"JimH" wrote in message
...

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
This week, we had about 1000 square feet of the lower level of our house
tiled in ceramic tile. This is the area that comprises my home office.


*Lower level* of your house? So you had your basement tiled. Why not
just
say so.

And it sounds like your first quote was off base. I would guess even a
non
union company would have beat it.

What is so special about laying tile that you need to be union?

Just my guess: How about the presence of formal training (apprenticeship)
arrangements? That means something. Otherwise, you could end up hiring
someone who, after discovering they were pretty good at it after doing their
own home, decided to open a business.

If you measure quality on a one to ten scale, you might be happy with a tile
job that was a seven if you'd never seen a ten. Sounds like Harry got a ten.
I got a ten when a union guy sheetrocked the ceiling of my dining room,
working on top of plaster, rather than removing it, which would've risked
the release of lead dust. They guy spent the first four hours with some sort
of wacky looking arrangement of little bubble levels, wires and huge
straightedges, applying various thicknesses of aluminum shims that he made
at home. When it was done, it looked like the room had been flipped upside
down and had the ceiling poured on, allowing gravity to level it like the
surface of a quiet pond.

Sure - this kind of work isn't necessarily exclusive to union workers. But,
when I questioned the shimming & leveling tricks, he said he'd learned it
during 3 years of training with some union guys. If YOU wanted to do that
kind of work, where would you go to learn it? Would you waste time buying
magazines and browsing the web, hoping to find the information, or take the
most direct route to the source of training, which is probably other
workers?