Steve Payne
Mainstream media continues to advise homeowners to “pitch in” on contractors’ reno work to “save money”
Canadian Contractor"Demolition" is a good place for an un-trained, un-safety conscious, un-structurally aware, un-electrically aware homeowner to start "saving money" on your next job, typical articles suggest.
Why are we seeing this again?
Every few years, the mainstream media (i.e., not the contractor-audience media like us) likes to run stories advising homeowners to offer to “pitch in” on home renovations when they hire contractors. To “save money,” of course.
Seems like a new round of this insanity is headed our way.
A month ago, Readers Digest asked me to comment for a (forthcoming) article on How To Hire A Contractor. The very polite – and professional – journalist asked me for my thoughts on homeowners “pitching in” to save money.
Never, ever, ever a good idea, I said.
“Even on things like demolition or clean up?” the journalist probed.
ESPECIALLY not on demolition or clean up, but not ever at any other time, I opined.
Well, this stuff never goes away. Here is a typical article, from this week’s Fallbrook & Bonsai Village News, a community newspaper (or just a website, not sure) in San Diego County, California.
“Pitch in and save money on remodelling,” says the headline.
And then, in the list of things that homeowners can do to save money is…. DEMOLITION.
What a great idea.
Anyway, be aware, everyone, that this stuff is always out there. When the Readers Digest piece comes out, hopefully it quotes me specifically on the idiocy of “pitching in” and, with their almost 1-million circulation, the truth about pitching in can be laid to rest… until the next time.
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[…] Last week, editor Steve Payne wrote about mainstream media articles advising homeowners on how to save money on renovations, including the dreaded PITCHING IN. […]