/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1791493
You’ll be competing for jobs with lots of immigrants.

>>1791493

terrible idea

>>1791493
Never even heard of electrical masonry.

>>1791515
I think if I market myself as a high end stone mason (which I know I am capable of with enough experience) I will be able to compete with the immigrants for jobs that are above their double digit IQs

>>1791539
Why?

>>1791515
>You’ll be competing for jobs with lots of immigrants.
that's all of us, champ
western nations realized they ran out of skilled trades workers. now they're all looking to import unskilled labour and slap a "trades worker" sticker on them. we're going to enter an age of incredible disparity in the quality of work.

>>1791542
Just market towards rich people. I do microbiology at a botanical gardens in a very rich area and had to take the standard course my boss sells to his clients. Half the shit he "teaches" can easily be figured out with a basic knowledge of Google and a couple braincells. He's able to charge stupid money for it though since he mainly markets to rich Mormons.

>>1791548
That's the plan. If i can market myself as a smart, clean and reliable young white man I think i will be able to break into the rich market pretty easily, especially in California.

I started in 2015, got 3 months experience, and started an "architectural masonry" company in Indianapolis. I build firepits, outdoor fireplaces, patios, repair chimneys, indoor fireplaces, tuck pointing etc. If it doesn't have mortar, I won't touch it, and only in rare circumstances will I use anything other than natural stone. I absolutely murder it out here. I built a limestone firepit last week in 2 days for $3,100 and the material was a whopping $100. I charge $1500 to show up and grind out joints and tuck point 50 linear feet, I've built 4 outdoor fireplaces last year in the 15-18k range for 1500 or so in materials.... then I'll normally convince them they need a matching patio (reason for always using stone and not cheap veneer and brick), some stone benches, a matching grill connected to city gas, etc and make 30k on one customer.

That said, masonry is fucking hard, it's dirty, anyone who you can hire with experience is Mexican or a white trash loser, and it does take time to get to the point you can make everything look beautiful. Not good, beautiful. Im also well spoken, trustworthy, and smart. If you're a clown, you'll never have upper class people giving you 10k dollar deposits on work not yet started.

Will be around to answer any questions for a few

>>1791493
Like all trades, it depends where you live. It is a dying trade and will shortly go the way of the wheelwrights with the advent of "hardscapes" and the sort outside of restoration work. I live in new england and skilled stone masons are in short supply (shorter than any other trade) and very highly paid. $30-50/hour with tender's starting at 25. If you go out on your own you'll be hitting 6 figures faster than a plumber. That said, it is very physically demanding work and do not laugh at silicosis.

>>1791545
In my area ( mid-Atlantic area ) I haven’t seen much immigrant influx into electrical.
Not a /pol/ comment, but as a non-Spanish speaker, I’d see this as an additional challenge to getting into the field, besides the work itself. Even if OP manages to start in the field as an owner, getting the helpers has to be considered.
t.grandson-of-Italian-immigrant-stonemason-who-learned-to-code

>>1791542
> high end stone mason (which I know I am capable of with enough experience)
How you gonna get the experience?
Are you going to learn engineering too? You'll need it to know how thick, and what kind of internal reinforcement, and what kind of water pressure relief you'll need, without getting sued for your failures that could kill someone, or at least fall onto their Porsche.

>>1791696
I'd get the experience through my boss teaching me. He's already stated that im the best helper he's had and he knows how keen I am to learn so I think he's prepared to invest the time in teaching me. Pic related is a job we just finished, but I didn't do much other than mix mud, butter up the stones, help him find stones that fit and other general laborer jobs, although he did make a big effort to show me everything he was doing so I could learn a few tricks. And I did get to do a small 2x3 section. On the next job I'll be laying the whole first course.

I even took home the scrap stone from this job and a bag of cement so I can practice laying stone on the weekend or in between jobs.