Tom Raymond

None of the private practices in my area are accepting new workers comp cases anyway. What good is insurance if no one will accept it? I am exempt for about 90% of the work I do. I have resolved the vast majority of the remainder by becoming a w2 employee, making it someone else's problem. Once or twice year, I take my chances.

I've done this several times in NY. As an officer of a corporation (two person partnership S corp) I was eligible for coverage under the corporate comp policy, but only in my capacity as an officer. If I was injured unloading a truck my claim would have been denied. As a Sole Proprietorship, there are several instances where I might be required to have comp coverage, and a few where I am required to "opt in", but none where I am eligible for benefits. Additionally, having both comp and health insurance puts me in a position where both insurers could claim my injuries are the others responsibility. No thanks.

I am flabbergasted at how many cowboys are upset over no longer being hogtied. I don't get it. NY doesn't license any trades. The only time public safety is at risk, or collusion takes place, are the highly regulated public bids and projects.

Insurance is a racket. Never buy more than you have to.

No, but I probably should look into them. We are at near zero inventory. In my zip code there are currently 5 houses for sale. Two are foreclosures, one Is a double wide that has been vacant for a decade or more. It was a total loss when i looked at it 8 years ago, $61k. The other is a little 1960 ranch with tarps on the roof for $30k. There is a new listing 2000sf 1870 colonial for $179k that's probably overpriced. The last is an outlier, 5000sf, 150 acres, $1.2 million in a community with a median price of about $100,000. The neighboring towns aren't much better. We had more inventory at the peak of the crash.

As for the overnotched joists, they rarely split but they always bounce.

Nacho was planning on using their fee calculator to pay nacho members to perform prelisting inspections. He got a lot of pushback for promoting "free" home inspections. At about the same time there were 3 other prelisting programs launched, and he shifted gears to his commercial inspection association. It was all over Facebook about 6 months ago.

I would just follow the slab. If everything is crooked in the same direction by the same amount no one will ever see it. Make one component level and will stick out like a sore thumb. The real trick with the doors you have picked is making sure that the sills are flat. The directions will harp on plumb, level, square...but a flat sill is far more critical. Most of those doors aren't manufactured square.

The only time I shut anything off was the weekend the fire department decided to control burn the house at the end of my street. We don't have backflow prevention so I closed the main. our volunteers have imploded more than one water heater when the pumps pulled more water than the lines could supply.

I would only raise the door if you plan on building up the floor. Put the "one by" on the top.

That's a small space. Hang and tape drywall. The money you save on the plastic ceiling can go toward a plastic floor cover, the concrete patch will always look like a patch.

No, they won't lap nicely. Add strapping and run them the other way, or divide the space with H channels. Or select a different material. Tongue and groove cpvc is nice.

Spendy Costly Expensive There goes your vacation plans Your kid was probably going to drop out of college anyway Whatever it takes to convey the gravity of the situation.

What's e&o? I don't let insurance dictate my level of service.

Approximating costs is not the same thing as bidding on a job. Not even close. How many times have you heard a realtor say, "it just needs a little paint and trim"? Are you aware that casing, base, crown and a fresh coat of paint for a 12×14 room is around $1000 in materials? How many first time buyers do you think are? I didn't pull that out of thin air, that's what I spent on my daughter's bedroom last summer. I work for my client. If he needs a number he gets one, but I often find it more helpful to describe a scope of work. They have even less of an idea what goes into the remedy than they do of the costs, and the sharp ones will begin to tally their own expectations. And no, that is not "designing" a repair.