I hope you folks will read this and i welcome your comments

Dear Brownstoners:
Lukar and MDR had a couple of constructive suggestions to make about my comments on this site. And I thank them both. I do wish to point out, that in situations such as this, my wife often quotes Oscar Wilde: “the worst thing about being talked about, is not being talked about”. Thank you both for keeping me current.

let me begin by addressing something Lukar commented on and that is my taking over posts with twenty comments: i have only taken over posts where i know exactly what i am talking about and where i can deliver maximum results for the OP; take into account what I do not comment on: masonary (i know very very little about it and hate it), plumbing (i know some things but am not qualified to speak), dog poop in bins, means of egress, powder rooms, architects…. i never comment on these topics. The only posts I take over are ones where i have hands-on skill that can be shared with others on here. I even commented the other day about someone bringing up the name of an illegal and dangerous pesticide; I once held a NC State Pestici de Application License. Who else reading this has held a pesticide license?

i sometimes digress into other areas because as a tradesperson, i think history is very important (and I like history; old stuff: tools, hardware, locks, hinges; i have a shop full of these things and books on them; I spent ½ hour last night looking for a 5×2 ¾” hinge because of a post here and will go further, after your comment yesterday Lukar, I wanted to really prove my worth; sadly I do not have that hinge). the history of how we got some place in the trades (as with everything else) is very important today as with changing materials and processes, we have to know what might work, what might not, and when it might be better to do it the way our grandfather’s did it; i sometimes have to explain this to customer’s when i sell a job because i know the old way may or may not be better and i have to justify that to them. if homeowner’s wish to hire a pro, they should be looking for someone who knows the history as that person knows the pros and cons of how it was done then and how it can be done now and can switch between them as needed. If people doing the work do not know the history, they should be holding the ladder for the guy doing the work until they know the job inside and out and backwards and understand that to learn something, you have to study it.

now let me add something here, if i may; I am 55 and still learning. i have worked with my hands all my life except 3 years after college when i worked as a technical writer in the pulp and paper industry and i got that job because i understood a bit about plumbing, electric, motors, and could read a blueprint. today, i still call companies to ask about their products and how to use them; all manufacturers have technical support staff. In all honesty, without looking them up, i can tell you that the name of one of the sons’ of the of one of the founders of west systems epoxy is ben and one of the managers at Epifanes varnishes in Maine is Tom. i have called these people more than once to ask them very specific questions about using their products under trying conditions, questions which go beyond the depth of the directions on the can. When i change to new products (and keep in mind this stuff is changing as with everything else in our world; we have adhesives today that were not thought of in the mid 1970’s when I watched my neighbor build a boat; he was still using something called “resourcenol” for below water line applications and us environmentalists should be glad we kissed resourcenol good-bye) I read reviews about them by not only pros but also by others, including people like us who watch things fail or persevere long after the contractor who applied it got paid and moved on. I have been relying on Petitt varnishes now over Epifanes because some sailboat guys in Florida commented in some yachting magazine that Pettit holds up better in the intense sun. This brings us closer to where I am going with this: a few years back I was in Adriatic Wood products in Brooklyn and had asked Erich (who himself grew up working in his father’s cabinet shop and has a degree in “foresty products”) a question about something to do with wood (now keep in mind, I handle more wood in a week than most people handle in a year). Erich got on the web and pulled up an article that addressed my question and began reading. By the way, real trades people, like modern computer geeks, talk about this stuff to point it would boor a lay person to tears (and maybe I am doing that to you Lukar); people who are in this for a “fast buck” stop thinking about this stuff at 5 PM; the rest of us talk about it when we are drinking beer; I still visit my old shop teachers and talk to them about making things (and they now ask me more than I ask them; it’s a sad realization for me and we’ve lost a lot of those folks and I was very close to some of them). As Erich began summarizing the article to me, reading bits, he said “we don’t need the back story”. The truth is, we have been doing this so long, we don’t need the back story; we know what the problem is, we want the answer. When I call the tech people at West System or Epifanes or Ben Moore, they are more pointed with me as some of you might wish my comments were when written here. Those tech people allow me to ask the questions and then they answer in a very pointed manner because they realize they are dealing with someone who has been handling their product for long time and had read the directions on the can a long time ago. When I go on quotes, I frequently ask what industry someone works in, not to be nosey, but if I am talking to a chemist or engineer, I can make assumptions about what they might know and might not know and I might hold back a little or speak in more technical terms. My point about all of this is, I do not know what anyone here knows and if I am going to tell someone how to properly paint a metal door, it might be over twenty posts and it might include information that none of us wants to read but when people share information for free, we sometimes have to suffer “the back story”; I still have to suffer the back story. Part of what makes this fun for me is recounting some of that other stuff.
Let me share with you why my comments appear spread out over twenty posts. I come on here and say something and go to my shop and work. I am doing repetitive stuff like sanding and I can think about other things (when applying expensive adhesives, I have to be more careful) and I think about the post and then it dawns on me that I cannot assume the readers know what I am talking about. Add this to the fact that because I do things all the time (such as caulking) without having to think about it, I myself forget the process because it is second nature to me; I do not have to think. So then I decide to give the details; I am telling people things here that few others on here can put onto paper in words. And I am sorry for the twenty post comments, but I too have to think sometimes and if I were writing a paper for college, I would write a draft and get it all out and turn it in after editing it (which is kind of what you, Lukar, suggest by saying maybe do it all at once). I am doing this on the fly and have to keep working as I do it.

I realize that some people on here will never pick up a tool and put it to task but instead would rather hire people (and this is a good thing). But understand, I have watched things in the trades decay to a point that not only can very few people out there do a simple job like caulk a window the right way but very few people can recognize what a proper job looks like. Let us make something very plain here: knowledge is power. Someone does not have to read what I am saying because it might not matter to them in that moment. But as with the post on painting a metal door that I took over, the OP went into this situation knowing as much as the contractor he was hiring should know (and sadly the op probably knew more than the contractor after he got done reading what I wrote; I painted my own car when I was a kid with direction of my shop teacher) and if the OP in the caulking post began asking the right questions, he could have found out very fast if that guy was going to do that job the way it should be done or if he was simply another fraud. Please understand, that all these mistakes that we read about people making with their choice of contractors does not happen to other contractors; the guy who did the caulking job would not have gotten past my door (I would have asked what caulking he uses and if he told me “Dap” I would have asked “why not phenoseal” and if he had a good answer we might continue the conversation but more likely it would have stopped right there). I meet “painters” who do not believe in stirring the paint or using primer (this is craziness; I have been doing this since before they were born and they argue with me; what are they going to do when they meet people like you?). I had a guy come look at the bathroom in my house and he told me he did not know if he could find a tub to fit the space (this means he has not done too many bathroom renovations); the next guy I called knew the answer without even pulling a tape measure out. there are characteristics about these projects that when you call people and you put questions to them, you will quickly find out if they are really who they say they are. There is no reason that someone should pay someone $1600 to caulk 8 windows and not expect absolute professionalism and two days of perfection (that is not possible against mortar); once you are willing to pay for a professional job, it’s a matter of knowing if the contractor can deliver (and I am not done with what I have to say in the caulking section either).

The intent of what I just wrote here is to show people that there is a lot to learn about this kind work, not only for me as a 55 year-old contractor, but for each and every one of you who will be calling someone to work on your house. Learn at least enough to ask questions and I say that, because as I buy products that I have been using for years, I still ask questions (when conditions change) and the reason I appeared to digress and write an entire paragraph in here about how professional trades people bounce things off one another and learn is because everyone reading this can and should do that and know enough even about simple tasks and everyday products such as caulking to ask their potential contractors questions. To learn all of this, it is sometimes important to suffer “the back story”. If the gentleman with the caulking job had spoken to me prior to hiring the people who did the caulking, he would have had to listen to a little BS but he would have never hired that person. By the way, when I got done with my twenty posts on there, that OP came on and asked to know where I drink so he can call the place and buy a drink for me and a friend; that was the first time I had seen anything of the sort on here.

Lukar and MDR, thank you both for even suggesting that my writing might be good enough to merit its own corner or blog. In truth, the old business staff at brownstoner told me “we need people like you” during a conversation about my posts years ago. I enjoy writing, but once I get paid to do it, I hate it. so I hope you and others will continue to suffer my excesses while I take into account your comments and attempt to keep my focus where it should be. Keep in mind, I will only speak when I am the expert because as a paid professional working in this city, someone else can come on here and challenge me and if I cannot justify what I am saying, I will look like one of those people wearing an orange apron.

@stevecym – Hi! I just read through a few of your comments on a different post, and then came across this. I’m surprised nobody else has responded, but I wanted to say THANK YOU! You are a huge source of knowledge and sanity on this forum, and I for one truly appreciate it!