JimR
Elite Member
Dan, You had an honest builder. 3-5 % over-run is minor on a large project. When we built our original house, the cost over-run was 10%. All of it was for updates and changes we made.
Trouble on the farm with contractor
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dmccarty
Super Star Member
Yes we surely had an honest builder! 
We found him by dumb luck. He was building an Energia kit home which we had an interest in building. I'm pretty much had decided that the home was not for us but we decided to see one being built. There was one going up in our county so we stopped by to see the house. We talked with the kit supplier for 15 minutes and then spent hours with the builder. When we where driving away the wife and I looked at each and said we had found our builder. I went back and talked with him a few days later for a few more hours.
Today we are friends of his and my wife works with his wife's company. LOL! They are good people.
Later,
Dan
We found him by dumb luck. He was building an Energia kit home which we had an interest in building. I'm pretty much had decided that the home was not for us but we decided to see one being built. There was one going up in our county so we stopped by to see the house. We talked with the kit supplier for 15 minutes and then spent hours with the builder. When we where driving away the wife and I looked at each and said we had found our builder. I went back and talked with him a few days later for a few more hours.Today we are friends of his and my wife works with his wife's company. LOL!
They are good people. Later,
Dan
gemini5362
Veteran Member
JimR said:
That is my point exactly. There are going to be people who read these posts who do not realize that when you do electrical work that you have to have a licensed electrician sign off on the job you did or the insurance company can cancel your insurance and you can have issues with code violations. As we can all see you take your time to do your homework and check what the state codes are before doing this work yourself. There will be people who do not take the time to do that and I wanted to point out to them that when someone says he did his own work especially electrical wireing that a lot of research went into the decision to do that.
JimR
Elite Member
gemini5362 said:
I'm bad at writing replies and sometimes forget to put in items like that. I'm always thinking that people already know this. The same thing goes for plumbing. Some towns and cities won't allow a homeowner to do their own plumbing regardless of wether it gets signed off by a licensed plumber or not. Gasses from improper vents and traps can fill your house and cause you some real problems, like death.
Dusty
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gemini5362 said:
In CT, the homeowner can take out the permit and do all the electrical and plumbing work in the house where he resides. The town will then inspect and give the final approval. If it is new electrical service, after the town does the inspection, the utility will inspect the work up to the meter socket and approve that prior to hooking up to the pole. Each state has its own set of rules.
Dusty
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JimR said:
In MA, you cannot do your own plumbing at all. Many people do, but it violates the state building code. MA is one of the states that passed this prohibition many years ago. I don't know for certain, but it might have been pushed by the plumbing unions at one time. You can do your own electrical work if you get the permit. It goes without saying, that it must meet code. No one other than a licensed plumber or electrician is allowed to do any work on any building that is open to the public, such as a store. Same applies to non owner occupied homes. Having lived in both MA and CT, and having built homes or additions to homes in both states, I learned quickly what I could and couldn't do. When I had my store in MA, I wasn't allowed to do any work in there that required a permit, since it was considered a public facility. Our Rotary club donated a fish tank to UMass Medical Center, and they had to have a licensed plumber and electrician hook it up. I think that there might have been undue influence of some union people in that instance. Same at the Worcester Centrum, you can't plug in an extension cord without the union electrician doing it.
Dusty
JimR
Elite Member
Dusty said:In MA, you cannot do your own plumbing at all. Many people do, but it violates the state building code. MA is one of the states that passed this prohibition many years ago. I don't know for certain, but it might have been pushed by the plumbing unions at one time. You can do your own electrical work if you get the permit. It goes without saying, that it must meet code. No one other than a licensed plumber or electrician is allowed to do any work on any building that is open to the public, such as a store. Same applies to non owner occupied homes. Having lived in both MA and CT, and having built homes or additions to homes in both states, I learned quickly what I could and couldn't do. When I had my store in MA, I wasn't allowed to do any work in there that required a permit, since it was considered a public facility. Our Rotary club donated a fish tank to UMass Medical Center, and they had to have a licensed plumber and electrician hook it up. I think that there might have been undue influence of some union people in that instance. Same at the Worcester Centrum, you can't plug in an extension cord without the union electrician doing it.
Dusty
Dusty, It is the UNIONS causing the problems. Just like you can't have a flag person in Ma. There must be a police officer anywhere there is construction, wire running, tree trimming or any other type of work going on along a public roadway. I have a friend that is a part time officer. He makes around $40.00 an hour to stand and shoot the crap with the workers. He has told me this himself. We are the only state that requires this. What a joke this state has become. I can see why you left.
gemini5362
Veteran Member
Ok guys I have to defend the Unions I am a state officer in my union and I can tell you without a doubt if it had not been for the Union I would have lost my job years ago. My boss got mad at me and fired me illegally. If it had not been for the union I would have not been able to get my job back because at that time I did not know enough to know that what my employeer did was in violation of federal laws. I can tell you one thing about unions. If management followed the contract that they sign with the employees you would not need unions. I file a lot of grievances where management just said basically they dont care what the contract says they are going to do what they want. I have seen awards where the employer paid out millions of dollars because they lost in binding arbitration and they started doing the same activity the next day.
JimR
Elite Member
gemini5362 said:
Yup you saved your job because of the unions. Good for you that they did the right thing. I lost my last job because of the unions. I was a supervisor at a manufacturing plant and wrote a guy up for not working. One of his fellow union workers backed him up. The following night I had another talk with this guy before I went home. The night shift decided they didn't like me talking to him and choose to goof off all night and filed a complaint against me for harrassing a union worker. The company let me go rather than fight the union. I was only there two months. They basically said I didn't meet the qualifications that they were looking for. My opinion of the unions is that they zuck. As does any company that bends because of union pressure.
