Irish Travelers

It's about time for that mysterious clan to move out again. Do a Google search for Irish Traveler, they're a pretty strange group.

I installed an emulsion/poly roof over 90 lb rolled roofing on a 300 SQR cotton warehouse in Lubbock, Texas in about 1986 - I gave them a good price of around $20,000 because there are a ton of these warehouses in West Texas and I wanted a foot in the door. Still made around $12,500 profit on it for a 2-day job, btw.

So about a month later I see an Irish Traveler crew up on adjacent warehouses, smearing the seams with plastic cement then spraying a skim coating of what looked like 50% cutback 50% crackcase oil. lol Very thin runny stuff. I walked up to see the crew's spray rig when the owner (he prolly saw the roofing company signs on my pickup), in a very nervous defensive voice, blurted out of nowhere: "We're legitimate, we do work for Bethlehem Steel and a lot of big companies."

I was a little annoyed because the agreement I had with the complex' manager was that I'd give him a good price and if it held up I could do more. He told me "Hey, they're doing 4 buildings (1200 SQRS) for just $20,000, you can't beat that price." I told him he'd be reroofing those 4 buildings in 6 months, which of course made him mad. Two months later a hot roofing company was tearing off the roofs on the 4 buildings and reroofing.

I guess I had that experience coming. For years I annoyed roofers in West Texas because I could kill them on price, but this time I got killed.

Btw, I looked at my roof on that warehouse about 5 year ago because there was hail in the area and it was still there and still holding up well. As far as I know, it's still there.

It is funnier than hell actually. Everyone gets "taken" sooner or later based on their greed. When it happens to someone who should know better, it makes you feel like you were not so dumb! dum? dumm? dumba? Ha Ha!

I did see a thing on 20/20 a few years back about the Irish Travellers in South Carolina. Pretty tight knit clan to say the least.

I guess we need them in our society to make examples of our greedy nature

Old School Said: Everybody wants to save a buck or two. Sometimes these guys are not even cheaper. wow!

Yeah there's a slow-but-sure evolution going on in our society where people are being conditioned to shop price. Conditioned by Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, eBay.

Everybody wants to "save" a buck or two. Sometimes these guys are not even cheaper. wow!

What's that, about 2 cents per sq. ft. cost to them when spread out over 24 years? Not too shabby.