What we have here... - Page 2 - Paint Talk

Picky Painter · 02-08-2010, 02:32 PM

Here is my two cents worth on the topic at hand and I am in no way aiming these comments at anybody in particular as though I were offended, because I'm not.

Some people are just plain inquisitive and I am one for sure. I will read an entire book just to gain one useful tip and call it time well spent. If there is something new to add to my personal knowledge base I am all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake. That having been said, when I first starting posting on these forums I just had to ask about the accubrush ad I kept seeing on this site. I can cut with the best of them, but I was bugged to think that maybe, just maybe, I was missing out on something useful so I just had to ask. I remember getting jumped on by a couple people as though I were a noob. As arch said in an above post, some of us know our craft just fine but are always looking to learn more. What I find is that I usually do much better jobs than most people but my curious questions sometimes end up making me look like an idiot, that is hardly the case.

Some people seem to think that years of experience equal skill and the right to look down on the lesser experienced, I disagree. In my second year of full-time painting another painter in his 60's was watching me cut quick and straight and said to me " one day you guys will have to teach me how to cut like that". Yet another painter I know with over thirty years experience painted a basement apartment with a known mold problem completely in alkyd - I was astonished when I heard. When I was just starting out my boss told me to go slow on the polesander, said if I went too fast it would heat up and form buttons of powdered paint on the paper. It didn't take me, the "apprentice", long to figure out that the this cheapo boss had a sanding pad so old that the only contact it was making was in the center of the pad in a two inch circle, you could plainly see it on the sandpaper. I swapped that old metal pad for a new one and blazed away with no ill results. Strange that the newbie painter figured out what the guy with the twenty years of high-end experience could not. I guess experience has nothing to do with thinking ability.

Some of you guys are right, there are certain people out there who have no right being in business, at least not yet. There are plenty of people in my area who had great jobs at GM, who should have enough money saved, who have excellent pensions from 30+ years on the job, who decide to be painters and screw it up for the rest of us who actually have to work for a living. One such retired guy asked me for my help on a huge job which was way over his head. This guy asked questions such as "can you sand caulikng?" and "do you really have to clean these brushes every day?". I should have let him burn instead of helping him out.

I'll admit that some of the questions recently have been lame, but that one dude asking about where we buy our masking products was just trying to peddle his wares by the looks of things. As for the newer guys, if they display the proper attitude regarding being professional, I say help them be professional.

**Workaholic** · 02-08-2010, 03:09 PM

My thing is if someone asks a question even basic ones I try and provide them with what I think is the right answer, or I will try and point them to the right direction. Of course sometimes your senses start tingling and you think something is up with this guy and those guys I will choose to ignore if I can't find a reason to ban their asses.

The guys that are trying to figure out the technical side of the biz are just puting some time under their belt and I would rather help them so they can be better prepared when they are doubting themselves rather than have one of their early jobs turn on them.

As VP has pointed out it is not caulk and drops and rollers that are going to make or break your business it is the flow of jobs and how you handle the flow that is going to carry you to feast or famine.

If you are worried that the guy you are about to answer is a lowballing hack well then hell give him as much technical info that he requires so that he might not always be a hack, most of these hacks do not care to learn any marketing techniques because they think they are making it happen one 99.00 room at a time. Most of those guys will not be in business for long.

Of course you can always choose to ignore the OP.

WisePainter · 02-08-2010, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

...well I'm not quite sure.

Seems we've hit a bit of stagnation here. Where to buy tape? Learning to caulk? How to paint pocket doors? And numerous more threads along the same lines.

Starting to sound like a DIY site.

I dont know, but my thinking is if you dont even have the basics down, how can you call yourself a "professional"? And these are all basic tasks / knowledge that anyone should have down within the first 30-90 days of picking up a brush....and 90 days may well be pushing the envelope.

Heck, within the first 30 days I was teaching a helper how to stain and spray lacquer. Within 60, I could turn her loose on said project with great results.

Tends to make a person wonder

.

Maybe instead of a "pro painter" forum, there should be a "paint co. owner" forum instead?
Because honestly, any painter that posts here more than likely owns their own paint shop.
Hourly workers should be consulting their site foreman to complete a job to the company specs, not a website.

The rest of the questions it seems are HO driven.

Oh I hate pocket doors...

**Workaholic** · 02-08-2010, 04:12 PM

WB Wise

WisePainter · 02-08-2010, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Workaholic

WB Wise

why thank you!

didn't think I was gonna make it, the ban times kept increasing every time I checked...

<----me then

<----me now

Wolfgang · 02-08-2010, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WisePainter

why thank you!

didn't think I was gonna make it, the ban times kept increasing every time I checked...

<----me then

<----me now

Yeah WB!

(...now behave yourself) LOL

WisePainter · 02-08-2010, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

Yeah WB!

(...now behave yourself) LOL

lol, I promise I will stick to the facts from now on...

When I returned after 30 days, and saw that the ban would be lifted: "never" I cried a little bit inside.

Wolfgang · 02-08-2010, 06:44 PM

Sometimes a dose of humbleness and a measure of humility is a good thing my friend....adds to your "pride" factor.

**RCP** · 02-08-2010, 07:05 PM

A lot of good points and very nicely expressed!

I think Bikerboy nailed it, "we lift up the standards of the paint industry"

This might interest some of the newer members.

What is Painttalk?

WB Wise!

**Workaholic** · 02-08-2010, 07:11 PM

A lot calmer these days. (knocks on wood)

vermontpainter · 02-08-2010, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCP

What is Painttalk?

Thanks, Chris. You had to go and stir up those ghosts. I was just trying today to remember why I left last summer. I remember now.

**Workaholic** · 02-08-2010, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vermontpainter

Thanks, Chris. You had to go and stir up those ghosts. I was just trying today to remember why I left last summer. I remember now.

That was premod for me.

Another 30 days and you will forget again, no worries. Kind of like that movie Memento.

vermontpainter · 02-08-2010, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Workaholic

That was premod for me.

Another 30 days and you will forget again, no worries. Kind of like that movie Memento.

I worry about the long term effects of exposure though.

**RCP** · 02-08-2010, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vermontpainter

Thanks, Chris. You had to go and stir up those ghosts. I was just trying today to remember why I left last summer. I remember now.

I know, I did hesitate before I posted that! Just read the OP!

vermontpainter · 02-08-2010, 07:27 PM

The good news is, my stance hasnt changed as it relates to the op of the thread you linked. The better news is I like Wolf's op in this thread better.

Wolfgang · 02-08-2010, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vermontpainter

I worry about the long term effects of exposure though.

There might be medication for PaintTalk PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder for you non-vets).

I nominate the Mods to look into this.

All in favor?: AYE!

All not in favor?: ----

Another unanimous vote. The Aye's have it.

Thanks Mods....keep us posted.

wje · 02-08-2010, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikerboy

We all had to start from square one. We were all newbies at one time, give em some slack.

That is a good statement, but that is why you learn something before you take it up. Those questions should be asked to somebody who can give you instruction in person, like a boss.... anybody that starts with me as a professional painter has already demonstrated all the expected tasks a painter may perform in new construction, a repaint, or a commercial job site. If they can't do that, they are not a professional. And if they can't do that they DEFINATELY have no business being in business and offereing professional services by essentially committing fraud (maybe not that extreme but claiming something you are not to get money seems like fraud to me)

Soooooooo.. I can see where Wolf is getting frustrated. Imagine thinking there is probably good money in tiling, so you start a tiling business? Is that fair to a customer to have somebody do something they have never done just because they had a business card and gave a good price? Sure you could get a job but then you have to ask how to do it and then the guys on the tile forum will have the same conversation as we are having here

**Workaholic** · 02-08-2010, 08:19 PM

Well I learned to caulk and putty a good bit before I ever learned to paint. I started at the bottom.

Wolfgang · 02-08-2010, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Workaholic

Well I learned to caulk and putty a good bit before I ever learned to paint. I started at the bottom.

With the caulk or the putty?

**Workaholic** · 02-08-2010, 08:33 PM

Caulk because my first day on the job the house was already puttied and primed, I knew nothing about painting when I started. I was so green I caulked the groove that the door seals go into on an exterior door because they were already pulled. Comical to think back on that.