Website owner:  James Miller

Reasons for bad work

   Why do people do bad work?  One reason can be ignorance, not 
   knowing the proper way to do the job.  But the more usual 
   reason for bad work is simply not being willing to put in the 
   time and effort required for a good job.  Doing the job right 
   simply requires more time and trouble than the person is 
   willing to invest.  It is much easier to take a much shorter, 
   quicker route: doing a job that appears OK on the surface, 
   taking the money, and running.  Example: Exterior painting 
   work.  A good job requires proper surface preparation before 
   the actual painting.  This means removing all the old loose 
   paint, replacing rotted pieces, caulking, replacing bad glazing 
   around window panes with new glazing, etc..  All this can be a 
   lot of work, the hardest part of the job, in fact.  A much 
   quicker, easier way is to just paint over the old loose paint, 
   rotted wood, and loose, crumbling window putty without doing 
   the initial preparation.  If you put in caulk or new window 
   putty you are supposed to wait a few days before painting it.  
   But this involves coming back another day to finish the job --- 
   which is added trouble.  The shorter, easier way is not to wait 
   --- just paint over it right after putting it on.  And the 
   truth is if you do everything the short, easy way the final job 
   may look fairly good.  It may even last out the one or two year 
   warranty period.  But that is as long as it will last.  And it 
   was a bad job. 
   
   June 1993