I have always thought that carpenters, cabinet makers should be regulated! The fact of the matter is, that anyone with a hammer can call themselves carpenters, and anyone with a table saw can call themselves Cabinetmakers, put a shingle on their door and open a business.
Perhaps if renovators had to post a “bond” before commencing a “reno” would result in 90% of the wannabes declining the project. And/Or ….....regulating the wages of workers like goverments do in countries ie., Germany, Finland, Austria etc. On this side of the big ponds there is no even slate so contractors can pay what they choose to pay to their employees and subs. This way all subs and contracters would have to pay a set wage based on set expeience and qualifications. Nothing would stop them from paying more then the set wage and we would have an even “slate”.
Notice that all electrical trades have to write the same “exam”, they have to have their work inspected and most have to pull their own “permit” which will not be issued unless they are a master electrician. (At least in my neck of the woods). Same for plumbers and HVAC workers. I do understand why those three skilled trades are regulated but I dont understand why the rest are not regulated.
I cant speak for other areas of the USA and Canada but even our post secondary educational system that teaches “woodworking” and “Carpentry” vary so much from one college to the next, yet both producing the same diploma is worrysome. The fact that some courses have a “ZERO” failure rate is also alarming. In my opinion the whole system is bankrupt. In my neck of the woods, those who teach post secondary trades are products of the very eductational system that has failed over the last 20 years or more in producing trades people that know *&it from shinola. The grads might think they know…...........but they dont!
Even grade scholl is a mess. My 12 year son, in grade eight wasnt allowed to attend a week of a secondary school skilled trades course because his grades were too high. Thats alarming to me because it because, in a way, it says that only, and for lack of a better word, the “stupid” can be be a tradesman.
The whole marketing paln is “DO IT YOURSELF”..........we take a short course, offered for free, from one of the big box stores and suddenly we are experts. We do one or two jobs and suddenly we are qualified to take on contracting and then we wonder why a show like Holmes on Homes is such a success. Shows like “flip this house” and some of the disastertous outcomes are of no surpise to me.
I watch Holmes on Homes and I like it, I have personally witnmessed some perfectly good trades people ruined by contractors who are legends in their minds and their minds alone! It all makes my blood boil and yet I loose contracts because I am “too exspensive” to the guy who sold real estate for 15 years and then decided to take up renovations. Sometimes that guy does really nice work and because he only chraged 45 bucks an hour the client feels they are getting a better deal then 5 grand but in the end the job cost them 10 grand and took ten times the time it should have….................buyer beware.
At times I find it a tad difficult to feel sorry for some of the customers. The professional educated kind building the monster home. Why didnt they check out his references?, I dont mean make a few phone calls but personal visits to other customers of said contractor? Why didnt they ask who his sub trades are and do the same thing?..................my guess, because the said contractor was “cheaper” by a long shot from the word “GO”, and then the extras started piling up and did the cost and things spiral out of control.
Now thats off my chest and I feel better.
-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/
