We’ve all heard the old saying, “Measure twice, cut once”, but it’s really just an old saying, isn’t it? Well, it’s not, and it doesn’t just apply to your backyard home-improvement projects. We usually think of the saying as it applies to cutting a particular piece of material, such as a board, but the assumption is that we know how long the board needs to be in the first place. How do we know how long the board needs to be so we can even measure it once, not to mention twice?
To answer that question, I’m going to shift gears a bit. Think about the assembly line where a Lexus or BMW is built. Do you think the person on the factory floor installing the car’s doors figures out how big to make the door, what material to make it out of, what tool to use to cut the shape, and what type of fasteners to use to attach the door to the car? That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Even the worst car in the world isn’t built that way. Who would buy a car that was built that way? Nobody, yet chances are that is exactly how your house was built. Your house! I’m willing to bet your house cost more than the least-expensive new car, but for some reason, it’s OK to let the guy with a tape measure and a pencil figure out what kind of material is best for the most critical elements of your home! That’s a bit scary, isn’t it?
When you’re shopping for a new home, ask your builder who designs and fabricates the critical structural components: a licensed Professional Engineer and a team of trained technicians, or a framing carpenter (who, in Oklahoma, practices without any formal training or license)? In most cases, you’ll be shocked at the answer, and yet you’ll be expected to pay six figures for a product that was designed and built on the fly by people who simply don’t have the qualifications necessary to make the decisions they’re expected to make.
Don’t settle for half-baked, seat-of-the-pants construction techniques. It’s your home we’re talking about. You deserve better.
Thanks for reading!
Tim
About Tim Turner