Anonymous wrote:
Which HD are people referring to? Does the DC HD have day laborers?

Yes.

Which HD are people referring to? Does the DC HD have day laborers?

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone used any of the men for home repair, etc. that hang out in the Home Depot parking lots?

Many people in this forum. But they don't know it -- they only deal with the uniformed English-speaking company representative that collects the payment.

Anonymous wrote:They're not licensed or insured. If they get injured they may sue. Qualifications? References? Your home is an expensive asset. Don't go cheap.

Yes, because they are going to be that savvy and of course they will want to draw the court's attention to themself since they are likely doing these jobs for cash and not paying taxes and couple that with possibly iffy immigration status.

We hire them for exterior work like lawn and garden clean up, fence removal, deck staining. We've paid between $10-12/hour.

As a female (who speaks Spanish), I don't have them in the house or share a car with them without DH present. I've never felt uncomfortable, but better safe than sorry.

I know some of them are highly skilled, but there's no way to really know initially.

They're not licensed or insured. If they get injured they may sue. Qualifications? References? Your home is an expensive asset. Don't go cheap.

I use them all the time. We've had maybe two bad ones out of the several dozen we've hired. The bad ones were more like lazy than up to no good. I (female) hire them by myself, never had a problem. I do speak Spanish though. For simple manual labor, I usually negotiate $12/hour, but end end up giving them more at the end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous



Why? Stop being cheap and hired someone vetted and insured. My idiot neighbor did this once and then was surprised when the guy came onto her when they were both alone in the house.

That does not happen with vetted and insured people?

NP here. I can attest that it indeed does happen with insured and vetted workers!

Anonymous



Why? Stop being cheap and hired someone vetted and insured. My idiot neighbor did this once and then was surprised when the guy came onto her when they were both alone in the house.

That does not happen with vetted and insured people?

Why? Stop being cheap and hired someone vetted and insured. My idiot neighbor did this once and then was surprised when the guy came onto her when they were both alone in the house.

Do they speak English? Or do you need to know Spanish.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I've used them for landscaping and painting and had great success. For the inside work, I've closely supervised and had great success.

I've also had a few guys who were experienced carpenters who were between jobs and they even drove and had their own tools. Make sure you negotiate a rate before you have them come to your house.

What's a reasonable rate? I'd imagine it's different for leaf removal versus, say, carpentry?

Yes. I've used them for landscaping and painting and had great success. For the inside work, I've closely supervised and had great success.

I've also had a few guys who were experienced carpenters who were between jobs and they even drove and had their own tools. Make sure you negotiate a rate before you have them come to your house.

Has anyone used any of the men for home repair, etc. that hang out in the Home Depot parking lots?