Hard to find anyone who wants to work, much less does quality work. I'm a DIY guy, but just don't have the time right now.

Had a 30x50 pad poured for an outbuilding last week. Hired some guys who work for a commercial concrete company to do a side job on the weekend. They both have 10+ years in the trade. I was getting nervous when it took them two hours to square the forms. I said your hypotenuses is 58.31'. One of them asked "whats that"? Then I got REAL nervous.

Poured the next day. Paid him in full at the end of the day, and was charged $1500 more than quoted.

I took the forms off myself so he wouldn't have to make another hour long trip the next day. Put a tape on it. 5 1/2" out of square.

No one around wants to work. The few that do are older (60's+) and have work bid out 6+ months. If a kid would learn a trade, and be good at it, he'll be set for life.

ol' dad

Should have hired the company the goons work for

Trying to back door it for a deal can backfire

yup . my son decided he wanted to be a Machinist after trying a few things, went to school for a CNC machining program a year and a half into it he is working 40 hours a week four ten hour days in the tool room making and repairing molds and tooling for thermal forming and finishing school one day a week.

he should never have a problem finding work being able to run manual , do hand work , CAD and CAM on a few different machine brands and software types. he also says for being not a welder , they like his welding so much in the tool room they bring him all the stuff they want welded.
he is 22
everyone likes his work ethic
he worked for a cheese plant
ag equipment manufacturer 2 years where he picked up welding and fork lift and crane operation
then went back to school at 20 and did about 18 months at a hardware store while doing school full time
then got this job in the tool room
youngest guy they have and they like him a lot most of his co-workers are 45+


while not a construction trade , it is all trades that are picking up and have room for good people.

You are sort of right but there are a few young fellas that do an elephants share of the work that I have met. Some real go getters BUT way more slouches that I can imagine ever existed

You should have measured the forms before you let them pour, but I guess you know that now.

I was lucky and found a guy here that used to build houses in the Hamptons. He retired to this area and decided he missed working. He knows his stuff and has a couple of good guys that work with him, None of them are under 50.

I wasn't aware of it until they showed up. I was my understanding he had his own concrete business. I wrote the check to his business. The truck and the equipment he used had a different name on it. This was a referral from a friend who they had done work for and did a good job. I wasn't looking for a deal, I was looking for quality work.

ol' dad

I did. They formed it one day and poured it the next. I measured it after it was formed up. The day of the pour he removed one side so the concrete truck could back up to the rear end form. When he replaced the form, he didn't square it. Dimensions are correct width by length, but are off 5" corner to corner, in other words its racked.

This is going to have a metal "versa tube" style building on it. I hope the crew who puts them up can hide it. I'm sure they run into it quite often. We shall see.

ol' dad

Guy at work is building a barn... his dad is building his barn... he went home from work the other day to help hang the trusses on his barn... threw a tape on it and it was 18" off square.

I too am a do it yourselfer, but as I get older I have more money than free time so I decided to enlist the help of a contractor for a 22'X30' concrete pad with some minor excavation.

I ran into a similar issue as you. The work quality was good, but it was the 3rd contractor that I contacted that finally showed up. I started in Aug of 2023 and got 3 competitive bids. The one guy middle of the road bid, had great references, etc. Said he would start no later than Oct 1. We had excellent weather for concrete, but that Oct 1 date came and went. I contacted him and he said he was behind, but would get me by mid Nov. In the mean time a coworker was telling me about a pad he was having poured when I asked by whom it was the same contractor I was dealing with and I told him my story and wished him luck. Well the next week the contractor showed up and poured my coworkers pad who accepted his bid a month after mine. I never contacted the contractor and mid Nov came and went and to this day he has never contacted me. Fortunately no money had exchanged hands.

I waited until spring 2024 to start the job again due to winter. Found another contractor that showed up when they said they would and gave a competitive price, great references (even some I knew) so he took the job, but was 6 weeks out (No big deal any contractor worth anything in our area is booked) Again great weather 6 weeks came and went no contractor. I contacted him and same story he was behind, but he contacted Miss Utility to come out as part of the agreement and was to start work no later than July 1st. Same song and dance July 1 came and went no contractor.

On to contractor #3. I had been following a contractor on social media that was a go-getter working 7 days a week if weather permitted. He had his stuff together. I contacted him he provided a quote. Although higher than the others prior he was eager and performed excellent work so I awarded him the job and he set a drop dead date of 30 days. Well 2 weeks into the 30 days he contacted me and had finished some work early and wanted to start mine. Contract signed money down etc. Those guys showed up and busted tail and completed the job. Excellent work form the concrete side, but the finish work left a bit to be desired IMO and he tried to charge me for 50 ton of "extra" gravel. 25 tone was figured into the job quote, but he claimed that he used 75 ton. When I let him know that i had security cams and was confident that 75 tons of gravel were not delivered. asked to see scale tickets, then he back pedaled. Happy with the overall concrete work, but not the excavation finish work that I was comfortable and had the means to complete. I told him if he would forget the 50 tons of gravel that weren't used then I would do the final finish and plant grass.

So in the end I was almost 2 years getting the pad poured, but the quality was excellent minus the attempt by "slim shady" (The name my wife gave the 3rd contractor) to charge me for additional gravel not used.

Why would it be $1,500 more than quoted?

Great opportunity for youngsters that will work. My Son in law is a union electrician. 26 years old and Vice president of the union!

We ended up needing two more yards than he originally figured. However, weekend rate for concrete is $200/yds. I would have been fine with paying for the extra concrete.

I had another project I was going to have him do that he had given me a ballpark quote on at the same time as the slab pour. (A shortwall foundation for an addition). His quote came in about $3,000 lower than another quote, so I was ok with making up the overrun on the slab on the shortwall job. That was until I pulled off the forms and put a tape on the slab and saw how far out of square it was. Needless to say, he's not getting the shortwall job.

I haven't reached out to him yet to tell him how out-of-square it is. I'm going to wait and see if the company who is erecting the steel building can make it work. If not, than he's going to get call. These steel buildings require a 1.5" tall by 3" ledge. So a 30x50 building has a 30'6" x 50'6" pour, with a raised ledge 1.5 tall that measures 30x50. The exterior steel sits over the ledge and flush with the outer rim. Essentially a built-in rat guard. Don't ask me why they do it that way.

I'm hoping the building company can cheat the bottom plate (4" or 5" steel tube) and make it work.

ol' dad

I hired a guy that was a retired mansion To help me put in an underground gun room. He gave me an estimate I figured ain an extra 3 k above it and back just incase. I ran him off before the 2nd course of block got started.

He keep wanting to change the design I wanted, His figure was about 6 k low and I was geting the feeling he was trying to take me for a ride. That was confirmed when he made a comment about me going to be getting a big settlement from the wreck that killed my son. When infact the kid didn't have enough Insurance to even cover half of one of my son's hospital bills,not including life flights, the two 2 week says in icu for my wife and I and month's of follow ups.

at one point It looked like we're may declare bankruptcy, but after a few years the hospitals toll a settlement that was about where everyone got about 9.8% of what they billed for.

And this guy was wanting to take advantage of me thinking he could string me along and milk it out for a nice chunk of cash. I finished it myself with no issues and its done how I wanted.

This guy was about 70 and lady up the roads father. Its not just the young guys that are useless trash.

Call the company who's name is on the trucks and complain about it being out of square, betting the boss will be plenty ticked when he learns where his trucks were this weekend.

No one is wanting to do manual labor, hurts too much. But it's not even construction, my brother and his wife have gotten too old and health problems to clean their pool and can't even find anyone to do that! 5 pool cleaning companies where they live but they all have maxed out their client list. And you can jump from one type job to the next and it's all the same. Just wish it had been this way when i got out of school! Id be retired now!

Donnersurvivor I wouldn't be so sure. I used to toss my general Forman some cash and he would hand me the keys to one of our line clearance trucks on the weekend. General it was only when I had several large removals with a lot of brush. I had the trees down and brush stacked ready to chip and just spent the time running it through the chipper. The amout I saved on gas not halling the brush more than paid for what the GM put in his pocket usually just 100$. Not to mention the time Befues I alway had someone close that wanted the chips.

O to be 19 again. I was making 3 x more on the weekends than working during the week. But the during the week line clearance exposure got a large amount of business. People walking over and asking what I would change to do this or that during the week. I would give them priced on lunch or after work. Sometime it it was a fast job could do the job on lunch.

Not all bosses will care

The time to measure for square was before the crete showed up!

I am 35 years old and run a crew for my dad 5 days a week and run my small business on the weekends. We do underground utility pipe work. Water, storm drain and sewer. For a long time I was the youngest one on the crew. Could not find any young guys that wanted to work. We finally did get a 26 year old but he moves like a turtle on valium and it ticks me off to no end. Like my father I have a very good work reputation and plan on keeping it that way. It sure would be nice if we could find some more quality help though.

Roger that......if they are legit , you should be able to hold him accountable , and have him redo it

Not sure what the contract laws are in your state though

You are right, and I tend to hold myself accountable because I do most things myself. However the reality is, I hired someone to do it for me and paid good money. I shouldnt have had to worry about it. And in fact, one of his workers showed up 2 hours late so I was up at 5:00 a.m. helping them drive stakes and lay wire so it would be ready when the concrete truck showed up.

Ol dad