Obsolescence

You don’t have to be a Nice Guy to be annoyed by planned obsolescence. It almost seems to be a trademark of a successful American business. We see it in appliances, automobiles, outdoor equipment, power tools, the list can go on and on.

I think that it is even more annoying when coupled with a developer that increases their profits by using substandard materials that are designed with planned obsolescence in mind. We bought a house thirteen years ago. A beautiful house that we had built to our designs. We could not afford many upgrades, we choose to upgrade the carpet pad because this makes the cheaper carpet last longer. It did. I installed all of our boxes for the ceiling fans and all of the extra phone and cable boxes before the sheetrock was up. This saved us a lot. Most of the materials in the house was guaranteed for ten years, which was when things started going wrong. Our roof needed repair and after researching we found out that the brand that they used is involved in a class action lawsuit. Great, we will wait years for that.

I like performing maintenance on things that we own, it makes them last longer. When I tried to drain the water heater that was installed I found out that they bought the cheap model with no drain, with no drain the sediments build up and ruin the heater. So, I guess we will be replacing that soon, just like our neighbors. Our windows, well, we can see through them, that is a good thing. If they are not locked the top will not stay up, they make horrid noises when we use them, and the company that made them does not exist anymore. I bet the builder got a real good deal on those. The bathroom fan/vent was vented into the attic. I am glad we found that out before we got mold. I am not a fat guy by any means and the utility closets are so narrow, (cheaper doors) that I cannot fit in sideways to retrieve what I want to. When the house was being painted the painter actually broke the door by accident because he got stuck and panicked. Some of the light fixtures that were used on and in our house we found at an area chain hardware store for around two dollars. They did not even put back steps leading out of our sliding glass door. We found out this was illegal when we took a picture of our house for insurance and they saw it. Of course, being a Nice Guy I just made a set of stairs.

They made a beautiful house but not to last. Meanwhile, he makes so much on these houses he does not even need to use the bank anymore for financing. He built a 130 house development and did this out of his own pocket. It does not bother me that he has done so well. He is a good person and I know him, have done work for him, but I wish he could have put more into his houses.

This episode taught me the difference between a builder and a developer. A builder might cost you more buy in the long run, there will be less planned obsolescence to deal with.