"JimH" wrote in message
...

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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Doug Kanter wrote:
"JimH" wrote in message
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"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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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.

Union tilesetters undergo a formal, three-year apprenticeship program. A
lot of that training has to do with the safe handling of various
chemicals that are rarely, if ever, used during tilesetting or
maintenance in single-family homes.

Pure bull****.

Why do you say it's bull****? Have you gone through the process, or know
anyone who has?



Very few union tilesetters work single-family residential, although I
have foudn the crews I've hired in my minor-league homebuilding ventures
to be more skilled and efficient than the non-union crews.

It is kind of humorous that Hertvik is commenting here...if you saw a
photo of his house, you'd conclude that no one with a sense of design,
taste or construction skill was involved...but, hey, taste is
subjective,eh?


We have a 4,000 square foot house constructed in 1992.

What's the size go to do with the aesthetic quality of the house?
("aesthetic" means "how it looks").