Not me. I was too short for their expectations. I went into the petroleum field instead.
My granddad was a carpenter / handy man. We roofed, remodeled, plumbing, electrical, paint, foundation moved and built new from the ground up. He did all of his mechanic work and had me at his side to learn and do.
My issue is being old and unable to physically do the work, know how it should be done and seeing how these fly by nighters half ass do the job.
It is nothing new. Been going on for past 40 years. Libturds taking over school system, eliminating classes for trades and minimizing their value, putting emphasis on having a college degree.
Many factors involved. Solutions will not be easy.
My issue is being old and unable to physically do the work, know how it should be done and seeing how these fly by nighters half ass do the job.
It is nothing new. Been going on for past 40 years. Libturds taking over school system, eliminating classes for trades and minimizing their value, putting emphasis on having a college degree.
Many factors involved. Solutions will not be easy.
This, things are simply not designed to be repaired, and the cost of repair often approaches the cost of replacement.
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Not really a handyman story but illustrates charging for what you know.
A guy came into my gun shop with a S&W 642 completely disassembled. If it could be disassembled, he took it apart. Then couldn't get it back together. He asked my how much to put it together. I told him $60. He was a little put out and asked me, "You're gonna charge me $60 to put that gun together?"
I said, "Not really. I'm charging you $10 to reassemble the gun and $50 because I know how."
He paid the $60 and got his gun back in one functioning piece.
A guy came into my gun shop with a S&W 642 completely disassembled. If it could be disassembled, he took it apart. Then couldn't get it back together. He asked my how much to put it together. I told him $60. He was a little put out and asked me, "You're gonna charge me $60 to put that gun together?"
I said, "Not really. I'm charging you $10 to reassemble the gun and $50 because I know how."
He paid the $60 and got his gun back in one functioning piece.
To be fair, a tank less water heater install would be a plumbers job, not a handyman. I'm sure many could do it, but I'd think they'd likely be breaking the law by plumbing without a license.
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Not in creek county, we don’t have any expectation of following code, but I get what you’re saying. I believe Home Depot and the like just have their “guys” install hot water heaters, washers and dryers etc.
This is not my experience. See my previous reply to Turkeyrun.
Again, no parts, a $1 resistor blows requires a $200 sub-assembly. IF you can get the circuit board / sub-assembly out to replace.
Nope. Just got a quote recently for installing a tankless water heater. Gotta pull a permit, and the estimate was a minimum of $8000. Bought from Amazon, total about $600. Reused everything I could. Had to buy some new fittings. Lowes had an import 1/2" MPT to 1/2" copper pipe for a couple $$ each, or US-made, for $11 something, an Home Depot wanted nearly $13 for it. They were identical. I'd really rather not buy Import stuff, but I'm too broke (and cheap) unless there's a noticeable difference. And the import fittings were from on of our real allies, not someone who insists on pointing nuke-tipped missiles at us.
I spent 40 years as an industrial Maintenance Tech, multi craft.
Industrial handy man. Electrical, Electronic, programming, machining, hydraulics, pneumatics, welding, and so on.
Did side jobs off the clock for fellow employees, some for pay, some like putting on roofs or pouring concrete thinking they would help me when it came time to do my projects.
I'd only charge $25 to put in a ceiling fan. Half the time when getting finished, they would want to work out a payment plan. WTF? You knew at least a week in advance when I'd be there.
Put in 4 fans for one guy in one evening. When getting done, told me he had no money but gifted a Mossburg 600AT Police Special in 12 ga. Fair enough!
When it came time to build my 24' X 24' shop that I built myself with concrete pad, asked the "buddies" if they would come and help to pour the pad.
Not one showed up. Ex wife and I put in 18 yards of concrete by ourselves, starting at 2PM and finishing way after midnight mid-summer.
A year later, needed to install a new roof after helping a half dozen others roof theirs.
Only one person showed up, leaving after a few hours.
Pretty much soured me on being a cheap handyman.
At 73, I'm still not content with others doing the work, as I typically have to come in after them to finish their shoddy work. My standards are pretty high as those who do this for a living should be the same if they want to stay in business. Online reviews can kill a business in a heartbeat and I don't mind killing a few.
You don't twist a few wires together and cover with electrical tape in my world. You splice with solder and cover with shrink tubing. If that takes more time and costs more money, I'm good with it. Do your shat right and walk away from the job with your head up instead of most these days that just want to get it done the quickest way and GTFO of the job to move to another.
Industrial handy man. Electrical, Electronic, programming, machining, hydraulics, pneumatics, welding, and so on.
Did side jobs off the clock for fellow employees, some for pay, some like putting on roofs or pouring concrete thinking they would help me when it came time to do my projects.
I'd only charge $25 to put in a ceiling fan. Half the time when getting finished, they would want to work out a payment plan. WTF? You knew at least a week in advance when I'd be there.
Put in 4 fans for one guy in one evening. When getting done, told me he had no money but gifted a Mossburg 600AT Police Special in 12 ga. Fair enough!
When it came time to build my 24' X 24' shop that I built myself with concrete pad, asked the "buddies" if they would come and help to pour the pad.
Not one showed up. Ex wife and I put in 18 yards of concrete by ourselves, starting at 2PM and finishing way after midnight mid-summer.
A year later, needed to install a new roof after helping a half dozen others roof theirs.
Only one person showed up, leaving after a few hours.
Pretty much soured me on being a cheap handyman.
At 73, I'm still not content with others doing the work, as I typically have to come in after them to finish their shoddy work. My standards are pretty high as those who do this for a living should be the same if they want to stay in business. Online reviews can kill a business in a heartbeat and I don't mind killing a few.
You don't twist a few wires together and cover with electrical tape in my world. You splice with solder and cover with shrink tubing. If that takes more time and costs more money, I'm good with it. Do your shat right and walk away from the job with your head up instead of most these days that just want to get it done the quickest way and GTFO of the job to move to another.
