Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-04-2007, 10:40 AM
 
2,313 posts, read 3,161,383 times
Reputation: 471

Advertisements

Maybe this is for the best but,???

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/southflorida/sfl-flbroofs1004nboct04,0,4116414.story?coll=sofla_tab 01_layout (broken link)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-04-2007, 11:00 AM
 
Location: Heartland Florida
9,324 posts, read 26,653,761 times
Reputation: 5038
This should be fun, I am going to hopefully help my parents install a new roof this winter. The county had better not pull this "licensed contractor" nonsense as Florida law specifically allows homeowners to do all work themselves. I see another court case in my future.....
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 11:56 AM
 
2,313 posts, read 3,161,383 times
Reputation: 471
Quote:
Originally Posted by tallrick View Post
This should be fun, I am going to hopefully help my parents install a new roof this winter. The county had better not pull this "licensed contractor" nonsense as Florida law specifically allows homeowners to do all work themselves. I see another court case in my future.....
You should be able to pull an owners permit and do the work yourself or have whoever do it. It has to pass all the same inspections. (I live in Broward though). The last roof I did I pulled the permits and borrowed a crew from a friend who has a roofing company when things were a little slow for him. I gave him $500 for the favor and paid the workers cash every day.

I saved many thousands on the job and it was done to my standards, better then most roofers would do. It was funny when the inspector came, he came down off the ladder and looked at me and said, "You did this"? I told him no I had some help me. He said whenever he see an owner permit for a roof he is prepared for the worst

It was fun. It was a two week job and my wife put out a buffet everyday for the workers, she spent like $500 feeding them and unlimited gallons of Gatorade. One of the perks of being in the bar business, you know someone who does almost anything.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 12:11 PM
 
1,257 posts, read 4,561,140 times
Reputation: 1034
The cost of home improvement has gone up a lot. I recently want to have a screen door installed in front of our main entrance. The cost is $1020. The same company installed for one of my neighbors two years ago. He charged the neighbor $675. A year ago, another neighbor paid $875. I was told the cost of Aluminum went up a lot. The cost to add a screen enclosure, accordion shutter and Aluminum fence went up ~175%. At the same time, the value of the dollar is at historically low. I don’t know much about economy. To me, this means we will pay more to buy or build anything. In contrast, the market value of residential houses is declining so why build? How to reconcile the inversed relationship?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 12:12 PM
 
Location: Heartland Florida
9,324 posts, read 26,653,761 times
Reputation: 5038
Also notable is that the flat part of my parents roof we did ourself after Andrew without a permit. The sloped part of the roof was done by a roofer. While flat roofs fail first, it is PERFECT with no leaks, while the "professional" roofer part is full of imperfections. The knowledgeable owner-builder always does the best job. I was not aware it was legal to hire help though, but I like your style! Pay the workers cash and feed them well, you get a much better job than a crew working for the boss. On the flat roof I had even replaced the structure with all treated lumber, 1 inch plywood that I got free and treated with homemade chemicals, and used carriage bolts instead of nails, and 1 inch ribbed roofing nails for the roofing felt. Not even a 40 foot ficus dropped by Wilma did damage, while the original roof had collapsed under the weight of the other Ficus. With a regular roofer I had never even seen an inspector take a close look at any roof. They would have freaked as I was cooking the tar in an old water heater.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Heartland Florida
9,324 posts, read 26,653,761 times
Reputation: 5038
Quote:
Originally Posted by LingLing View Post
The cost of home improvement has gone up a lot. I recently want to have a screen door installed in front of our main entrance. The cost is $1020. The same company installed for one of my neighbors two years ago. He charged the neighbor $675. A year ago, another neighbor paid $875. I was told the cost of Aluminum went up a lot. The cost to add a screen enclosure, accordion shutter and Aluminum fence went up ~175%. At the same time, the value of the dollar is at historically low. I don’t know much about economy. To me, this means we will pay more to buy or build anything. In contrast, the market value of residential houses is declining so why build? How to reconcile the inversed relationship?
It's called inflation, which seems to be running 15% a year lately. I remember when the costs started going up around 2002. Steel and copper and aluminnum and all real commodities are where inflation is evident.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 01:10 PM
 
Location: Vero Beach, Fl
2,976 posts, read 13,337,418 times
Reputation: 2265
Thanks for sharing this Macguy - it just never stops, does it?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 02:15 PM
 
Location: Lots of sun and palm trees with occasional hurricane :)
8,293 posts, read 16,115,621 times
Reputation: 7018
Terrible article. Makes me want to cry.
I had my flat roof done last year. No permit. Cash. Bunch of guys and a "foreman" who worked/owned his own roofing company. My ex was with them all day and he knows what they were supposed to be doing. Lots of food and drinking after the job was done, all in a 12 hr day.

My barrel tile portion is from 1993. It is very solid and SEEMS to be in good shape. I didn't lose one tile with Katrina or Wilma, even when my neighbors aluminum car port roofs went flying straight to it and banged around a while, and one aluminum shutter panel, and some stuff from neighbors across the street.

But it is a teenager already.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 03:00 PM
 
2,313 posts, read 3,161,383 times
Reputation: 471
Quote:
Originally Posted by LingLing View Post
The cost of home improvement has gone up a lot. I recently want to have a screen door installed in front of our main entrance. The cost is $1020. The same company installed for one of my neighbors two years ago. He charged the neighbor $675. A year ago, another neighbor paid $875. I was told the cost of Aluminum went up a lot. The cost to add a screen enclosure, accordion shutter and Aluminum fence went up ~175%. At the same time, the value of the dollar is at historically low. I don’t know much about economy. To me, this means we will pay more to buy or build anything. In contrast, the market value of residential houses is declining so why build? How to reconcile the inversed relationship?
My sister wanted new doors on her house and told me about it. She had a quote of $1600.00 for three doors and was going to say yes. I told her she was nuts and she as usual started an arguement. "I don't have al day to be shopping around like you do to save a few dollars". Long story short I looked at her estimate and started checking around. I bought the same doors wholesale at a place off Miami Gardens Dr. for $180.00 and had a friend of mine, a very good carpenter install them.

The installation was right around $300.00, it is not that easy to install a door you need to know what you are doing. Total, $480.00 for the same doors installed. The guy she first spoke just picked a price out of the air , it had nothing to do with the real labor, cost of the doors or profit he needed to make on the job. Just how big a sucker he can find, nothing more.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-04-2007, 03:23 PM
 
1,257 posts, read 4,561,140 times
Reputation: 1034
Quote:
Originally Posted by macguy View Post
My sister wanted new doors on her house and told me about it. She had a quote of $1600.00 for three doors and was going to say yes. I told her she was nuts and she as usual started an arguement. "I don't have al day to be shopping around like you do to save a few dollars". Long story short I looked at her estimate and started checking around. I bought the same doors wholesale at a place off Miami Gardens Dr. for $180.00 and had a friend of mine, a very good carpenter install them.

The installation was right around $300.00, it is not that easy to install a door you need to know what you are doing. Total, $480.00 for the same doors installed. The guy she first spoke just picked a price out of the air , it had nothing to do with the real labor, cost of the doors or profit he needed to make on the job. Just how big a sucker he can find, nothing more.

I actually know where to buy everything (screen door, material and screws). I know it probably only costs me around $~300 and I know the place I buy material from will give me a good instruction (Russell Home Improvement). But I don't know anyone who can install it. I don't want to put a lot of holes in our wall and the door won't stay. Well, I have three estimates and they run pretty close to each other so I chose the one I know has done a good job with my neighbors. If not, I have to find a good handyman (another challenge . and another price negotiation.) to install it. I also know that there is a good chance I may be able to install it without any problem. But what if there will be a problem...Well, as everything else in life who knows...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top