bigmig
Structural
- Aug 8, 2008
- 389
I live in an area that has several markets. The markets exist because of geographic diffences. The 'mountain people' with very
stringent building departments (engineering stamp required for literally everything) and the valley people, with little to no
building department requirements. Mountain people are characterized by $$, lots of regulations, and red tape and very little
questions asked. Valley people are characterized by "why do I need a g-d engineer", screw authority, and "I moved here to
get away from red tape". The building environment in the valley, is well, hostile to engineering input. And you can tell. There is less money
the houses are poorly built, not designed and the house fixers and insurance companies have a life worth of work.
There are also more people in the valley. Competition amoung builders is fierce. Low bids win jobs, period.
I work with the mountain people and live and have my office in the valley. Occasionally I get a call from a new valley client.
The jobs seems promising. Work is close to home. I am trying to politely and honestly tell the valley person calling me that I do not want to get involved if
they cannot accept engineering design that doesn't align with "this is how my grandpa, and dad did it and we have never seen a problem yet".
I clamber through strange conversations, am met with blank stares, and feel like I am obviously not communicating my intentions....
I want to be a good fit, and I don't want to find that out that I'm not, 3/4 of the way into the job at which point I get fired, not paid and swear
I will never do valley work again.
What is a professional way to say this? I meet on site; interview them, see the job....checking all the angles. I am just not sure how to extract the "I hate
doing things differently than I have been doing them" from the valley contractors.
stringent building departments (engineering stamp required for literally everything) and the valley people, with little to no
building department requirements. Mountain people are characterized by $$, lots of regulations, and red tape and very little
questions asked. Valley people are characterized by "why do I need a g-d engineer", screw authority, and "I moved here to
get away from red tape". The building environment in the valley, is well, hostile to engineering input. And you can tell. There is less money
the houses are poorly built, not designed and the house fixers and insurance companies have a life worth of work.
There are also more people in the valley. Competition amoung builders is fierce. Low bids win jobs, period.
I work with the mountain people and live and have my office in the valley. Occasionally I get a call from a new valley client.
The jobs seems promising. Work is close to home. I am trying to politely and honestly tell the valley person calling me that I do not want to get involved if
they cannot accept engineering design that doesn't align with "this is how my grandpa, and dad did it and we have never seen a problem yet".
I clamber through strange conversations, am met with blank stares, and feel like I am obviously not communicating my intentions....
I want to be a good fit, and I don't want to find that out that I'm not, 3/4 of the way into the job at which point I get fired, not paid and swear
I will never do valley work again.
What is a professional way to say this? I meet on site; interview them, see the job....checking all the angles. I am just not sure how to extract the "I hate
doing things differently than I have been doing them" from the valley contractors.