Why do your own maintenance & repair work?

[Industrial Toys]

I know one thing. Over the years I have hired many contractors. Some good, some bad. But almost without exception, if I had not been there to micromanage, things would have gone wrong or been done in ways other to my liking and standards. So, having money, and just hiring someone, will likely not get you what you want. Often the job will be done, substandard (which is nowadays standard, I guess) , you will pay, and won't even be the wiser. Often until later.

 

[/pine]

I know one thing. Over the years I have hired many contractors. Some good, some bad. But almost without exception, if I had not been there to micromanage, things would have gone wrong or been done in ways other to my liking and standards. So, having money, and just hiring someone, will likely not get you what you want. Often the job will be done, substandard (which is nowadays standard, I guess) , you will pay, and won't even be the wiser. Often until later.

The last thing in the world a contractor wants is a non professional home/business owner looking over their shoulder and second guessing activity...
Professional building plans generally come with detailed specifications and drawings likewise with included engineering...

Contracts should cover all aspects of a job from the act of commencement to the final walk through...anything else and you are just hiring a labor force...

 

[Industrial Toys]

Of course, the way things are done nowadays, a contractor wouldn't want to be under scrutiny. I'm not talking about watching a worker put in a screw and asking him what make of screwdriver that is, and you once owned one just like it. lol

Besides, if things are being done right, I will have nothing to say, and I won't mind that. Seems only possible in some alternate Universe though.

My Lady friend manages CONDOS. Not a day goes by, that I don't here more stories of poor quality and utter incompetence by "contractors". It's really sad. Someone paid for shoddy work. Now the owners wll have to pay for more shoddy work from a different contractor, the defects only coming to light, again later, and so forth. NOBODY does a job right anymore. For one thing, it takes great amounts of time to do something right, maybe many extra trips, and that just aint happening.

And BTW, I am a Contractor. Have been for thirty years. So, I am not talking from an armchair or as a homeowner. I have been on enough sites myself to see the crap that goes on.

 

[California]

almost without exception, if I had not been there to micromanage, things would have gone wrong

Oh man. My worst example was I acted as general contractor for a second floor addition on my house in town. Came home for lunch to see how it was going and the framing contractor was about to carry a whole truckload of lumber up to frame the floor joists etc. He had gotten the building inspector to sign off his demolition phase without putting the piers under the house (under specific walls) needed to bear this additional weight. The house is old-school lathe & plaster, the interior walls and ceilings would have been settling and cracking for years with all that weight unsupported. I refused the progress pay that was due at this first inspection. He said his payroll and quarterly insurance were due today and I would bankrupt him. I told him fine you're bankrupt then. Those piers got put under there real quick. For that project I did the finish carpentry, paint etc but working full time with some responsibility to travel, I didn't have time for the more labor-intensive phases.

Added after seeing the other posts in the last few minutes: My project supervision wasn't just to harass the subcontractors. At the time I worked in a coat & tie job but previously I had held a Journeyman Carpenter card and later was a licensed building contractor during the years I bought and renovated rentals.

 

[/pine]

As has been previously mentioned...skilled labor is in decline...a large portion of the retiring baby boom generation is taking a big chunk out of the skilled labor force...
We are in a world of CNC and 3D printed consumer goods etc...

Building and maintenance contractors are only as good as their mechanics and sub contractors who are in the same boat when it comes to hiring skilled, dedicated workers...

The younger generations who choose trades over college degrees work in a field just long enough to be "OK" at something and immediately expect to be earning top wages for turning out OK work...

Some things robots will likely never be able to do as efficiently as a highly skilled human...but it won't keep them from trying...

 

[Diggin It]

One of the things I can't fix myself .....

Bought a new refrigerator. Within a year, it wasn't cooling right, not making ice, cycling on/off funny. Service guy shows up (older guy too) ... 'I know what that is, I'll order a part and be back in a few days'. Never really even looked at the box, was here all of 10 minutes.

Come backs, puts the part in, never really looks at anything else. 'Give it 24-36 hours to see how it cools'. Seemed OK for a few days, but had to call them back. This time he decides to 'burp the system', remove some freon, add more. Theory is that there may have been a speck of junk in the system blocking port somewhere and this should clear it. It sorta worked OK for a few months, but not real well. Now into an extended warranty I bought into because I suspected it would still have trouble, I called them again. I forget exactly what happened that time, but I had to make a fourth call later. This time they decided to scrap it under the extended warranty and buy me a new unit. Before the guy left (different guy, but also older), I asked him to gas it up again to give me a few more weeks to wait for the check and find a new one. He agreed. Got the check a few days later.

That was almost four years ago and I'm still using the same unit. It has worked perfectly since that last gas up I suggested. Kept the check basically as a refund for the extended service contract and time and trouble.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Of the workers that (even) show up for work, many leave their brains and attention somewhere else. Men can't go off to work anymore. They are expected to be part of the family 24/7. Half of what attention they have, is on their cell phones. No wonder if things get done at all, they get messed up.

And one excavation contractor I hired would constantly be sittting in his idling hoe, talking work on his cell phone. Maybe, that can't be avoided, but it is very annoying. It's no wonder, their whole attention is not on the job they are at. How did contractors used to work a whole day, being away from a phone?

Unless I need my phone to call the central station or tech support, my phone stays in the truck when at a customers. That is only respectfull. Also, stays in my truck when i am having a meal with someone.

 

[California]

You guys will love this.

Modern kids confronted with a dial phone. (They never did figure it out).

 

[Industrial Toys]

The whiz kids are incapable of figuring out something that simple, yet the world expects me to figure out my totally non-intuitive smart phone, that's changes all the time. That Dial might have been standard for thirty years. My Dad still has dial service!

 

[California]

That Dial might have been standard for thirty years. My Dad still has dial service!

More like a century.

There is still an application for a dial phone if you still have copper-wire phone service. The phone is powered from the line, not from plugging into your wall. So long as the physical cable is intact between you and the local exchange, it will work fine during a power outage.

 

[M5farms]

Its a failure of people not teaching the younger generation how to fix stuff. My boys and Daughter can fix most anything. IF yours can't Its your fault,.

 

[Doofy]

Its a failure of people not teaching the younger generation how to fix stuff. My boys and Daughter can fix most anything. IF yours can't Its your fault,.

Disagree. A lot of the younger folks have no aptitude or desire to learn. They believe they should start at the top instead of working their way up. I hired and worked Teens for 30 years. Today, adults are of the same ilk.

 

[JasperFrank]

I do almost all the repairs and all of the maintenance on my stuff, most of which is over 26 years old. While maintaining I get to look everything over and check for potential problems. Repairing is both a financial and a logistics issue in the rural Oregon area I live in. Repairing at home is roughly 1/3 of any cost to transport and have someone else do the work, and usually I'll end up having to order parts on-line anyway. And while I'm waiting for a part, I can do other non-critical repairs. I try to repair everything.... Electronics, White Goods, Lighting Fixtures, Furniture, Plumbing, ...... everything. The exception is my My wife's car, which is brand new, and I will not touch it other than check the oil and tires.

 

[M5farms]

Disagree. A lot of the younger folks have no aptitude or desire to learn. They believe they should start at the top instead of working their way up. I hired and worked Teens for 30 years. Today, adults are of the same ilk.

So you didn't teach yours work ethics and how to fix things.

 

[Doofy]

So you didn't teach yours work ethics and how to fix things.

I did teach my own kids a work ethic and they have always worked since leaving home.

 

[rScotty]

Its a failure of people not teaching the younger generation how to fix stuff. My boys and Daughter can fix most anything. IF yours can't Its your fault,.

I do almost all the repairs and all of the maintenance on my stuff, most of which is over 26 years old. While maintaining I get to look everything over and check for potential problems. Repairing is both a financial and a logistics issue in the rural Oregon area I live in. Repairing at home is roughly 1/3 of any cost to transport and have someone else do the work, and usually I'll end up having to order parts on-line anyway. And while I'm waiting for a part, I can do other non-critical repairs. I try to repair everything.... Electronics, White Goods, Lighting Fixtures, Furniture, Plumbing, ...... everything. The exception is my My wife's car, which is brand new, and I will not touch it other than check the oil and tires.

M5farms, that's a bit harsh....but I do think you have a point. If the young generation can't fix stuff as well as the older generation can it isn't their fault.... It's our fault. Maybe we still have time to fix that.

JasperFrank, we are in rural Colorado and what you are saying is pretty common here. Sometimes I wonder if it's us rural folk who are behind the times. That wouldn't surprise me.
rScotty

 

[M5farms]

M5farms, that's a bit harsh....but I do think you have a point. If the young generation can't fix stuff as well as the older generation can it isn't their fault.... It's our fault. Maybe we still have time to fix that.

JasperFrank, we are in rural Colorado and what you are saying is pretty common here. Sometimes I wonder if it's us rural folk who are behind the times. That wouldn't surprise me.
rScotty

Too many people let video games and tv baby sit there kids. It might seem harsh but the only person to blame with the current generation lack of common Sense and mechanical abilities is the people our age. They let their offspring down by not teaching them which imo is why we have so many pussys running around

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have an electronics background. But for the last twenty or more years, there was an increasing chance that I could not fix what was broken, or it did not make sense from a time and cost point of view. Humanity really is going down a road where it is unnecessary to have any skills at all. Not for driving, making a meal, or even basic thinking. I hardly see a person walking without them staring into a smartphone screen.

The song "In the Year 2525" seems to be spot on, except for the dates.

 

[Fuddy1952]

The more you do the more you CAN do.
It's as simple as that. I enjoy fixing stuff.
Last week I rewired a neighbor's trailer. It had some weird problems but in the end it was fixed better than new, connectors crimped , soldered, heat shrink, wire loom, etc.
The neighbor's wife then baked a birthday cake for my wife and had a cook out dinner for us.
It's a challenge whether electrical, plumbing, wood working, construction, a garden, building a motor, horse farrier work, I'm putting up fences, sewing, backhoe work, fell trees, walk, ride a bike, you name it.
I especially love fabrication. Motorizing a bicycle, making a zip line...the more things you do the more you CAN do. One experience can apply to something else.

 

[3Ts]

The last thing in the world a contractor wants is a non professional home/business owner looking over their shoulder and second guessing activity...

I hired a contractor to build our house recently. One of the bids included a condition that the home owner was not allowed on the property while the workers were there. Since we were living on the property already, that was not going to work, but I understand the reason for it.

The bid we ended up with, the contractor did not follow the contract. They were supposed to follow the building codes. I called the builder many times to tell him the codes are not being followed. He believed his subs, so I pulled out chapter and verse of the building codes. Turns out he did not know the codes and just depended on his subs to know them. Lots of disagreements and I ended up making them take a wall apart to wire the kitchen island correctly (the electrician wanted to run a multi-wire circuit with 40 amps on a 12 gauge wire). Not everything got corrected, I was concerned that he'd walk off the job if I forced it. Then I'd really be up a creek. So, I contend that a lot of the problem is that the contractors just don't know and just don't care.

And I work on my own vehicles and do everything else that I can. But, as I get older, it gets more difficult so I either get more tools (to make it easier) or hire someone to do it for me (under my direction if I can).