Way I understand it , the city / county inspectors look mostly for safety issues and not quality / craftmanship . Really high quality framing , trim and painting is about a thing of the past , even on really high end houses. Scottsboro used to have some great craftsmen at all the residential building trades , it's hard to find them now. I suspect it's that way everywhere.

wonder where all the meth and fentanyl comes from?

This is my experience as well. It has nothing to do with them being cheaper. It has to do with them being available and dependable. And they are not cheap.

Home inspectors can always find issues no matter who does the work. I look at a lot of volume builder homes and a lot of custom homes. They all look the same no matter what the color of the framer is.

^^^^100% truth. They've recognized their worth and their rates now are now commensurate with everyone else in the trade. There's no such thing as cheap manual labor in the construction industry anymore. Main differences are; Hispanics dont lay out, they show up early, leave late, and they'll finish a job in half the time of a white crew.

But it's not like the mexican laborers just showed up and started working yesterday. This has been a slow replacement over time. It was gradual and they were cheap when the shift first started. Now they've basically taken over this whole segment are there are not many whites/blacks doing this type of work. This wasn't an overnight thing, it was a deliberate push out of American labor.

BIL mentions that. He has several Mexicans ion job sites making 90-100k because they sow up when asked and work. The ones he mentioned are not in the trades but general laborers. The ones in trades make more. Job sites are around he country and last 6 months to a year or so. It’s the same story where ever he works.

They tried using daily hires thru an agency but their guys cost more because of having to issue safety equipment. Those guys usually not of Hispanic descent would work a day to a week and leave with the boots and other safety gear.

Actually most of the Americans pushed their selves out. Most think those jobs are beneath them or are too lazy to do them.

True. I was working in Madison mid to late 80s and working on building a subdivision in the middle of cotton fields. A framing crew was doing our dry in and they’d been in Texas. Were run out of there cause couldn’t compete with prices. The Mexicans would live in the houses as dried them in and those projects were huge. Stan said no way they could compete. Kind a wonder if he’s still building in the Huntsville area. They were the first ones we’d ever seen using nail guns.

Hallb has it right. They came in cheap, the good whites/blacks got pushed out and now they are gone the Messicans can charge what they want. I have no problems with those hiring legal ones but those who are hiring illegals are a huge part of the problem and should be ashamed of theirselves. This whole mess could so easily solved by a good properly managed work visa program. Bring them in only if they have a job, medical insurance and are paying taxes. No government assistance of any form or they go home. After 10 years no problems give them a path to citizenship. So simple it will never happen.

Maybe, the American worker wasn’t going to compete with the Mexican or whomever was performing the job for half or less price. This started back in the late 90’s that I can remember. I remember the people in the carpet factory’s in Ga. letting it be known years ago. This was nothing more than an invasion and they will start to take over the management positions soon.

Our guys (Mexicans) are here on work visas. They come here because the same labor in Mexico pays them $10.00 - $15.00 per day! They come here and work for 3-4 years then go back to Mexico and retire. They love Mexico and want to live there.
We have a 24 y.o. working here and having a new house built in Mexico. One of our guys owns the store in his village (most villages only have 1 store and that is where all business is conducted).

1 year of labor here, at the lowest pay rate, is equivalent to 9.06 years of labor in Mexico.

There is lots of competition among these Hispanic laborers. They know that they must do too-notch work and do it fast or they will be replaced. They have a dream and they work hard to achieve it.

As many of you know, I am an attorney and my primary practice is criminal defense. Probably 75% of my criminal clients do not have a job. They don’t have a job by choice, plenty of work out there for anyone willing to work.

We can’t fix sorry-ass white folks.

I grew up in the construction industry. My father had several subcontractor who' had their children in the business. They were all lazy, some dope heads and when daddy was done their business died because the kids didn't want to work.

The door was left wide open for the messicans to take their place

Turn off all those welfare spigots and they’ll have to work or do hard time. They’re able to get by because of welfare programs that are abused
Like most things started out filling a need but is abused and allowed to keep the program growing. No incentive to save money with federal programs. Use it or lose it is the motto.

Six months ago I witnessed an electrical crew of Hispanics pulling hot legs to main breaker lugs. I asked the white superintendent of the electrical contractor if they had a license and he said that they were just general laborers and not licensed electricians. Him lying to me just pissed me off that much more.

I see that a lot.

I recently did an inspection on a home. The attic HVAC looked brand new. But it was 25 years old. Was scratching my head. Wrote it up, it wasn't functional and past it's life expectancy. Owner was shocked. They had it installed less than 3 months before I inspected the home.

Mexican owned HVAC. Found an old unit in an attic that was barely used. Sold it to these people as new. There was ass chewing up and down the line. The HVAC company called me wondering what was wrong. I take it seriously when contractors shake down anyone, much less my clients. They got a free, new HVAC installed and rumor has it the city was on the hunt for their vehicles. Hispanics do it all. They may have an American supervisor or business owner, but they do it all.

Put it like this. Hispanic crew framing. Finished up almost a full day ahead of an already expedited schedule and were ready for the crane to set roof trusses. Partner called crane co to see if they could get out there the next morning. They had a truck down so they couldnt. Crew had some punch work to finish so they were on site the following morning. I drove by the site that afternoon and they were already 1/4 of the way done decking the roof. Called my partner and asked where he found the crane. Partner said he told them that morning that it was going to be a day before the crane could get out there and they immediately started rigging stuff and lugged all the roof trusses for a 2400 SF house up and set them all by hand. There isnt a white or black crew working anywhere in the SE that will do that, even if you offered them $100/hr. Time is money in the construction business and we actually pay these guys more than we do another mostly white crew that we sometimes use. Those boys know how to work and will work your typical dope head US citizen, playing construction worker, right into the dirt. Like Lonster says, the group running them has attorneys that handle all the paperwork and they are here legally on work visas, making that $$ as quick as they can so that they can retire back home.

Just like it should be Abolt. Win for them, win for us.

It doesn't require a license to do that work. Some companies will have employees with a journey man license. But when I was 18 I was doing that kind of work. The owner of the company had his master electricians license and everyone just worked "under" it. The only time it ever came up was when a meter was being installed in the city limits and the city inspector would want someone to sign the paperwork.
My MIL bought a house and I rewired the whole thing except running the wires from the meter base to the inside panel. She called a licensed electrician out to do it. Worst wiring I've ever seen, The male connector they used as a bushing was upside down. Plus it was a bottom fed panel. They came in the bottom of the panel, looped the line wires around and came into the top of the lugs. You could only use half of the breaker space. Kind of scared me, it was so bad.