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Anyone have any tips or techniques for replacing a broken corner post in a completed vinyl siding job.
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For ten years, We lived in urban NJ. I worked in areas around Princeton. There was money there and business was pretty good.
For almost two years, I've been living in the rural farming community where I grew up. All our industry has left in the past 10 years, our little town has less than half the businesses on main street still open, unemployment is around 13%, underemployment is staggering (I can't believe how many of my classmates, the top of the class, are working as cashiers or in factories.)
The boom I keep hearing about hasn't reached us.
When We moved, I figured, my family name was known and respected here in this small, tight knit, community and that business would be even more plentiful than it was in my last town.
I'm getting tired and frustrated. I'm not enjoying this as much as I used to. Now, I'm in a poor rural area where there is really no construction going on.
Everybody here grew up on a farm or at least there parents did so they're all self sufficient DIY'ers who are really as good as most contractors here.
On my road there are only 14 houses (2 miles long) and three are owned by small contractors like myself.
Everybody here is blue collar and so many have given up trying to find work and decided to work for themselves mostly out of despiration for work.
The work that is available is definately going to the lowest bidder. I just don't live in a town where good restraunts, quality clothiers, or lexus dealers can survive. For most here, a night on the town is dinner at the Diner and renting a movie.
I'm not sorry I moved, We're now close to our families, we've got a four month old that I want to raise out of the city, and everyone in my home town is so much nicer than where I was living for the last 10 years.
I'm working but I'm tired of fighting for all the work.
I hear about how much business is booming for all of you. Then I read that Sonny lives in the county with the highest number of permits issued in the whole country. I pulled a permit in the township of Stowcreek in October. I was permit number nine.
I've become "the" contractor for one of the townships here. They had to wait for the next fiscal year to find the money for a $300 repair.
I see the stuff some of you guys are building and I can't imagine anyone around here having pockets like that.
Is there anybody else in a similar economy? I'm surviving but I'm frustrated.
*..........Ryan.. from '89 until about '97 , that's the way it was here...we're just turning the corner.. you dig very deep holes and it takes a while to climb out...Ohio and the industrial heartland went thru it before RI, and Texas, hell, even former Gov. Connally went Bankrupt...the coasts are where the money is now... but this cycle will turn too...I figure any job within a half hour commute is good, 45 min. to an hour is manageable.. especailly if it is closer to my guys, who don't live in the same town as me...A lot of this is the changeover from an industrial /mfr'g base to a financial market economy... and rural America is always behind the curve...Family and small town is probably worth it... go back to the marketing and build your rep....Good Luck, Mike
*Ryan, I'm on the road every morning and evening for better than an hour. I don't know if You can reach a busy community by doing the same. Sprawl is reaching out to us and some day I won't have to go as far for work as I do now and all that I moved out for will be gone.Use a little imagination and enjoy what You've got. Hey buy that pony. Skip
*Ryan:You sound much like my family when I was growing up in rural bucks county(60's), pa only a 30 minute ride to Princeton. I'm kinda wondering why the BIG RIDE is missing you. It's unfortunate in some areas of beautiful Bucks that farms are disappearing in leui of big money from big builders. It's sad in some respect as one could see for miles of un-interrupted farmland. But you can still buy milk at the milkhouse in Gardenville,Pa.Ryan? How far are you from say... Frenchtown NJ or Point Pleasant, Pa? If it's minimal ride to these areas you may find alot of work. Ooops.. you're in south Jersey. Now I see it. I don't know what to say now.... but a good commute to SE Pa for good work? There isn't alot of money in south jersey from the way I saw it as a kid(and today) unless you're near Atlantic City, Ocean City and/or Wildwood. Good Jersey tomatoes and sweet corn if I recall right. How could I forget.Good Luck and wishing you the best:)
*Hi Ryan,Central New York has been in a depression since the 1890's. The good thing is that when things go bust elswhere, you don't feel it here. The bad news is that when things are booming elswhere, you don't feel it here.I moved up here about 8 years ago from Chester County, PA, which was a very wealthy area, just as I was getting into construction. It's been a struggle from day one, and continues to be. I haven't even got the advantage of family and small town connections. I'm an outsider, so I have to work twice as hard to get work as those who know everybody and their brother.I'm tired of it too. I'm a hair's breadth from moving to Minneapolis to try and catch a little bit of the gravy train before it's gone. I do plan to keep my house here and move back when the time is right. I've been thinking and talking about this for a couple of years now, but have yet to get up and walk. Got a call today on a possible addition project and that may keep me here yet a little while more, but who knows.The people I know here that do have work are the ones with very long-time family connections. Make the most of that.Good Luck,Steve
*Hey Ryan,Sorry to hear it's tough there. I think its sort of a foreshadowing of things to come in many areas, including mine, though it is still going strong here in Wisconsin.
*Ryan, just got off the phone with a buddy from the back woods.Punxsutawney,PA to be exact.Well, backwoods compared to the big city of PGH! You know, where the groundhog predicts the comming of spring. I met him at the trade school I went to.He graduated school with intentions of moving to Pgh or another city to find work, but started on his own there and has been working steady since. I asked him about fining work in a smaller town.He's young(about 22) and clean cut looking.Very personable, smart and hard working.He knows he gets alot of work over others, by keeping a neat, polite apperance.His theory on a work truck is, older and clean. A newer one and people think he's making too much money, and an old beater makes him look sloppy.He did very well in school and can explain in detail what each job will entail, this makes him more knowledgable than the competition in the customers eyes.The trick he used to get started and still pulls out when jobs are thin, right before they sign, he uses his best country boy look and says....if you PROMISE to tell 9 people about the job I do for you after I'm done, I'll knock off $100 from the price.Now I'm not asking you to lie or promise to say nice things about me.If you like the work tell 9 people and if you don't like what I've done tell 9 people.Our deal is just for you to tell 9 people my name, keep my number in case they want it, and tell them the truth about how pleased or not you are. He guesses most customers tell about 4-5, trust is a big thing to the towns folk where he lives.Probably the same in most small towns. He takes difficult jobs the more established guys are afraid to do also.He does a wide variety of jobs to get his name out.He'll do trim or build a barn.He's painted the inside of a church and built an X-Ray room for a doctor.Any thing to get his name out, and let each customer know he can do both interrior and exterrior, custom cabinets or reuse old material to keep costs down.Start work a little earlier that the competition and work a little later.Make a nicer job site sign than everyone else.The little things should add up over time.I just (during typing this)got a phone call from a contractor I talked w/ last spring about subbing trim for.We've kept in touch, I'd call every few months.He now needs a trim sub and possible exterrior work.I told him I'm one stop shopping!My point ,all in good time.The little things do matter.He told me before, that I made a good impression during our first meeting.Your potential customers will think the same thing!Just need time for the seeds to grow!If you live in a small town, maybe mass mailing/flyer stuffing? Jeff
*It sounds bad Ryan. And these are the good times!Why not just move to a place where you can have a carreer?I live in the sticks, and drive 1.25 hrs to work. But it's worth it. I know of guys driving 3 hours (one way). If that's what it takes to earn a living...Do the math. 8 hrs at $12 =$96 and no driving.8 hrs @ $25 = $200 + 6 hrs driving. 200 divided by 14 still equals a lot more than 96 bucks.Nobody wants to work 14 hours per day. But plenty do. You gotta do what you gotta do.Sounds like your slipping into a depression. Shake it off boy, and get to work!Blue
*Ryan...just a note from your underprivilaged buddy from the north. I live in an area just like you. Except people expect to pay 12$ to have a carpenter here. (Canadian). If you want the amount in American $ that equals about 8$.Framers build custom homes here for the same rate as they charged in 1967. 3$/sf. For years I would show up at an estimate and by the time I was leaving there was 3 other contractors parked waiting to quote. So pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back into the game. Ohh, and we pay nearly 50% taxes to boot. You are surrounded by prosperity, seek and ye shall find.Lawrence
*Anyone have any tips or techniques for replacing a broken corner post in a completed vinyl siding job.
*Go to Certainteed's web site and get a vinyl carpentry manual. There is a section in this pubilcation showing how to do this. It is not that difficult.Dennis
*How 'bout another alternative!I am going to assume that you are skilled and hardworking. It sounds from business description (remodeling, additions and repairs) that you are more or less providing a service. Have you considered making a product and then distributing it into the population centers within a 200 mile radius of your location?My background is furniture. I started in a furniture refinishing shop and went through everything from home repair/restoration to academic research. I currently live in rural Oregon and I don't think you truly understand rural poverty until you see firsthand the despair and deprevation of former timber dependent communities in rural Oregen and northern California.I think the best way out for many of these people (and you included) is to transfer your skills into a product that you can "export" from your home town to NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC, etc. I know of individuals who are successful making platform swings, planters, doors, etc that are rarely used in the local communities in which these craftsmen are located.The concept is wood product development -- and there are literally hundreds of thousands (millions?) of wood products that you could make and successfully sell! The difficulty is picking the right ones. There has to be a fit between your skills, locally available materials, the equipment and tools available to you; AND what will sell in the market. Come up with a few product ideas (maybe 10). Go into Philadelphia and see where they are selling, what they are made of, the cost/prices and see if you can out-compete in terms of price, quality, design etc. Talk to the business owners and try to determine if there is a product that is requested by consumers but not readily available. Go to nursersies, independent lumber yards, where ever!Once you have determined a couple (3-4) likely options, make a few of each and start slepping them. Maybe you will have to put some on consignment (not recommended but you sometimes have to do it).Do it part time on the days you cannot find work locally or on days that you don't need to drive 60+ minutes each way. And believe that it is possible! Lots of business started parttime in a garage!Stanley Niemiec -- Wood Technologist Wood Product Development [email protected]