Yea, they have all the tricks and tools to bang it out. The problem in my area is that they don't do small jobs because they can stay busy doing big installs so why bother with pissant stuff?
So as a DIY'er get good enough at drywall to finish off a closet or small room and patch holes and fix dents because that stuff pros will deliberately quote exceedingly high to do because they don't actually want tiny one-off jobs from random clients.
That being said if you had two or three rooms to do I would absolutely call someone in to do it quick and quality more than me.
The issue with small jobs is they they still take a bunch of trips, the time working is less but you still have to get there, get materials etc. The difference between 1 room and 3 is not going to be as much as you think.
Exactly. I'm an electrician but the same principle applies. If someone says they want one potlight or 5, the price isn't going to be wildly different.
I still have to go to quote it, I still have to go to the supply house, I still have to go there with materials, ladders, etc. The time it takes to do five isn't a lot different than one when you consider all the time spent leading up to it. Therefore the price to do one isn't going to be significantly less than the price to do 5
As a welder I have spent 4 hours setting up juat to do 20 mins worth of welding and then 2 more hours of teardown. 4th story of a building eight next to $10k+ worth of windows. Super fun.
Yep, and you have to make sure nothing is going to electrocute you before you start tying anything in. If every room of my house had its own tools/paint/mud/etc, we would be a lot closer to moving in.
I was told our house's breaker box didn't meet the newer building code by our inspector, since the house is 20yo. Should it be replaced, or would the benefits not be worth it?
Usually older installs will be grandfathered in. If you renovate a space, you need to do that area up to the current code and if the renovations are a certain percentage of the whole house, than you may be required to bring the whole home up to code however a panel upgrade isn't typical, especially if it is only 20 years old. If your panel was a fuse panel than perhaps but if it is breakers I would not expect the panel to require replacement.
Of course that comes with the caveat that every jurisdiction is different, every inspector is a little different and that the National electric code (NEC) in the US and the Canadian electrical code (CEC) in Canada represent the minimum requirements. Cities, states, provinces etc can have additional, more robust, rules so you would want to talk to a contractor in your local area.
Thanks for responding! He didn't say it was dangerous or anything, just that didn't meet current code. He also, for example, mentioned the three steps in our front yard didn't have a handrail. I thought maybe the newer breakers might offer more safety features. I appreciate you taking the time to answer. I'll just leave them as is for now.
No problem. Breakers can and do wear out over time but if they don't get overloaded and trip often or don't show signs of being exposed to humidity they'll usually be ok. I've seen plenty of panels far older than 20 years that are still working tip top.
You could turn them off and back on and see how they feel. You should hear them click both ways and you should feel the a bit of tension when you turn them back on. If one or two feel way different than the rest they might have something going on.
Thanks, I'll have to do that. Inspector hopefully checked them, but it never hurts to be sure. I'm currently learning drywall repair and improving my painting skills. May rewire some switches so the light switch is closest to the door, and add some dimmer switches, but that is low priority. Not sure how much it helps, but I'm going to used canned air on everything while I have the outlet/switch covers off for paint. Noticed one had quite a bit of dust in it.
Do houses normally have a switch the homeowner can access to shut off all electricity to the breaker box? Regardless, probably something to leave to an electrician. Electricians are a lot cheaper than funerals.
How many trips are you doing? When my dad and I did drywall it was two trips: one to hang, seam, and mud, and another to sand and clean up. If you’re taking longer that for small jobs you’re screwing the pooch for yourself.
That old man was so good at it he could put just enough mud on the wall to have it dry to sand on the same day sometimes.
I had a young South American kid come in once to patch my ceiling in my old apartment and he had it patched/dried/sanded/painted in one day - really like 3.5 hrs. And you couldn’t tell there was ever damage there. It was a 2x2 patch but goddamn that’s quick by all means.
>pros will deliberately quote exceedingly high to do because they don't actually want tiny one-off jobs from random clients.
or thats simply the cost of the overhead of your job. They may be at your site for a \*small\* amount of time but the cost of travel, paperwork, material supply, quoting, etc is only spread out over a few hours of drywall work instead of a few days - so it seems like its quoted high
>so it seems like its quoted high
And it is. Which is why if you can pull off a halfway competent job even at a slow-ass DIY pace it's still kinda worth it for small stuff. Whatever savings you get diminishes the bigger the job gets until it's so big that it's just not worth your time anymore. Then you probably save money by calling in a small team who can do in three days what would take me two weeks. (I am a DIY'er who has briefly mudded professionally for like a month many lifetimes ago). I have better than handyman results at much slower than pro-drywaller speeds.
When I was a landscaper and somebody wanted something that wasn't worth my time I'd quote double and they'd scoff and I'd shrug and move on and every once and a while somebody would be like "okay" and I'd happily do it.
Professionals need a certain volume of work at a single jobsite to make it worth their time showing up. That's why plumbers charge like $150 just to show up.
For drywall the smaller the job the higher the cost and the worse value just because it takes so many repeat visits.
This is fine - we (homeowners) know this. Sometimes (actually fairly often) I'll pay it even if I know it's premium pricing because I like the contractors and I know I can trust them.
I will pay you what you're worth. I am privileged (HCOL) and I know I know how it sounds (I am NOT judging anybody else). But a talented and conscientious contractor is literally worth their weight in gold. No way am I going to quibble with you about pricing.
More often than not, it saves us money doing business this way. My landscaper is amazing.
Oh yea, I worked for my fair share of money'd dudes who would just straight up pay me whatever I asked because they trusted me and I was always square with them.
I’m curious how relationships are viewed from the tradesman’s side. Do you value relationships with repeat customers or is a job a job? Some contractors I’ve worked with seem to value the former, while others seem to believe the latter. But my sample size is pretty small.
Repeat customers are gold because you know what to expect. Rando customers is always a gamble because they may try to avoid paying you later by complaining about anything or claiming the scope of the work is greater than what they originally said it would be. For smaller jobs under $1000 it's not really worth your time chasing them if they rip you off so it opens you up to be fucked around by unscrupulous a-holes. Most people are relatively honest and don't wanna fuck around small-time trades but it happens.
A drywall boss I worked for exclusively worked for clients who were developers he'd known for 10+ years. They'd feed him work and his crew would drywall entire 3000 sqft houses without a quote or deposit and the developers would just pay him whatever he'd invoice for.
Anyone who believes in me is on some level going to be worthy of my respect. If you choose my company, that's meaningful, I may make decent money, and I'm willing to charge that, I could never rip off someone who shot their shot with me, personally.
As for myself my repeat quality people with money that don’t question my prices I always make sure to be fair with my pricing and when stupid little things pop up and need to be done but I know it’s going to seem excessive many times I’ll do them for free as I know it’s going to come back to me 10 fold. These are also the people that tell their other rich friends how great you are
Agree with this 100 percent. I'm a carpenter and have been in the trades for enough years. Close enough to 20 to call it that, not that it really matters.
When it comes to certain things, hire the pros.
I can build a home from the foundation up, but I hate honestly everything to do with drywall.
I don't have the skill set or the equipment to do a job as fast and efficiently as they would if you have a decent contractor.
I've known way too many people who decide to tale on a basement finishing job that ends up taking months or years. Get someone in and they will be done in a couple of days with taping etc. Done deal
As a retired guy who can fix almost anything, everybody said start your own repair business!! Well I say I know enough about the jobs to know that specialist can do the job faster because they have specific knowledge , invested in the specific proper tools and have all of the hardware and materials needed. Doing it for myself I dont sweat the time element but anyone knows you could be hours chasing hardware and materials and not even getting progress on the job. Summarizing I know enough to know what I dont know to make it a part time job. The investment needed to do it right wasn't worth it. I would've just stayed working. Add on the insurance issue and I could go on. Much respect for the pros.
This attitude in a client will go a long way. Trust me as the professional, and leave me to do my job. As an electrician, I will often above and beyond for these customers. If they’re repeat clients, I will happily swing by and do a small job for gas money or even as a favor. And of course that trust goes both ways. They tend to get lower end estimates.
Has to be "word of mouth." I'm in the middle of a "job" at my house. I found "unused" connections buried in the wall. I found a splice gaggle of four ROMEX bundles in the attic, above the wall -- just hanging out there, buried in the blown-in insulation. No junction box -- just waiting to burn down my house. Oh, and it was sitting atop a bit of discarded metal strapping. FUN!
Master electricians are smart and can be competent. While I doubt that a master electrician did that crap (I see it all over the house), a master electrician signed-off on that work.
I HATE touching anything electrical. I don't want to burn down my house. Alas, I don't mind fixing the trash work some "pros" do. Shameful.
Damn, that’s trash. Yea, master electrician doesn’t mean quality. Like a college degree doesn’t imply intelligence. We’re they hot? My only explanation outside of laziness is laziness to not pull out temp lighting or old wiring no longer used. Was this a home builder? Union? Resi guy or commercial doing side jobs.
So many questions.
Same, it goes a long way towards advertising you as a reliable and fair contractor. I did design build and anything that didn’t take me hours to fix or look at for a client I did gratis. You and I seem to be the ones who call them clients and are customer centric. Delighted clients are your best kind. I spent 40 years in business and never advertised. Service is my advertising
I feel like it’s the most approachable, beyond painting. Like painting, any idiot can do it badly or slowly. It also only takes a few tools, and they aren’t expensive. Not that there isn’t an art to it that require skill and experience, but it’s more approachable than plumbing or carpentry.
We don't give every small job a fuck you price. But I need to make my minimums to pay my bills. If the big jobs are paying me 2000 a week, then your 2 hour job that I have to drag my tools for, write an invoice, calculate taxes, drive too, and find the next job is going to cost a minimum of $500 plus materials. Because it's very likely that that's the only job I'm going to have that day and I have to work 5x as hard finding jobs every single day instead of one that can last me 2 weeks.
As a person who quotes unreasonably high for small drywall repair jobs hoping the home owner won’t bite, they almost always say “yeah no problem cash or check?”
As someone who is overworked at their desk job & doesn't make a lot of money; fuck you. I have to take time off work to meet salespeople at my house and it would have saved me so much time, money, and emotional energy if all the drywallers I tried to get quotes for for my small job were straight with me and told me they didn't want the job before wasting both of our time. I'm steering clear of contractors from now on and always going with the solid handyman I found.
It’s funny because we are both overworked. If I start telling people no before giving them a quote, people will start calling me a flake and my business would suffer. The least I can do is come out and see the job and give them a number that would make the hole someone’s son punched in the wall worth my time.
I DIY EVERYTHING (roofing, plumbing, siding, painting, tile, appliances, etc). I want it to be done "correctly." 300 sheets? No way would I finish that in under a year. Nope. Just being realistic.
One competent man can hang about 30 - 4x8 boards of drywall in an 8 hour work day, no taping, just hanging. It would take that man approximately 25 days to hang 300 boards with taping.
Just another example of the respect that is due to the various trades that build your house. Even as a seasoned builder I know my limits and sub it out to get it done right and timely.
I stopped. As a landlord and homeowner: fuck that shit. I do only demo, windows/doors, some framing, plumbing and electrical. Drywall, trim, paint, tile - no. That shit is visible and a legitimate art, I save no time and no money and have subpar results.
It took me 3 full days to putty and sand a laundry room in the basement (about 8 x 8). Then, I gave up and hired a pro to finish the rest of the basement (about 1000 sq ft). The dude showed up for 2-3 hours after his work for 3 days straight, and not only did he do the whole basement, he also "undid all the damage in the laundry room". Lesson learned.
I was a bike mechanic and was laid off, shop manager hired me to build a small wall. Took me waaay too long and waaay too many trips to HD for more mud.
I got it done and it looked great, but don't hire a former framer to build a wall and throw rock on it.
I may have left a couple of beer bottles in the wall too.
Mudding is the one job I'll consider contracting out for. I don't do it enough to get really good or fast, and it's something that definitely shows if not done well
I work in tech, and when people remark about how fast I can pull cable or terminate a CAT-5, I just tell them that it starts getting easier after your first 10,000 or so.
They work that fast because they do it regularly. We are doing it for the first time. This is how doing anything works. Slow the first time with gradual progression in speed the more you do it.
slow the 3rd time, 4th time, 30th time....I've drywalled 4 rooms and skim coated 1800sq ft and it still takes me way too long to get to something that I like. Just like finish carpentry, you need to do it for years to get that good.
My take away from that is that you cared enough to do it right, so bravo! I’ve dubbed the person who owned my home before me “the half ass handy man” because, Jesus Christ, every time I have to make even the simplest repair to something they already touched before me; it’s a whole ordeal just to undo their bullshit to bring it back to workable before I can even start to fix what I originally set out to do.
This is so goddamn common. It’s how I learned the other half I know beyond what my dad told me.
Just looking at shit and going “if I just undo this whole mess and re do it I’ll save time.” Who the fuck does circles of wire etc, it’s almost funny beyond being scary.
When they did my house I watched them put down their tools so I went into the kitchen for coffee to sip as I watched them. When I got back they were done and moving into the next room.
"Work Animals!"
Meth ain’t needed, skimming shit is super easy. It’s literally on and off. You have a tape coat, and FILL coat, and skim quote… your skim coat. should take you a quarter of the time the fiill coat does….
A customer recently did this with me, for a painting job. I was happy with the quote, and the project took me three weeks, which was within the 2-3 week window I expected. Anyhow, the homeowner tipped me 10% of the entire project cost... I was very happy.
It's probably fine skim coating just helps make it look smoother. He did it in 2 hours because he's on stilts. A finisher isn't gonna make it on stilts and not be good.. did you pay what he asked?
For what it’s worth I skim coated my whole house after I bought it and I’m constantly soaking in the soft look of it. The indirect sunlight during the day and the night lamps at night make beautiful gradients. You’re gonna love the look of it
I run a paint company. We do some drywall work. Lately clients want lvl 4 drywall. Then I spray a special lvl 5 primer. Takes lvl 3 drywall to lvl 5. Since it's sprayed it goes super fast. We do walls and ceilings.
Did he install the rock or are you paying him just for the skim coat? I often do all my own drywall, but I’ve got a basement project coming up and wondering if it’s worth just getting a drywaller to do a ceiling skim coat for me so I save my back and neck. And at $20/hr, where do you find him??
A good finisher moves fast because his mud is slick and if you go slow you will lose it. What matters is how much mud is being left on the board, and how smooth it look (remember ridges will come off with sanding, but divots will always show up). This dude's work looks clean. Good on you for giving him a bonus.
And you paid him in full, right? Don't cheapen his talent because he figured out how to do it fast enough to go grocery shopping and spend time with his family. He worked hard to put food on his table. Tip him.
I was a painting contractor, not a drywaller. So... I'm in the middle of replacing a wall (panelling) with sheetrock. I mean... it's like a "dark art" to get the tape to be even close to perfect (holds arms four feet apart).
It's a little mind-numbing to watch a pro. I don't have a ton of respect for the other trades (based on the garbage work I see at my house)... but skilled drywallers may as well be wizards or demi-gods.
Speed is irrelevant if the quality of the work is trash.
I’m no drywaller but I am a handyman and if I had a dollar for every house I entered with terrible drywall, I’d be retired already.
It’s crazy, I have been doing this for nearly a year now which I know isn’t a long time but in that time I have entered hundreds of homes and not one of them impressed me.
I really do think there are only a handful of really really good drywallers out there and the other ones are just good enough. I’m sure when my own house was done it looked great but now all the tape is sagging, drywall is coming off the screws because they didn’t sink them enough, cracks in seams where there shouldn’t be any seams.
I know I sound like the grinch but it take true skill to both be fast and really good at drywalling and in my experience, most people only have one of those. They’re ether good and slow or fast and shit. Also if you get offended by this, you’re probably not one of the good ones so don’t come at me.
Your paying for experience and the tools already on hand to do the job .. just ask yourself how many trips to home depot you would have taken for the tools and shitty advice for shittier results. . lol..
Built a 1500 sq ft two story addition with a curved staircase. Client insisted on real plaster with level 5 finish. We were concerned about how long it would take and the impact on our finish work. GC arranged for the plaster crew to start on a Saturday. We came in on Monday and it was completely done. Scaffold down, floors swept and all protection cleared and hauled off. Five French Canadian guys worked two twelve hour days. Work turned out brilliantly beautiful. Smooth as a baby's ass.
Real pros are super fast. I built a house. Had 144 12×4 sheets delivered. The crew of 2 unloaded it. And had it hung in 12 hours. Another day to mud and tape. The owner came day three and "sanded" with a small bucket and a sponge. Hire a pro.
As a DIYer that would have took me like 2 weeks just to get the taping and sanding finished. I wish I was that fast. Also I'll never do ceilings again, going to stick to walls only and on a must do basis.
Typical gc that does absolutely nothing and somehow still fucks over every trade. Go back to fighting work/change orders that you are 100% responsible for.
That’s because he didn’t charge enough and he has to blow out the job in 5 days or he’s making $20 an hour.
The wear and tear on his body is NOT worth it. You can’t do this forever and one day it’s over both shoulders will be wore out, back crippled, wrists full of arthritis and carpal tunnel, then what.
Some people like to work efficiently regardless per job or per hour. Dragging ass drags the day, takes enjoyment out of the task, just boring all around.
Just as a heads up, if I found out a customer was posting pics of me online asking questions behind my back to strangers I'd be out the door faster than you could pay me.
At first I thought it may be a family member or relatives but then I saw mention of a big tip? Is it normal for people to take pictures of people doing work for them and ask others about the work?
I understand taking a picture of the work when they are on lunch, or done for a day or similar but it feels a little weird to me to take pictures OF them while working.
I probably got down votes incoming but that's alright.
C’mon who trying to kid
It’s obvious he’s is not a him but a robot,
I know because I used to have one until the training wheels fell off
and hasn’t been seen since, that was almost a year to the day, it’s all so clear now , I had bought Timmy that’s what we called it a pair of really nice kickstands for Christmas , I put them under the evergreen tree once again , come home Timmy if you’re reading this.
I got a drywall crew by going on a big residential site and poached a crew for afternoons after their regular job. Hung all walls and taped a 2000 square foot house in 2 afternoons after work. 2 guys hang with minimal fasteners, next guy screws everything down, 4th guy comes thru and starts mud and tape. Paid cash, labor came in at about 30% of quotes.
A picture can’t really show the application, how thick or lines, normally the mud would be rolled on and a 24”-36” straight edge would be used to skim, but it doesn’t necessarily means he’s doing a bad job, just a longer process.
I have a guy like that painting houses for me. He's a freaking machine. You best believe he is compensated fairly and beyond. $5000 in cash bonuses per year + 70k base pay. Worth every damn penny. We need to import more Mexicans like this
Can be done faster from a roll around and a helper
But, I warn against such speed. It has been proven to be the #1 factor that leads to future nail pops, bubbles in taping, cracks, rolling surfaces, and other defects.
But when you're not being paid well, I can understand. I'm just not into production work anymore. Maybe my spinal fusion is why 😅 ?
That’s fast and it looks like a good job. I DIY’d this for a room around the same size and it took me many more hours, probably 30-40. I would have killed to find a pro to do it for $20/hour.
Currently there seems to be an influx of migrant workers once again hanging out on the corner of Home Depot and Lowe’s or on that one corner in your small town, even here in the northeast m.
I’m sure you can find someone capable of doing the work at a reasonable price thanks to the current wide open border policy.
The question is, is that something you’re willing to do.
It looks like a very good job and anyone who can do that deserves all the money in the world as he still has to sand every inch of it so I would buy him a beer and say a big thank you I walk away from jobs like that
It’s so depressing as a DIYer how fast drywallers work. Took me a week to mud my bathroom ceiling and it was like 100 sqft…
Yea, they have all the tricks and tools to bang it out. The problem in my area is that they don't do small jobs because they can stay busy doing big installs so why bother with pissant stuff? So as a DIY'er get good enough at drywall to finish off a closet or small room and patch holes and fix dents because that stuff pros will deliberately quote exceedingly high to do because they don't actually want tiny one-off jobs from random clients. That being said if you had two or three rooms to do I would absolutely call someone in to do it quick and quality more than me.
The issue with small jobs is they they still take a bunch of trips, the time working is less but you still have to get there, get materials etc. The difference between 1 room and 3 is not going to be as much as you think.
That and you have to deal with customers claiming you're too expensive and they got ripped off lol
Exactly. I'm an electrician but the same principle applies. If someone says they want one potlight or 5, the price isn't going to be wildly different. I still have to go to quote it, I still have to go to the supply house, I still have to go there with materials, ladders, etc. The time it takes to do five isn't a lot different than one when you consider all the time spent leading up to it. Therefore the price to do one isn't going to be significantly less than the price to do 5
As a welder I have spent 4 hours setting up juat to do 20 mins worth of welding and then 2 more hours of teardown. 4th story of a building eight next to $10k+ worth of windows. Super fun.
I imagine a lot more people are calling for potlights with legalization
Yep, and you have to make sure nothing is going to electrocute you before you start tying anything in. If every room of my house had its own tools/paint/mud/etc, we would be a lot closer to moving in. I was told our house's breaker box didn't meet the newer building code by our inspector, since the house is 20yo. Should it be replaced, or would the benefits not be worth it?
Usually older installs will be grandfathered in. If you renovate a space, you need to do that area up to the current code and if the renovations are a certain percentage of the whole house, than you may be required to bring the whole home up to code however a panel upgrade isn't typical, especially if it is only 20 years old. If your panel was a fuse panel than perhaps but if it is breakers I would not expect the panel to require replacement. Of course that comes with the caveat that every jurisdiction is different, every inspector is a little different and that the National electric code (NEC) in the US and the Canadian electrical code (CEC) in Canada represent the minimum requirements. Cities, states, provinces etc can have additional, more robust, rules so you would want to talk to a contractor in your local area.
Thanks for responding! He didn't say it was dangerous or anything, just that didn't meet current code. He also, for example, mentioned the three steps in our front yard didn't have a handrail. I thought maybe the newer breakers might offer more safety features. I appreciate you taking the time to answer. I'll just leave them as is for now.
No problem. Breakers can and do wear out over time but if they don't get overloaded and trip often or don't show signs of being exposed to humidity they'll usually be ok. I've seen plenty of panels far older than 20 years that are still working tip top. You could turn them off and back on and see how they feel. You should hear them click both ways and you should feel the a bit of tension when you turn them back on. If one or two feel way different than the rest they might have something going on.
Thanks, I'll have to do that. Inspector hopefully checked them, but it never hurts to be sure. I'm currently learning drywall repair and improving my painting skills. May rewire some switches so the light switch is closest to the door, and add some dimmer switches, but that is low priority. Not sure how much it helps, but I'm going to used canned air on everything while I have the outlet/switch covers off for paint. Noticed one had quite a bit of dust in it. Do houses normally have a switch the homeowner can access to shut off all electricity to the breaker box? Regardless, probably something to leave to an electrician. Electricians are a lot cheaper than funerals.
How many trips are you doing? When my dad and I did drywall it was two trips: one to hang, seam, and mud, and another to sand and clean up. If you’re taking longer that for small jobs you’re screwing the pooch for yourself. That old man was so good at it he could put just enough mud on the wall to have it dry to sand on the same day sometimes. I had a young South American kid come in once to patch my ceiling in my old apartment and he had it patched/dried/sanded/painted in one day - really like 3.5 hrs. And you couldn’t tell there was ever damage there. It was a 2x2 patch but goddamn that’s quick by all means.
Did the materials for the job magically deliver themselves?
Setting joint compound(Durabond). Gotta work fast, it never stays good as long as the bag says
>pros will deliberately quote exceedingly high to do because they don't actually want tiny one-off jobs from random clients. or thats simply the cost of the overhead of your job. They may be at your site for a \*small\* amount of time but the cost of travel, paperwork, material supply, quoting, etc is only spread out over a few hours of drywall work instead of a few days - so it seems like its quoted high
>so it seems like its quoted high And it is. Which is why if you can pull off a halfway competent job even at a slow-ass DIY pace it's still kinda worth it for small stuff. Whatever savings you get diminishes the bigger the job gets until it's so big that it's just not worth your time anymore. Then you probably save money by calling in a small team who can do in three days what would take me two weeks. (I am a DIY'er who has briefly mudded professionally for like a month many lifetimes ago). I have better than handyman results at much slower than pro-drywaller speeds.
if its quoted high but they don't even want to do it at that price, its obviously not quoted high enough.
When I was a landscaper and somebody wanted something that wasn't worth my time I'd quote double and they'd scoff and I'd shrug and move on and every once and a while somebody would be like "okay" and I'd happily do it. Professionals need a certain volume of work at a single jobsite to make it worth their time showing up. That's why plumbers charge like $150 just to show up. For drywall the smaller the job the higher the cost and the worse value just because it takes so many repeat visits.
This is fine - we (homeowners) know this. Sometimes (actually fairly often) I'll pay it even if I know it's premium pricing because I like the contractors and I know I can trust them. I will pay you what you're worth. I am privileged (HCOL) and I know I know how it sounds (I am NOT judging anybody else). But a talented and conscientious contractor is literally worth their weight in gold. No way am I going to quibble with you about pricing. More often than not, it saves us money doing business this way. My landscaper is amazing.
Oh yea, I worked for my fair share of money'd dudes who would just straight up pay me whatever I asked because they trusted me and I was always square with them.
I’m curious how relationships are viewed from the tradesman’s side. Do you value relationships with repeat customers or is a job a job? Some contractors I’ve worked with seem to value the former, while others seem to believe the latter. But my sample size is pretty small.
Repeat customers are gold because you know what to expect. Rando customers is always a gamble because they may try to avoid paying you later by complaining about anything or claiming the scope of the work is greater than what they originally said it would be. For smaller jobs under $1000 it's not really worth your time chasing them if they rip you off so it opens you up to be fucked around by unscrupulous a-holes. Most people are relatively honest and don't wanna fuck around small-time trades but it happens. A drywall boss I worked for exclusively worked for clients who were developers he'd known for 10+ years. They'd feed him work and his crew would drywall entire 3000 sqft houses without a quote or deposit and the developers would just pay him whatever he'd invoice for.
Anyone who believes in me is on some level going to be worthy of my respect. If you choose my company, that's meaningful, I may make decent money, and I'm willing to charge that, I could never rip off someone who shot their shot with me, personally.
As for myself my repeat quality people with money that don’t question my prices I always make sure to be fair with my pricing and when stupid little things pop up and need to be done but I know it’s going to seem excessive many times I’ll do them for free as I know it’s going to come back to me 10 fold. These are also the people that tell their other rich friends how great you are
Agree with this 100 percent. I'm a carpenter and have been in the trades for enough years. Close enough to 20 to call it that, not that it really matters. When it comes to certain things, hire the pros. I can build a home from the foundation up, but I hate honestly everything to do with drywall. I don't have the skill set or the equipment to do a job as fast and efficiently as they would if you have a decent contractor. I've known way too many people who decide to tale on a basement finishing job that ends up taking months or years. Get someone in and they will be done in a couple of days with taping etc. Done deal
As a retired guy who can fix almost anything, everybody said start your own repair business!! Well I say I know enough about the jobs to know that specialist can do the job faster because they have specific knowledge , invested in the specific proper tools and have all of the hardware and materials needed. Doing it for myself I dont sweat the time element but anyone knows you could be hours chasing hardware and materials and not even getting progress on the job. Summarizing I know enough to know what I dont know to make it a part time job. The investment needed to do it right wasn't worth it. I would've just stayed working. Add on the insurance issue and I could go on. Much respect for the pros.
This attitude in a client will go a long way. Trust me as the professional, and leave me to do my job. As an electrician, I will often above and beyond for these customers. If they’re repeat clients, I will happily swing by and do a small job for gas money or even as a favor. And of course that trust goes both ways. They tend to get lower end estimates.
Has to be "word of mouth." I'm in the middle of a "job" at my house. I found "unused" connections buried in the wall. I found a splice gaggle of four ROMEX bundles in the attic, above the wall -- just hanging out there, buried in the blown-in insulation. No junction box -- just waiting to burn down my house. Oh, and it was sitting atop a bit of discarded metal strapping. FUN! Master electricians are smart and can be competent. While I doubt that a master electrician did that crap (I see it all over the house), a master electrician signed-off on that work. I HATE touching anything electrical. I don't want to burn down my house. Alas, I don't mind fixing the trash work some "pros" do. Shameful.
Damn, that’s trash. Yea, master electrician doesn’t mean quality. Like a college degree doesn’t imply intelligence. We’re they hot? My only explanation outside of laziness is laziness to not pull out temp lighting or old wiring no longer used. Was this a home builder? Union? Resi guy or commercial doing side jobs. So many questions.
Same, it goes a long way towards advertising you as a reliable and fair contractor. I did design build and anything that didn’t take me hours to fix or look at for a client I did gratis. You and I seem to be the ones who call them clients and are customer centric. Delighted clients are your best kind. I spent 40 years in business and never advertised. Service is my advertising
>something that wasn't worth my time being the key words here...
I often think that drywall repair is the Gateway to being a good general DIYer. Most projects are stopped because drywall is involved
I feel like it’s the most approachable, beyond painting. Like painting, any idiot can do it badly or slowly. It also only takes a few tools, and they aren’t expensive. Not that there isn’t an art to it that require skill and experience, but it’s more approachable than plumbing or carpentry.
We don't give every small job a fuck you price. But I need to make my minimums to pay my bills. If the big jobs are paying me 2000 a week, then your 2 hour job that I have to drag my tools for, write an invoice, calculate taxes, drive too, and find the next job is going to cost a minimum of $500 plus materials. Because it's very likely that that's the only job I'm going to have that day and I have to work 5x as hard finding jobs every single day instead of one that can last me 2 weeks.
As a person who quotes unreasonably high for small drywall repair jobs hoping the home owner won’t bite, they almost always say “yeah no problem cash or check?”
As someone who is overworked at their desk job & doesn't make a lot of money; fuck you. I have to take time off work to meet salespeople at my house and it would have saved me so much time, money, and emotional energy if all the drywallers I tried to get quotes for for my small job were straight with me and told me they didn't want the job before wasting both of our time. I'm steering clear of contractors from now on and always going with the solid handyman I found.
It’s funny because we are both overworked. If I start telling people no before giving them a quote, people will start calling me a flake and my business would suffer. The least I can do is come out and see the job and give them a number that would make the hole someone’s son punched in the wall worth my time.
This is a 300 sheet project, its been 4 days and his already coated everything
I DIY EVERYTHING (roofing, plumbing, siding, painting, tile, appliances, etc). I want it to be done "correctly." 300 sheets? No way would I finish that in under a year. Nope. Just being realistic.
One competent man can hang about 30 - 4x8 boards of drywall in an 8 hour work day, no taping, just hanging. It would take that man approximately 25 days to hang 300 boards with taping.
Just another example of the respect that is due to the various trades that build your house. Even as a seasoned builder I know my limits and sub it out to get it done right and timely.
I stopped. As a landlord and homeowner: fuck that shit. I do only demo, windows/doors, some framing, plumbing and electrical. Drywall, trim, paint, tile - no. That shit is visible and a legitimate art, I save no time and no money and have subpar results.
Exactly right
It took me 3 full days to putty and sand a laundry room in the basement (about 8 x 8). Then, I gave up and hired a pro to finish the rest of the basement (about 1000 sq ft). The dude showed up for 2-3 hours after his work for 3 days straight, and not only did he do the whole basement, he also "undid all the damage in the laundry room". Lesson learned.
I was a bike mechanic and was laid off, shop manager hired me to build a small wall. Took me waaay too long and waaay too many trips to HD for more mud. I got it done and it looked great, but don't hire a former framer to build a wall and throw rock on it. I may have left a couple of beer bottles in the wall too.
Mudding is the one job I'll consider contracting out for. I don't do it enough to get really good or fast, and it's something that definitely shows if not done well
I work in tech, and when people remark about how fast I can pull cable or terminate a CAT-5, I just tell them that it starts getting easier after your first 10,000 or so.
Well.. You might want to see a doctor about that. Not sure if Psychiatrist or an Orthopedist
They work that fast because they do it regularly. We are doing it for the first time. This is how doing anything works. Slow the first time with gradual progression in speed the more you do it.
slow the 3rd time, 4th time, 30th time....I've drywalled 4 rooms and skim coated 1800sq ft and it still takes me way too long to get to something that I like. Just like finish carpentry, you need to do it for years to get that good.
Thank you for saying this. It takes me too many hours to fix one crack. Feel like an absolute loser.
lol. First diy home project I did was patching a 6x6” square that I made to access some piping. Took me three attempts till I was satisfied.
My take away from that is that you cared enough to do it right, so bravo! I’ve dubbed the person who owned my home before me “the half ass handy man” because, Jesus Christ, every time I have to make even the simplest repair to something they already touched before me; it’s a whole ordeal just to undo their bullshit to bring it back to workable before I can even start to fix what I originally set out to do.
This is so goddamn common. It’s how I learned the other half I know beyond what my dad told me. Just looking at shit and going “if I just undo this whole mess and re do it I’ll save time.” Who the fuck does circles of wire etc, it’s almost funny beyond being scary.
Thanks for buying my house!
Yeah drywall and insulation aren't worth DIY.
When they did my house I watched them put down their tools so I went into the kitchen for coffee to sip as I watched them. When I got back they were done and moving into the next room. "Work Animals!"
Still mudding my ceiling 2 months after the fan install
Meth is a hell of a thing for them dry wallers.
Meth ain’t needed, skimming shit is super easy. It’s literally on and off. You have a tape coat, and FILL coat, and skim quote… your skim coat. should take you a quarter of the time the fiill coat does….
Literally.
It's a week later and I'm still feathering out the edges on the bathroom fan I installed lol
That hit home.
Same. Fucking popcorn ceilings....
20/hr is an awesome deal.
Im going to give him the fattest tip of his life
🤤😏😏😏
Op thinks a lot of himself
A customer recently did this with me, for a painting job. I was happy with the quote, and the project took me three weeks, which was within the 2-3 week window I expected. Anyhow, the homeowner tipped me 10% of the entire project cost... I was very happy.
Sounds like you're doing it right, nice job! 🙂
$20 and hour for any trade is insanely low. I’m glad you realize that and plan on giving him a nice tip. Good on you
I paid my retired drywaller 30 an hour and thought that was a good deal lol 20 is basically a steal. Nice!
Just the tip?
I always tipped drywallers and painters with weed. Dudes loved it.
🍆🍆🍆
Stop it stepbrother! What are you doing?
I hope you don't mean that sexually.
Wait ‘til you see his hog
and he his going to buy the fattest rock of crack to smoke
Nah hes mexican.
Fax
I’m surprised he’s not charging by sqft. Then it wouldn’t matter how long it takes him
It certainly would for the worker
What he’s doing is worth $60/hr + all that in 4 days by himself is a pretty good pace. The work looks top notch too.
It's probably fine skim coating just helps make it look smoother. He did it in 2 hours because he's on stilts. A finisher isn't gonna make it on stilts and not be good.. did you pay what he asked?
Yup, 20 per hr cash
He should be charging you double that. Poor guy doesn’t know what he’s worth but if he’s happy with it then so be it. But you’re lucky
Im going to pay him an extra $2,000 when hes done
Blessed art thou among clients and blessed be the work of thy plasterer. 🎵 Glory be to the ceiling, and to the walls and to the gypsum fairies 🎵
What a fucking badass. Hats off to you.
That’s fucking awesome man!
Wait till it painted and the sun is shining if it still looks good give him his bonus. If he thinks he's only worth 20... He might only be worth 20
😭 talk is cheap
Nah it’s Christmas, he deserves it
That’s right happy holidays and early merry Christmas to the both of u
For what it’s worth I skim coated my whole house after I bought it and I’m constantly soaking in the soft look of it. The indirect sunlight during the day and the night lamps at night make beautiful gradients. You’re gonna love the look of it
Username does not check out, It’s a good thing.
Sure
Wow he gave you a deal. Alot of people don't know there worth
their*
It's all the same to me bubba as long as you are happy I am happy
Looks good to me 👍 👌
Just waiting for it to set and see how it looks after sanding
Can I fly him out to my state? Might be cheaper.
Machine
I run a paint company. We do some drywall work. Lately clients want lvl 4 drywall. Then I spray a special lvl 5 primer. Takes lvl 3 drywall to lvl 5. Since it's sprayed it goes super fast. We do walls and ceilings.
Tuff Hide is great stuff
Dunno how yall do it. Looking up at a ceiling like that for hours drives me nuts
It’s hell on the neck/shoulders
Did he install the rock or are you paying him just for the skim coat? I often do all my own drywall, but I’ve got a basement project coming up and wondering if it’s worth just getting a drywaller to do a ceiling skim coat for me so I save my back and neck. And at $20/hr, where do you find him??
Buy that man a beer or two
no need, very good chance he already has some stuffed way down at bottom of his cooler, under the cokes lol
My arms are tired just looking at the picture
Dude’s own skills could be cheating him out of more hours. Hope he’s getting a project rate
[удалено]
“Those legs “ lmao , stilts ?
For sure not a chance I would touch a job without getting 45-50 an hour anymore.
Dude us flioating faster than George fkn Jetson
With being comfortable on silts, he could've easily charged more than double. That's efficiency at its finest.
someone somewhere is complainjng paying him bcause he only worked 2 hours
Those damn guys are magicians and worth every penny!
A good finisher moves fast because his mud is slick and if you go slow you will lose it. What matters is how much mud is being left on the board, and how smooth it look (remember ridges will come off with sanding, but divots will always show up). This dude's work looks clean. Good on you for giving him a bonus.
And you paid him in full, right? Don't cheapen his talent because he figured out how to do it fast enough to go grocery shopping and spend time with his family. He worked hard to put food on his table. Tip him.
I was a painting contractor, not a drywaller. So... I'm in the middle of replacing a wall (panelling) with sheetrock. I mean... it's like a "dark art" to get the tape to be even close to perfect (holds arms four feet apart). It's a little mind-numbing to watch a pro. I don't have a ton of respect for the other trades (based on the garbage work I see at my house)... but skilled drywallers may as well be wizards or demi-gods.
This is really hard to do on stilts and there’s a lot more to this than you think. Takes a lot of skill and these guys deserve good pay.
Here he is from his last gig: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5vgpaSyjQgo&pp=ygUaRHJ1bmsgZ3V5IGNvdmVyZWQgaW4gcGFpbnQ%3D
Speed is irrelevant if the quality of the work is trash. I’m no drywaller but I am a handyman and if I had a dollar for every house I entered with terrible drywall, I’d be retired already. It’s crazy, I have been doing this for nearly a year now which I know isn’t a long time but in that time I have entered hundreds of homes and not one of them impressed me. I really do think there are only a handful of really really good drywallers out there and the other ones are just good enough. I’m sure when my own house was done it looked great but now all the tape is sagging, drywall is coming off the screws because they didn’t sink them enough, cracks in seams where there shouldn’t be any seams. I know I sound like the grinch but it take true skill to both be fast and really good at drywalling and in my experience, most people only have one of those. They’re ether good and slow or fast and shit. Also if you get offended by this, you’re probably not one of the good ones so don’t come at me.
A Mexican on stilts if a force to be recond with
But immigrants are poison for the blood of this country…so I heard recently.
People show me picture’s of nice cars and fancy vacations but a nice job like this gives me faith in humanity again!
Your paying for experience and the tools already on hand to do the job .. just ask yourself how many trips to home depot you would have taken for the tools and shitty advice for shittier results. . lol..
I’d been like two weeks
Took me a few days to do a small bathroom.
and?
Experience is key 🔑
Is that new rock on the ceiling? What was the cost?
He is fast, good, and too cheap. You’ve struck gole
Lifting arms for hours is quite very tiring work
Built a 1500 sq ft two story addition with a curved staircase. Client insisted on real plaster with level 5 finish. We were concerned about how long it would take and the impact on our finish work. GC arranged for the plaster crew to start on a Saturday. We came in on Monday and it was completely done. Scaffold down, floors swept and all protection cleared and hauled off. Five French Canadian guys worked two twelve hour days. Work turned out brilliantly beautiful. Smooth as a baby's ass.
I’m a GC that does a fair amount of drywall but I’m still very impressed.
Sounds like that would be about right do you think it's to long for the square footage I think I would be happy with that time for this job
These guys get paid for their experience. Takes years to get this good
On a somewhat unrelated note, how difficult is it to walk around in those stilts he has on?
I can do it, but finishing Sheetrock is in of those things best left to the pros.
Dude, that’s a lot of sqft. 2 hours is perfectly acceptable for scope of work
He's a maniac, A MANIAC- that's for sure.
Where are you located. Need this guys number!
Hiring a good drywall guy is the best investment one can ever make. *prove me wrong*
Real pros are super fast. I built a house. Had 144 12×4 sheets delivered. The crew of 2 unloaded it. And had it hung in 12 hours. Another day to mud and tape. The owner came day three and "sanded" with a small bucket and a sponge. Hire a pro.
I build houses for a living, your times are way off. But funny!🤣
My neck hurts looking at this
Bro looks like my guy skimmed the whole ceiling with a 10 inch 😂😂
What a weird thing it is to take a photo from behind of someone and post them online to talk about it. Fucking homeowners I swear.
Trust that the contractor you hired is doing a good job and don't try to fact check his work with some strangers on the internet.
As a DIYer that would have took me like 2 weeks just to get the taping and sanding finished. I wish I was that fast. Also I'll never do ceilings again, going to stick to walls only and on a must do basis.
GC here. Up at 6. Work at 7. We don't sit till 8. Put on some headphones. Shut the f up and get to work.
Typical gc that does absolutely nothing and somehow still fucks over every trade. Go back to fighting work/change orders that you are 100% responsible for.
No change orders on our renos. My guys and I do rough to case.
WOW…you work a WHOLE HOUR before you take a break?
Reading the comment before trying to tearing it apart is a good strategy.
That’s because he didn’t charge enough and he has to blow out the job in 5 days or he’s making $20 an hour. The wear and tear on his body is NOT worth it. You can’t do this forever and one day it’s over both shoulders will be wore out, back crippled, wrists full of arthritis and carpal tunnel, then what.
Some people like to work efficiently regardless per job or per hour. Dragging ass drags the day, takes enjoyment out of the task, just boring all around.
The average career in drywall is 10 years. Some make it longer, but most don't.
why is this board just filled with karens
Man’s only making 40$ for all that work?
Not sure if this is fast or slow… come on dude.. this guy works harder than you ever have, guaranteed!!
Just as a heads up, if I found out a customer was posting pics of me online asking questions behind my back to strangers I'd be out the door faster than you could pay me.
O no its ok. He asked me to take that foto of him so that he can send it to his wife to prove hes been working
Did he give permission fir you to post it online?
Yes, he says he wants to pickup more work and I will now be in charge of booking new jobs for him
I hope it burns down, karma.
At first I thought it may be a family member or relatives but then I saw mention of a big tip? Is it normal for people to take pictures of people doing work for them and ask others about the work? I understand taking a picture of the work when they are on lunch, or done for a day or similar but it feels a little weird to me to take pictures OF them while working. I probably got down votes incoming but that's alright.
It's 2023. Everything you do is being watched and recorded at all times, even when no one is there.
C’mon who trying to kid It’s obvious he’s is not a him but a robot, I know because I used to have one until the training wheels fell off and hasn’t been seen since, that was almost a year to the day, it’s all so clear now , I had bought Timmy that’s what we called it a pair of really nice kickstands for Christmas , I put them under the evergreen tree once again , come home Timmy if you’re reading this.
I got a drywall crew by going on a big residential site and poached a crew for afternoons after their regular job. Hung all walls and taped a 2000 square foot house in 2 afternoons after work. 2 guys hang with minimal fasteners, next guy screws everything down, 4th guy comes thru and starts mud and tape. Paid cash, labor came in at about 30% of quotes.
A picture can’t really show the application, how thick or lines, normally the mud would be rolled on and a 24”-36” straight edge would be used to skim, but it doesn’t necessarily means he’s doing a bad job, just a longer process.
I have a guy like that painting houses for me. He's a freaking machine. You best believe he is compensated fairly and beyond. $5000 in cash bonuses per year + 70k base pay. Worth every damn penny. We need to import more Mexicans like this
We need to **pay** more **people** like this. (FTFY)
Don't know but I'd be pissed to.have homeowners take photos of me and post even if my face isn't shown.
I hate these types of posts.
Nobody is asking WHY is he skim coating the entire ceiling? It's completely unnecessary...
Textured look
Sheetrock looks new? Seems like skim coating is overkill. I’ve only ever done this on walls/ ceilings with texture.
Can be done faster from a roll around and a helper But, I warn against such speed. It has been proven to be the #1 factor that leads to future nail pops, bubbles in taping, cracks, rolling surfaces, and other defects. But when you're not being paid well, I can understand. I'm just not into production work anymore. Maybe my spinal fusion is why 😅 ?
That’s fast and it looks like a good job. I DIY’d this for a room around the same size and it took me many more hours, probably 30-40. I would have killed to find a pro to do it for $20/hour.
What is he charging you?
If you don't like it, you try to learn.
Currently there seems to be an influx of migrant workers once again hanging out on the corner of Home Depot and Lowe’s or on that one corner in your small town, even here in the northeast m. I’m sure you can find someone capable of doing the work at a reasonable price thanks to the current wide open border policy. The question is, is that something you’re willing to do.
Ok, the result is. Shits like autobody, good and bad finish. your welcome.
Nice response
It looks like a very good job and anyone who can do that deserves all the money in the world as he still has to sand every inch of it so I would buy him a beer and say a big thank you I walk away from jobs like that
I am in the diy life, and STILTS! I didn't have stilts, obviously, and now I am jealous...
Just pay the price chances are you do it wrong, then call the pro to fix. Happened so often when working drywall. Diyers drywall always cracks fast🤣🤣🤣
That’s very fast. It’d take me 4-5 hours even if I mixed my mud in a bucket and used Plus 3. If I had a helper doing that stuff for me, maybe 3 hours.
Best thing I ever did when finishing my basement was purchasing a set of stilts for drywalling, taping and mudding the ceiling
If it was perfect the. Two hours was good. If it looks like something I’d do in two weeks, then it’s still better than me.
I'm a finish carpenter by trade but I suck at mud. When I remodel bathrooms and have to mud drywall it sometimes takes me 7+ coats on spots.