# Alternate career



## cdwoodcox (Jan 3, 2011)

How many guys would keep doing drywall if you were offered an alternative career with equal pay. Less physical demand, equal hours?

For all the bosses less headaches show up to work do your job and go home.
And what would your ideal job be. Your realistic ideal job. (not ****star, or anything like that)


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

I'm sorry....for me it's a no brainer. I'd take the other job.

I'd really like to be an architect, or a furniture maker. I like design, and I like working with my hands. After this little basement with 83" ceilings, I'm a hurtin' unit....it's tough lifting 12' 5/8 when you can't get under them properly...and you're 75" tall.


----------



## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

Man, I think about this everyday as I age, too hard to answer.

But ill try:thumbup:

to start, everyone's cost of living is different, But I'm going to use a pretend number of 30bucks a hour a sub-contract taper/rocker is to make. Then of that $30, a lot goes back into getting back to work (gas,tools,lunch,insur, the micro management).

But most factory jobs pay $15 a hour to start (some even less), if your lucky, you might find a factory job that pays over 20 bucks a hour. But to me, due to inflation, the new 10 bucks a hour is 20 bucks now, confused yet:blink:

I think about trucking some times, but I hear the wages vary so much, and you half to play the long distance game to make money. Plus I love coffee too much, and have a weak bladder when I drink it. Think I would get twice as fat trucking also

So the next step is school, to make anything over what I make now. But when your approaching 50 (too fast) it's called go to school to take what ????. Then you could go to school, but you still may not end up with a half decent job that pays more or the same and has less labour.

So I just figure I'm screwed, may as well stick with this trade, or find a rich woman. Because that's another thing I notice, the guys that have a wife that has a good job, fair better than those that don't or are single. It's a 2 income world these days.

so I guess when I can't do this trade no more, ill be a Walmart greeter or a Crossing guard at a all catholic girls school:whistling2:


----------



## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

cdwoodcox said:


> How many guys would keep doing drywall if you were offered an alternative career with equal pay. Less physical demand, equal hours?
> 
> For all the bosses less headaches show up to work do your job and go home.
> And what would your ideal job be. Your realistic ideal job. (not ****star, or anything like that)


Oh, miss read your post

for you, yes go for it, 

Only problem with our trade is, it gets into your blood.

But you can always do some side job, or as something to fall back on.

Personally with me, I found once I got past 45, it gets harder and harder on the body,,,, take the job:yes:


----------



## Kiwiman (Jun 14, 2008)

Dunno :huh:................wait a minute :w00t:...................nah, dunno :huh:.


----------



## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

Dunno about you guys but im quite happy, I can try new ways, Drive about, Meet some people, See what others are upto, Control my time, Have short days, Have long days to make up for short days, Not have to be told what to do by a F wit, Im going to build myself a house next year so i can take the time off for that, Oh the freedom of it all, What the hell else can i do that will give all that?? But ask me again in 10 years it might be a different answer.


----------



## harvey randall (Nov 23, 2010)

*move off dry waLL.*

NOT ME. CAUSE- i love tapping. and i really do. got good and good is great. harve


----------



## harvey randall (Nov 23, 2010)

*the work is fine.............................................. ......*

we started pulling up the wood in 79. i thought - we are gonna be filthy rich. great wood, out of the grate lakes. we should make some $. lets make some money $. where is the sub, im ready to work. come on, where are ya ? nobobody got the ball sack. just let me know where my part is. job done- 101%-------------------where is the problem ?


----------



## cdwoodcox (Jan 3, 2011)

2buckcanuck said:


> Oh, miss read your post
> 
> for you, yes go for it,
> 
> ...


 45 i'm 36 and I already have bicep tendonitis, knees ache from years of walking on stilts, and my right arm goes numb frequently from the elbow down.
There is no other job offer for me I was just wondering how crazy I was for staying in this trade. I always thought I would just paint when I got too old for drywall but while painting my house a few weeks ago I found I cannot even cut in without being in pain (shoulder). 

So now I'm just trying to plan for my future a bit. But, I'm just like the rest where the hell else am I going to find a job with all the benefits of this one.


----------



## cdwoodcox (Jan 3, 2011)

2buckcanuck said:


> So I just figure I'm screwed, may as well stick with this trade, or find a rich woman. Because that's another thing I notice, the guys that have a wife that has a good job, fair better than those that don't or are single. It's a 2 income world these days.
> :


 Yes, once My wife gets done with school next semester and gets a job I will definitely have more options.


----------



## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

I Want to hire 2 guys ,and teach them how to ruin there bodies while mine heals up.


----------



## DSJOHN (Apr 5, 2010)

cdwoodcox said:


> How many guys would keep doing drywall if you were offered an alternative career with equal pay. Less physical demand, equal hours?
> 
> For all the bosses less headaches show up to work do your job and go home.
> And what would your ideal job be. Your realistic ideal job. (not ****star, or anything like that)


Some of you guys already know that last year I actually was offered a job other than my 31 year career as a drywall owner----- after weighing my options at my age--50--- I said this is a one time opportunity and took it, I still do tons of side jobs[all cash] cause my new career is so easy I need some physical labor to stay sain.:yes: 8-4:30 free food[all 3 meals if I want] retirement benefits, etc----after one year, I know I made the right :thumbup:


----------



## chris (Apr 13, 2011)

I always wanted to mow lawns for a job. Landscaping in general I love. Also thought being a marriage counselor would be fun..no matter what I will always enjoy physical labor. I would hate to be stuck at same job day in and day out. My wife graduates soon also but I doubt it will help my freetime. Once a drywaller always a drywaller:yes:


----------



## silverstilts (Oct 15, 2008)

DSJOHN said:


> Some of you guys already know that last year I actually was offered a job other than my 31 year career as a drywall owner----- after weighing my options at my age--50--- I said this is a one time opportunity and took it, I still do tons of side jobs[all cash] cause my new career is so easy I need some physical labor to stay sain.:yes: 8-4:30 free food[all 3 meals if I want] retirement benefits, etc----after one year, I know I made the right :thumbup:


 Sounds like you are tied down with nothing but work. Full time job plus side jobs on the side? That is nuts. Would never do that myself only because as you get older why would I want to work harder. The opposite is true for me I would never change jobs or goals after 31 years, Don't think it would go over good for me to have to work under someone, I have become too independent for that. I realized many face this obstacle thanks to the shape the economy is in however many have found a way to get through and make ends meet if necessary. There are other alternatives.


----------



## cdwoodcox (Jan 3, 2011)

I think at the very least I might give up hanging and just finish.


----------



## Mudshark (Feb 8, 2009)

After years of nailing and screwing boards I thought I would try it on broads and wanted to be a gigilo. Now I just spread my mud all over the walls and ceiling.


----------



## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

CCR ...FULL BLAST! 

House all to myself .. Think I'll stick to drywall.
I'm 43 It's all I know... too late to learn anything else .


----------



## DSJOHN (Apr 5, 2010)

silverstilts said:


> Sounds like you are tied down with nothing but work. Full time job plus side jobs on the side? That is nuts. Would never do that myself only because as you get older why would I want to work harder. The opposite is true for me I would never change jobs or goals after 31 years, Don't think it would go over good for me to have to work under someone, I have become too independent for that. I realized many face this obstacle thanks to the shape the economy is in however many have found a way to get through and make ends meet if necessary. There are other alternatives.


Dude,I do nearly nothing from 8:00 to 4:30 --really--drywall is in the blood,so side work for my old contractor friends helps us both happy-------by the way. FWIW, Silverstilts,, I,m debt free, Ive been working 50/60 hr weeks my whole life, its who I am, cant sit still,, plus twice Wallstreet robbed my retirement,, debt free but need to build the ret fund back up!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:I also dont like payments so I need enough cash to buymy Harley!!:yes:


----------



## Justa Hick (Nov 23, 2008)

cdwoodcox said:


> How many guys would keep doing drywall if you were offered an alternative career with equal pay. Less physical demand, equal hours?
> 
> For all the bosses less headaches show up to work do your job and go home.
> And what would your ideal job be. Your realistic ideal job. (not ****star, or anything like that)


Would you, should you be doing something else?
Maybe. Do you sleep well at night or do you wake up with the days crap still running through your head at 2 am? Do you take calls all hours of the day and weekends? Passing up vacations and things your family wants you to join them on? 
Back off the hours or get out. That’s called stress, not fun. You’re living for the dollar or not doing things efficiently and need to change how you do things. Get others to help so you never go over 40-50 hours. At 53 I can tell you it isn’t worth what is doing to your body and what’s left of your mind. 
Think of it this way.
If you could retire today what would you do for the next 10 or 20 years? Seriously, far as I have noticed, I have never heard of the man upstairs ever telling any of us how long we have until our check out date and we start pushing up the daises. Is there something you know inside you have to do before your buds show up to kick dirt in your grave?
 Then go do it and figure out how to make a living doing that. 
In my case I have handled millions in cash flow. Kept hardly any of it, though at times I lived like I had it big off the cash flow. So I have a pretty good idea of what it like to be able to just write a check for a chunk of land, a new car, or a small house , all out of pocket. Been there, done that. It’s all meaningless though. If it keeps you from something else that’s calling to you. 
Started in this work in 82. Footage taping in 87. 1500 sheets a week in apartments with 100 sheets and 100 sticks of bead each unit. Started contracting in 92, built up to $330,000 a month by 97. Pocketed 90,000 in 96 on 860,000 in sales. Sold a million in six weeks. But it all doesn’t mean ****. Couple reasons for that. 
First because 3 weeks straight at 7 days a week at 13 hours a day means you are not chasing sweeties and you are not making babies. Big mistake. Don’t let this ****ty job mess up your family life, or cause it to go on an income roller coaster. Wives don’t put up with that crap for long. After 30 years I have seen the divorces and partnerships that all go in the toilet. Put your family stability first.
Second reason (I hope you never have to deal with this yourselves) is the stress and excess hours put me into a head case tail spin from losing 150,000 I never had from 97-2000. ( just cause you working your ass off don’t mean you’re making any money) 2002 started taking pictures after 20 year hiatus from when I used to have some fun. Local paper saw my photos and snatched me up to be newspaper freelance . Lots of fun putting my nieces, nephews, and classmates kids in the paper. Very enjoyable, very sane break from an insane industry.
Very fun until WCCO TV from Minneapolis called and asked what’s up with the shooting at our high school. We said,” we don’t know, we will go see.” That was September 2003. Nothing has been the same since. (Google Rocori shooting, Red Lake shooting)

Is what you’re doing now going to make such an irreplaceable difference to the people of the house you’re working on? Stop feeling like you’re the only one who can do the job or do the job well. If you break a leg or drop dead tomorrow, how long do you think it will take the owner or builder to get someone else to finish the job? Five guys will be fighting over it tomorrow afternoon, and you know that’s true. Truth is, in the big picture drywalls are ****. We do not matter in anything that affects the homeowner life. We only matter in how much money went in the builder’s pocket. He will replace you before the day is out; don’t kid yourself into thinking your special. Special died with the plaster trade 60 years ago. This trade matured 50 years ago. You are never going to matter to any one you work for in this trade. You a cheap priced commodity and that will never change. 
For some reason I forgot to bid a single job from 2003 to 2005. Took a while to figure out maybe it had something to do with photographing a few hundred crying high school kids and a 14 year old freshmen in a helicopter with bullet holes in his forehead and chest. Eight years later I still can’t see the kids face, still can’t tell he is not one of my several dozen nieces or nephews. I know we buried kids from two other families, but the blood, flashy backs, and shakes never go away. Somewhere in there I noticed the kids had great fun seeing themselves in the paper winning football games etc. Pictures of happy stuff always had kids gathered around in the halls. So that is where I spent the next several years. Helping the school and kids the only way I knew how. Seeing they had happy snappys to pump the kids up with. 
So now I do not sleep when I have a bit of drywally work going. I worry about the same old crap that was giving me ulcers 10 years ago. I sleep soundly when I am working on ways to get my Rocori Spartans to be able to go to the Red Lake Nation high school were I completed my last apartment building in 07. That was 9 months after Red Lakes school shooting that left 10 dead and many wounded in 05. 18 months after we lost three at our school. 
I just look at it as though I will not be around in 12 years to retire at 65. I am presuming that I may be speaking to St. Peter sooner rather than later. I expect him to ask me how that little project my maker assigned me went. That project of helping those school kids that have been through really ****ty things to be able to go help the next school that gets it heart ripped out. Only our school, Red Lake, Columbine and some others know what is inside the kids of Virginia Tech and the schools since. Or should I tell St. Peter to tell the man I spent my time slopping mud on walls for people who don’t really give a **** who does it as long as they keep a chunk of our money. So now I don’t care that my bank wiped me out. Forced me to lose my house, my industrial lot, truck, and spray trailer. The leeches were even going to take my pictures. That was when I got pissed and fought them. Sucks that it took 30 years to realize I stayed in a shifty industry 20 years to long. 
At 53 I am about dead broke. So I figure I am ahead of some people at 65. So I will consider my self retired now. (The option is to figure keep working for 15 more years in drywall – no @[email protected] way.) I am going to do what I would do if I was retired (help schools) and figure out a way to make a living at that. I am willing to do that for the next 20-30 years. So I have the time to devote to having gone back to college (the third time) to learn about public relation, communication, school operations – school politics, community trauma, etc. I am working. But I am working on my retirement. Making it good, making it matter. Because I have no control over what someone else is going to write on my gravestone. There is no way I am going to let them write that “He died on a drywall job for money.” No [email protected]#[email protected]#ing way.
You have to figure out if you have some other calling. If you have not been listening to you insides I suggest you stop and think about your tombstone saying just that “Daddy spent all his time working at other people’s houses, instead of with his family at his own home.” The beer companies are right. You only go around once. They forgot to remind you that your check out date could be today or tomorrow. Of all the choices, opportunities, and different fields of work this world offers, do you really want to spend your last couple decades sloping mud?
If you’re not sleeping at night there is a reason for it.


----------



## cdwoodcox (Jan 3, 2011)

Well now I'm just depressed hick. Those school shootings are terrible. I don't think my job is real bad I have never had the desire to have more than 3 employees never wanted to get real big. I just want to keep me and a couple other guys busy. That way I get to keep my weekends and evenings. I am thinking more about the fact that I don't want to be 50 and in a wheelchair because of the abuse I put my body through. 
I explained it this way to a contractor a few months ago. All my life I have busted my a$$ just to make a buck I have prided myself on being the fastest drywaller most have ever seen and really I'm no better off than the guys that take their time. Only thing I have that they don't have is I've sped up the process of destroying my joints. So I'm not leaving the trade right now just going to slow down and like I said maybe just finish for a while maybe my body can heal a little.


----------



## DSJOHN (Apr 5, 2010)

Guys---most of us if not all believe we are the best,, leaving this industry will kill our egos,,, we all take pride in ourselves,, the praise we get boost our confidence each and every new job-- I,ll never stop being a DRYWALLER, but my opportunity was staring me in the face and I didnt let it pass,,,we cant all say that,,, I,m lucky!!!!!!!


----------



## chris (Apr 13, 2011)

yes you are lucky. If a job that paid decent came my way I would have a hard time turning down. I can always do drywall. Good for you:thumbsup:


----------



## chris (Apr 13, 2011)

wow man thats kinda harsh. I have not been sleeping past 4am for years. Some truth to what you post but dont agree 100%. I am now seeing the reactions of all my hard work. More work than we can handel. Some bilders waiting for us specifically to do there jobs. I dont feel I can be replaced by noon.I have noticed alot of drywallers in there 50 s slowly losin it. Gosh I hope that isnt me. Drywall for me is the best way for me to support family. We all want better but I look at it as I try that much harder than the dude at grocery store or delivery man etc. etc.. Im a Drywaller and proud of it:thumbsup:


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

Great post Hick. I've been thinking a lot about quality of life lately. It takes discipline to leave in time to have dinner with my family and read bedtime stories to my children, but it's worth it. I'm slowly realizing that I'm in charge...not the builder, homeowner, etc. As long as I communicate everything will work out fine.....however, I'm a little less replaceable than insinuated in your post. Not an ego thing, but I do more than straight-forward drywall, and fortunately for me there's a limited pool of guys like me in my area.:thumbsup:

Still, while drywall may be challenging and on occasion interesting.....I can think of far more rewarding (mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically) endeavors.


----------



## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

It is the is. gotta pay the bills .. 

kids ......I WANT..I WANT..I WANT! Then collage 

The bank...OH!,,,you will!!

At retirement age we HAVE to be debt free, and i believe we are all working towards that goal. 
ME,,, I will never stop . I'll be wearing Depends while strapping on the stilts.:yes:


----------



## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

moore said:


> It is the is. gotta pay the bills ..
> 
> kids ......I WANT..I WANT..I WANT! Then collage
> 
> ...


Your "Depends" reminded me of something that happened the other day. Hanging 12' 5/8 in this basement...low ceiling, picking the sheet up and my muscles tensed up so tight I let out a big squeaky fart...I thought I was gonna crap my pants:laughing:


----------



## harvey randall (Nov 23, 2010)

*the quaility*

if you can . can already do it, then you probably have no choice. if you get away with 2nd rate fine, if it feed the family. and either one feed the family. i got respect for everyone make the kid not be hungry. harve. plus we turn liquid into solid. noone else does that-(painters, cement, masons, and plasterers only pretend.) just cause you have a great idea, dosent mean you are ordained, believe me. not the tapeing, it was the stealing from ya, that take you down. i know.....


----------



## CatD7 (Jul 25, 2011)

I'd like to be a full time dreamer.


----------



## fbrgss2 (11 mo ago)

Well my name is Floyd and I've been a drywall finisher since 1982 you do the math I'm 60 years old and I'm still doing taping and floating that's all I know I'm good at it but I don't know what else to do and I know it's too late to start another career does anyone have any advice for me.


----------



## Mjaw (Nov 24, 2020)

cdwoodcox said:


> 45 i'm 36 and I already have bicep tendonitis, knees ache from years of walking on stilts, and my right arm goes numb frequently from the elbow down.
> There is no other job offer for me I was just wondering how crazy I was for staying in this trade. I always thought I would just paint when I got too old for drywall but while painting my house a few weeks ago I found I cannot even cut in without being in pain (shoulder).
> 
> So now I'm just trying to plan for my future a bit. But, I'm just like the rest where the hell else am I going to find a job with all the benefits of this one.


Try Glucosamine Chondroitin with msm for joint health worked wonders for me. Hitting the gym 2x a week for a quick workout will do wonders also.


----------

