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There are a few Data Centers going up within a couple hours of me, it has pulled all of the trades people away from us. I've called around to every electrician

There are a few Data Centers going up within a couple hours of me, it has pulled all of the trades people away from us. I've called around to every electrician I can find online, or been recommended by neighbors, they are all out of town for the foreseeable future. Same with HVAC and to a lesser extent plumbers. I've had to learn a lot of skills this summer trying to get some repairs done on my house, and I've had to pay some extreme "fuck off" prices for work that I couldn't do myself. My father-in-law is a construction manager for a large power company, and they've been expanding their footprint as well for these datacenters, and hiring like crazy to speed up their construction. He said it will be a few years before the independent trades people become more available.

emsign 2mo ago
[flagged]
- SR2Z 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - shimman 2mo ago
    [flagged]
    - SR2Z 2mo ago
      I'm sure that you believe the same thing about Walmart employees, too, and really thought deeply before typing that out.
      - shimman 2mo ago
        [flagged]
  - tomhow 2mo ago
    Please don't sneer at groups/categories of people like this. Even if it was true (obviously it isn't; many in the software industry have been laid off in recent years), it's still unkind and inflammatory. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - SR2Z 2mo ago
      Guess I should have included a /s, but my point here was that software people are more exposed than most to economic downturns or bubbles popping and it's unreasonable to call them out-of-touch on this issue. I will try to be more obvious with this kind of comment in the future. My fault for assuming the sarcasm would translate well in a comment.
      - tomhow 2mo ago
        Ok fair enough. I think it was late at night when I saw that and my sarcasm radar was shutting down. But it’s best to avoid sarcasm here because it’s usually snarky and we always want to avoid snark, even if the comment you’re replying to is snarky (which it was in this case). We really want to avoid circling the drain with this kind of discourse.
jsrozner 2mo ago
i don't understand why this was downvoted
clarance 2mo ago
I assume this kind of thing is why every quote we got for dead-simple mini-split heat pump installation last year had an effective person-day labor rate of like $2.5k or more (we didn't end up paying, I mean my god, I'll just fucking do it at those prices, it'll take me twice as long as someone who does it every day, but that's insane). Electricians and HVAC workers with certs in crazy-high demand, I guess. Quotes for other stuff like hardwood floor installation and finishing—a job I'd personally consider harder and requiring greater skill than installing a mini-split in a totally uncomplicated setting—was extremely cheap by comparison.
- jermaustin1 2mo ago
  So we had our central HVAC burn up, and I bought a mini-split heat pump to replace it, because the HVAC companies around me don't do mini-splits. Apparently they also don't just remove old systems unless they are replacing them. So for 30 minutes of demo work, they charged me $2900 to just remove the old system. I need to install the mini-split myself still, but for now, to get me through the summer and fall, I have a couple window units. The electrical work I need done is because the previous owner (my grandfather-in-law) built the house and did absolutely NOTHING to code, and inspection found none of this. There are splices in the walls, there is yellow romex being used as power lines to sub panels across the lawn, strung from tree to tree to keep it off the ground. The electrical panel is installed 5-inches from the washing machine... where there is water, and lots of it. There are 4 sub panels strewn throughout the house - it is 1300 square feet. There are random nutted romex wires just poking out of holes in the walls. Basically we need the entire house to be rewired. Same with plumbing, there isn't a single valve in this house. Everything is plumbed directly from the cold or hot lines. So when the shower sprung a leak, we had to turn the mains water off, rip out the shower to fix it, then re-install it. And that is all over the house, as well. Don't buy a house built by a family member, even if that family member is a GC that builds houses for a living, because they aren't getting paid to build their own house, and will 1000% cut every corner known to man.
  - SoftTalker 2mo ago
    If an "inspector" didn't find issues like that you had a bad inspector. Which many of them are. And they have escape clauses in their contracts disclaiming any liability for things they miss. That's not to say a good inspector will find every fault either. They don't tear walls open, and they don't have x-ray vision. They only inspect what they can see.
pigggg 2mo ago
If you go to any large DC construction site the lot will be filled with out of state plates - and not just adjacent states, but folks from across the country.

emsign 2mo ago

[flagged]

SR2Z 2mo ago
[flagged]
- shimman 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - SR2Z 2mo ago
    I'm sure that you believe the same thing about Walmart employees, too, and really thought deeply before typing that out.
    - shimman 2mo ago
      [flagged]
- tomhow 2mo ago
  Please don't sneer at groups/categories of people like this. Even if it was true (obviously it isn't; many in the software industry have been laid off in recent years), it's still unkind and inflammatory. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - SR2Z 2mo ago
    Guess I should have included a /s, but my point here was that software people are more exposed than most to economic downturns or bubbles popping and it's unreasonable to call them out-of-touch on this issue. I will try to be more obvious with this kind of comment in the future. My fault for assuming the sarcasm would translate well in a comment.
    - tomhow 2mo ago
      Ok fair enough. I think it was late at night when I saw that and my sarcasm radar was shutting down. But it’s best to avoid sarcasm here because it’s usually snarky and we always want to avoid snark, even if the comment you’re replying to is snarky (which it was in this case). We really want to avoid circling the drain with this kind of discourse.

jsrozner 2mo ago

i don't understand why this was downvoted

clarance 2mo ago

I assume this kind of thing is why every quote we got for dead-simple mini-split heat pump installation last year had an effective person-day labor rate of like $2.5k or more (we didn't end up paying, I mean my god, I'll just fucking do it at those prices, it'll take me twice as long as someone who does it every day, but that's insane). Electricians and HVAC workers with certs in crazy-high demand, I guess. Quotes for other stuff like hardwood floor installation and finishing—a job I'd personally consider harder and requiring greater skill than installing a mini-split in a totally uncomplicated setting—was extremely cheap by comparison.

jermaustin1 2mo ago
So we had our central HVAC burn up, and I bought a mini-split heat pump to replace it, because the HVAC companies around me don't do mini-splits. Apparently they also don't just remove old systems unless they are replacing them. So for 30 minutes of demo work, they charged me $2900 to just remove the old system. I need to install the mini-split myself still, but for now, to get me through the summer and fall, I have a couple window units. The electrical work I need done is because the previous owner (my grandfather-in-law) built the house and did absolutely NOTHING to code, and inspection found none of this. There are splices in the walls, there is yellow romex being used as power lines to sub panels across the lawn, strung from tree to tree to keep it off the ground. The electrical panel is installed 5-inches from the washing machine... where there is water, and lots of it. There are 4 sub panels strewn throughout the house - it is 1300 square feet. There are random nutted romex wires just poking out of holes in the walls. Basically we need the entire house to be rewired. Same with plumbing, there isn't a single valve in this house. Everything is plumbed directly from the cold or hot lines. So when the shower sprung a leak, we had to turn the mains water off, rip out the shower to fix it, then re-install it. And that is all over the house, as well. Don't buy a house built by a family member, even if that family member is a GC that builds houses for a living, because they aren't getting paid to build their own house, and will 1000% cut every corner known to man.
- SoftTalker 2mo ago
  If an "inspector" didn't find issues like that you had a bad inspector. Which many of them are. And they have escape clauses in their contracts disclaiming any liability for things they miss. That's not to say a good inspector will find every fault either. They don't tear walls open, and they don't have x-ray vision. They only inspect what they can see.

pigggg 2mo ago

If you go to any large DC construction site the lot will be filled with out of state plates - and not just adjacent states, but folks from across the country.