Young people failing at maintenance and DIY

For those with younger children, I can offer some hope that they may eventually come around with some DIY as they get older and are trying to maintain their own cars, etc.

I have two sons that when living at home showed no interest whatsoever in learning what was under the hoods of the cars they drove. Now that they are married and trying to maintain their own homes and cars on a limited budget and realizing the high price of car repair, they are starting to slowly come back with "Dad, can you show me again how to change my own oil, brake pads, etc. ?"

So for those with younger children, maybe there is some hope that they may eventually show more interest in DIY.

 

around here, if you do it yourself (you cannot do plumbing in mass without a license) the inspectors hold your feet to the fire and do everything they can to discourage you. but if you hire a licensed contractor, the inspectors sign the permits outside and don't inspect anything. there have been many problems with shoddy/dangerous workmanship and contractors disappearing with downpayments. unfortunately, even with all the government regulation, it's buyer beware, and that's difficult for many people who don't have a clue what's going on.

 

Or without MapQuest.com?

 

Or without a Thomas guide? Let's take it all the way back, fur trappers would laugh at your lack of skills (but only after being laughed at by the native Americans)

 

Sometimes, it is not worth the cost to DIY.

I talked my first spouse into hiring a lot of things, rather than have to put up with him attempting to fix plumbing, electrical, etc. He could do those things, but since he often didn't have some specialized tool, and it would end up taking him twice or thrice as long as a professional, I convinced him that his time was worth more, and that a pro would have it done and be gone, and thus not cut into his precious leisure time. [insert eye roll]

I, myself, have done basic plumbing, some electrical, and I have wall papered (several rooms, various sorts of wall paper). Wall paper is of the devil, and there is no way in HELL I'd EVER wall paper again.
Painting is great. Easy. Fast. You can hire tall people to do the ceiling/upper walls. I can do it, my DH is fabulous at it, but we are also pragmatic enough to know that, should we want it done fast and neatly, we can hire someone with better equipment/skills to do it well.

 

So if you paid an expensive unionized plumber to put in that poly piping, you would then have paid that expensive unionized plumber to rip it out again

I've always had an intense curiosity about how things work. For almost everything - plumbing, wiring, framing a house, etc - there really isn't that much to it

Let's also separate "basic repair skills" from actually building your own home. I'm perhaps at the opposite end of the spectrum and I don't expect too many folks to competently build their own home

On the one hand, with all that wonderful government regulation and permits and rules, one would hope for better and safer work. On the other hand, it appears you get just the opposite effect

Much like building inspectors who are cozy with builders, they sit in their taxpayer-funded City Permit Office vehicle and "inspect" the quality of construction from inside the vehicle

Yep, that sounds like it works just fine with no possibility whatsoever of shoddy workmanship, overpriced work, etc

Then when things DO go wrong, say bad wiring burns the house down, suddenly the Finger Pointing starts. Nobody takes responsibility for anything - which is pretty much classic socialism.

 

As a homeowner and car owner, there are certain DIY tasks that are trivial with a little planning.
1) Fixing a toilet. (Calling a plumber to reconnect the flush chain is donating money.)
2) Fixing a PVC sprinkler pipe. (These skills were taught in Kindergarden.)
3) Changing a Prius Cabin Air Filter. (It's a donation to the Dealer otherwise.)
4) Others

When people are incapable of these tasks, the only reason can be lack of knowledge, not that their time is worth vast amounts.

 

OK, this one even I can do. My usual train of thought: Will this take me more than 10 minutes? Will something get damaged if I do something wrong? Will *I* get damaged if I do something wrong?

If the answer to all three is "no", I do it myself.

Don't have an in-ground sprinkler.

The Prius has a cabin air filter? You learn something every day!

I can (and have) fix a garbage disposal, and there's no clog that has ever bested me.

I feel that by hiring a housekeeper, a pool guy, a lawn-mowing guy, as well as hiring a plumber for anything more complicated than I mentioned above and an electrician for anything more complicated than changing a light bulb or resetting a circuit breaker (the "can I hurt myself if I do something wrong?" weighs heavily here), I am helping the economy so, in turn, am doing the most patriotic thing an American can do nowadays. It's not so much that I feel my time is worth vast amounts (it's not), it's just that I hate getting my arms elbow-deep in muck.

 

it's funny, now, not at the time, when we had our kitchen remodeled, i had the electrician run wiring in the walls to the basement so we could instal under cabinet lighting at a later date. when i called another electrician to install the lighting, he said the wire was incorrect so he calls the inspector. of course, the inspector denies approving the wire when it was installed and says the guy must have put it in after he left. i know the inspector never came in the house.

 

Here at least, I know anybody can do the work as long as an inspector approves it. So you can DIY to your hearts content and not pay that unionized whoever if you really want to, as long as the government comes by and says "okie dokie". Even though I am Canadian, I have never done any DIYing up there, but having watched Mike Holmes who operates mostly out of Ontario taking on projects I am sure he has hinted to the fact that a homeowner can take out a permit on his own work too just like in the states.

Building my own home is on a list to do eventually, but I think it takes a special kind of person to want to do something like that when it is not even close to being related to their actual full time job.

Those inspectors should be fired. One great piece of Mike Holmes advice is to be present when all inspections are taking place even if it is a GC doing the work. Ask questions, be involved. If you see things that are obviously wrong (like hidden junction boxes or tiling over drywall or something just not right) point them out to the inspector.

Socialism has nothing to do with scapegoating and I will leave it at that.

 

what i don't understand about holmes is, he goes in and bad mouths all the work of a previous contractor and then says the work was inspected and how did it get passed? then, he fixes it and brings the inspector back and never asks him how/why he passed it in the first place!

 

Rarely if ever do they have the proper permits pulled. And when they do and it is passed, it is most likely the scenario jayman described where they know the contractor so they just sign away willy-nilly. Saves them time and work, and they should be fired.

 

Here, the electrical inspector has to put a sticker on the breaker box when it is passed.

Last year, we had a heat pump installed, and the inspector showed up, came in, looked in the box, said, "I'm looking for the previous sticker from the last time I was here"... then approved the wiring job on the heat pump. So, I think that means something, anyway...

 

How do you do that? Those wonderful inspectors are unionized employees, working for the city, county, municipality, etc.

Better luck of teaching a duck to type and take shorthand

The entire permit/bylaw thing is nothing but a money-making scam and job security for unions. If it actually WORKED and homes were made better and safer, then I'd be all for it

But when we have clear examples of shoddy and downright dangerous workmanship, we have a problem. When things are done wrong, and the permit was passed/approved, who takes responsibility then?

The inspector? Never happen

The city? Ha! Good luck with that

The utility co? You must be joking!

Much like how we have this wonderful New Home Warranty Program up here. It varies by province, here in theory its 5 years. The catch? It's an association of CONTRACTORS

So that means the fox is guarding the hen house every night

I've known a few folks who have had significant problems with a new house. I'd call major basement leaks as a "significant" problem, wouldn't you? They went to the Manitoba New Home Warranty Program, and guess what?

Nothing was done!

In teeny fine print is this

"Specifically excluded as major structural defects are defects in driveways, basement floors, garage floors, patios, sidewalks, retaining walls, any concrete construction which is not load bearing, or any defects not caused by the negligence of the Builder"

Oh, and the cap is $50,000. Say the estimate to un-fubar what the builder fubar'd exceeds $50 G's, TFB you're SOL

I suppose they could have gone after the City Inspector, who "inspected" the quality of construction from the comfort of his city-provided Suburban. Yeah, right

Thing is, when I make a mistake, I have to fess up to it and fix it myself. Nothing teaches you faster than making a mistake, and then having to FIX that mistake

But when we live in this wonderful consequence-free era of Anything Goes, in the end the guilty party washes their hands of the deal and walks.

 

Job security that's why

Nudge nudge wink wink

 

at least he came in your house!

 

ya, you can't fire public sector empoyees, it's next to impossible.

don't ch'all start jumping on me now, i'm just stating a fact!

 

It's a fact

 

Despite the fact that Holmes looks like he could rip the average person in half with his bare hands, he is pretty non-confrontational where there is nothing to be gained by being confrontational.

He has also been in the business long enough to know that there is no point in pissing an inspector off if you might get him again.

I like the way his show sticks to identifying the problems and then fixing them.

OTOH, you could make some entertaining "Reality TV" by suckering the bad contractors and inspectors into getting on camera. A lot of them have big enough egos that they would argue the case for their sloppy work on camera.

 

true, but he makes such a big deal out of the bad work and how could the inspector sign off on it as the show begins.