[Danniboi]

Hi all

Over the years I have seen new trends come and go something new that you can do to your house or buildings.

Do you think that things like DIY laminate flooring and other do it yourself type packs have impacted the industry as a whole?

There so many things you can buy ready to clip together etc, flooring I thought was the best example as its so wide spread.

Im quite a handy guy but I did pay someone else to lay my floor just to save me the hassle.

 

[rusty baker]

I can make more doing repairs of their screw-ups than installing in the first place.:thumbup:

 

[Baron]

Yes it has made an impact. As all new technology does. But there are just as many people trying and failing to do good DIY so it works out that you now get to rip out work that was done badly.

I would say marketing products to the home owner has probably increased the wasting of good material while people learn that they aren't really very good at the stuff we do every day, yet people must learn, even if it is to discover they are incompetent and need to call a professional next time.

We had a local builder that used every cheap product and sub par laborers he could find to amass millions of dollars. Now his homes generate repair work in the millions. His methodology was much like the DIY-ers and created more work for years to come for us in remodeling.:clap:

 

[MarcD]

I dont think so. I think it has brought out a lot more in the way of repairs. I read somewhere about a year ago that home repairs/remodels were the largest growing service industry because of the diy'ers.

The majority of remodels I do the homeowner has already done something in their house. And becuase of whatever project he did the wife wants a pro to do the next project.

 

[KG007]

Yes

I think the increase in DIY has certainly made it harder on the professionals. We sell flooring and cabinetry, install everything we sell. The TV shows and magazines usually GROSSLY under-represent the real price and difficulty of doing a job. They also don't mention the tools you usually need that most people don't have.

DIY types usually come in concerned ONLY about getting the absolute cheapest crap, I mean product. For laminate the price point is $.59 to $.99/SF for these people. (Cheaper than my cost for all but a tiny handful of first-quality products.) So they buy cheap crap, don't know how to install it properly, and get poor results. So what happens?

a) They bad mouth a product category as a whole, and b) have spent whatever money they had and can't afford to tear it out and have us do it right, and c) are too proud to admit they screwed up so won't show up and say "you were right." Some people will eventually replace it - in 5 to 15 years. But usually it's the next homeowner, who is often strapped for cash when getting into a new house. And often starts the cycle all over.

 

[bwalley]

Sometimes when a homeowner tries to do a job themselves and screws it up, they really appreciate a contractor who can come in and fix it for them.

What you have to be careful of is not hurting their pride by making stupid comments, one way to handle it is say, not too bad for a 1st timer, but it is harder than you thought it would be, or say something like, yea when I 1st started doing contracting and watched a guy do it, I thought it was easy to, but I learned the hard way as well.

I have tried some jobs myself as a GC that I should have hired a sub and learned what I was good at and what I am better off hiring subs to do, on concrete, I learned I can write a check a lot better than I can do concete.

 

[rusty baker]

A repair will usually cost them 3 times what it would have cost to do it in the first place.

 

[KG007]

Agreed

Sometimes when a homeowner tries to do a job themselves and screws it up, they really appreciate a contractor who can come in and fix it for them.

What you have to be careful of is not hurting their pride by making stupid comments, one way to handle it is say, not too bad for a 1st timer, but it is harder than you thought it would be, or say something like, yea when I 1st started doing contracting and watched a guy do it, I thought it was easy to, but I learned the hard way as well.

I have tried some jobs myself as a GC that I should have hired a sub and learned what I was good at and what I am better off hiring subs to do, on concrete, I learned I can write a check a lot better than I can do concete.

You're absolutely right. However, a lot of people have to get burned first, and some don't learn then. We are polite to people and if it is someone on a tight budget we give them all the advice and help we can. Maybe they are doing the best they can and I feel for that person.

The ones who tell me how smart they are because they can buy this great laminate at Big Lots for $.59 and get over on all the professionals because they'll do it themselves and imply the professionals are stealing from them don't get the advice. They wouldn't take it anyway. And THOSE people will never show their face at the same place they have shopped and bragged about how they were doing a job so much cheaper and better.

 

[bwalley]

You're absolutely right. However, a lot of people have to get burned first, and some don't learn then. We are polite to people and if it is someone on a tight budget we give them all the advice and help we can. Maybe they are doing the best they can and I feel for that person.

The ones who tell me how smart they are because they can buy this great laminate at Big Lots for $.59 and get over on all the professionals because they'll do it themselves and imply the professionals are stealing from them don't get the advice. They wouldn't take it anyway. And THOSE people will never show their face at the same place they have shopped and bragged about how they were doing a job so much cheaper and better.

Those type of people are not even worth talking to.

I get tired of people saying, so and so is a rip off, because they are expensive, I try to explain to them just because someone may be expensive does not mean they are a rip off, someone can be cheap and not deliver what they promised and they are a rip off.

My mother is cheap, but over the years I have tried to educate her, several years ago she bought a $5 walmart faucet, I refused to install it, my brother did, and then she got a crap kitchen faucet I wouldn't install, later when she had problems I changed them out.

She wanted to pay me for it, I told her no, then she said at least let me pay for the parts, I said you don't want to know how much they cost, she pressed on, so I told her, she about had a heart attack, and it was only a $180 faucet (My Cost) I wouldn't accept her money, but then just to have fun with her, I told her how much I would charge a client to have the same job done by a plumber.

Now I just do stuff for her and we don't talk about money.

 

[rusty baker]

They think we are ripping them off. I have thousands of dollars worth of tools and 37 years experience. Should be worth something. I am on several boards trying to help DIYers. Some of these people can not be helped. I have come close to just giving up.

 

[silvertree]

No, not really. DIY was always an American way of life, less so in Europe where professionals get more respect.

As many said, we come back and fix some of this stuff.