Lack of capable "tradesmen"

[trevier]

this is a great thread. I love the ones about terrible customers also. Years ago while building a house for customers, who later turned out to be total #^&#^&#^&#^&s. They wanted a security sensor on the door going over the garage storage area. Now the only way into that garage was from the second door or putting a ladder up against the house and breaking the window to get in. Now we were building in a nice part of town and they had a cop who lived across the street from the build. I told my security guy to put it in for them. Now it get's even better. They wanted a sensor to the the pull down attic stair going into the attic, kid you not. I just rolled my eyes and walked away. Worst customers we ever had in building. Got all of there cabinets from ikea and wanted us to put them together. Now this was before ikea was up our way. Needless to say we didn't do it. I could go on but I think everyone gets the jist of this one.

[Rmarsh]

Originally Posted by trevier

this is a great thread. I love the ones about terrible customers also. Years ago while building a house for customers, who later turned out to be total #^&#^&#^&#^&s. They wanted a security sensor on the door going over the garage storage area. Now the only way into that garage was from the second door or putting a ladder up against the house and breaking the window to get in. Now we were building in a nice part of town and they had a cop who lived across the street from the build. I told my security guy to put it in for them. Now it get's even better. They wanted a sensor to the the pull down attic stair going into the attic, kid you not. I just rolled my eyes and walked away. Worst customers we ever had in building. Got all of there cabinets from ikea and wanted us to put them together. Now this was before ikea was up our way. Needless to say we didn't do it. I could go on but I think everyone gets the jist of this one.

I have worked for a lot of nice people too.....not as interesting as the bad ones. One was a doctors wife who gave us a gift for our newborn son....another gave nice gift card to a fancy restaurant...another guy a lawyer gave me a thank you card and a nice book on classic cape cod homes........best one was a guy who owned a nice cottage on the vineyard and told me to take the place for a week.....we had a great time.

[Rmarsh]

Getting deeper into construction math beyond reading a ruler.
Over time I've learned the necessity of knowing the decimal equivalents of the inch.....and that every fraction is an expression of division.....1 divided by 32 equals .03125

The way I remember is that each 32nd is equal to .03 of an inch and so each 16th is .06. and so on. Some of these are rounded off.

1/32 = .03
1/16 = .06
3/32 = .09
1/8 = .125
Not often used is the decimal equivalents of one foot... but it works the same way.
Calculators are a useful tool but you have to understand the how and why of formulas.
Metric system might be less complicated......but I am more comfortable with our past and present system.
Math dont lie!

[spence]

Originally Posted by Rmarsh

Getting deeper into construction math beyond reading a ruler.

I remodeled a lot of my last house myself and without geometry and some algebra I couldn’t have gotten it done. I even made custom cabinets in my bathroom but you’d laugh at my design. They were solid though.

[piemma]

Indeed you did and a fine job it was! I was at the old house from when you bought it!