I'm not interested in any "contractor".

If you've been a licensed contractor, you already know that you don't pay anyone $50. per hour if you intend to stay in business. You charge $50. per hour and you pay $22 per hour with benefits.


An example of your lack of understanding can be found in my recent purchase of carpeting. The going rate for low priced cut pile carpet for a rental is about $22.00 per yard installed by a "contractor". It takes the "contractor" about two hours to install all 40 yards. He's grossing about $480. above the cost of the material for that two hours of work. I got it done for $14.00 installed by a guy that works out of the back of a truck. The fellow still earned about $175. for himself for those two hours of work. For my purposes, the savings of $300. was well worth it. The product was identical.

I agree, you have forgotten everything you ever knew........which is probably the reason that you don't have any employees anymore.

I am truly sorry for responding the way I am about to respond and disrespecting you as an elder to myself. But this is the exact reason I posted this thread. In this response, I reply generally to this mindset, not to you personally.

You think your time here one earth and the experiences you've had within that time qualify you for living life as a seasoned veteran. I am sorry, but there's a learning curve, and the majority of people reach their pinnacle after a marginal passage of time. They then continue doing things the way they learned in the first few years of influential experience with slight modifications to their behavior.

ie.. you've been a yokel your entire life, you learn a skill, but your ceiling is at the same height of any other yokel's and you continue to do things as a yokel would for 22 years. Just because you've done 22 years worth of yokels' work does not set you above the other yokels.

This is what seriously pisses me off. Older people have a much harder time accepting the fact that a younger person may possibly be able to handle certain tasks, or any task for that matter, better than they can. period.

What does time do to people in and of itself? If you sat in a room with no lights and all other factors controlled for, what would you become?

a yokel that couldn't speak? or sagacious madman who was mute?

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Consider the fact that most experienced people run through a lot of know-it-all snarky young people who really don't know what they do. I have literally seen master carpenters make custom-made wooden screws (no0t wood screws) for custom applications on a wood lathe with only a couple miniutes' prep. Most engineers and skilled tradesmen in other professions can't do that. The same guy made WOODEN GEARS for a pendulum clock he had found a blueprint for, and it keeps pretty good time!
Guys that expert have forgotten more than others know.

I have met a couple of them. They are something. As you get into the real details of things, you appreciate what they know and are often unable to explain because they don't have refined communication skills.

I've been a professional transaltor for maybe 30 years and when I meet new translators and dicuss why word X is a better rendering than word Y, they are less interested in the performance than getting the page done and getting the money. Mechanics like that never work on my car. It shows in the care on the job.

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

If you can do the task better than the "yokel" why are you working for him?

I am a student, but more importantly.... I still have good credit. ; )


I do not wish to make a career out of this work, as much as I enjoy it. I have learned this by watching the people I have worked for and seeing who is successful, who flounders, and how they walk after a ten hour day pouring concrete.


please, no offense.

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If you got it done for $14.00 how did the unlicensed scab you illegally hired manage to earn $175?

Good luck with that good credit

It's a tough one. At age 57, years in construction, I've seen both sides of the dynamic. Sometimes, I find myself surprised at how some green guy will come up with an idea I hadn't thought of - a good idea. OTOH, the same guy will botch stuff that I thought I clearly instructed him on. One of the last big companies I worked with, we had some Latino carpenters who were pretty good but rough around the edges. Oh man, one guy especially, it was like pulling teeth supervising him. All this bruised ego/wounded pride that I would presume to tell him anything about anything. Even though I'd been in the trades about as long as he'd been on the planet (25 years approx. at the time).

Eventually he saw that I could show him a new trick here and there, and I relaxed and put up with his less than perfect, but usually good enough work.

Just be patient - like the Buddha says, "practice restraint, in all things."

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

At the aforementioned big company I worked for in SF was a guy around 55 who didn't look too impressive, not a hunk, about 5'8", balding, and talked sorta mush mouthed. On top of that, he often seemed a bit grumpy. I was early 40s and thought I was somewhat advanced in skill level.

I came to learn however, that this ol' boy had one seriously evolved bag 'o tricks. Dude had bizarre tools and supplies in his various boxes that magically filled some need I had on various tasks over and over.

Some guys do hit a plateau and sorta veg out. Others steadily add skill and technique to their, uhhh, resume, the sort of which no young guy is going to be able to match. There's no substitute for experience.

Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. - anon

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Responding to the OP. You never mentioned a specific construction skill that you have obtained. Therefore it can be assumed that you are at the bottom of the totem pole on the job site. No offense but people whom remain at the bottom usually are morons. Just about everyone starts there. I did and have thankfully moved up. Of course you will be lectured! Its a lot safer to lecture you and treat you like a baby to get the job done correctly,rather than to trust you and and have you screw it up. Every job is different. You seem upset that there is a hierarchy on construction sites. Move up, and prove you are a better yokel, or continue to be lectured and babied. Maybe grow some tougher skin while you are at it.

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1979 240D with a 617 turbo diesel.

I think that's a personal problem that the the others have that you worked with. I've worked with guys who had lots of patents and experience and they were real experts. They weren't arrogant but they could have been. I've worked with deadheads too.

I knew the guy a little (he's now dead) who invented Teflon. He'd listen to other people's arguments and discussion points about plastic and Teflon after studying it for 20 years, then he'd ask a question or two. When the other guys couldn't answer with a solution, he'd say " Well, that's why I do such and such, cuz it works." Hard to argue with that.

I have met people in the Civil Service and in Big Three corporate management who had never progressed once they got their job because of who they knew. Yeah, you might be higher speed than they are, but you will find that everywhere in life. You may just want to move on.

Sometimes small places are great for performance and innovation, sometimes not. In the case of the "nots" they don't last more than 10 years and go bankrupt. Natural selection.

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

The older you get, the more things you lose. The more things (capabilities, eyesight, stamina, etc.) you lose, the more insecure you feel. I don't know the ages involved here, but that can be an issue sometimes. Egos can be very fragile sometimes and we all do various things to try and compensate. Maybe that is the case here.

Or maybe your friend is just an annoying jerk off.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

There is no license required to install carpeting, AFAIK.

The material cost him about $300. for the 40 yards. He charged me $475.

Your bias against those who don't see the need to charge 3X the cost of the material is obvious. The real question is whether people will pay what you charge? If so, I wish you the best of luck. I, however, value my monetary situation and nobody is getting $50. per hour from me. Nobody.

Most people aren't worth $50 but sometimes a plumber is - when you have to go permit legal and have dude's insurance back him up. More like $100 an hour. When you have $1000 + worth of work buried a few feet underground, it's nice to know the guy is insured.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Agreed.........when you need a licensed plumber or electrician, be prepared to pay. Thankfully, I haven't in quite awhile.

An interesting point of note about licensed electricians: The very first thing that they do when they get the license is to put all their tools in storage. Never again will they actually perform any work. They hold the license and it's their ass if their employees screw up. The level of skill of the employee can vary widely...........the owner takes the responsibility.

We had a coop complex wired in aluminum. They hired an electrical contractor to pigtail every single outlet and switch in the complex...........a large and costly job. Did the morons do every outlet per the contract? Of course they didn't. It's cheaper and easier to ignore one-half of them. One of the buildings burned to the ground. I don't believe the "contractor" had sufficient insurance to back that up. I do believe the coop was finally made whole..........but it took a very long time and extensive litigation to make the case. The lawyers fees were never recovered.

Sure...........they're worth $100/hour............sometimes.