you to hold the tools/flashlights for the people that did the work.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

Call your local pool company that builds pools, they should do concrete or get you in touch with someone that does.

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[kroid777 10+ year member]

10% of the people in this country do 90% of the work... Unfortunately for you the people you see out of work aren't in those 10%. You're stuck trying to get quotes from the guys that use to do the coffee runs for the workers in the morning or the fegs that you to hold the tools/flashlights for the people that did the work.