[TheForge] housekeeping

[xlch58 at swbell.net]

paul wrote:

> Where do I start...
>
> 'lazy plumber'...
>
> I have been a master plumber for 20+ years, and have been in the trade 
> since 1968. In that time it has been my experience that  'mistakes and 
> cheap shortcuts' are the result of inexperienced and incompetent  
> handymen, untrained hacks that call themselves plumbers and unskilled 
> homeowners rather than skilled  and trained craftsmen.  The presence 
> of 'aging steel pipe' speaks  more to  the age of the home than the 
> competence of the installer. Screwed galvanized water pipe and waste 
> pipe were still common as little as thirty years ago.
>
> Romex is present because the builder did not want to spend the extra 
> money for BX cable, not because some 'lazy electrician' didn't want to 
> drag BX though the holes that he had just drilled, the same holes that 
> would have easily passed BX in stead of romex.
>
> It may be frustrating to have your children return home after 
> beginning lives on their own, but your frustration with the condition 
> of your home is no reason to insult honest craftsmen.
>
> paul

Paul,

I am sure you are a fine and concientious plumber.  I also know many 
likeminded people in the building trades.  At the same time it is my 
belief that the buildining trades as a whole have justly earned 
themselves a bad name in the last twenty years.   Here locally, when you 
hire a crafsman, what you get is a handful of HIS hours a week.   The 
hours you DO get are untrained illegal aliens with too little 
oversight.  Only after repeated calls does your craftsman show up in a 
bright red brand new high lift four wheel drive stretch cab truck with 
nary a scratch in the bed.    When I need a plumber, I pay the price 
asked by friends in the trade that drive the same ordinary work trucks 
that I do..  They do quality work and don't require my constant 
oversight.  Not everyone can afford them.    I had a master plumber 
(licensed here in town) as a sub to a builder I hired.   This guy showed 
up on a weekend after the framing crew left. He ran a vent stack through 
a window.  When asked why he would do such a thing he claimed that code 
demanded he do so.   He cut the flooring up three inches from the wall, 
leaving no way to provide adequate edge support for a replacement 
sheet.  He over notched the floor joists just about everywhere he ran a 
pipe.  The code inspector ( who used to be my plumber ten years ago) 
called him a dumbass.  My friend, the master plumber down the street,  
had less kind words for him as he told me how to set things right ( he 
was booked up).    My wheelchair bound mother often has to avail herself 
of the trades since I travel too much to handle all of the projects she 
had to adapt a home I bought her.  Many were hired by government 
agencies.  I will not detail all of the jobs that I have had to redo 
after they left, but I finally told her no one touches the house 
anymore.  I coudn't afford anymore "free" jobs paid for by local 
agencies and executed by "professionals".  The last straw was a plumber 
that installed a roll in handicapped shower without pulling a permit.  
As blind as many of the inspectors are these days, he could not have 
missed the fact that there was no pan, just concrete board on 
floorboards with tile on top.   After that the only problem I had was 
when she had a gas leak.  She shut the gas off and got a plumbing firm 
out to inspect it, since I was out of town.  They told her the entire 
system was shot and had to be replaced including the yard line and 
presented her with a ten thousand dollar estimate.   They charged her 
six hundred for the test.   I got home and checked on things.  They had 
not even gone under the house, though the estimate says they did ( the 
access door was locked and mom does not have the key)   I tested the 
yard line myself.  It held the required test pressure for not just 
fifteen minutes, or even thirty, but for seven days until I got back to 
continue with repairs.  

Regarding the romex, I have seen squirrels chew up BX.  The interesting 
thing is in older homes where I have run new circuits, the squreels will 
gleefully ingest the new PVC romex, but will studiously avoid the old 
fabric and ashpalt coated romex.   I am guessing the PVC tastes better.


I hope you don't take any of this ill.   The tradespeople I know over 
forty are as annoyed as I am in general.  My old neighbor was a mason.  
You should walk down the street with him and hear him critique the brick 
work in a new development.


Charles.
Who works in the IT and Power industry.  The former of which is worse 
than the building trades, and the latter (linemen and central station 
guys) I think still has the esprit de corps as a group to care about 
doing a job right when they get the chance.