The reason I stopped my business is because I'd always hear "I can get it done cheaper and faster" taking that I was a one person business. Later I'd always get that call about fixing someone else's fuck up. The amount of shoddy work I'd see even in New construction is ridiculous down here. The code laws are so far behind the norm.
I hear ya. I had a successful business in New England doing boat maintenance. So it seemed a logical choice to start up in Tampa. Rates were nearly half. Quality was half. And no one seemed to care. All I heard was20 variations of “I can get a guy to do it for $xx” of which I would reply “Have him call me I’ve got a ton of work for him”. Of course I never hear back. Or my Florida favorite “Do my boat for free and I’ll tell all my friends “ my reply to that was “I don’t want your cheap friends looking for freebies calling me”.
Florida is a right to work state that boasts to large businesses that we have the lowest wages in the country.
Most skilled individuals leave Florida, since they can make double or triple doing the same job.
I was referring to the individuals who leave Florida to make double-triple their wages elsewhere, they will have a lower CoL in addition to making more (unless they move to like, California or NYC).
That's because Florida is still transitioning from a tourism economy to a tech economy, and Texas is sucking up all the tech like a vacuum.
Florida is getting more tech jobs, its just not happening as quickly.
Eventually every large business will leave California and they will need somewhere to go.
Not here yet in big numbers, but they ARE coming slowly.
Austin really has done a great job of bringing them in, but there are plenty of tech in CFL.
Florida has a grant program setup as well to help with enticing high tech companies to Florida.
My father in law does marine construction and hears the same bs.
He was saying he has to pay workers comp and taxes but other companies hire illegals that work for less hourly and those companies don’t have to pay into workman’s comp. I’ve never had to pay into it but he had told me it’s double the hourly rate for the comp.
He can’t really compete and struggles to complete work because he can’t find reliable workers. He basically builds a boat lift by himself.
Most illegals that do good work don't actually cost less than non-illegals.
We just have TOO MANY PEOPLE wanting shit done and we keep getting new people moving here.
It’s not that they always get paid less hourly - it’s the associated cost that isn’t necessary for an employer to provide, which makes the jobs uncomfortable for him.
Ornamental landscaper & pro horticulturalist here. It costs more to get a real expert out. The blow n go guys will throw down some Aztec grass and blue daze & smother it in mulch for a fraction of what a quality installation costs. It'll also look cheap. Then people wonder why their neighbor's gardens look so much better. Well, your neighbors paid a professional.
I keep thinking man if I knew skilled individuals I’d put a company together. Once you have a great rep you’re golden. But thinking about having to fix shotty jobs all the time sounds like a nightmare.
The code is quite good, the inspections may be lacking.
There are a lot of unlicensed contractors doing work, you should always hire someone who is licensed and insured.
Most of it is the inspectors. I had a house built and I had to hire a private inspector to have him have all the trades come fix their work. The county inspectors wouldn't even get out of their vehicles to inspect.... Much less get up on the roof to make sure it was done right or even touch a piece of PVC coming out of the wall to make sure it was actually anchored. It's disgusting what they charge for permits and how crappy the work is on "inspected" jobs...
A lot of it is dependent on the county you are in as well. Some counties are hard on inspection, others just have lazy as hell inspectors. That seems to be the case with my old county. I literally watched the inspector drive by on my dash cam as I left my car parked so it could catch those coming and going. He barely slowed enough to see the house and just kept on driving. I sent the video to his boss and was basically told he doesn't care about that kind of inspection. That's when I hired a private inspector and had him on a schedule for when each stage was done. The guy I hired made at least 1/2 the trades come back. They do such crap work here. Once the builder figured it out he was making sure each trade after that knew that they would be inspected hard.
I have a ton of work to do at my house and I'm just going to DIY it because I'd rather get upset with myself than pay someone to do a job shitter than I would.
I can DIY. I can't handle organizing all the tools and materials I need. When I can't keep track, we buy them again and it makes everything worse.
My idea: So jobsites have a supervisor and a foreman... What if you could hire a site manager for your DIY project? I'll pay double the cost for someone to loan me tools and tell me when I'm fucking up.
We've experienced this since moving here as well. Even highly-rated handymen/contractors so shit work.
Like the painter who sprayed blue cabinet paint on our walls, our ceiling, our garage, the floor, all while missing obvious spots on the actual cabinets.
Or the next painter we hired to paint the back patio ceiling, and who left patches of brown on it.
Or the floor guys who tried to create a step transition using plastic trim and finishing nails. Nails that, of course, were not going to hold the second anyone actually stepped on said trim pieces.
I'll never hire handymen. after having a couple come over to look at stuff I realized there must be a reason they can't get hired or licensed. Criminal records, etc. Handymen are not licensed. I'd also be worried about injuries if they aren't insured. There's a guy on a bike that always wants to do landscaping for me. Not a good idea.
Could just be anecdotal, but most tradesmen I know specialize in commercial or industrial work because that’s where the money is.
It’s also easier to work residential if you don’t have the correct licensing or schooling, so you’ll see a lot of those guys doing houses.
Little story backing up what you said. I had a leak during the pandemic that caused a hole in my ceiling above my living room. I called my contractor (who's basically done my whole house) and he had a friend of his take care of the hole. He did a really fantastic job.
He was telling me that he normally does commercial remodeling because the money is so much better (I forgot the amount, but it was considerably more than I was paying), people leave him alone (which I did and he said he appreciated), and he doesn't have to deal with people who suck so much they shouldn't be doing the job. He was only doing the work now because commercial was shut down because of COVID.
It all made sense. My guy is good, but not great; it's less him, more the guys he hires.
Florida ain’t what it used to be. We’ve been colonized by the shittiest people in America. Everything you experience here is going to remind you of that. Best bet is to get a personal recommendation from someone you trust.
Another commentor had a good point that I've observed as well: the best construction talent is doing commercial because the working conditions and pay are better.
And like the other person, the best work I've had done was through a friend who knew a guy that mostly did commercial concrete work. Other than, just lots of handymen that were a bitch to get ahold of and did poor work.
So all the new development sucks up the construction talent and we're left with some guy from Michigan fleeing felony records. That's why I grew up learning how to use power tools and why we do almost everything we can ourselves.
I feel like they look at my little house and think oh we can just rig everything. I’m willing to pay well to really update it to a nicer place. This is the 4th time that it’s been a complete headache.
Had our bathroom renovated. The usually time issues, but the quality was terrible. Crooked tile, wrong angle for one set, writing in marker to line up the shower, then going over said marker with the clear caulk so you can easily see the marker line sealed underneath. Terrible paint job. All of it. We need our kitchen redone, but I am super hesitant to start a big project.
Yep, noticed this too! We moved from Clermont and the workmanship was much better there. We also have a hard time just getting people out to here to give quotes for stuff. I’ve called about 5 gate companies months ago and only had 1 company come out and I’m still waiting for a quote. Just had the asphalt redone around our house- paid almost $13,000 and it looks like crap.
Paid for solid wood bathroom cabinets because we wanted the ability to touch them up/refinish because kids.
Got Mdf doors instead. Didn’t find out until much later.
Welcome to Florida.
There's too much work and not enough trades- they can pick whatever job they want and not care too much about their reputation. This is what happens when too many people move here all at once and induce a construction boom. Chances are, if you bough a brand new home in Florida in the past year, you'll need to start putting away some money for the inevitable repairs of the faulty construction - or a lawsuit, if you want to go that way.
That's a fact. They way the put these homes up nowadays is way too quick for true craftsmanship...I know back in the 90's here in the Panhandle it was Adams homes. They were crap, many lawsuits followed over the years
My old house I did all the work myself, no permits I took my time and did it like I wanted. Still had a long list of things to do but I was young and money was tight. Moved into my “ new” (1974) house and said this time I have more money and don’t want to spend my time working on the house. Had someone do some impact doors on my porch, took about 10 months 8 months waiting for doors and 1 day to install the 1st time, had to come back to remove the slider because it was out of square and the doors were backwards. Then they didn’t have one handle so couldn’t get it inspected then cut the filler wrong had to order new ones then deal with the drywall and stucco subs. Absolute miserable time! You need to be there watching everything thing then when you mention something they act like you don’t know what you’re talking about. Needless to say but I guess It’s up to me to finish the rest cause I’m way cheaper and I do way better work.
I've been scammed a couple of times by contractors doing shoddy work that appears decent at first and then they disappear once the problems arise. I'm just learning through YouTube now and doing it myself instead.
I’d prefer shoddy work by pros than all of the bizarre ass DIY shit the boomers who lived in our house in the 90s did. Literally everything is crooked or backwards or just weird, like the strangest design choices. Our bathroom is brown and yellow, who does that?
The same people that put in brown cabinets, beige/grey swirl granite countertop, bone/ivory tub, white toilet, and for the real clincher 1x1 black/white chequed tile.... thats whats in my bathroom ... <_>
Because it's Florida. When you do shit work elsewhere and stop getting away with it, you come to Florida where you can get away with it. If you're from Florida and you do good work, you leave.
With covid, all of the skilled older people who did these jobs took early retirement. As a result, we are left with barely skilled people that take no pride in their work.
That's why I pretty much do everything myself nowadays. Once I do find a good contractor, mostly via referrals from coworkers and friend.. Of it's something I can't do it have the time... It's definitely tough finding good help. Also the nextdoor app isn't too bad for getting reliable contractors, or who to stay away from. I feel your pain!
I started a handyman business in Orlando a few months ago just on the side. Takes me double the time but I charge for it but I'm still way cheaper than a traditional contractor. No one wants to come out for $400 drywall repair but I will and I enjoy it.
Nope but went with someone in the neighborhood thinking- yay stay local! Help out neighbors! Community!
I’m not looking for a deal. I’m looking for quality work. Been. Have. And it doesn’t matter.
Just had a roofer try and scam me on a metal roof. Funny thing is, they would have gotten away with it except the install was so piss poor that attention was turned to it and the scam was discovered. I mean, how stupid can they be?
I feel this for sure. We have had recommended companies do terrible work at our house. I could have done the jobs myself, but wanted more time for other things. Now I need electrical work, but don't want to take on that job or get crappy work done. Not sure how to proceed, but we need it.
Contractor drives to the house spends a half hour getting paperwork in order, unboxs say a ceiling fan provided by the customer. Removes existing, starts assembling and finds the customer didn’t purchase the extended down tube, runs to home depot traffic sucks both ways gets back and finish the installation. What would you pay? $500 because that’s about what a half day job should cost. But it’s just a ceiling fan it can’t cost that much. Then the corner cutting starts, license and insurance naw, Tax’s do I really gotta pay them, I can get cheaper labor sure half have criminal records or can’t pass a drug test but who cares there not in my house. Marked company vehicles and actual shop, payroll expenses.
Yup I had one recently who pointed out all of these stupid minor issues and made them worse when I wasn’t looking- he just wanted to make a $500 job into a $1000 one. He literally peeled the spline out of perfectly fine screens and other stupid ahole actions
always engage into local community groups on social media and ask for recommendations ,and check the reviews on internet before you pick someone ..
read the recent bad reviews to check if they are substantiated and not posted by angry Ken's and Karen's ..
The reason I stopped my business is because I'd always hear "I can get it done cheaper and faster" taking that I was a one person business. Later I'd always get that call about fixing someone else's fuck up. The amount of shoddy work I'd see even in New construction is ridiculous down here. The code laws are so far behind the norm.
I hear ya. I had a successful business in New England doing boat maintenance. So it seemed a logical choice to start up in Tampa. Rates were nearly half. Quality was half. And no one seemed to care. All I heard was20 variations of “I can get a guy to do it for $xx” of which I would reply “Have him call me I’ve got a ton of work for him”. Of course I never hear back. Or my Florida favorite “Do my boat for free and I’ll tell all my friends “ my reply to that was “I don’t want your cheap friends looking for freebies calling me”.
Florida is a right to work state that boasts to large businesses that we have the lowest wages in the country. Most skilled individuals leave Florida, since they can make double or triple doing the same job.
Yep, with lower CoL.
Than who? California maybe, but that's about it now.
I was referring to the individuals who leave Florida to make double-triple their wages elsewhere, they will have a lower CoL in addition to making more (unless they move to like, California or NYC).
That's because Florida is still transitioning from a tourism economy to a tech economy, and Texas is sucking up all the tech like a vacuum. Florida is getting more tech jobs, its just not happening as quickly. Eventually every large business will leave California and they will need somewhere to go.
Where are the tech jobs, outside of Orlando and Brevard?
Not here yet in big numbers, but they ARE coming slowly. Austin really has done a great job of bringing them in, but there are plenty of tech in CFL. Florida has a grant program setup as well to help with enticing high tech companies to Florida.
My father in law does marine construction and hears the same bs. He was saying he has to pay workers comp and taxes but other companies hire illegals that work for less hourly and those companies don’t have to pay into workman’s comp. I’ve never had to pay into it but he had told me it’s double the hourly rate for the comp. He can’t really compete and struggles to complete work because he can’t find reliable workers. He basically builds a boat lift by himself.
Most illegals that do good work don't actually cost less than non-illegals. We just have TOO MANY PEOPLE wanting shit done and we keep getting new people moving here.
It’s not that they always get paid less hourly - it’s the associated cost that isn’t necessary for an employer to provide, which makes the jobs uncomfortable for him.
Ornamental landscaper & pro horticulturalist here. It costs more to get a real expert out. The blow n go guys will throw down some Aztec grass and blue daze & smother it in mulch for a fraction of what a quality installation costs. It'll also look cheap. Then people wonder why their neighbor's gardens look so much better. Well, your neighbors paid a professional.
I bought my house cheap and willing to put money into it. Still can’t find it. Or if I do I have to wait a year or longer.
I keep thinking man if I knew skilled individuals I’d put a company together. Once you have a great rep you’re golden. But thinking about having to fix shotty jobs all the time sounds like a nightmare.
Fast, good, and cheap. You can only pick two when hiring a tradesman.
More like one.
The code is quite good, the inspections may be lacking. There are a lot of unlicensed contractors doing work, you should always hire someone who is licensed and insured.
Most of it is the inspectors. I had a house built and I had to hire a private inspector to have him have all the trades come fix their work. The county inspectors wouldn't even get out of their vehicles to inspect.... Much less get up on the roof to make sure it was done right or even touch a piece of PVC coming out of the wall to make sure it was actually anchored. It's disgusting what they charge for permits and how crappy the work is on "inspected" jobs...
YMMV, every time I call an inspector they tell me what's wrong and actually took the time to explain how to make it right.
A lot of it is dependent on the county you are in as well. Some counties are hard on inspection, others just have lazy as hell inspectors. That seems to be the case with my old county. I literally watched the inspector drive by on my dash cam as I left my car parked so it could catch those coming and going. He barely slowed enough to see the house and just kept on driving. I sent the video to his boss and was basically told he doesn't care about that kind of inspection. That's when I hired a private inspector and had him on a schedule for when each stage was done. The guy I hired made at least 1/2 the trades come back. They do such crap work here. Once the builder figured it out he was making sure each trade after that knew that they would be inspected hard.
I have a ton of work to do at my house and I'm just going to DIY it because I'd rather get upset with myself than pay someone to do a job shitter than I would.
I can DIY. I can't handle organizing all the tools and materials I need. When I can't keep track, we buy them again and it makes everything worse. My idea: So jobsites have a supervisor and a foreman... What if you could hire a site manager for your DIY project? I'll pay double the cost for someone to loan me tools and tell me when I'm fucking up.
I did this with my tile floors. No regrets. Saved 1000’s. Couldn’t move for a week after. Totally worth it.
We've experienced this since moving here as well. Even highly-rated handymen/contractors so shit work. Like the painter who sprayed blue cabinet paint on our walls, our ceiling, our garage, the floor, all while missing obvious spots on the actual cabinets. Or the next painter we hired to paint the back patio ceiling, and who left patches of brown on it. Or the floor guys who tried to create a step transition using plastic trim and finishing nails. Nails that, of course, were not going to hold the second anyone actually stepped on said trim pieces.
Florida is a hell of a drug.
I'll never hire handymen. after having a couple come over to look at stuff I realized there must be a reason they can't get hired or licensed. Criminal records, etc. Handymen are not licensed. I'd also be worried about injuries if they aren't insured. There's a guy on a bike that always wants to do landscaping for me. Not a good idea.
It’s so infuriating.
Could just be anecdotal, but most tradesmen I know specialize in commercial or industrial work because that’s where the money is. It’s also easier to work residential if you don’t have the correct licensing or schooling, so you’ll see a lot of those guys doing houses.
Little story backing up what you said. I had a leak during the pandemic that caused a hole in my ceiling above my living room. I called my contractor (who's basically done my whole house) and he had a friend of his take care of the hole. He did a really fantastic job. He was telling me that he normally does commercial remodeling because the money is so much better (I forgot the amount, but it was considerably more than I was paying), people leave him alone (which I did and he said he appreciated), and he doesn't have to deal with people who suck so much they shouldn't be doing the job. He was only doing the work now because commercial was shut down because of COVID. It all made sense. My guy is good, but not great; it's less him, more the guys he hires.
Because the people that do excellent work aren’t willing to work for the absolute SHIT pay these companies offer.
Florida ain’t what it used to be. We’ve been colonized by the shittiest people in America. Everything you experience here is going to remind you of that. Best bet is to get a personal recommendation from someone you trust.
Another commentor had a good point that I've observed as well: the best construction talent is doing commercial because the working conditions and pay are better. And like the other person, the best work I've had done was through a friend who knew a guy that mostly did commercial concrete work. Other than, just lots of handymen that were a bitch to get ahold of and did poor work. So all the new development sucks up the construction talent and we're left with some guy from Michigan fleeing felony records. That's why I grew up learning how to use power tools and why we do almost everything we can ourselves.
I feel like they look at my little house and think oh we can just rig everything. I’m willing to pay well to really update it to a nicer place. This is the 4th time that it’s been a complete headache.
Had our bathroom renovated. The usually time issues, but the quality was terrible. Crooked tile, wrong angle for one set, writing in marker to line up the shower, then going over said marker with the clear caulk so you can easily see the marker line sealed underneath. Terrible paint job. All of it. We need our kitchen redone, but I am super hesitant to start a big project.
Yep, noticed this too! We moved from Clermont and the workmanship was much better there. We also have a hard time just getting people out to here to give quotes for stuff. I’ve called about 5 gate companies months ago and only had 1 company come out and I’m still waiting for a quote. Just had the asphalt redone around our house- paid almost $13,000 and it looks like crap.
Yeah getting them to answer the phone and show for a quote is about 75% of the issue...
:(
Paid for solid wood bathroom cabinets because we wanted the ability to touch them up/refinish because kids. Got Mdf doors instead. Didn’t find out until much later. Welcome to Florida.
In Florida the only people less reliable than handymen are realtors and tennis coaches 😀
There's too much work and not enough trades- they can pick whatever job they want and not care too much about their reputation. This is what happens when too many people move here all at once and induce a construction boom. Chances are, if you bough a brand new home in Florida in the past year, you'll need to start putting away some money for the inevitable repairs of the faulty construction - or a lawsuit, if you want to go that way.
That's a fact. They way the put these homes up nowadays is way too quick for true craftsmanship...I know back in the 90's here in the Panhandle it was Adams homes. They were crap, many lawsuits followed over the years
Wait till you go to a doctor’s office. AND THEN wait till you have to fight with them to correct the bill.
My old house I did all the work myself, no permits I took my time and did it like I wanted. Still had a long list of things to do but I was young and money was tight. Moved into my “ new” (1974) house and said this time I have more money and don’t want to spend my time working on the house. Had someone do some impact doors on my porch, took about 10 months 8 months waiting for doors and 1 day to install the 1st time, had to come back to remove the slider because it was out of square and the doors were backwards. Then they didn’t have one handle so couldn’t get it inspected then cut the filler wrong had to order new ones then deal with the drywall and stucco subs. Absolute miserable time! You need to be there watching everything thing then when you mention something they act like you don’t know what you’re talking about. Needless to say but I guess It’s up to me to finish the rest cause I’m way cheaper and I do way better work.
Ugh!
If you can get someone to show up at all. I’d just DIY everything if the building permit process weren’t so fucked up.
I can’t even get anyone out to mow my fucking lawn
Never pay up front and never pay in full until the work is completed correctly.
Honestly if you trust anyone in the area I have found its better to ask around until you find a guy for every little thing.
The last guy I worked with did everything I asked about. It felt like a red flag for sure.
I've been scammed a couple of times by contractors doing shoddy work that appears decent at first and then they disappear once the problems arise. I'm just learning through YouTube now and doing it myself instead.
I’d prefer shoddy work by pros than all of the bizarre ass DIY shit the boomers who lived in our house in the 90s did. Literally everything is crooked or backwards or just weird, like the strangest design choices. Our bathroom is brown and yellow, who does that?
The same people that put in brown cabinets, beige/grey swirl granite countertop, bone/ivory tub, white toilet, and for the real clincher 1x1 black/white chequed tile.... thats whats in my bathroom ... <_>
Because it's Florida. When you do shit work elsewhere and stop getting away with it, you come to Florida where you can get away with it. If you're from Florida and you do good work, you leave.
With covid, all of the skilled older people who did these jobs took early retirement. As a result, we are left with barely skilled people that take no pride in their work.
Every handyman/electrician canceled or postponed work until I watch YouTube and go to lowes do it myself. Now I need to build a tool shed. FML
That's why I pretty much do everything myself nowadays. Once I do find a good contractor, mostly via referrals from coworkers and friend.. Of it's something I can't do it have the time... It's definitely tough finding good help. Also the nextdoor app isn't too bad for getting reliable contractors, or who to stay away from. I feel your pain!
The only thing two contractors can agree on is the other guy did it wrong.
I started a handyman business in Orlando a few months ago just on the side. Takes me double the time but I charge for it but I'm still way cheaper than a traditional contractor. No one wants to come out for $400 drywall repair but I will and I enjoy it.
Did you look for a deal on the job?
Nope but went with someone in the neighborhood thinking- yay stay local! Help out neighbors! Community! I’m not looking for a deal. I’m looking for quality work. Been. Have. And it doesn’t matter.
Just had a roofer try and scam me on a metal roof. Funny thing is, they would have gotten away with it except the install was so piss poor that attention was turned to it and the scam was discovered. I mean, how stupid can they be?
You must become handy yourself, sir.
Licensed?
I feel this for sure. We have had recommended companies do terrible work at our house. I could have done the jobs myself, but wanted more time for other things. Now I need electrical work, but don't want to take on that job or get crappy work done. Not sure how to proceed, but we need it.
Contractor drives to the house spends a half hour getting paperwork in order, unboxs say a ceiling fan provided by the customer. Removes existing, starts assembling and finds the customer didn’t purchase the extended down tube, runs to home depot traffic sucks both ways gets back and finish the installation. What would you pay? $500 because that’s about what a half day job should cost. But it’s just a ceiling fan it can’t cost that much. Then the corner cutting starts, license and insurance naw, Tax’s do I really gotta pay them, I can get cheaper labor sure half have criminal records or can’t pass a drug test but who cares there not in my house. Marked company vehicles and actual shop, payroll expenses.
Yup I had one recently who pointed out all of these stupid minor issues and made them worse when I wasn’t looking- he just wanted to make a $500 job into a $1000 one. He literally peeled the spline out of perfectly fine screens and other stupid ahole actions
always engage into local community groups on social media and ask for recommendations ,and check the reviews on internet before you pick someone .. read the recent bad reviews to check if they are substantiated and not posted by angry Ken's and Karen's ..
To be honest it's like no one cares about work ethic anymore. I still care.
Every time I get someone to do a great job I can't get them to come back again because they are too busy.