- #1
kyphysics
- 676
- 436
I don't own a home and do not plan to in the near future. However, I've been working on some pet DIY projects with my uncle on my father's house, some church and other properties of mutual friends/acquaintances. My dad's not in the greatest health and doesn't have much home repair and maintenance experience, but my uncle is a retired engineer (civil) and spends a good portion of his free time learning and doing DIY type of work. I honestly hate this type of work (not my source of income), but I've been going along to learn.
On small projects, my uncle's been great to learn from (replacing a toilet, fixing a gutter, etc.), but he is aware of his limits (to a degree) and has said he's messed up a lot of stuff too while learning to do it himself. Thus, he never offers, nor recommends to have himself assist with my dad's major home repairs. For that, he recommends hiring a trained professional.
In talking with him, he's said it's been hit or miss at times. He's hired plenty of people who made mistakes (they had to redo the project) and also ones who've been great. One person started a job, he said, and never finished. They later found out he'd been arrested for a drug charge and in jail. We've been working with a crawlspace person recently at my dad's house and the person was so unprofessional in tone and behavior that I did a random court record search of him. He's been sued so many times (and lost) that I've lost count. His business reviews are the lowest in the city for his service. We had a roofer come last week to repair a leak (albeit very small) and that guy never returned! We have no idea what happened.
I've talked with a neighbor who has a son-in-law that does some repair contracting work and he's said that people have been showing up for a week or two and just quitting all year. I am fully aware of the labor shortage problem the U.S. has - partially related to the government offering better perks in enhanced UI to not work (although, that ends next month). Still, this sort of behavior is ridiculous and would get you fired and have lasting career impact in any other line of work. That brings me to some questions:
a.) How have you gone about finding someone to work on a home repair or maintenance project? I assume doing a Google search and looking at reviews. This method, however, has some drawbacks. Some businesses literally pay for reviews and some reviewers are trolls or paid saboteurs. Other times, the reviews are just inaccurate for other reasons (maybe sampling or being out of date, etc.).
b.) What sorts of other screening do you do? And, what sorts of warning signs do you look for?
c.) Should all workers have some sort of license or proof of training to ask for (like the equivalent of a college degree) for their field of expertise? My parents hired some guy for roofing who was recommended by a friend of the family. He doesn't have a website of any sort, although his business is registered in my area. What if you cannot find out much information from a person? Do you ask directly (expecting the truth)? Can you ask if they've ever screwed up a job massively? I'm guessing they wouldn't answer that?
d.) Should all initial estimates and inspections be free? Is that a general practice? How many inspections and estimates would you personally run through before having something done?
e.) Do you personally try to watch them work (if you can and have time)? If so, what is reasonable? Standing next to them the entire time or just "checking in" on them every hour or two?
f.) Do you take time to learn how a project should be done (done to technical details), so that you can tell if someone is doing a good job or not? Or, is that too cumbersome and unrealistic?
I have lots of other questions too, but figured I'd just throw out a few and re: more as the thread progresses. Don't want this initial post to be too long. I think as I've been learning to deal with such people in the home repair and maintenance industry, I've not been particularly trusting. It's been a good learning experience (for life wisdom), but also unpleasant at times. Many of the individuals seem highly uneducated and unprofessional. I think I have this developed sense of mistrust of people in this industry and always fear they're trying to scam me and/or are incompetent (and will cause major damage and not own up to it).
g.) Is there anything inherent in this line of work that makes it so you're dealing with seemingly shady people a lot of the time? Is it that it's hard work often (physical labor and sometimes exposed to harsh elements) and no one wants to do it, so only those who cannot get jobs doing something else will take it on?
On small projects, my uncle's been great to learn from (replacing a toilet, fixing a gutter, etc.), but he is aware of his limits (to a degree) and has said he's messed up a lot of stuff too while learning to do it himself. Thus, he never offers, nor recommends to have himself assist with my dad's major home repairs. For that, he recommends hiring a trained professional.
In talking with him, he's said it's been hit or miss at times. He's hired plenty of people who made mistakes (they had to redo the project) and also ones who've been great. One person started a job, he said, and never finished. They later found out he'd been arrested for a drug charge and in jail. We've been working with a crawlspace person recently at my dad's house and the person was so unprofessional in tone and behavior that I did a random court record search of him. He's been sued so many times (and lost) that I've lost count. His business reviews are the lowest in the city for his service. We had a roofer come last week to repair a leak (albeit very small) and that guy never returned! We have no idea what happened.
I've talked with a neighbor who has a son-in-law that does some repair contracting work and he's said that people have been showing up for a week or two and just quitting all year. I am fully aware of the labor shortage problem the U.S. has - partially related to the government offering better perks in enhanced UI to not work (although, that ends next month). Still, this sort of behavior is ridiculous and would get you fired and have lasting career impact in any other line of work. That brings me to some questions:
a.) How have you gone about finding someone to work on a home repair or maintenance project? I assume doing a Google search and looking at reviews. This method, however, has some drawbacks. Some businesses literally pay for reviews and some reviewers are trolls or paid saboteurs. Other times, the reviews are just inaccurate for other reasons (maybe sampling or being out of date, etc.).
b.) What sorts of other screening do you do? And, what sorts of warning signs do you look for?
c.) Should all workers have some sort of license or proof of training to ask for (like the equivalent of a college degree) for their field of expertise? My parents hired some guy for roofing who was recommended by a friend of the family. He doesn't have a website of any sort, although his business is registered in my area. What if you cannot find out much information from a person? Do you ask directly (expecting the truth)? Can you ask if they've ever screwed up a job massively? I'm guessing they wouldn't answer that?
d.) Should all initial estimates and inspections be free? Is that a general practice? How many inspections and estimates would you personally run through before having something done?
e.) Do you personally try to watch them work (if you can and have time)? If so, what is reasonable? Standing next to them the entire time or just "checking in" on them every hour or two?
f.) Do you take time to learn how a project should be done (done to technical details), so that you can tell if someone is doing a good job or not? Or, is that too cumbersome and unrealistic?
I have lots of other questions too, but figured I'd just throw out a few and re: more as the thread progresses. Don't want this initial post to be too long. I think as I've been learning to deal with such people in the home repair and maintenance industry, I've not been particularly trusting. It's been a good learning experience (for life wisdom), but also unpleasant at times. Many of the individuals seem highly uneducated and unprofessional. I think I have this developed sense of mistrust of people in this industry and always fear they're trying to scam me and/or are incompetent (and will cause major damage and not own up to it).
g.) Is there anything inherent in this line of work that makes it so you're dealing with seemingly shady people a lot of the time? Is it that it's hard work often (physical labor and sometimes exposed to harsh elements) and no one wants to do it, so only those who cannot get jobs doing something else will take it on?
