Stupid People Tricks
I am a contractor by trade. Not a lot of women in my field of work, but I kind of like it that way. I like being a barrier breaker for womankind. I like it even more when I see some of the stupid things some homeowners and landlords do to their properties. Really the only amazing part is that more homes don't fall on people's heads or burn to the ground.
One of my favorite calls was from a man who said he needed work done on his roof. I went to take a look, and sure enough his roof was not in good shape. It was bowed in the middle, at least a foot and a half lower than at either end. He informed me that this had "just happened" and he had "no idea what could have caused it". At this point the man's wife comes out to talk to me. She informs me that her husband and his friends got drunk the night before and took a chainsaw and interior wall to enlarge the family room. At this point the husband gets a guilty look on his face and disappears. The wife and I go inside to look at the damage. Sure enough, her lovable spouse has removed about 10 fee of load bearing interior wall. Not only that, but as he indiscriminately cut through the wall, he cut though electrical wire feeding power to about a third of the house. Apparently, the only thing that stopped the boys from cutting more was the arrival of the wife home from her swing shift at the hospital. Unfortunately, she did not arrive soon enough. I took the job and permitted it. An inspector showed up and declared the house uninhabitable until the work was complete.
People think that home repair is easy and that all projects are DIY. I blame it on The Home Depot, Lowes and all the so-called Home Improvement stores. Not everything is DIY. One should avoid taking out load bearing walls in one does not know what one is doing. Playing with live 220 wire is not a good idea either. Plumbing should not be done by people who think that water should flow uphill because they want it too. Decks should not be built by people who do not understand basic engineering principles. Are these things complicated? Of course not, but just as I would not perform "routine" surgery, there are some "routine" repairs that should not be done by an unqualified person.
Sorry for the rant. There have been a lot of stupid people calls this week.
One of my favorite calls was from a man who said he needed work done on his roof. I went to take a look, and sure enough his roof was not in good shape. It was bowed in the middle, at least a foot and a half lower than at either end. He informed me that this had "just happened" and he had "no idea what could have caused it". At this point the man's wife comes out to talk to me. She informs me that her husband and his friends got drunk the night before and took a chainsaw and interior wall to enlarge the family room. At this point the husband gets a guilty look on his face and disappears. The wife and I go inside to look at the damage. Sure enough, her lovable spouse has removed about 10 fee of load bearing interior wall. Not only that, but as he indiscriminately cut through the wall, he cut though electrical wire feeding power to about a third of the house. Apparently, the only thing that stopped the boys from cutting more was the arrival of the wife home from her swing shift at the hospital. Unfortunately, she did not arrive soon enough. I took the job and permitted it. An inspector showed up and declared the house uninhabitable until the work was complete.
People think that home repair is easy and that all projects are DIY. I blame it on The Home Depot, Lowes and all the so-called Home Improvement stores. Not everything is DIY. One should avoid taking out load bearing walls in one does not know what one is doing. Playing with live 220 wire is not a good idea either. Plumbing should not be done by people who think that water should flow uphill because they want it too. Decks should not be built by people who do not understand basic engineering principles. Are these things complicated? Of course not, but just as I would not perform "routine" surgery, there are some "routine" repairs that should not be done by an unqualified person.
Sorry for the rant. There have been a lot of stupid people calls this week.
posted by Stoic Stranger at 4:11 PM
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