News

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 49634 04-25-2012 08:44 AM

Chances this guy were out to blatantly rip you off are slim to none. Contractors live by there good name. A single bad interaction can lay waste to your entire enterprise.

I suspect there is probably more to the story then you are describing here.

The real moral of the story here is that everyone wants to b*tch and complain about high prices until it's time for they themselves to get paid.

The cost of doing business these days is astronomical unless you happen to be an incredibly wealthy super corporation.

I'm a carpenter by trade and I worked directly under a general contractor. We were a two man team and we charged very reasonable prices. Still, people just complain and complain and complain about how much the work costs.

I was making $25/hr and my boss was making 55 (including 10/hr off me). So we cost about 2400/week and we did frame to finish immaculate work in multi-million dollar estates on the east coast.

So here you have these incredibly wealthy people complaining about paying 2400/week for some of the best carpentry work in the area. Meanwhile I am making roughly 800/week cash and am expected to pay for all my own expenses with that money. I mean ALL. State taxes, Federal taxes, business license, tools, gas, food, rent, cloths, health insurance, ss, medicare, etc, etc, etc

So what happens from here? Business owners start firing people like me and start hiring illegal aliens. People that don't care about things like health insurance, their teeth, sleeping in 1 bedroom apartments with 10 other people, making $10/hr and spending 3/4 of their pay check each week on having a car and gas.

And so we are headed towards a country where walmart and home depot will eventually service all your needs, and we will all be making $10/hr. This is where we are going to be. This is a self perpetuating cycle. There is no stopping it.

Ten years from now we will be living in a twilight zone where super corporation have complete control over your entire life from the moment you wake up. I'm sure you think that is the case now, but wait you see.

It will all be because everyone wants something for nothing.

I loved doing carpentry, and I really was quite good at it. But my trade has been completely decimated by illegal Guatemalans, and the people who must have something for nothing. So I have moved on to welding.

**EndTheFed**

I bought finish them yourself cabinets from Menards(midwest Home Depot). Solid oak faces, typical particle board boxes. about 18 linear feet for well under $1k. Gave them a nice finish and installed them myself. Hanging cabinets isn't rocket science.

**JF Priest** · **JF Priest** Subscriber User ID: 47416 04-25-2012 03:07 PM **Posts: 23,863**

LoP Guest Wrote:

You're a free market guy. People can charge whatever they want, you don't have to pay it.

That is the Point of this thread.. To be able to have a discussion about some of the pitfalls of Hiring someone to do a job and what to avoid.. In this case someone trying to abuse the free market system.. His price point was way to high so he got nothing...

**JF Priest** · (This post was last modified: 04-25-2012 03:33 PM by JF Priest.)

LoP Guest Wrote:

Chances this guy were out to blatantly rip you off are slim to none. Contractors live by there good name. A single bad interaction can lay waste to your entire enterprise.

I suspect there is probably more to the story then you are describing here.

The real moral of the story here is that everyone wants to b*tch and complain about high prices until it's time for they themselves to get paid.

The cost of doing business these days is astronomical unless you happen to be an incredibly wealthy super corporation.

I'm a carpenter by trade and I worked directly under a general contractor. We were a two man team and we charged very reasonable prices. Still, people just complain and complain and complain about how much the work costs.

I was making $25/hr and my boss was making 55 (including 10/hr off me). So we cost about 2400/week and we did frame to finish immaculate work in multi-million dollar estates on the east coast.

So here you have these incredibly wealthy people complaining about paying 2400/week for some of the best carpentry work in the area. Meanwhile I am making roughly 800/week cash and am expected to pay for all my own expenses with that money. I mean ALL. State taxes, Federal taxes, business license, tools, gas, food, rent, cloths, health insurance, ss, medicare, etc, etc, etc

So what happens from here? Business owners start firing people like me and start hiring illegal aliens. People that don't care about things like health insurance, their teeth, sleeping in 1 bedroom apartments with 10 other people, making $10/hr and spending 3/4 of their pay check each week on having a car and gas.

And so we are headed towards a country where walmart and home depot will eventually service all your needs, and we will all be making $10/hr. This is where we are going to be. This is a self perpetuating cycle. There is no stopping it.

Ten years from now we will be living in a twilight zone where super corporation have complete control over your entire life from the moment you wake up. I'm sure you think that is the case now, but wait you see.

It will all be because everyone wants something for nothing.

I loved doing carpentry, and I really was quite good at it. But my trade has been completely decimated by illegal Guatemalans, and the people who must have something for nothing. So I have moved on to welding.

Sorry to say but there really is nothing more to the story than I am saying.. I wish there was...It is a very simple tear out and install on a very small kitchen...They will be sitting the cabinets on a new slate floor with no plumbing hook up.. The only electrical hook up would be to cut a small hole in the cabinet above the stove so i can hang a microwave ..Simple and straight forward..No Counter top or sink to worry about.. I am a trained drywall finisher .. I have been doing this for over 20 years.. I have been around craftsman that were good and deserved a good wage.. I have been around others that tried to hit a gran slam on every job. I had a guy come out and give me an estimate to install a new 5 panel Bow window..(.. and to remove the old window) ..I had a bid of $7000 to do the job.. Then an older gentleman came out and told me $3000.. The window has been in my house for 5 years.. and I am loving the $4000 I saved..