July/August 2005Contents For This Month: Jul/Aug 2005 They Still Haven’t Resolved The Leaking House Problem, Why
Not? Hello Some of this month’s newsletter will astound you. I cut the attached article out of the newspaper a few months ago, and most of what the writer says I agree with. But on top of what’s written, I’m going to add my 2 cents worth. Also, because I’m so annoyed and fed up with political correctness (which is another contributor to trade training demise) I’m going to use such words as ‘tradesmen’ and ‘he’. The disaster in our secondary school education system and the NCEA qualifications has similarities to the current apprenticeship problems – it, too, has been totally stuffed-up. It’s Government departments with nothing better to do on Monday morning, trying to justify their existence, which has dreamed up these changes – rather like trying to re-invent the wheel. The secondary school system was simple – form 1 through to form 7 with School Certificate in the fifth form and University Entrance in the sixth etc, then on to university if desired. Employers and students alike knew what the qualifications meant, and how they could be used in an employment application. The apprenticeship system was simple, too. It was 1st qual in year one, 2nd qual in year two, 3rd qual in year three, Trade Certificate in year four and Advanced Trade Certificate in year five. Plus there was night school and day block courses – and it all worked well. These days there is total confusion and dissatisfaction. The idiots that decided the change an apprenticeship system believed some apprentices had the ability (with their theory only) to complete their apprenticeship in less time than others, and therefore shouldn’t be held back. But the reality is that although theory is critical, there is no substitute for on-site training and experience. This lack of experience is a huge factor in why we have leaky buildings today. The decision makers’ claim was, “Bringing apprentices through in half the time was the answer to the tradesmen shortage” – yeah right. It would make a good Tui advert wouldn’t you say. Half-baked tradesmen are just another reason for a leaking building. In some South East Asia countries it’s common knowledge that in the university system, the indigenous people can pass their exams with a lower pass mark than the any other race. The government’s reasoning is that there are not enough indigenous people with academic achievements, and therefore they weren’t represented evenly across society. What has been the result of this experiment? Indigenous doctors (for example) find it almost impossible to set up their own practice as everyone thinks they are under qualified – even other indigenous people think this and would rather go another doctor than an indigenous one. Some may have passed with honors but because of mistrust of the system, most of them end up in public hospitals. Another reason for lack of interest in trade training is: The schooling system seems to have an inability to effectively provide vocational guidance education. It appears that the message is to blindly provide higher and higher academic achievement but some kids’ brains don’t function that way. Unfortunately the key ingredients that are not being taught are self-discipline, respect for others, attitude and the courage to do and try things and get up and try again if you get knocked down. Pardon the pun, but the reality is that professionals are breeding faster than white mice, and most students do not want to go into a career such as a trade, where they might get their hands dirty. We all know our society has gone soft on attitude, respect and discipline, and political correctness has gone mad. People, especially young people, think it’s their birthright to do what they want when they want, they simply expect and think society owes them something. And our social system almost encourages it. There is no strong leadership in our government to get people out of their comfort zone. Our leaders have done things to make matters worse e.g. they brought the legal age of drinking alcohol down to 18, and what a disaster. Now they want to repeal it because some youths abused the responsibility they were given. There are computer games where the player earns points for killing police and beating-up or murdering prostitutes. These products must educate young people into violent anti-social behaviour, yet they are readily available. As I understand it, they had to bring in foreigners (men and women) to lay the tiles for the new Masterton swimming pool complex. Why, because the system is falling apart so badly that we don’t have the tradesmen, and there is a lack of new blood being trained with even fewer being bothered to teach them. I know many older tradesmen with skills that are almost irreplaceable who can’t be bothered with the attitude and poor discipline of today’s young people, and therefore won’t train them. One thing is for sure. Those individuals who do take the opportunity to take up a trade, learn it well and have the attitude, discipline, reliability and skills to produce a great product, will have a good future. They will become so sort after that the cost of their skills will go through the roof. There is fast becoming an imbalance of skills in our society. The day of only paying $30 - $40 per hour for competent tradesmen is all-but over. It will undoubtedly be a supply and demand issue, and those that can afford to pay will get the quality action. Some people comment on the higher cost of some of the design and building work we do. But when we ask them: “If they were building would they want the same or similar standard of workmanship completed on their house as what they see on the ShowHome,” they think it’s a stupid question. Of course they do. So, to achieve that desired result it stands to reason that you need to employ really capable tradesmen. And like any other occupation where high standards are expected, skilled tradesmen can now demand to be paid well. Interestingly we are finding more and more of our clients don’t mind paying more for those skills because they, too, are very demanding. Their attitude is: I don’t mind paying a bit more, but get it right and don’t stuff me about. Moss Brothers and their carpenters are more than happy to work under those arrangements. Building a house or trades skills are not something that you just purchase off the shelf. Tradesmen put things together using a combination of knowledge, experience and skills using their hands (a bit like surgeons), and we rely on the individual’s skills to supply an ever-demanding public who expect it done superbly well the first time. I saw the TV article on what’s happening in Europe, and I hate to say it but we are following their trends. The European communities (France & Holland that I noticed) have just been voting for more open and free trade with each other. And the French and Dutch said, “no”. The article went on to say that although there is 10% unemployment in France, they couldn’t get tradesmen. In this particular article they couldn’t get a plumber. French people were simply not interested in learning the trade because the work was considered too dirty (isn’t that a joke coming from the French, a country that actively engages in state sponsored international terrorism – good job they got caught blowing up the Rainbow Warrior) – and it wasn’t dirt on their hands, it was blood. They didn’t want to get their hands dirty, it was beneath them to do that sort of work. But there was 10% unemployment. Instead, a Hungarian plumber was the only person they could get. We need to wake-up. We need to appreciate that our society can only exist with a full cross-section and complement of people working in all industries. We need to understand, and not condemn, the fact that not everyone can learn through a textbook. We need to appreciate that unless higher incomes are promoted there simply won’t be the calibre of people there to build your dream home to ever demanding and exacting standards. You must have noticed the change already. Good tradesmen have become so sort after they are starting to name their own price, and we’ll have to pay it or we won’t get the job done, that’s not to mention how long the customer will have to wait. If it’s bad now, imagine what it will be like in 5 or 10 years. We (my colleague Mark Jerling – Moss Brothers architectural design guru, and I) went to a Building Industry Authority (BIA) seminar about 6 months ago. The brochure inviting us said that the lecturer was going to talk about the leaking house problem – in all sincerity I thought, “this should be interesting”. The lecturer only touched briefly on the damage that was caused, but when we asked him why the BIA approved untreated framing timber for new houses he quickly changed the subject. Then he went on to talk about the new way builders should waterproof penetrations to exterior walls of building. By penetrations we mean doors and windows, as well as decks against the house or meter boxes etc. Later in the session he asked if there were any questions. I got up and asked/said: “I’m confused, how is it that less than 20 years ago builders knew how to waterproof around windows and doors or decks against buildings but they don’t know today?” Amongst other things, I went on to blame poor trade training. Once again the lecturer wouldn’t or couldn’t answer. In fact the local Master Builders Association president got up at the end of the lecture and apologised to the lecturer on my behalf – that made me happy. Also, things sometimes happen in the industry through economic pressure by big business players rather than for the benefit of the consumer, or homeowner. Believe it, it’s true; it’s a form of corruption. Just recently I rang BRANZ and said: “With the push to make windows and doors (joinery) more waterproof BRANZ insisted that more flashings went behind the joinery.” Without going into technical detail for the reader, the end result of these new requirements is that the exterior aluminum joinery facing barely covers the weatherboards – less than 10mm – the Building Act required 20mm+. About 30 years ago when the only joinery available was wooden joinery, they installed 100mm wide + facings covering this same area – no water problems. The BRANZ spokesperson said that he agreed with me entirely, but big business put so much pressure on the government that they buckled. Putting flashings behind the window or door joinery is like having the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. If water can be prevented from penetrating in the first place many problems would simply go away. Wider aluminum joinery facings (say 50mm) would go a long way to eliminating moisture penetration and leaking around exterior joinery, but the manufacturers simply refuse to do it. At Moss Brothers (as I adjust my halo) we install 100mm wide timber facings over the aluminum joinery and are probably the only designers and builders in the country to do this. It doesn’t cost a lot extra and it looks attractive, not to mention it keeps the windows/doors 100% waterproof – fantastic, simply good trade practice. The introduction of untreated framing timber in the 90s is also another classic example of big business dictating to government, and what a disaster that turned out to be. I’d like to wrap this article up with my thoughts on student loans. Why talk about student loans and trade training in the same article, well because in an odd way one impacts on the other. Why shouldn’t students pay for their specialist education? If they don’t have the money then they should have to borrow it – it’s that simple. At least there is a facility in place that allows them access to the funds they need for the education they want. They should be grateful but instead they never seem to stop complaining. The interest they pay must be at the going market rate because if it’s not then the system gets abused, as has been reported many times in the Press. It’s a fact: Humans seldom value things that are free. Why should the taxpayer (that’s you and I) pay for someone else’s specialist education when in many cases after these students graduate, they then turn round and charge Joe Public (yes, the taxpayer) in some cases hundreds of dollars more per hour (plus the perks and privileges) than Joe earns. Yet the student is expecting Joe to help pay for the education that is going to allow that student to have that education in the first place – get real, user should pay. Trades people need to be educated too. It’s called an apprenticeship. The apprentice gets paid peanuts while in training and when they come out of their apprenticeship (used to be 4 years +) and have a trade qualification, the hourly rates are still much less compared to someone that has a degree. But watch this space, I think things are about to change. The cost of employing a builder that has the skills to get it right the first time without causing their client hassle and stress, is about to skyrocket. Well, that’s my whinge for this month. I’d love to know your thoughts – you can do this by sending a message to [email protected]
Regards
Julian Moss Oh PS: I mentioned earlier that a major failure in the industry was good trade training. Actually ‘training’ is a word we need to be careful with; instead we should use the word ‘education’. Why, well it was explained like this to me: “You wouldn’t train your teenage daughter in sex because that would be showing her what to do. Instead you would educate her so that she has the facts and information to make the best decisions for herself and her future.” Actually, that’s another thing the building industry doesn’t have now but could come into force - A compulsory ongoing education programme that keeps building practitioners up-to-date with the latest materials, techniques and regulations would be useful. Why not, other industries do it.
More and more inquires and sales are from beyond the toll free area of our office. Because of this, for your convenience we have a 0800 free-help phone line to our office. So if you have any questions or queries you can contact me on 0800-66-77-27. Also our new usual phone number has changed to 06-370-2058 |
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