Labor pool in your area

Can't find a roofer here...Haven't been able to, for a couple of years.

It's definitely a unique & perplexing situation we have here;

Work is relatively scarce. But there IS work. Yet, when one does land some work, it's impossible to find qualified help. When I say "qualified help", I'm not being overly demanding/picky here.

Here's the perplexing part; One would think if there was anytime to be a roofer, this is it! However, wages are cheaper than they've ever been and the work is going extremely cheap, as well. I can only conclude that this dynamic is linked to the fact Colorado lacks any state licensing, and any Tom, Dick or Harry, can & is a contractor...And, they're just installing the roof themselves for labor.

After visiting a jobsite yesterday, I have to go out Monday, to show my $20/hr. guy, how to install comp shingles! He's doing a good quality install...However, at a snails' pace....Looks like a homeowner doing it.....One row across at a time, materials scattered all over the place.....absolutely no planned efficiency what-so-ever. I'm paying pc. wk. on this particualr job; He could be making $300+/day....I just don't get it!

That'd be one layer t-off, r_dawg

O/S: You know as well as anybody that small repairs pay quite well when you do them yourself.

twill: $100 per sq for nail down? You'd get $110 for 1 layer tear off and... or is that just to tear it off? If so I'm way low on my 1 layer tearoff price @ $65, which includes inspecting/prepping the deck & dump fees.

Boy, you almost always get what you pay for. I do a lot of tile and slate and I also fix a lot of leaks that no one else seems to be able to find. That is my niche. Not that I can't shingle, and I occasionally still do, but it is at my price and in my own time. At about 60 years old, I have earned that right and I excercise it too. I can still put them down, but I don't "compete" anymore.

It is refreshing actually!

O/S: A legal sub operating as an owner, (not just installing) doing A-1 work, should be getting close to $100 per sq. I would need about $110 for the most basic 1 layer tear-off.

The going rate here is about $50-70 w/ no insurance, no scruples and from what I have seen, pi$$ poor quality

Well, due to the construction downturn, I believe a good portion of the illegal's have wandered off from these parts...There's still a bunch of the them here however; Mostly the extremely unskilled. We're now left with the bottom-of-the-barrel.

OS; I think I may have to agree with you....The notion of operating a residential roofing company in a small town/rural setting, with authentic employees/technicians/mechanics is becoming a memory of past days....A fantasy...I have to resovle to the facts; My "competitors" are generally half-az/unscrupulous, (either knowingly or just plain naivety to regular business practices/ethics),"pick-up truck" roofing contractors, who do most of the mechanics themselves.

If I had the notion to actually start-up again, I'd have to; 1)Move back to the city and stick to commercial/industial roofing, or 2) Move to a state with authentic state licensing, to escape the riff-raff....or, of course, there's always #3) Became a storm-chaser.

Not really a problem here,if immigration would do thier job we might have a problem here. But with all the illegal crews here and illegal companys taking work and bidding for nothing not a problem.

I am not criticizing, it just occurs to me that if everyone wanted to be a business "owner" then there would be very few people to actually perform the services we all need. If someone offered you $10,000 a square to lay shingles, I would bet you would very quickly become a shingle applicator again. Neither you nor I would want to sub that work out to an employee if they were getting that much.

As long as there are american citizens or aliens that are willing to do the work for less than what we have sold it for, we can all make money off others' labor. If it is the same price, we might just as well do it ourselves. If it costs more than we can sell it for, it isn't going to happen: for very long anyway.

Just for the hell of it, put an ad in the paper offering to pay $100.00 a square for labor to install shingles. I would bet you could take your pick of 50 installers in about a day. Hell, for that much, you would have other roofing contractors offering to do the work and they would take care of the hassles of getting it installed. Just a thought.

It is the labor pool......We hire out of the available labor pool....No matter what one "sells" &/or services one provides; That's the labor pool. I can and have performed any of the mechanical tasks of any services we provide. I just so happen to choose to be a business owner, rather than a mechanic. I would never provide a service, (or "sell" as some refer to it), something I did not fully understand &/or couldn't do myself. I've never really considered myself much of a "salesman". We provide sevices on our merits alone.

Tom, not to belabor the point, but if your employeess are not good at what you are selling, sell something that you can make money at. If you can't do that, sell something that you can do your self!

Kind of related.....

While hourly/piece rate compensation to employees hasn't kept up with the costs of living, the labor costs to employers has risen consistantly over the past two+ decades.

Case in point; We were discussing a project currenty underweay...I was asked if I had figured in the inclimate/winter weather factor....I had responded, "not really, it doesn't really matter, they're,(employees), so fricken slow/inefficient anywhow.....Now, if it were 20 some years ago, and I was out there, it would indeed make a signifigant difference".

So my wife responds....."So, labor rates, (costs), has increased over the years"....(?)

Good point......Which adds credence to the fact we're getting lazier.....

The trick is to raise your own. That is what my dad did. Can anyone say "slavery"? We used to work like dogs, but we sure learned how to roof.

I'm in Iowa and having a terrible time finding any roofing labor at all! We can't even get folks who are unskilled but willing to learn. During our slow time I start gearing up for next busy season by recruiting new employees and crews. But there seems to be no-one interested in roofing. If you know of anyone looking for work please send them my way! :S

Tin man, what do you call an Amish man out in the middle of the pasture with his arm shoved up a horses ass? A mechanic! Most of the guys that tell you that are horses asses!

It would seem you feel your alone. Not so, our area is the same way. It's all foreign to me. I'm 67 yrs old. I would bring in people and ask "Are you a Mechanic?". Yes is always the answer. Then I would start,"Do you do shingles, slate, Metal standing seam. Can you solder, or do shop work for boxes, boots and collars?" No was the answer most of the time. I do flat roof torch down roofing. They don't even know how to run a kettle. I want cash, I'm collecting whatever. They are all helpers, not real roofers. Welcome to the new America.

Just re-read the title. You said "labor" pool and not playing pool. good luck with that one.