Residential Life Expectancy

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splinetto

Senior Member
Location
Missouri
I have a dilema I like residential work but I don't know how long I can keep up the resi pace....Where I am from you need 8 years of resi work before they (the union) will let you go commercial...I am almost at 8 years and I dont know what the wise decision is....Right now I have a van and gas card and If I go commercial Ill have to give it up , of course. I have NO problems were i work but I have done only resi work and I know there is much more out there to see and do.....Would you quit and get on a commercial shop or would you stay where you are comfortable but not see anything new? I would almost like to stay however I dont want to end up much older trying to learn a new type of work....
 

dereckbc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Plano, TX
It is really a personal decesion. For me it is Show Me The Money. It is the only reason I work for a living, otherwise I would just play golf, fish, and raise veggies.
 

chris kennedy

Senior Member
Location
Miami Fla.
Occupation
60 yr old tool twisting electrician
dereckbc said:
For me it is Show Me The Money.
I remember those days.(decades)

I feel you reach a point in your life when you realize your pretty comfortable. So life becomes more about personal satifaction than a couple extra bucks.

splinetto, I love commercial work. I see cool new stuff on an almost daily basis. If this is the route you choose, be prepared to do a lot more home work.

What ever you choose, we are forunate that every day, no matter how bad, we have built something or fixed something! I sleep well.
 

Cavie

Senior Member
Location
SW Florida
The body willl begin to tell you when it time to give up the res work. And then it will tell you it's time to become an inspector!:grin:
 

ceknight

Senior Member
splinetto said:
I have NO problems were i work but I have done only resi work and I know there is much more out there to see and do.....Would you quit and get on a commercial shop or would you stay where you are comfortable but not see anything new?

I only do residential work, and mostly old work at that, by choice. I make a decent living, have great customers, and thanks to working in an area full of century-old houses that have been hacked on for decades, I often get to see "new" things. :)

I'll admit, I sometimes walk into a big store and get Conduit Envy, but I wouldn't trade my little niche for anything at this stage in my life. Comfortable is good, there are trout I haven't caught yet.
 

wireman71

Senior Member
And to be honest if you get on with a big commercial shop you might not like it. What i've seen so far is that the bigger projects you get to do certain things over and over again. Very repititious. You have blue prints that lay out circuits. You don't get to make any decisions besides installing to meet the blueprints. What I mean is you don't make code calls such as wire sizing. Circuiting. Where on a smaller commercial job such as a non-blue printed one you get to be the person in charge. This is base on limited experience so let some of the others give you some guidance on this. Right now i'm doing a high rise and it's boring me to death. MC this unit. On to the next..
 

celtic

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Awg-Dawg said:
What is the reasoning for the 8 years?

Seems like an unreasonably long time.

Because the OP started in the "B" program - residential, 3 years. Switching over to the "A" program, requires another 5 years.

The short route is to just get into the "A" program - 5 years.

The short route is not available to everyone. Market conditions play heavy in the decision to accept someone as an "A" member ~ what good is a 5 year program if there is only work to sustain 3-4 years? Now the man will be out of work for one year....and may possibly quit the union resulting in the contractors who paid for the program not seeing a return on their investment (the 5 year training).
 

Mister Kool

Member
this is something that you have to decide on your own, 'cause for me personally, I wouldnt want to do resi for more than a month. lol . and if I had to waite 8 yrs I would die and if I didnt die I would be on the first train smokin' to Commercialville after that 8th year passed
BUT thats just me lol
GOOD LUCK IN YOUR DECISION
 

splinetto

Senior Member
Location
Missouri
Awg-Dawg said:
What is the reasoning for the 8 years?

Seems like an unreasonably long time.
After 3years of apprenticeship the want you to put in 5 years after that.. They really go by hours its a total of 16,000 hrs
 

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
While money drives me I LOVE what I do and would go crazy doing just residential...IMO it depends on a variety of things, Money, Bennies (including the van) and what you enjoy
 

eric stromberg

Senior Member
Location
Texas
It's your decision. But "there is wisdom in a multitude of council."

As for me, i've enjoyed the variety. I started working residential, i moved to commercial, i then spent a number of years as an electronic technician working commercially. I took the plunge and moved into the engineering office. I say this because it was a dramatic cut in pay and benefits to go from electronics to engineering. I then moved back to construction. I find that the varied experience gives me the ability to appreciate and therefore communicate with many different groups.

I'd say, go for it.
 

tom baker

First Chief Moderator
Staff member
I prefer maintenance. Some of what I will be working on in 5 years hasn't been invented yet. When I started 25 years ago the level for a water reservoir was measured with a bathtub bead chain, floats and weights. Worked ok but required a lot of maintenance, accurate to maybe 3" out of 20 ft. Today its a solid state pressure transducer accurate to 0.02% that requires no maintenance.
This year I got into a big intrusion alarm project, had to learn the lingo,parts and another software program
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
Being condemned to residential for 8 years seems awful close to being condemned to purgatory. Granted, I don't mind roping houses, but I don't want a steady diet of it. I gotta get an EMT fix sometime. And I take three-phase supplements as much as I can. I also down vitamins RTU, DACS, VFD and E=IR. For a snack, I munch on offsets, kicks, stub-ups and back-to-backs washed down with box and raceway fill calculations.
 

celtic

Senior Member
Location
NJ
480sparky said:
Being condemned to residential for 8 years seems awful close to being condemned to purgatory.

I feel the same about resi. and also maint., ...but that's me.
Some guys like the routine and easily fall into it.

I prefer the switchgears, big pipe and wire ....lifts and manholes ...cadwelding....laying out my circuits(derating, box fill, etc) ...you get the point. ....but that's not always in the cards.
 
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