Anyone else getting quoted insane prices for work around your place?

[RickB]

The USA is destroying itself from within.

I said this in 2008 and I still say it today. The socio-economic problems we have created for ourselves cannot be cured. It is simply a matter of time before the house of cards collapses. Printing trillions of dollars of unbacked currency will only speed the process.

 

[riptides]

Indeed it is.
I notice now some of my neighbors and contacts will reach out to me just to be courteous and ask for a bid, knowing they will be hiring someone cheaper. Drive by a few weeks later and there is a different company I do not recognize doing their work. It´s a vicious cycle. Nobody wins, but the customer saves enough money to upgrade to a BMW

Always wondered how my çorporate America customers feel about losing their jobs and company downsizing from less expensive foreign corporations?
That´s how I feel.

The USA is destroying itself from within.

Boeing. Use to be a great engineering company.

HP. Use to be a great engineering company.

IBM. Use to be a great company.

GE. Use to be a great company.

Citibank. Use to be a great company.

Wells Fargo....

Off the top of my head, I have followed all, through my dealings with and work opportunities. A common thread in all is "return on investment". All have gone through mergers and downsizing, attempting to position themselves for continued business. Part of that business is "rightsizing". Offshore talent, global talent, whatever..."tax breaks"...works better for me. A key component in all that is management talent at a personal level. The person. IMHO, most managers I have run across at the executive level, don't understand their business, their people or their companies resources. Yet they drive for "ROI" or "shareholder value" by listening to lord knows what.

We have a short term, seek the dollar mentality. It is at the expense of our very way of life. It starts at the top of our society and works its way down to the day laborer. And an entire money market system is in place to support that mentality.

 

[RickB]

It also is a bottom-up mentality. Shop at Walmart but piss and moan when your manufacturing job goes offshore.

 

[Hay Dude]

I said this in 2008 and I still say it today. The socio-economic problems we have created for ourselves cannot be cured. It is simply a matter of time before the house of cards collapses. Printing trillions of dollars of unbacked currency will only speed the process.

As a company owner, I have been saying this for decades, too.
Globalization mentality is a race to the bottom because our standard of living is higher than most countries we want to globalize with. Therefore, while we raise them up, we lower ourselves.

I resisted saying this for years, but this country is screwed for good and we voted for people who allowed it to happen. I see very dim hope of it changing. I am doing my best to adapt to the new world order and can only shed a tear of sadness when I look back and see how we used to build literally everything we needed here and we led the world in innovation, space exploration, technology, law and order and freedom.

I see folks with safe, government and corporate jobs give good work away to non citizens and it’s just wrong

 

[fried1765]

But Pedro needs to become a citizen and pay the taxes my business and I pay, or he won稚 be a legal millionaire.
My grandparents emigrated here, too. LEGALLY

It says in post #91 that "Pedro" is a "foreign national".
If Pedro has a "green card" he CAN legally work here, and does NOT NEED to be a citizen!
If Pedro is not here legally, he should be deported.

 

[Hay Dude]

It says in post #91 that "Pedro" is a "foreign national".
If Pedro has a "green card" he CAN legally work here, and does NOT NEED to be a citizen!
If Pedro is not here legally, he should be deported.

I was talking about an illegal person working in my neighborhood. I am also talking about people who have no vested interest in our community other than to milk as much money out of its residents as possible.
I put 15 years into coaching, volunteering and helping others who live here.
Breaks my heart to see those same people hire outsiders to build their garages, barns, additions when they could hire their neighbors.
And I’m not just talking about me. There’s plenty of others in the neighborhoods who do the work I do experiencing the same predicament.
My grandparents came here through Ellis Island, not by jumping a fence

 

[riptides]

Yes. Agree.

It also is a bottom-up mentality. Shop at Walmart but piss and moan when your manufacturing job goes offshore.

 

[old and tired]

So after 30+ years in the same house; we decided we'll stay another 30 years so we hired a contractor that is a friend. We knew he wasn't cheap but I'm sure that in the long run, we'll have saved so much money since the work he does is top quality and it will not have to be done again. We hired him in 1996 to do a 750 sqft addition that cost about what we paid for the house 18 years earlier!

Our other house in the mountains, we hired a great contractor... but he was so busy that he could not be there all the time and his local help was pretty bad. I think he fired 4 guys during our build.

Problem is: it's never going to get better... or cheaper.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Used to be a building contractor in southern california, remodelling. The CSLB (Contractor's State License Board) spent most their time hammering licensed contractors for one thing or another and turned a blind eye to the thousands of unlicensed operators. I saw a recent story that they are now doing stings and raids to control the unlicensed operators, but it is really a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the problem.

CSLB Targets Unlicensed Contractors in Statewide December Sting - California Statewide Law Enforcement Association

 

[Steppenwolfe]

But Pedro needs to become a citizen and pay the taxes my business and I pay, or he won稚 be a legal millionaire.
My grandparents emigrated here, too. LEGALLY

:drink: Couldn't agree more.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I was talking about an illegal person working in my neighborhood. I am also talking about people who have no vested interest in our community other than to milk as much money out of its residents as possible.
I put 15 years into coaching, volunteering and helping others who live here.
Breaks my heart to see those same people hire outsiders to build their garages, barns, additions when they could hire their neighbors.
And I’m not just talking about me. There’s plenty of others in the neighborhoods who do the work I do experiencing the same predicament.
My grandparents came here through Ellis Island, not by jumping a fence

This is an excellent post if I say so myself. We have skin in the game, some do not. Read this article, this money is earned here and invested in Mexico, not in the local economy where it originated. How much money is sent to Mexico from the US? | finder.com

 

[grsthegreat]

Im pretty much retired now, but i had my own electrical and construction company for many years. In the beginning i was charging what someone would charge as if they were working for someone else..... and doing this on the side. good way to go broke. By the time i retired, i was making $95/hr and was working way over 40 hour weeks. If someone didnt want to pay my rates, than dont hire me. I felt no ill will. Nearly 80% of my business has been word of mouth, as i have not advertised for a long time.

Except for generator service work im retired now. I still get calls every day asking me to do some electrical work.

My problem has been finding someone that wants the work i dont want to do anymore. Ive given out their names and numbers....but none of them bother calling the people back. Frustrating.

I almost want to go back to work....but then i go sit on the back porch with the dog and think....naaa.

 

[Hay Dude]

Im pretty much retired now, but i had my own electrical and construction company for many years. In the beginning i was charging what someone would charge as if they were working for someone else..... and doing this on the side. good way to go broke. By the time i retired, i was making $95/hr and was working way over 40 hour weeks. If someone didnt want to pay my rates, than dont hire me. I felt no ill will. Nearly 80% of my business has been word of mouth, as i have not advertised for a long time.

Except for generator service work im retired now. I still get calls every day asking me to do some electrical work.

My problem has been finding someone that wants the work i dont want to do anymore. Ive given out their names and numbers....but none of them bother calling the people back. Frustrating.

I almost want to go back to work....but then i go sit on the back porch with the dog and think....naaa.

Im pretty sure you dont have the influx of illegal immigrants in N Idaho that I have here sandwiched in between Philadelphia, PA and Wilmington, DE taking all the trades wages back to 1980s wages.

Dont get me wrong, I dontbegrudge you in any way. Its just that wages vary so much in different parts of the country.

 

[Hay Dude]

This is an excellent post if I say so myself. We have skin in the game, some do not. Read this article, this money is earned here and invested in Mexico, not in the local economy where it originated. How much money is sent to Mexico from the US? | finder.com

Now you know why my union teacher “ wifey “ provides our health benefits. Having to compete with foreign wages and having no union to belong to makes it tough for me to supply health insurance. My wife gets it “ free “ whether we want it or not. Taxpayers pay for it.

 

[Muhammad]

Recently got some quotes for 350 linear feet of retaining wall... materials probably $5k. Equipment rental and dump fees about $3k. Job cost $40k. Four guys, five days they said... do the math, that's $160 per hour per guy... that's way more than I make so the decision is easy.

Usually I find that I can do a job for about 20% of whatever quote I get, and sometimes that includes buying some tools. With the retaining wall I could buy a mini excavator and still save money.

 

[Doofy]

This is why it is so important to become self sufficient. Learn how to "Do" for yourself. If you can read and follow directions you can do almost anything. Give it a try.

PS: I do understand that in some areas that Codes and Compliance will not allow you to do anything for yourself. MOVE!

 

[dragoneggs]

Recently got some quotes for 350 linear feet of retaining wall... materials probably $5k. Equipment rental and dump fees about $3k. Job cost $40k. Four guys, five days they said... do the math, that's $160 per hour per guy... that's way more than I make so the decision is easy.

Usually I find that I can do a job for about 20% of whatever quote I get, and sometimes that includes buying some tools. With the retaining wall I could buy a mini excavator and still save money.

And likely those 4 guys will not be pocketing the $160/hr.

 

[Hay Dude]

Recently got some quotes for 350 linear feet of retaining wall... materials probably $5k. Equipment rental and dump fees about $3k. Job cost $40k. Four guys, five days they said... do the math, that's $160 per hour per guy... that's way more than I make so the decision is easy.

Usually I find that I can do a job for about 20% of whatever quote I get, and sometimes that includes buying some tools. With the retaining wall I could buy a mini excavator and still save money.

It’s true and honestly, I do everything except HVAC repair and complex electrical myself.
I have purchased and retained quite a few pieces of equipment to to a large job on my own property or for a customer.

I had one guy knock on my door on a Sunday morning I didn’t recognize. It was the neighbors yard boy. He wanted to know if he could borrow my chainsaw to cut a tree down for my neighbor. I about ran him off my property with my boot half way up his arse.
The nerve of some people....:laughing:

 

[Hay Dude]

This is why it is so important to become self sufficient. Learn how to "Do" for yourself. If you can read and follow directions you can do almost anything. Give it a try.

Yep. Worst that can happen is you have to call an “ expert “. Or you fall off your roof and break your collarbones :laughing:

 

[Peter 315]

I could not get a chimney guy to fix this mess one guy wanted 3,800 for a band aid fix ..........