How clean should a contractor be?

I try my best to do everything myself. it took me a 18 months but I built my house. did everything except the concrete and shingles . between the shitty work and unreliability I've seen if I can do it myself I will .

That’s cool as hell!
 
Communication is 90% non verbal, and even that 10% is so much of HOW you say what you say.

While non-verbal communication is very, very valuable, it's clearly not 90% of all communication. If it was, it wouldn't be so hard to communicate with elderly people who are hard of hearing. Just sayin'...
 
While non-verbal communication is very, very valuable, it's clearly not 90% of all communication. If it was, it wouldn't be so hard to communicate with elderly people who are hard of hearing. Just sayin'...

If it’s 60, 80 or 90; it’s still vastly more important than what is actually being said. I’m also convinced old people simply don’t want to, or try to understand.
 
I try my best to do everything myself. it took me a 18 months but I built my house. did everything except the concrete and shingles . between the shitty work and unreliability I've seen if I can do it myself I will .

That really drives folks to do it- basically it is also why I do so much inhouse-

Hats off to you-

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While non-verbal communication is very, very valuable, it's clearly not 90% of all communication. If it was, it wouldn't be so hard to communicate with elderly people who are hard of hearing. Just sayin'...

One person said we only hear 1/2 of what is said, retain 1/2 of that, understand 1/4 of that and remember even less-

In reality , many of us fail to be on receive properly and truly need to make a mindful effort to do that-

Amazingly one of the biggest hurdles to that is a communication device- the cell phone.
 
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the one thing that really gets my goat is saying you'll be there at say 11 am and then not showing up until 1 or 2 pm or the next day. buddy that will light my fuse !

That is 100 percent avoidable-

Rule #1 to keeping your word- BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PROMISE.

I also say general timeframes, like mid afternoon if possible or the next morning, etc. Also inflate your time estimates.

Secondly is if you can’t, be a man and say “ I’m needing more time”

At some point it is just lying.
 
I’m also convinced old people simply don’t want to, or try to understand.

That's because you still have your hearing. People get frustrated when an elderly person says, "What?" too many times, so the elderly person usually just nods and says, "uh huh." I'm not quite to that point, yet, but I'm getting there. It's not fun. I no longer take verbal communication abilities for granted.
 
That's because you still have your hearing. People get frustrated when an elderly person says, "What?" too many times, so the elderly person usually just nods and says, "uh huh." I'm not quite to that point, yet, but I'm getting there. It's not fun. I no longer take verbal communication abilities for granted.

I have significant hearing loss- It is actually getting to be noticeable around the family especially with women who have higher pitched voices - If there is any significant ambient noise in the room I pretty much can’t hear anything-

Most of it is my fault from not using hearing protection like I should have using tools when I was younger- I keep it on constantly now to keep tinnitus at bay.

Luckily for me it keeps me from hearing how stupid people think that I am.
 
I don't know if this is above or below average but I swept this out of just 4 main floor of my house-in-progress last week so I could power wash the concrete without all of this ending up on my face.

View attachment 348243

I'm not too worked up about the scraps, but the food and drink containers irritate me. Yet, there's no trash can on site so what are they supposed to do? I thought about putting one out there but no idea if they'd use it. And since none of the subs clean up after themselves, the GC has a line item on the budget for me to pay someone else to come in and do it.

Lotta usable space going to waste under the stairs.
 
Lotta usable space going to waste under the stairs.

Oh, it'll be used. I didn't want to pay framers to fix it so I'm gonna have it left as-is (no drywall) and take care of it when I get moved in and decide what I want to put under there.

It's one of those points of frustration for me...I see that in the plans and just assume that any sensible person would leave that space open and available, and not frame it in as a complete waste of 50 square feet. But then I come out and see this...wtf. What sucks is it's a load bearing wall so it's gonna be a pain in the ass. As to why they didn't just make the rim joist of the stair landing part of that wall so it could double as a header, I'll never know.
 
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I have significant hearing loss- It is actually getting to be noticeable around the family especially with women who have higher pitched voices - If there is any significant ambient noise in the room I pretty much can’t hear anything-

Yup - that's where I'm at. Drives my wife crazy because I blame my ignoring her (when I can hear her) on my hearing loss...

Most of it is my fault from not using hearing protection like I should have using tools when I was younger

For me, it's a little of that and a lot of spending years at race tracks. I have always tried very hard to wear ear protection because my dad had early hearing loss (Korean War and 35 years in a noisy paper mill) and was pretty good at convincing me to protect mine. However, when you're working on a car in a quiet paddock and the car next to you fires up, you're exposed before you have a chance to don ear plugs. Too many of those did the damage for me.

I keep it on constantly now to keep tinnitus at bay.

Just in the last year or so, I've started to notice tinnitus, and it is not fun. Getting a good night's sleep is not easy these days. As I sit here typing this, my ears have a dull ringing... :(
 
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Oh, it'll be used. I didn't want to pay framers to fix it so I'm gonna have it left as-is (no drywall) and take care of it when I get moved in and decide what I want to put under there.

It's one of those points of frustration for me...I see that in the plans and just assume that any sensible person would leave that space open and available, and not frame it in as a complete waste of 50 square feet. But then I come out and see this...wtf.

Something to consider if you don’t like to crawl is to go to Harbor freight and get some casters and basically make a plywood and 2 x 4 framed platform that you can set things on and push under there and close the door- ends up being 6” tall maybe

You can do a pull out shelf above if you have clearance
 
Yup - that's where I'm at. Drives my wife crazy because I blame my ignoring her (when I can hear her) on my hearing loss...



For me, it's a little of that and a lot of spending years at race tracks. I have always tried very hard to wear ear protection because my dad had early hearing loss (Korean War and 35 years in a noisy paper mill) and was pretty good at convincing me to protect mine. However, when you're working on a car in a quiet paddock and the car next to you fires up, you're exposed before you have a chance to don ear plugs. Too many of those did the damage for me.



Just in the last year or so, I've started to notice tinnitus, and it is not fun. Getting a good night's sleep is not easy these days. As I sit here typing this, my ears have a dull ringing... :(

I hit like at the same time hate you are dealing with it- Someone gave me a nice factory stereo lately and I’m going to try not to play it too loud. 😉
 
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I hit like at the same time hate you are dealing with it- Someone gave me a nice factory stereo lately and I’m going to try not to play it too loud. 😉

I can't be held liable for hearing damage from rocking out to excess! :sneaky:
 
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Oh, it'll be used. I didn't want to pay framers to fix it so I'm gonna have it left as-is (no drywall) and take care of it when I get moved in and decide what I want to put under there.

It's one of those points of frustration for me...I see that in the plans and just assume that any sensible person would leave that space open and available, and not frame it in as a complete waste of 50 square feet. But then I come out and see this...wtf. What sucks is it's a load bearing wall so it's gonna be a pain in the ass. As to why they didn't just make the rim joist of the stair landing part of that wall so it could double as a header, I'll never know.

Jack it up and cut in a double LVL header that essentially is even with that platform and remove the studs underneath - except the jacks for the header obviously
 
Somebody knows how to frame

20+ years. Not as successful, organized or positive minded as Andy, but I love building and take care of my customers. I DO have a "warranty" period on my jobs, but that's more to stop the leeches. 85% of my work is decks, and I don't care how precise you are, miters don't stay closed when the temps go from 10° - 90+°.
 
I try my best to do everything myself. it took me a 18 months but I built my house. did everything except the concrete and shingles . between the shitty work and unreliability I've seen if I can do it myself I will .

Good Job ! 37 years ago my wife and I built our house in 2 1/2 years , it was the ONLY way we could afford a home.
Excavation , Concrete, framing, plumbing , electrical were all learned and applied by books and OJT. I farmed out the sheetrock and finish since we were expecting the birth of our first born , ( unplanned of course ! ). The only thing I had built before that was a tree house as a kid.
Are there things I would do differently today , damn right I would ! But I do thoroughly enjoy the fact that every issue in our house was caused my ME.
We didn't build a normal house, it is a superinsulated two story home framed with 2X12 's . The cost for the home , power, septic, water cistern was about
the same cost as a new 85 Corvette. Times have changed. Good to know there are other owner built homes out there !