On craftsmanship and lowest bid:

...sometimes people get exactly what they "ordered" and are disappointed with the results.

rest assured...the corner cutting isn't going to happen at the level of overhead and profit.

Being a craftsman and being a businessman are two very different things. Those two personalities in me often fight each other. Balance is the key with all things in life and this sort of thing is no exception. - Dieselpig

To me, the entire subject of "craftsmanship" boils down to a person's values. As tradesmen, we all know it when we fail to perform up to our ability, even if the client is unaware of it. From my own perspective, I will not sell subpar work to a client. If (when) I make a mistake, I fix it. Trying to get away with or otherwise hide mistakes is, in my opinion, tantamount to fraud.

Unfortunately, there have always been plenty of people in the world who do not have a problem with fraud or theft. Those are the people who do not struggle with the "craftmanship/conscience issue". Honest people do. - Ragnar17

We in Western society have largely become “observers” rather than “doers”... I believe that the decline in appreciation of Craftsmanship is at the root of this trend, and that this trend must be reversed for us to survive.

I also believe that we all innately share a love and appreciation of fine craftsmanship, but most do not have a reference point or access to examples of it… the Internet…has drawn so many away from “making things’ to vicariously experiencing what others have chosen for us in lieu of us identifying and pursuing a unique personal journey.

- The Internet Craftsmanship Museum Presents: An Essay on Craftsmanship, by William L. (Bill) Gould

Craftsmanship has gone with the times.......carpenters are mechanics now......you buy everything made up in the mill and just put it on.

The only craftsmanship left is how well you cut your miters.

I used to show off (when I made furniture) my hand cut dovetails and all the other stuff I did to create a really nice desk or something.......but nobody really cared and few knew the difference.

It all boiled down to price........"Well, that's nice, but I can get the same thing at wallmart for a lot less".......how many time have I heard that one?...lots.......till I gave up and saved my craftsmanship for my self.

There are fast carpenters who care..... there are slow carpenters who care more.....there are half fast carpenters who could care less... - jjwalters

To some people, a meal is good ingredients prepared in a thoughtful way to bring out the best within those ingredients. The meal is then presented in a way to so the recipient will not only be satisfied by the aroma and the taste, but the visual as well.

To others, a meal is a box of Hamburger Helper. Sometimes it's even prepared in accordance with the directions on the box.

To some people, construction is a profession. To others, it's simply a job. - Mongo

I just cannot for the life of me understand what it is that prevents the consumer from understanding the true value of the work we do. - EricPaulson 

...Where building trades were once considered a skill and being able to build a whole house was looked upon in awe we now see one foreman and a mexican crew who are working for $10-12 an hour and no benefits handling 70% of the job.  That means people like us are really often times bidding on the 30% left over.  I don't think that will get better.

A buddy of mine just told me the other day that he was on a construction job of a small hotel (Holiday Inn express size) and the General Contractor had an entirely immigrant crew that worked 10 hour days, six days a week and camped out in the parking lot sleeping in the back of pickup trucks with a blue tarp stretched over it.  Now compete with that while trying to pay worker's comp, health insurance, etc. 

Our society is becoming more and more of a Wal Mart driven society.  Low bid wins on everything.  Fewer and fewer people just call and get work done.  Now let me say this is not across the board, but it is becoming more and more common. 

As far as recovery.  My thoughts were pretty simple.  Our local Whirlpool plant just laid off 700 employees for the first time in 20 or so years.  These are my clients and they now have no money. I think it might recover by June or so, but it doesn't mean recovery will happen right away.  It might take a year or so to really get going again.  I would starve by then.  Not that I couldn't use a little weight loss, lol.  - DanT

How Much of the Construction Industry Works Today 

I worked for a roofing company for a short time as an installer/crew leader and I can describe the structure of the company from my point of view.

First the "money man" incorporates, as ABC roofing.

Then the owner "money man" ran ads in newspapers, flyers, TV commercials, etc. I know the advertising was big time.

Then the owner rented an office and hired sales people who were paid strictly on commision, no risk there, with a couple of support people on salary, secretary/bookeeper.

All of the installations were performed by another corporation that is headed by a friend of the owner, DEF enterprises. This insulates the company selling the roofs from the company installing the roofs. He also has one support person/secretary on salary.

Very low overhead, They are in the back room of the rented office where the salespeople are. No tools, no trucks, no ladders, no insurance (they dont perform the installs, just paperwork) just a coupla computers & phone lines in a rented office in a strip mall somewhere, which are begging for tenants these days.

Further, DEF enterprises subcontracts all of its installations to roofing crews. They require that all of their subcontractors have insurance and the relationship is very much one job at a time. If the installers do a bad job they won't get any more installations.

Nobody ever watched us work, when new installer crews were hired they were lined out by an installer crew leader that had been there for a few months, its not rocket science... the company I worked for had quality/callback issues, but all were sold at retail so there was plenty of money to go back and make things right.

As I said I didn't stay long but I figured it out pretty quick and the reason I didn't stay was that they squeezed both sides against the middle, They got as much as they could from the homeowners and paid as little as they could to the installers. The owner and his buddy got the lions share, with the sales people making a huge chunk. There was incredible turnover of the installation crews, but there was always a steady stream of new hires ready to give it a shot. The only way to make good money as an installer was to employ "cheap" help.

If they would have paid the install crews and support people top wages and stressed quality and customer service and built a good reputation, instead of trying to squeeze every nickel out of both sides while doing al little as possible themselves it would have been a tough business model to compete with.  Imagine if you had the best install crews, and they had a vested interest in doing the best job they could because what they paid to get the job (the collective cost of the strip mall office, support people, and advertising) was less than what it would cost them to do it themselves.

Of course that won't happen because thats not how business is structured in this country, the people that perform the work are on the bottom rungs, the guy that rents the strip mall office in his corporate name and his buddy who fronts the dummy corporation and the salespeople make all the money, thats why they have to get illegal immigrants from poor countries to do the work, with one relatively new legal immigrant who speaks the language to get insurance in his name and pays all the taxes under his social security number and pays the illegal help cash.

- inD47

This is almost exactly how the drywall trade is run in my area.  Owner has several vacation homes.  Workers live about six to a rented house trailer and ride to work together. They are paid per sq. ft. They also own the call backs if they want to keep working.  Honestly, I believe if one of them got hurt on the job, he would just disappear.  Sad but true.  - dug

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