What do I have to lose by hiring side labor for my project?

Plain and simple: you can easily lose a lot more than you bargained for… and so can everyone else. From lack of insurance coverage for accidents or poor workmanship at your property to poor communication skills, lack of trade licensure to hold them accountable for work done improperly to unpredictable and unreliable work schedules, you are really in for a potential nightmare going this route on your project. And that’s just your side of it… ever heard the golden rule “do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.” Well, think for a moment, where are these people coming from who you are hiring for side labor? You know they don’t just work for themselves, right? They have a day job, usually, and will have to skip work with their normal job to do yours. A typical situation is them telling their employer they are “sick” or give some other excuse to buy them some time to focus on a smaller side job. But the larger jobs… it’s really just about impossible for them do handle, and so, you’ll almost never get a larger job finished by these sorts of individuals. And if you do finish you project with them, and if they are responsible with their day job employer, it’s just going to take you a very long time to get the work finished. So now consider asking yourself who besides you does that effect? Well, your neighbors for one. Nobody likes looking at a mess or unfinished construction longer than necessary. And neighbors don’t want to hear construction noise in evenings, or on weekends and holidays. It’s just too much commotion during hours when people want to be home relaxing, and it’s not worth going that route to upset your neighbors. And then, who else does it effect… your other Santa Barbara “neighbors” who you may not even know. Yes, the other people in our community who hire qualified Contractors only to have their employees lured to projects outside their company by home owners looking to save a few bucks. Besides undermining project timelines, team integrity, and fundamental loyalty… it delays other projects and unfortunately is just not good for anyone. Besides costing good employers and good Clients a significant delay of time on project completion, it’s incredibly frustrating to project managers and co-workers who have to try and cover logistics of people missing from legitimate job sites. We hope you will not contribute to the undermining of quality in Contractor workmanship, and take a stand with Clearview for what is right in the world by not hiring unlicensed individuals as side labor on your property.