On Mar 6, 3:07*pm, "Swingman" wrote:

Yeah, Bubba ... and I'm damn glad of it.

Don't want to sound non-PC, but good gawd almighty the difference!

I'll bet. What I wouldn't give to pull a cork with those guys.

Just last week I had to run off a carpentry crew that was rebuilding a
roof section that was collapsing on my job. These were "experts" and
"professionals" that had been "doing it all their lives".

The final straw was that we were to shim a roof joists (nearly flat
roof) to take out the dip in one corner of the roof. So we needed
straight wedges 60" long, 7/8" to nothing. Then one 3/4" to nothing,
etc., while getting shorter all the while. Then we needed to feather
out the shims as needed around the low spot across the rest of the
joists, kind of like a sunburst.

Those guys screwed around trying to cut those wedges for more than an
hour. What a waste of time. The head banana said to me "well, if it
is so ****ing easy, why don't you do it?"

OK.. they go something right, I'll admit it.

At 10:00 am I fired the carpenters and kept the helpers, went home,
got my nail bags, saw, cords, etc. and crawled my pudgy middle aged
ass up and down that ladder all day and did all of it myself with two
guys that couldn't read a tape, measure a board or cut. They hauled a
lot of material, but they couldn't speak but a little English, and
their Spanish wasn't all that great either.

At the end of the day, the cut out section of framing was replaced
(17' x 24' ), decked, 4 new skylights set, joist hangers nailed out
and bridging all set. All in a section that was 2 1/2" out of square
with a 2" sag in two different places.

20 years ago I wouldn't have hired someone that couldn't do that in a
day. But the job budget had TWO days allowance in it, allowing for
today's unqualified labor force. (I was glad there was a two day
allowance; I used the money I saved on ibuprofin!)

If I worked with some guys like you are describing I might tell
everyone I was joining the circus and leave with them.

How did you find them?

Robert