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

and on houses with "Starting from $550,000..."

Residential construction is the bottom of the barrel.

We've got plenty of developments like that here. One of them was involved
in
an interesting scandal a few years back. It involved the builder, the
bank
he used to offer financing to the buyers, and the bank's assessor. They
arranged for the homes to be valued at $500-700K in an area where similar
homes were $200 or so. Somehow, they managed to convince not only the
buyers, but the town, that it would be the next up-and-coming
neighborhood.
It was similar to the tulip madness in Europe in the 16th century.

The best part is that so many of these homes were built that it affected
the
town's property tax planning. When the bottom fell out....you know the
rest.
Besides THAT mess, the owners are stuck with homes that they'll NEVER get
their money out of when they retire and move to NOYB-land. And, the
houses
are built like crap. In one of my son's friends' homes, trim sections of
sheetrock were glued to the beams. No screws at all. The mom said she was
cooking one day and a 1x4 foot strip fell into the pot of spaghetti
water.



It's too bad that in many counties, the building inspection department
is in the back pocket of contractors.

I was on a commercial jobsite last week that was run properly. You could
tell by looking around.

What a truly asinine statement. That shows how much you know about
construction. How do you know that the GC required adequate risk transfer
controls (insurance, hold harmless, named additional insured) from the subs?
How do you know the GC was on top of construction quality, including
materials and workmanship? How do you know if the job was on schedule?

Just because there is a *safety man* (what were his qualifications btw?)
walking around does not mean the job was being run properly.....but in your
world I guess it does.

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:57:31 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

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?

I am probably going to take a lot of flack for this, but I'm not
totally convinced that hiring a Union worker is the best way to go.
My results have been 50/50 with Union trades - I've already told the
story of the two Union masons and their apprentices, so I won't tell
it again.

However, because of somebody near and dear to me, is a union
supporter, worker and member and one of my friends is a IBEW type (as
in bigshot) I often try to hire Union when I need something done. I
have even hired Union Labor - just average joes who are sitting around
the Union hall looking for work.

My observation is that just like every other thing, you get good Union
workers, so-so Union workers and lousy Union workers - more so-so and
lousy than good to outstanding Union workers. That has been my
experience.

We've had a rather interesting situation here in CT of having unions
strike unions for higher pay and benefits than the parent union gives
it's own members - and get them! There is something wrong with that.

I've been in situations where Union work rules just got in the way of
simple tasks that any bozo could do - from electrical cords to
erecting a display booth - silly, stupid things that are only designed
to keep somebody busy.

So I'm ambivalent about unions. If pressed my opinion would be that
the era of big unions has passed on and that a return to local guilds
and trade groups would be more beneficial to the average tradesman or
worker.

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717

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

Harry said nothing about its size, but that's the thing you responded to.

"It's green"
"No. It's a big house"

WTF?


That is actually what I say to most every one of your posts Doug.

And why are you also obsessed about my house?

"JimH" wrote in message
news

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

Harry said nothing about its size, but that's the thing you responded
to.

"It's green"
"No. It's a big house"

WTF?


That is actually what I say to most every one of your posts Doug.

And why are you also obsessed about my house?



I really don't care about your house. I'm watching your interchange with
Harry as a source of amusement, because you can't seem to focus on the
issue.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Every worker on the site
was wearing steel-toed shows, safety glasses, and a hardhat. Building
trash was picked up off the decks and put in barrels, the crane operator
had two helpers, the sidewalk was properly controlled. *This* was the
site of a GC who wanted to keep his workers' comp premiums low.

On the other hand, there's Home Depot. I was there two nights ago with my
500-foot-long list of things for the new house. I turned down the tile aisle
and saw a guy about to cut some tile for a customer. I wandered over because
I'd never seen one of those machines in operation. The professional sales
associate wasn't wearing goggles. The customer said "Hang on a
second....what about goggles?" The PSA says "The machine pretty much just
throws off water." Pretty much. He starts it up, moves the tile to the
blade, and a small chip zings over his shoulder and makes a little "clack"
as it hit the girder of the shelves behind us. :-) The guy just kept going.
The other customer and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:54:35 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Every worker on the site
was wearing steel-toed shows, safety glasses, and a hardhat. Building
trash was picked up off the decks and put in barrels, the crane operator
had two helpers, the sidewalk was properly controlled. *This* was the
site of a GC who wanted to keep his workers' comp premiums low.

On the other hand, there's Home Depot. I was there two nights ago with my
500-foot-long list of things for the new house. I turned down the tile aisle
and saw a guy about to cut some tile for a customer. I wandered over because
I'd never seen one of those machines in operation. The professional sales
associate wasn't wearing goggles. The customer said "Hang on a
second....what about goggles?" The PSA says "The machine pretty much just
throws off water." Pretty much. He starts it up, moves the tile to the
blade, and a small chip zings over his shoulder and makes a little "clack"
as it hit the girder of the shelves behind us. :-) The guy just kept going.
The other customer and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.

I have a full bore, top-of-the-line wood shop.

I am not allowed in it unless there are people in the house ready to
immediately take me to the hospital.

And I'm probably the most careful, safety conscious person you will
ever meet (with the single exception of seat belts). I actually wear
a life preserver when I'm in any of my boats.

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

I've been in situations where Union work rules just got in the way of
simple tasks that any bozo could do - from electrical cords to
erecting a display booth - silly, stupid things that are only designed
to keep somebody busy.

That stuff's just plain stupid. The audio store where I used to work would
have a booth at the car & boat shows here. The convention center rep gave us
a speech about how we weren't supposed to plug in our equipment. An
electrician had to do it. Once, one of us wired a fat car amp to the display
speakers with 18 gauge speaker wire. The boss told him to use the fancy
Monster Cable. Someone came over and said we had to wait for an electrician.
He turned out to be wrong (because it didn't involve an AC line), but the
guy still acted like the world was about to end.

The funny thing is that we were all installers with 10 years' of experience.
The electrician probably would've burned his car down installing some of
that stuff.

Speaking of which, we once had a car come in for repair. The old lady said
the radio kept cutting off & on. It was an aftermarket unit. When I got
under the dash, I found all sorts of nasty stuff, obviously the work of a
slob. I cleaned it all up in about 10 minutes. Then, I told the lady
"Whoever did this was a real hack. Totally incompetent. Don't let him touch
your car again". She gives me this look and says "My son did it, and I'll
have you know he's an engineer with NASA".

Oh boy. I didn't charge her. :-)

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:07:34 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .

I've been in situations where Union work rules just got in the way of
simple tasks that any bozo could do - from electrical cords to
erecting a display booth - silly, stupid things that are only designed
to keep somebody busy.

That stuff's just plain stupid. The audio store where I used to work would
have a booth at the car & boat shows here. The convention center rep gave us
a speech about how we weren't supposed to plug in our equipment. An
electrician had to do it. Once, one of us wired a fat car amp to the display
speakers with 18 gauge speaker wire. The boss told him to use the fancy
Monster Cable. Someone came over and said we had to wait for an electrician.
He turned out to be wrong (because it didn't involve an AC line), but the
guy still acted like the world was about to end.

The funny thing is that we were all installers with 10 years' of experience.
The electrician probably would've burned his car down installing some of
that stuff.

Speaking of which, we once had a car come in for repair. The old lady said
the radio kept cutting off & on. It was an aftermarket unit. When I got
under the dash, I found all sorts of nasty stuff, obviously the work of a
slob. I cleaned it all up in about 10 minutes. Then, I told the lady
"Whoever did this was a real hack. Totally incompetent. Don't let him touch
your car again". She gives me this look and says "My son did it, and I'll
have you know he's an engineer with NASA".

Oh boy. I didn't charge her. :-)

Some day we'll have to get together over pizza and swap stories about
engineers and other highly skilled technical people. :)

I've got a ton of them.

All the best,

Tom
--------------

"What the hell's the deal with this newsgroup...
is there a computer terminal in the day room of
some looney bin somewhere?"

Bilgeman - circa 2004

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:07:34 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in
message
.. .

I've been in situations where Union work rules just got in the way of
simple tasks that any bozo could do - from electrical cords to
erecting a display booth - silly, stupid things that are only designed
to keep somebody busy.

That stuff's just plain stupid. The audio store where I used to work
would
have a booth at the car & boat shows here. The convention center rep gave
us
a speech about how we weren't supposed to plug in our equipment. An
electrician had to do it. Once, one of us wired a fat car amp to the
display
speakers with 18 gauge speaker wire. The boss told him to use the fancy
Monster Cable. Someone came over and said we had to wait for an
electrician.
He turned out to be wrong (because it didn't involve an AC line), but the
guy still acted like the world was about to end.

The funny thing is that we were all installers with 10 years' of
experience.
The electrician probably would've burned his car down installing some of
that stuff.

Speaking of which, we once had a car come in for repair. The old lady
said
the radio kept cutting off & on. It was an aftermarket unit. When I got
under the dash, I found all sorts of nasty stuff, obviously the work of a
slob. I cleaned it all up in about 10 minutes. Then, I told the lady
"Whoever did this was a real hack. Totally incompetent. Don't let him
touch
your car again". She gives me this look and says "My son did it, and I'll
have you know he's an engineer with NASA".

Oh boy. I didn't charge her. :-)

Some day we'll have to get together over pizza and swap stories about
engineers and other highly skilled technical people. :)

I've got a ton of them.

I require anchovies.

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:16:19 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:07:34 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in
message
.. .

I've been in situations where Union work rules just got in the way of
simple tasks that any bozo could do - from electrical cords to
erecting a display booth - silly, stupid things that are only designed
to keep somebody busy.

That stuff's just plain stupid. The audio store where I used to work
would
have a booth at the car & boat shows here. The convention center rep gave
us
a speech about how we weren't supposed to plug in our equipment. An
electrician had to do it. Once, one of us wired a fat car amp to the
display
speakers with 18 gauge speaker wire. The boss told him to use the fancy
Monster Cable. Someone came over and said we had to wait for an
electrician.
He turned out to be wrong (because it didn't involve an AC line), but the
guy still acted like the world was about to end.

The funny thing is that we were all installers with 10 years' of
experience.
The electrician probably would've burned his car down installing some of
that stuff.

Speaking of which, we once had a car come in for repair. The old lady
said
the radio kept cutting off & on. It was an aftermarket unit. When I got
under the dash, I found all sorts of nasty stuff, obviously the work of a
slob. I cleaned it all up in about 10 minutes. Then, I told the lady
"Whoever did this was a real hack. Totally incompetent. Don't let him
touch
your car again". She gives me this look and says "My son did it, and I'll
have you know he's an engineer with NASA".

Oh boy. I didn't charge her. :-)

Some day we'll have to get together over pizza and swap stories about
engineers and other highly skilled technical people. :)

I've got a ton of them.

I require anchovies.

You can have anything you want on yours.

Later,

Tom