Skinflints

[EricW]

I'm sick and tired of fixing cheapskates' bullshit.

Dear Mr. Skinflint,

Instead of buying some plastic piece of horseshit that will turn into dust three years from now, do me a favor and spend the extra three lousy bucks and buy the metal one that will last forever.

The same rule goes for leaving the proper amount of free wire in the electrical fixtures. Yes, it will cost you an extra 6 cents to leave a full 6 to 8 inches of wire. Deal with it.

If you can't afford to do it right, get a paper route so you can.

Thank you.

[SiG Lady]

Care to discuss what it was, exactly, that precipitated this annoying bit of discomfort...?

[texasag93]

Dogging on electricians? I would never leave that 2" of wire hanging out of a box! National Electric Code(NEC) by the way requires that you leave at least 6" of wire from the face of the box. My .02 TXAG

[EricW]

Care to discuss what it was, exactly, that precipitated this annoying bit of discomfort...?

TX, I'm not bagging on professional electricians. I'm bagging on the SOB that wired the place. My grandfather was a journeyman electrician and a lifetime member of the IBEW. He was one smart dude.

====================================================

SL,

Primarily, working on my Mom's ridiculously huge house (about 4500 sq. feet on 5 acres) over the past 3 or so years. In which time, I've almost completely replaced the plumbing, replaced all the exterior electrical fixtures, painted it, rebuilt large portions of a HUGE two-tiered deck, new garage door opener. You name it, it's new, or it's been replaced.

Almost invariably, the only reason I have to mess with it at all is because the person who did the work last did the most grabasstic job possible.

Just got done rebuilding the front dozer/snowplow blade on the tractor - which must have been put together by a relative of the nitwit who built the house. Every weld a pathetic surface weld....groan.... Pray for the starter and the alternator. It's a 1953(?) JD 430 and I have no clue what I'll do if either of those crap out. I don't think I'll be buying any at the local JD dealership.

Last year I replaced the support structure on the deck because it was rotting away. Turns out, I get to do the same job all over again because it was also underengineered. The new timbers are already swaybacked and cracking. A deck that large never should have been built with the piddly ass timbers (my stupidity for thinking that I could stretch the life of the deck by just putting new timbers in). It should have used steel. Steel wouldn't have cost more, just taken a little more effort to erect.

[On a side note....I don't even understand why building inspectors exist. It has to be the only profession that's more worthless than traffic "engineers". There is no way in hell anything on Mom's house was inspected. Ever.]

Excuse me while I trip over a fist-full of dollars, I see a dime that needs picking up.

[SiG Lady]

Hmm... 4,500 squares. Those are the kinds of houses I get to shoot pictures of.

And we all who are remotely connected to the construction industry here usually groan audibly at the mere MENTION of "building inspector"...... because it automatically means. "City of Eugene" which automatically means "pain in neck" and "delays" and "several other unmentionable things."

I sincerely congratulate you for doing as much as you did. I've done some remodeling (not THAT much, of course). And it can be more work than building it new from the ground up.

[texasag93]

grabasstic! I haven't heard that one in awhile. Will have to use that in tomorrow mornings safety meeting. I see commercial buildings that if I were the buyer would never be approved. I guess the untrained eye knows no better. But in these days of such tight profit margins, half- assed seems to fly!? I feel sorry for the poor SOB who builds my first home The inspectors won't be there real problem. TXAG

[kimel]

True story: A certain building inspector HELPS a contractor, I mean grab a shovel and muck the concrete around type of help, do a sub-par job. Home owner calls him on it. Builder lawyers up. Home owner lawyers up. Every is now embroiled in this huge lawsuit but the building inspector is absolved of culpability by a legal technicality. All because the contractor couldn't be bothered to finish the excavation and/or compact the fill properly.

Building inspectors are mostly a tool for the local city crooks to extract building permit and inspection fees from honest people that work for a living.

I need to win lotto so I can afford to quit my job and build my next house myself so I know with absolute certainty that the job is done right, and if not, who to blame.

[Patrick Sweeney]

My wife and I love to spend our (very rare) spare weekends wandering around town looking at "big, ugly houses" as we call them. You know, the half-million dollar house with the cathedral ceiling, where you can see the marks from the drywall hoist in the draywall, where they were too f***ing lazy to use pads.

Our house was built in 1938, and the persnickety SOB who had it built spec'd everything. I mean, everything. The contract (we still have it) lays out the proportions of sand, cement, etc in the footings, mortar and plaster. (And brand names, too.) The footings were required to be laid down on undisturbed soil, no backfill.

64 years old, and there's one crack in the wet plaster walls.

You couldn't give me one of the modern cardboard-box houses.

[SiG Lady]

I routinely get to see not only the end-results (real estate listing photo assignments) but the start-to-finish process on many of these 'modern cardboard box' houses (full coverage photos of the whole deal)--even the big expensive ones. Jeez, it's true: They just don't make 'em like they used to. It only takes a few months to build even a BIG contemporary home nowadays, and I can see why... pre-fab parts, plastic and composite materials, slap-dash ho-hum walls, you name it. The only time work slows down long enough to be considered 'custom' is when the builder or homeowner requests truly custom woodwork or finish work. And then everyone gets frappin' upset because "it's taking too long" to do it. Duh. What did you expect...??!!

On the other hand, some of my projects take a year to build (I just finished one or two of those) and are rather nicely-done luxury homes. But you don't want to know how much they cost!!!! Eugene is (chuckle) full of "big ugly homes"--trust me on this one.

And don't even get me started on the appalling quality of some of the so-called 'lower end' homes. No better than my apartment.

[davidwiz]

In one of the better towns around where I live, there are quite a few low 6 figure homes going up. The exterior walls are made of plywood w/ a brick facade over it. Walk around in these homes and the floors squeak under your feet and you can feel someone walking in the next room. The interior walls are no more solid that the exterior. And these's people's friends and relatives can't stop telling the world how wonderful these houses are. They are like the person who spent $4k on a race gun that barely runs, and their friends keep telling them how great it is. The emporer has no clothes.

Edited July 26, 2004 by davidwiz

[SiG Lady]

Been there, seen it.

But what's really griping my [body part] is what they're calling "stucco" these days!! Puuuhhhhllleeeez, gimme a break! It's barely a layer of styrofoam and fishnet stockings and a little paper, over which they spray or otherwise apply this thin layer of synthetic gritty stuff. Cripes, you can put your fist thru it on the first try. Stucco, my a**...!!!!

Another pet construction peeve...? Big white plastic pillars a la southern mansion!!! For cryin' out loud... PLASTIC, I tell you!!!!

[uscbigdawg]

[On a side note....I don't even understand why building inspectors exist. It has to be the only profession that's more worthless than traffic "engineers". There is no way in hell anything on Mom's house was inspected. Ever.]

As an architect, Amen to that!

My friends that work for the gubmint, ask why I never considered doing so. After laughing I reminded them that I actually have a brain and on occassion use it. The state arichoke's (architect's) office is a joke here. They know how to do things one way and that's it. You deviate from that, and no matter how thorough you are, you're getting drawings kicked back. And, the sad part is that these are the good reviewing agencies. The local municipalities are pathetic. Oh, and don't even think about doing a project in SF. Outside of New York, San Fran, is about as corrupt as you could begin to imagine.

Whew! Sounds like a good Friday Hate rant!

Keep the faith Eric. Look at this way. When you're done, it'll be whole again. FWIW, never total your Home Depot receipts on housing projects.

Rich

[bountyhunter]

Dogging on electricians? I would never leave that 2" of wire hanging out of a box! National Electric Code(NEC) by the way requires that you leave at least 6" of wire from the face of the box. My .02 TXAG

Who says an electrician connected it? When we had our kitchen remodeled, the new oven stopped working and I smelled burned wiring. Called a repairman to fix it. he slid the oven out of the wall and showed me the steel junction box behind it where the connections were: FLAME damage all around it, but the box kept the fir from spreading out.

It turns out the electrician our general contractor hired (and charged us for) was on another job that day so the Gen Con did the connections behind our stove himself and half-assed them royally. I should have sued the son of a bitch, he was about one spark away from burning my house down.