turk
New Member
Posts: 7
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Post by turk on May 15, 2007 13:18:07 GMT -5
>:(I live in a small city in wi and never ran into this problem before. We had a 48 unit that we were supposed to start today but when the friend that I was supposed to help on this building went to check to see if it was ready, the builder told him he hired some out of town crew (Georgia)of mexicans to hang and tape the job for 14 cent for hanging and 14 cents to tape. There are two other large rentals in the city that have mexicans working in them. I dont mind them working but they are majorly cutting into our work. We have alot of hmong in are area and they live tax free for x amount of years, is this how mexicans can work so cheaply?? Now us locals sit with no work, it wouldnt bother me so much if it wasnt so slow, but it is a bad year for this. Anybody else have this same problem?
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Post by captsheetrock on May 16, 2007 10:12:08 GMT -5
this is the reason that I made that post about who's the best. 14cent is about the going rate arond here for that type of job. Yes its because the mexicans will do it for that price, but thats the reality of it. Thats why I got into tools, I can out run the local mexicans here and still do quality work. You and your partner should get around 400 or so boards finished in a week on the average condo/rental type unit. Thats like 2600 or better than a grand a week apeice after materials (if your suppling) I'm not saying I like competeing against them, I'm saying if you don't beat them at their game, they will beat you at yours.
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Post by betterdrywall on May 16, 2007 17:48:41 GMT -5
The good thing is there will always be alot of remodeling work and individual homes to work on . keep up the quality regardless of the price and sell your work to the individual . and take pictures of your work , i for one would like to see some more work pictures posted . i think it would be a good way to keep us on top .
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Post by koolkat62 on Jun 15, 2007 8:11:41 GMT -5
I'm in Atlanta GA now and have worked in FL and TX and have been competing with the Mexicans nearly my whole career. I can tell you one thing I have learned about them. They work really hard - but not smart. They typically have no system to finishing but will throw a lot of inexperienced bodies at a job and to a builder this "looks" impressive. My old finishing partner and I could easily finish a house in the same amount of time as a six to eight man Mexican crew and leave a better quality job behind. Another Achilles heal they have, is to control competition amongst themselves, they only traine each man to do a little piece of the job, not how to finish. One man spots screws, but can not run bead, one man tapes(with a banjo, most can not afford a tube), but can not run a box. So, that being said, the key to beating them at "our" own game - tools and knowing how to use them correctly and efficiently! I've seen and hired many, many finishers that use tools but have no clue how to correctly use them, costing themselves and me a lot of time and money, and future jobs!
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Post by captsheetrock on Jun 15, 2007 15:50:33 GMT -5
Koolkat, I agree with your post completly. Its always been a problem and I reckon it always will be. One thing that hurts us the most is the lack of RELIABLE american help. I just fired my two americans (crack heads) because of their dern dope-fiend ways. I have been trying to figure out if I'm gonna replace them with new drug addicts (american help) or get me a cpl of mexicans (neither one understands english) or just scale back and do it all myself, Dern I get tired of liars, drunks and druggies. I think one of the main reasons that the mexicans have gotten the foothold that they have is the unreliablity of american companies, that is caused by our help not showing up, laying out, and leaveing early, its hard to blame all that on the mexicans.
Capt, dazed and confused as usual,
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Post by Need Money on Jun 23, 2007 9:53:54 GMT -5
hey as long as you get PAID (unlike us) its all good right mr. fleshner
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