What Is YOUR Definition Of A Hack?

Ivinni

I have heard a few of you old timers and others throw this word around to describe some others.

Maybe they cut some corners here or there or maybe they are just encroaching on your turf.

Before you flame me, I have been in business for 12 years and started it alone at 26. So I ain't no hack, see?

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CrpntrFrk

My definition of a hack is;
Someone who steps back to look at the work they just completed as feels that they did an ok job when it really looks like s**t. Either they don't realize it looks bad and have never been told so or they just don't care.

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neolitic

Hack, as in hack it up....
hatchet job....

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MMC73

No license, no insurance, no business ethics...look on Craigslist....

neolitic

Au contraire!
Rest assured there are a great many
licensed, bonded, and insured hacks.
Verified, certified, stamped and sealed!

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buildpinnacle

Not much more to say except no estimating knowledge, no markup knowledge, thinks his gross profits off a job are 'what he made'.

Wait! Best definition of all. A guy who WILL NOT be in business in six months based on current economic conditions.

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KentWhitten

what a deep question. think about it. what really defines a hack?

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K2

Everybody else. not me.

neolitic

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WarnerConstInc.

The person who fixed it the last time, 3 months ago, and now I have to go and take it all apart and start over. I followed a guy around like that for a year and a half, hell I gave out his name and # just so I was assured of some work in a few months. Maybe I should have called that cheap advertising.

davitk

go easy, guys. I've called MYSELF a hack, a wood butcher, a chainsaw carpenter, a cobbler, a dumb sht, etc. etc. etc. and it typically occurs whilst working on my own house, maybe my FIL's , but NEVER at a customer's.

A hack by definition of davitk is someone who doesn't know or is not willing to go the distance of doing "it" the right way, and therefore is continually reinventing the wheel. "What do you mean, I cant modify those trusses whithout an engineer's stamp "

silvertree

A person bad at their job, who doesn't give a damn and who doesn't want to get better at it.

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Bodger

My dad used to call them "Jakelegs", which as I understood, applied more to lumberjacks that were considered less than skilled by the real guys.

Hacks are just hacks, whether intentional or not, they don't do their work, very well, don't take the time to learn the trade or apply any good ethic or high standard to it.

Most of the men I meet that I would consider hacks are in this business because they aren't very good at anything and find it easier to fake being a contractor than maybe some other vocation.

RayGoerdt

Very true, I have followed a few of these, one in particular that owes a log home outfit lots of $ so they hired him just to try and get some back!

Doesn't work out for them tho, they just have to pay somebody else to go back and fix it all!

K2

Yeah, the pot and the kettle thing. I've found it takes almost no talent or skill to talk chit about people. Over time the stars will shine or not shine accordingly..

Bodger

I don't know about other market areas, but here in SoCal, there are a lot of "briefcase contractors". Guys who don't know diddly about the trades, but decided to take advantage of the amnesty licensing guidelines in CA and study up and get a contractor's ticket.

They hire everything out and can't even answer a question without calling a real tradesman into the mix.
I get calls from these guys occasionally and I am dumbfounded that they could even qualify for a license in this state. But the days are gone out here when only someone who could prove four years of employment with a licensed contractor could apply for a license.
When CA changed that law. it opened the floodgates for less quality work getting done.
Should have been called the "Hack License Law"

Max Nomad

Hacks exist anywhere there is a contract and someone is going to be paid to build something, whether it's an addition to a house or an ecommerce website.

I might be relatively new to the construction world as an admin but I'm not new to business. From what I've seen, there are Artisans/Craftsmen types, the people that are constantly striving to master their discipline and make sure anything they build they do it correctly. It's almost a combination of deep pride in their trade and the reality that if you half-ass something you'll often have to do it two or three times to get it straight.

In this context, hacks do what they do because they can half-ass it well enough to get paid for it -- and often have a mastery of cutting corners. These stunts usually go unnoticed by the customer until (1) something breaks, burns, falls off, or deteriorates prematurely, and/or (2) a solid contractor comes along, takes a look at the problem spot and says something like "Who the f*** did this?"

Unfortunately, hard economic times will not flush out the hacks from any industry. Where a hack might be doing "discount" electrical or plumbing work this week because his main gig is slow, he might be doing framing or hanging drywall next week.

As someone that grew up as a computer hacker back in the 80s, I prefer the term "Jackleg"...

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DecksEtc

Someone called "breezesiding"

reveivl

This nails it for me.


In remodeling you often run into situations that you haven't seen before so you ask friends, colleagues, CT, whoever, to do it the best you can with the accumulated years of experience that you have and with the understanding that you haven't experienced it all. Could you hire a professional in that particular field? By tomorrow? Sure maybe, but not stay in business very long or keep your customers happy. Maybe the 'expert' is right maybe not. Does this make you a hack? Perhaps, in some peoples' mind but as long as the work is good, not in the customers' mind.

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barnbuilder1

I had thought about this in the past trying to answer why someone does what they do. 1) They don't care or 2) They have limited talent. Its sad but a lot of clients don't know the difference, "If I buy it thru Lowes it will be good and Lowes will stand behind it." The hack thinks he will just go on down the road and try something else. He tries to get all he can while he can.