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Everyone I know who does blue collar work echoes what you said. It's pretty broken on the other side of things too, presumably because the work sucks so much a
by aidenn0 4y ago
Everyone I know who does blue collar work echoes what you said.
It's pretty broken on the other side of things too, presumably because the work sucks so much and is so variable that they are incentivized to milk every penny from those who appear like they can afford it.
As a busy professional homeowner that is well-paid, I would gladly pay 50% more than the current going rate in town to know that a decent, workmanlike job would be done.
The quality of the work is completely decoupled from the rates charged though, which kind of makes sense, as there are plenty of people in town who need HVAC/plumbing/electrical &c. work done who can't afford to pay over the going rate.
It took me a decade to find a plumber that is honest (luckily they do decent work as well, but honest was hard enough of a bar to reach).
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> As a busy professional homeowner that is well-paid, I would gladly pay 50% more than the current going rate in town to know that a decent, workmanlike job would be done Without forcing consolidation, how would one do this? (Preferably, something which can be enacted at the state level.) Reviews don't work. Optional, high-barrier certifications? Competitions?
- blastro 4y agoThe ol' fashioned grapevine. Aka word of mouth. Aka the original social network.
- scythe 4y ago>Without forcing consolidation, how would one do this? Use the wildly popular technique that has taken over the assessment of everything else too big to measure: the random sample. Every registered technician will enter each job performed into a lottery, which will be reviewed by a qualified analyst. A single bad finding shouldn't ruin anyone, but a good record keeping methodology with appropriate sampling and a suitable penalty for failing to register a job — registration will likely be demanded by consumers anyway — should effectively weed out any laggards. I am not aware of this being implemented for any home maintenance, but this is how hospital accreditation is done. Every now and then The Joint Commission shows up and inspects stuff.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> registered technician will enter each job performed into a lottery One difference between trades and medicine is paperwork. I have hired for jobs without contracts being signed or receipts produced. Why not make it optional? Registered work gets randomly inspected. Unregistered work is not. The customer pays up for the privilege. Perhaps include an adjudication framework if the inspected work is found lacking.
- WalterBright 4y agoMake friends with a real estate agent. The ones I know all have a collection of contacts of people they need to get a house fixed up for sale.
- AlbertCory 4y agoYou can simplify the problem to "find a good general contractor." (not that that's easy) They know good subcontractors.
- aidenn0 4y agoThe incentives are at least somewhat better aligned for the sub- general- relationship (I might need a plumber once a year, but a general needs one a lot). However, there's still issues of finding the good ones in the first place, and it's often more "I've known Joe since the 3rd grade, so I know he's at least not going to totally screw me over"
- AlbertCory 4y agoMine came from an interior designer. I gave my story to Janet in The Big Bucks (minus the fact that he was married already!) so you can read about it there. The Walt character isn't really him but I did borrow some details. Interestingly, I gave the book to him and he loved it. Then he gave it to a contractor friend, and HE loved it, too.
- lostapathy 4y agoThe hell of it is that when you DO finally find tradespeople you can trust, you hate to tell your friends about them for fear they get too busy to fit you in when you need them again!
- subsubzero 4y agoI hear you on this sentiment. It got so bad I asked my Wife's cousin who is the trades(master electrician) to teach me electrical. After a few tries(and many facetime troubleshooting sessions with him), I can replace any outlet, wire a celing or wall lamp inside/outside. Get GFCI outlets set up, also set up, 3 and 4 outlet setups(3/4 legged). I swapped out every single receptacle in my current house, upgraded a ton of lights, got things to code(GFCI on all kitchen outlets now) and saved thousands by doing it myself. It makes me feel pretty proud and its something(unlike software I have written) that will persist for decades.
- Maakuth 4y agoAre there no regulatory or insurance limits for this that apply in your case? I would like to be able to do similar level of electricity installations in here, but I like keeping insurance cover even more. Save $$$ only to lose $$$ $$$ on fire?
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- conductr 4y agoLocal codes could vary widely, but there’s a concept of “light electrical” which allows unlicensed people/handymen to do certain jobs. Replacing lights, plugs, and switches typically fall under that. Generally, if a permit is needed a licensed person has to do the work.
- aksss 4y agoOur town has a “homeowner” exemption that lets homeowners do such work to their own property and they are exempted from the rule that otherwise requires licensed contractors to perform that type of work (mech., plumbing, structural, electrical). However, homeowners are still required to get permits and have inspections performed to close those permits. You can imagine that capable homeowners often honor that rule in the breach unless changing something more than cosmetic (e.g. making a change that could not go unnoticed at sale time).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]