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.
I am in the middle of remodeling a bathroom and it dawned on me there is a trade that some of you might find interesting.
Just to dispel any wrong ideas installing tile, and to do it right, takes a true artisan with a lot of skill. I know several and all of them have been busy right on through the entire recession.
Being in construction management I've worked with every trade there is and one you might not have heard of is tile setter.
About six years ago I was one of the project managers for Sea Island when they rebuilt The Cloister Hotel on the coast of Georgia not far from Brunswick. This is not an ordinary hotel and I remember watching transfixed for hours as tile setters did their work around the health spa.
Check out the tile work on the pool steps and the pool itself. That work wasn't done by a working stiff, it took a real artist to make it look like that. It isn't something you learn at home or over a few weeks of doing. I wish I would have taken more photos when I was there but I didn't. That work is absolutely beautiful.
I thought about this this morning because I am in the middle of completely redoing my bathroom and it's tiled.
Do the math. I provided all the material (includes grout), the tile guy is labor only and he is charging me $800 (cash money) for three days work . The only reason I am getting the work done that cheap is he knows me. Anyone else it would have been $1,200 to $1,500.... one guy for three 6 to 8 hours days. He will have maybe 20 hours total labor when completed.
I know where the tile setter lives, his toys and his muscle car collection and he ain't hurting. My guess is he does every bit as good as a plumber and he doesn't have to mess with the poo-poo.
If your bent has always been to own your own business this might be it and what makes this beautiful is it would be easy to keep it a one man shop if so inclined. My guess would be the start up costs would be minimal and we're talking maybe $20,000 with the most expensive item being a pick up truck. That is a pretty small price tag to enter the construction field.
Unlike an electrician or plumber, especially the plumber, is licensing and insurance would be minimal.
I've been chronicling my bathroom remodel (my wife is finally getting her Jacuzzi tub) if any are interested in checking the progress.
I imagine it's like most trades. You have one guy making big bucks, whose the go to guy for everything, surrounded by a haggle of barely functional nitwits who are paid garbage... Mostly illegals. I actually know a guy who used to do this kind of work, and by all accounts, he did top notch work. He was a one man shop, and charged a pretty fair rate. Problem was, he couldn't find any work after awhile, and went back to mowing lawns. Trades of all kinds seem to have been decimated by this recession. Not a bad time to learn one, but a lot of tradesman aren't willing to work for today's labor market rates. Actually, I know more than a few tradesman that left their professions to start lawn care services. Apparently, there is more money in that these days.
What is attractive about this trade though is the low start up cost. Compare that to my trade, where a one man shop would easily run a half a million dollars for used machinery, just to charge $60 an hour per machine these days... Problem I see with these types of trades with low start up costs though... Very little barrier to entry. You end up with too many shops competing for the work, driving the margins down to barely anything worth getting out of bed for. I've seen plenty of shops of all kinds close their doors because it's just not worth it anymore. We are neck deep in a value hungry economy. Time to take the chips off the table and mow lawns I'm afraid
Do the math. I provided all the material (includes grout), the tile guy is labor only and he is charging me $800 (cash money) for three days work . The only reason I am getting the work done that cheap is he knows me. Anyone else it would have been $1,200 to $1,500.... one guy for three 6 to 8 hours days. He will have maybe 20 hours total labor when completed.
The money sounds good here, I agree. Won't make you rich though after taxes are taken out. Aren't business taxes close to 50% for this kind of stuff? Either way, you could live comfortably on it if the work keeps coming in. Problem with most trades, is the work doesn't always continue to come in, unless your the cheapest guy in town. That guy certainly doesn't get rich!
The old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words"....
One question: What would make anyone consider entering the construction trades at this time? Just eyeballing this chart tells me there is a huge surplus of building trades people.
I find it funny you believe you "got a deal" because "he knows you". Do you really think someone would discount their work by 33% just because "they know you"? It may be he cut you a break because he knows you OR that there isn't much work out there and was willing to discount to get the job.
I also find it funny how people in America judge others success by the amount of "toys" sitting out. It is like judging a business by just looking at the fixed assets on the balance sheet. You can't judge how well a person is doing by how much cash/debt they have tied up in "toys". How do you know he didn't use his home as an ATM during the boom? Is that "doing well"?
In my humble opinion it is probably not a good time to enter any of the residential building trades. There are now the same number of experienced people fighting for 20% of the former volume of work. That works out to 1 in 5 trade people needed for the current level of construction.
With all the do it yourself stores, books, shows and capabilities this is one to tread carefully on putting all your eggs in one basket. Hell, I'm a woman and bought a house that needed work and replaced all the light switches, fixtures and outlets, dimmer switches, light fixtures, retiled, built closets complete with drywalling and doors and redid all the hardwood floors in the house, put in two patios in the backyard and changed all the sinks and redid some plumbing and I did it myself without anyone helping me and I only weigh about 100 pounds. I got so good at it I changed out a light fixture with a ceiling fan in my brother's apartment without even turning off the electricity. There's not much these days you can't do with duct tape and a wooden spoon.
There are plenty of hungry guys in the trades right now, so I don't see tile work as being anywhere on the radar as having good job prospects. I am sure there is a guy here or there doing all right, but most guys are gonna starve. Also, as noted above, plenty of Hispanic labor in my area that does good work for a reasonable price.
While I respect everything you have accomplished, the above in quotes is just outright stupidity.
Good at it? Electricians are EXPERTS and even they wouldn't work on electricial wires without shutting off the electricity.
You're lucky nothing happened.
Honey, if you move loose wires apart with a wooden spoon - wood being a non conductor-and keep them from touching like duct taping them away from each other then there isn't a problem at all. If the wires had been wound together, like I've seen before, I wouldn't have touched it. I'd read enough and done enough of it to know what I was looking at. So, it might be stupid for some and not for others. I also don't necessarily advocate other people trying it. I just happen to know how to do it. As for rewiring a whole house - then yes an EXPERT is needed. In fact there are a couple issues that, while I think I could do it, my experience uncertainty has warranted me to contact a professional handyman. I know my limits doll - that's where stupidty is - when someone doesn't know their limits.
I wasn't lucky - I just wasn't stupid.
Last edited by Thursday007; 03-09-2012 at 09:23 AM..
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.
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.
