So has everybody who had a strong opinion on this “bubble popping” spoken yet? Peter tile, SoftBank, Michael beary, sundar, etc etc. speak now or forever hold your peace so we can rise into oblivion

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Just don’t skip on the tile work. Seriously. Like don’t be that guy with a shit tile job because it shows. I would still hire a good tile guy vs a short-tempered BIL who insists they can do it better for less.

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At least in the US most residential contractors are borderline criminals at this point. They charge you a fortune, but their guys who actually do the work are hopeless. Almost all non-skilled trades (i.e. everyone but electrical and plumbing) are majority Hispanic. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but most of these guys speak next to no English so the homeowner can't give them much in the way of instructions. And most of them just started doing this job when they came to the US to put food on the table and never got formal training and just learned by watching another guy who also never got trained. These guys bust their butts, but with no guidance and no training, the result is the quality of the work is atrocious. We rented a condo that was built in 2023 and there wasn't a single wall in in the entire place that was straight along its length or plumb top to bottom. The drywall had nail pops everywhere. The paint was improperly applied to woodwork so the doors stuck and paint would bubble and peel. The tile was all uneven so you'd stub your toe on the floors and water would collect between tiles in showers. Most cabinets had scuffs and scratches from install. the tub and sink drains all had construction debris in them leading to backups and clogs. The list goes on. So, if you're paying massive money for guys that have no sense of pride and no idea how to do a proper job, why wouldn't you just do it yourself?

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The prices are not in the materials. I got a bunch of work done over the last year and had every quote done as labor only as I preferred to supply my own materials. The rates for most of these jobs, based on hours it would take me (a handy non-pro) was well over $200 an hour and even higher than that for the contractors as they are much faster than me. The only way to get work done remotely economically now is to be your own GC. Hire trades people directly. You can find framers/sheetrockers/tile guys/floor guys who work for 30/hour. Electricians and plumbers will cost the most but if you find good ones you can get them for around 100/hr. Most of them are also willing to cut you a deal if you're supplying all the materials and doing the prep (usually that's just demo or maybe some rough framing) yourself. Cut out the GC who needs to bake in a huge margin for a new F350 because his 2 year old one is failing from idling in front of projects 9 hours a day while he jerks off and sleeps in it.

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Saudi Arabia saying they need $1 trillion is basically just one tile in a global mosaic. Global AI CapEx could realistically be: $2T–$4T by 2030 …and that’s conservative. McKinsey literally estimated nearly $7T in global datacenter CapEx needed by 2030 if AI demand continues snowballing.

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Yea those quotes are bullshit. You've got to keep getting more. We redid our master bathroom last year and paid the contractor 15k and that included ripping everything out and replacing many parts of the subfloor that were already damaged. We bought the vanity, tub, shower pan, fixtures, and tile ourself. Sounds like mine was a much bigger job than yours. The other three quotes I got ranged from 30k-50k. Finally found an honest guy, and he was upfront that it would be one of his guys working not a crew. It took 3 months but he did a really good job. Definitely worth a bit more time for the savings.

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I'm not an economist, but I was wondering where the crossing point will be where it's no longer feasible to buy and everything is DIYed. I don't even mean just this like, "for $40K, I'll learn how to tile myself", but also I looked at Taco Bell's(and other fast food places) prices and decided I'm probably never eating there again.  I'll figure out how to make everything myself. Electrical isn't *that* hard; you just take your time and follow the rules.

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Hey numb nuts, It materials, overhead, and taxes.  Here’s a more realistic 10 second break down…. $30k bathroom  -$10k is going straight to Uncle Sam -$7 to 10k is going to materials -$5k + is going to plumbing and electrical contractors (I’m being generous and assuming drywall/tile/paint are in house) -Looks like that leaves a whooping $5k for your GC to reinvest into their business and take a draw from.  Go fuck yourself. 

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Bichtthes like Peter tile and Michael beary need to stfu

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