Quote: (03-05-2013 11:36 PM)Jaylow Wrote:
You can make $1000+ a DAY being a sub contractor for flooring/roofing/siding/decking etc companies but you need enough money/balls to put down a few grand for the tools you need. You can either lie about your experience and learn fast or work labour in the area you want to go to for a 2+ months, learn and save, and then get your own small business.
Ive been in the carpentry field for 6 years now and one thing you want to do is separate yourself from being just a labourer.
The good kind of labour jobs:
-Framing houses is the best way to go if your not going to sub contract, you can do it anywhere on the planet and its fun to build stuff with wood. Its easy on the body in terms of long term wear and tear as long as you dont fall off something. You are probably not mixing any kind of chemicals and probably won't be lifting anything over 20 lbs. People get hired as framers with no experience all the time, use google and quickly learn things like the 3 4 5 triangle method and basic framing calculations. Its not hard if you can add and subtract.
-Drywalling is boring but not going to kill your body in the long run. Holding things over your head makes you surprisingly muscular.
-Siding/stucco etc: pretty much same as drywall only your working at greater heights but its different work each time. Outdoors has its obvious good and bad points.
-roofing: sounds horrible but it depends on the company you work for. Work for a company that has hoists to bring the shingles up and roof rippers instead of shovels. Roofing was surprisingly pretty easy on my body and gets you in shape like nothing else. Flat roofing might be harder but I never tried it.
-Masonry: as boring as drywall and wont get you into as good of shape. You also have to deal with chemicals but you are outside which is good and bad since its seasonal/weather dependent. Id do drywalling over this.
The worst labour jobs:
-building decks/fences because you will be the bitch digging the holes and this is 100x worse on your body than any kind of heavy lifting. Any kind of shoveling will fuck up your wrists in the long run and you will probably mess up your knees at some point.
-Landscaping company would be the 2nd worse for obvious reasons but if you can be the guy riding around in the bobcat you are golden but you have to work your way up.
-form work is brutal especially stripping the forms after the concrete sets but if you can handle it you will get super ripped like nothing else. There can be long term damage to your body though depending on exactly the type of work you are doing. I would stay away.
-flooring is kind of in between, its really hard on your back for the first while until you get used to it and if you got back problems I would stay away for sure but you will get in great shape and I enjoyed the variety in flooring
Tell me more. Especially with masonry work. So in a few months I can learn enough to get all my permits, hire a crew, start making bank? How do you "hack" into "lying" on your resume to the prime on the contract? Is this part of the 4HWW? For real. We can talk masonry work all day, or how to run a crew. If you can "hack" me into this, then I'll throw you a BIG bonus when I get started. PM me the info, and I'll pay up on my promise.