We're fashioning a kitchen at work. Gave my eldest son (recently turned 30) the tools and basic instruction necessary to make a hole for a sink.
Much pissing about later there's a sink in the worktop, on the wonk slightly, too close to the back so that the worktop can't quite reach the wall unless we severely bastardise the rear of the base unit. But it will certainly do.
Positively I suggested that he had learned some pitfalls and gotchas so that if he was to fit a sink again it would be easier and he'd do a better job.
His retort was that he'd learned that if he needed to fit a sink again and wanted a better job doing he'd get someone in. And i'm pretty sure he was serious!
It's useful to know when to play to your strengths and when to delegate. Subcontracting a job costs money, but if you contract it to someone who can do it quicker and better than you then you get a better result at the end of the day, and you can use the time saved on something more profitable. If you can't see you're going to be installing many sinks in future, why would you invest in learning that skill?
A clever boy you have there. I know so many DIYers much older who still do not know their limits - and probably never will. Give him a pat on the back!
Tricky one. I suspect if you went through the planning exercise with him, including positioning/marking of the sink and gotchas he may have found the experience more positive. Instead of which he probably got some veiled criticism.
For the first time ever, I've had someone in to do work in the house (other than having new gas or electricity meters or sorting out phone line faults), but in my defence, it was installing granite worktops.
With anything else, my father used to help, although these days my eldest son (17) does. My middle son (15) actually asked for tools and his own workbench for Christmas.
I gave rudimentary advice prior. I'm trying to cure myself of being a control freak so i'm just leaving folk to do stuff themselves lately. Particularly where it doesn't matter enormously if it's a top notch job.
And I wasn't critical at all afterwards, I admitted all the gotchas i'd suffered in my recent (and ongoing) kitchen fit, and it's the 3rd time i've fit a kitchen into that room. Next time will be a cinch, I must almost be an expert now.
Anyway the sink is in, the waste was piped up today. Should get mains done tomorrow. And i've not lifted a finger, happy days.
You have to realise, some people are just not good at it. I was complimented on the very symmetrical and lined up doors on my kitchen cabinets after replacing hinges. I pointed out that there are ways to make sure the sag is the same on them all, and hardly rocket science. If a blind bloke can do it then why not the fitters, half the time cos they are rushing it and need to get to the next job, when you do it yourself you can think it through, be ready wityh tools and wedges to act as third hands etc, and you can often feel wonky things before you drill right through or saw it all the way, whatever you are doing. Having said that though fitting sinks to worktops in Kitchens with wobbly walls is not easy, and I've not done it all myself, ever, since I hate messing with things to do with water, as it usually means crawling about and finding jammed stopcoks or going in the loft. Brian
I have been into stuff since I was very young, making electrical projects (all on my own, no peer or mentor of such things at home) when I was still at primary school.
I build a 6' rowing dinghy in woodwork 'lessons?' at Secondary School, had already stripped and rebuilt a car engine before I was taught how to at Technical College.
In our electronics class at TC we (12 of us) all assembled ZX81 kits. Mine was one of the few that worked first time and I spend the next term repairing all the rest. I was interested and willing to apply the relevant skills and attention to detail.
When the Decwriter / modem link went wrong in the 'computer room', they would come and drag me out of my class to fix it!? (I was 15-17 at that point).
*Very few* of my fellow classmates had anything like the interests in stuff that I had, and that was then. Few of my mates ever did much practical stuff (and only one was very similar to me, building / racing RC boats and cars, rebuilding / upgrading real cars etc).
Neither of us got our interest from our parents.
So, I tried to instill the same practical leaning in my daughter, bringing her up as a 'person', rather than 'a girl' (at that time etc), building stuff for / with her and encouraging her to help / try stuff whenever possible ... and whilst she does do most the work when working on her car / van / motorbike (under supervision) and she's particularly good at sharpening her own chainsaw chains, I wouldn't say that she has the sort of 'buck stops here' confidence I had at that age.
At her age now (30) I'd had a house for 10 years and had personally done everything that needed doing, gas, electric, water, floors and removed chimney breasts etc, not because I had done any of that to any real level before, but because I couldn't afford to pay the mortgage AND pay someone else to do it all?
So I didn't have a flash car, I had a Morris Minor van because 1) it was cheap (£25 + £5 for a s/h gearbox I had to fit in the shop car park I bought it from to be able to drive it home) and 2) it was practical when you were rebuilding a house (and running a home built mobile disco weekends). ;-)
I built the kitcar (with the Mrs this time) because I was fed up welding cars of the time.
Daughter will often 'have a go' at stuff and was the 'go-to' person when she worked (in the cash office at Next) for building their display furniture and decorating the display areas.
She re-decorated the flat after her half-sister died and the 'cutting in' would put most of us to shame (even me). ;-)
I have given up saying to people 'all you have to do is ...' because I now realise some people really don't have a clue, the tools or (more importantly), the interest.
As mentioned elsewhere though, it's also good / important to know your limits / skillset / cost_for_risk_ratio and for me that would be the likes of plastering and roofing. I am also no good at programming (try that I might) and like chess, too many 'important' variables to keep in yer head for me (and my right brain).
I have given some IT help to a granite worktop Co and that including the setting up of the PC part of a pretty large flat-bed CNC cutter / mill.
They were making their first sink hole cutout with it and it it made two perfect hole outlines, cutting the hole out perfectly ... then the mill exited the hole area without lifting ... Doh (someone had forgotten to put that in the code but to be fair to them it was second hand and they got little in the way of training). ;-(
My Dad *never* helped me but I was often asked (expected) to help him. I did learn a lot though (carpentry).
It was my Uncle who was more interested in doing stuff *for / with* me, building my first 'soap box cart' that I put to great use for a couple of years (even getting fridges and the likes for Mum). ;-)
Yeah, the Mrs was my 'mate' and still helps where she can (arthritis).
Excellent.
Yup, and encouragement is important as we all like to know what we do is good / appreciated (only when it's worthy of such of course) so making / repairing things for others can give a big boost.
It was my Uncle who bought some of my first tools and I've still got and use many of them.
It was lovely to be able to pay him back when someone backed into his Reliant Robin front wing, putting a fist size hole in it and for him to come back after a weekend away with his sister, to find the hole gone and it all painted. ;-)
Or when the Mrs said to him ... 'So if you could wave a magic wand and your tiled fire surround and hearth was gone and the fire on the wall and it cost you nothing, you would do it ...?
Him, 'Erm yes?'
Her to me, 'Right let's pop home and get the tools ... ' ;-)
Re-did my sheet flooring about three months ago, my largish kitchen had been recently decorated, but I took the skirting boards off this time to make a proper job of it - skirting on top of flooring.
Because I had done the decorating, I had kept the left over paints, so once the skirting was back in place I was able to tidy up the damage to the paint on the wall. Had I 'got a man in' it would have taken a whole lot longer, finished job would not have been as good and likely with no matching paint - the whole kitchen would have needed doing. Start to finish, done it five easy days, with kitchen usable each evening for cooking and meals.
The other way to look at it is, that you can learn from your mistakes. Better to look at your own mistakes for years, than looking at a professionals mistakes. I never just wade straight into jobs at home, unless I have to - usually I will spend a bit of time (sometimes weeks) researching and planning how I intend tackling it.
I had intended to replace the kitchen floor for a couple of years, before I actually took the bull by the horns. Before doing it I spent a few weeks deciding what I wanted to use, discussed colours and materials etc., research places to buy and cost, measured twice, ordered on the Saturday, delivered on the Monday, job all done by Friday.
Did he waterproof the cut edge of the worktop as well as seal the sink to the worktop? Many pros do the later, but miss out the prior with the result that any moisture bursts the worktop eventually.
Or knowing NOT to hire a core drill but buy it for cash from a dodgy market stall.
A few years back I went to a few boot sales and there was always a van with southern Irish plates selling 110V electrical tools and transformers. Many believed all were knock off from building sites.
I think one area that is lacking is the teaching of basics in school these days. One of our locals who has worked on engines for years is trying to start something for the local kids, allowing them to get their hands dirty and using basic tools.
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