This is so accurate. I absolutely hate that it’s super hard to find qualified craftsmen nowadays. And worse, sometimes they’re clearly unqualified AND don’t speak my language, so communication is super frustrating.
Comment on the Perks of ownership...
qyron@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
As a European:
Struggle to find a craftsman to do any small work.
Work really needs to get done.
Go online, find how it is done.
Go to some hardware store and buy everything and a couple of extras, just for good measure.
Start the work.
Break or destroy whatever the cause of the problem.
Realize the original work was already badly done, is too old to be safe or was half assed together by some lazy person.
Go back online, find modern solution.
Go back to store, buy extra materials.
Break things even more.
Replace bad original work with modern solution, creating in the meanwhile a solution to conected bad work you can’t solve to the work you’ve done.
It works and it is safe.
Eventually, one of the crafts worker calls back.
Sees the work you have done: “Why did you bother doing all of that? You spent too much money.”
Describes shoddy solution, like what was before the damage you solved by yourself.
“Fuck my luck.”
End note: I faced this when fixing a sewers issue and a renewal of an electrical circuit.
TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
qyron@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
I can find plenty of craftspeople. But usually they will only take specific jobs, with specific outcomes.
I have a situation where I have to have a bathroom completely demolished and plumbing and waste water lines redone.
It’s a simple deal and a quick work yet nobody will take it because there are special demands that need to be met (it involves insurances) like ripping old water lines completely from the wall and run new tubes.
But “ripping out the old is too much work and puttin new pipes into the wall is too conplex: leave the old ones as is and put the new ones outside the wall”.
Nope. Old out, new in. Everything through conduits, with joints and safety valves inside inspection bixes. And there they go running.
Phoonzang@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Homeowners insurance: “Since you don’t have some certificate or whatever, your proper solution is something we won’t cover. If you want it covered, get someone with a certificate to do a hackjob.”
At least in Germany, you’re not allowed to touch anything “important” like water, electric, plumbing, or gas. Even if you would do a much better job, quicker, and cheaper, than any contractor who’d be allowed to do that work. Every single contractor I hired remodeling our house did something which was clearly not up to code (DIN or EN), and almost every time they put up a fight explaining it away, even when I read them the exact wording of the norm. “Well, if I’d do it that way, I would never finish work!” “This would be too much work, nobody does it that way” “I am always doing it this way and never had any complaints”
Discussion was always over when I asked whether I should get an inspector to settle it. They begrudgingly fixed the issue, and without fail tried to bill me for it (additionally).
I am so done with contractors, those are the original gatekeepers.
frezik@midwest.social 6 months ago
It varies by the locality, but the municipal inspectors in the US often let you get away with doing your own electrical and plumbing. They come down harder on gas, though. For a pretty sensible reason. If you mess up electrical or plumbing, you tend to only fuck yourself. If you mess up gas, you tend to fuck your neighbors, too.
qyron@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
I can. I’m in Portugal and we can fix things in our own house, except for gas and appliances like AC.
Insurances only care what you do when it damages others. Like a pipe bursting and flooding your neighbours house. The burst pipe needs to be fixed by a certified worker but whatever it may have destroyed in your house you can have it contracted or fix it yourself. Or not at all. You only need to provide a proforma invoice for the work and materials, by a professional. If you fix it or not, that is your problem.
Electricity is a touchy subject but you can modernize an entire house eletrical circuit by yourself and only pay a professional to inspect it and have it declared as up to code. And it is not that hard to make things better than professionals. You already know the reigning logic.
Inside buildings, it’s harder to perform work on water and sewer lines but you can renovate/improve anything up until you reach the main pipe, which is common property. I have a stand alone house and I’m forced to do all of these works by myself because I have a mess inside the walls and ground, for water, sewage and eletricity, because nobody wants the job as I want it done.
And connecting modern PVC to 70 years old ceramic pipes for waste water is not safe nor adequate on any level, yet…
And me wanting a properly done breaker box, with separate lights and outlets for each room is too much of a hassle.
I’ll go complain to my walls, as usual, and take my leave here.