Some Things I don't want in the Building Trades

Too Long; Didn't Read

I don't want my house put in repair, or rather out of repair, by a master who employs "Jacks of all Trades." I don't want my foreman to tell me too much at one time about the faults of the workmen under him, as I may forget asking him about himself. I don't want a builder or carpenter to give a coat of paint to any joinery work he may be doing for me, until I have examined first the material and workmanship. I don't want any jobbing carpenter or joiner, whom I may employ, to bring a lump of putty in his tool basket. I prefer leave the use of putty to the painters. I don't want jobbing plumbers to spend three days upon the roof, soldering up a crack in the gutter, and, when done, leaving fresher cracks behind them. The practice is something akin to "cut and come again." I don't want a contractor to undertake a job at a price that he knows will not pay, and then throw the fault of his bankruptcy on "that blackguard building."