Week From Hell

Started this week off behind on running leads. Worked 14 hours Monday in order to try and catch them up. Narrowed them to 6 more which I ran on Tuesday while I dropped off two guys to reroof a small shed.

I thought any two idiots could handle a shed roof but when I returned at lunch, they had ran into a good deal of rotten plywood and had not gotten very far at all. I had left some wood that morning but had to go get more which I did right away. When returning later that afternoon it became apparent they were NOT going to finish. It turned out that only ONE guy was working that whole time with all that wood replacement, some of it on mansard walls. The other guy was playing with his phone all day. I had to fire him on the spot and the homeowner saw it all take place as we nearly had a physical confrontation. ( He left walking and refused a ride home Twice )

Wednesday I went back with two other guys and we finished it in a half day. Then we did a couple more repairs.

Thursday we left for a front side only job about 60 miles away. I did something I normally wont do on this job and that was include all wood repair in the bid. ( It seemed fine walking it while the roof was still on )Well, ALL of us fell into the roof before the day was over. Some of us a few times. Turned out to be dry rotted 1 x 6. 108 feet total. Scattered all over the place. We had a huge storm moving in that very night so we HAD to finish. We were almost done as it began to get dark when I realized we were going to run a bundle and a half short on material. I made it to Lowes to get the O.C. before they closed and we finished the top half of a valley and a 30 ft. ridge with a flash light. We finally got home 3 hrs after dark.

Friday morning I hit the landfill first thing, ( right after the heavy rains had fell ) and YEP, I got STUCK!

I had to stop by the local car wash and wash 4 inches of caked up mud off my truck and dump trailer. I also had to throw my shoes in the trash! Then I came back home, called and rescheduled some appointments for Monday, took a bath and went back to bed at 10 a.m. If it gets any better than this, I don't think I'm gonna be able to stand it!

Cell phones seem to be a worldwide problem.My helper takes a nap during the 2 hour ride to work and gets on his cell phone when it's time to get up on the roof and do some work.

Im sure, as with anything, several different things happened.

I detect that the two most significant ones were:

1) I was raised the son of a roofer and came of legal age in the mid 80's. I lived with my father and step mother most of the time and was taught to work hard.

I later moved into my grandparents home at which time I found out that what my dad was teaching me about hard work was indeed hard but was NOTHING compared to what my grandparents believed about working hard.

So basically in the last generation or two everyone taught their children NOT to work hard. But instead to get a college degree and find an easy job that pays good.

What's wrong with that you say?

Well, this latest generation of kids grew up with little to NO work ethic, playing video games, watching TV shows that should be rated beyond their age and eating Potato chips and candy all day and night.

I know nothing is true for ALL people but i certainly believe this is true of the "vast" majority.

The statistics do not lie. More than half of all college graduates can NOT find a college level job after graduation. There are more than twice as many candidates than there are jobs.

So what happens? We end up with college grads working at fast food restaurants, department stores, etc...

2) At or around the same time as all of this, the number of illegal immigrants increased dramatically. Of course it was because more and more of the lower end jobs began to be available.

They would go back to Mexico and tell everyone about how much work their is in the United States and that they could bring the money back to Mexico and Triple it.

In addition to this, unlike and totally opposite of our last couple generations they were taught a very very strong work ethic. So much so that for them it is considered an honor to work for another man and a disgrace if you won't work.

Ok, so this leaves us with the final result. Which is they came over here and showed the owners of all types of construction business, especially roofing, farmers, meat processing plants, etc. etc. that they do indeed work hard. And they don't moan, gripe and grumble.

So within several years they just about completely took over the jobs in the above mentioned fields. Fast forward a few more years and you've got the good ole Americans who never worked much at any type construction because of the above matters who are now trying to get some of these jobs but have little to no experience and a poor work ethic.

When I was in my early 20's I knew 50 roofers. You could randomly pick any 5 and match them up with one of today's 5 man mexican crews and they would out produce the mexicans and at better quality. THIS WITH HAND HELD ROOFING HATCHETTS!

I understand that this may not end up as the most popular reply in history but I am confident that it's the truth!

It really is a shame. It used to be that the trades offered good jobs for people that weren't going on to college and needed a career. Those days are gone and I am not sure what happened. It's a sad state of affairs these days. I don't see it getting any better.

I'm afraid it is that bad. But don't worry it'll get worse. :(

I simply can not find any individual roofers that are worth a crap for anything anymore. I guess the illegals have taken up all the work and they all gave up and moved on to other things.

Back in the day, I had dozens of individual roofers to choose from who were top notch both quality and speed wise.

I hired one who claimed 7 yrs experience and he was totally unable to fill in the bottom 3 shingles of a steep roof off the ladder. He had no idea how to even begin.

A 45 yr old claiming life long experience actually knew the basics but when it came to any detail work, he was totally lost. And he was slower than Christmas Eve!

Finally a guy calls me saying he is 34 and been roofing since 13 years old. He showed up with a large tote bag full of tools. I thought, finally I have found one. That was until I had to show him how to cut around a vent, pull off some dimensionals he only staggered only 2 friggin inches, replace shinlges he scarred up in the heat, etc. etc. etc.

It is really, really bad.

I am surprized you didn't push him off the roof and tell him he was fired before he hit the ground. No Work comp that way!

Cell phones are now a pet hate of mine, helper was sending up a solar panel (8' x 4') it's just over the gutter not fully balanced and his phone rings, the idiot releases all the weight of the panel to me while he answers the call nearly throwing me and an expensive panel off the roof (I'd be too mean to let go) :)

We got the panel in place and unusual for me I calmly asked to see his fancy new I phone, the fool hands it over to me and I promptly throw it off the roof, while it's in flight reminding him about my rules of no phone calls except at break time.

One good thing about a depressed economy he couldn't walk off the job because he knew he would be down a days pay :)

The rules about the phones apply equally to me, I have two one private and one for business, mine stay in the van, callers can leave a message and I call them back, I'm too old to start learning multi tasking :)

Ditto !!! :angry: :( :silly: :blink: :blush: :woohoo: B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

Did I forget to mention that I had a Monster Tooth Ache during all this and one of the guys broke my Plumb Hatchett that I had been using for 10 years? I put out two tear off shovels, a pry bar, some hammers and my Plumb was in the mix. To pry plywood up he chose my wood handled Plumb which of course BROKE!

Boy have I ever been there before. I don't miss the crews!