Carpenter career?

Question

I like making things out of wood, If I wanted to be a carpenter what sort of wages could I expect to earn? Are there lots of jobs?

Answer 1

Interestingly, I have a theory about this. With everyone so caught up in service industries and computers, the time will come when the infatuation with computer hand-held-devices for everything, games, chats, instant messaging and texting all day long, will cause a flip-flop in priorities and wages. Computer software engineers will be a dime a dozen, meaning everyone will want to get into working in computer-related jobs. No-one will want to drive a nail or turn a screw. The end result will be that you can get a new computer with all sorts of sophisticated programming for a few dollars, computer support jobs will be a few dollars an hour, but a plumber or an electrician or a carpenter (people who actually DO something) will be making thousands of dollars an hour, live in mansions and drive Rolls Royces. The computer geeks will be on welfare and live in tin shacks and cardboard boxes.

To fix a leaky faucet could cost $10,000, but a new state of the art computer with 500 megaterrabytes of memory and capable of caluclating the value of pi to 50 million decimal places in two minutes could be as little as $2.98.

Go for it.

Answer 2

I disagree with people saying carpentry is a good field to get into. In 1985 I was making $21 an hour as a journeyman carpenter. Now days it would be good to get $15 to $18. Racist as this is going to sound.. Mexicans have brought wages in many fields down. Drive around and see how many non Mexicans working on houses you see. If you can tough it out and get to the point where you can have your own business you can do a little better. I make $30 or more an hour. Even at that it is a hard road to travel. Staying busy, weather and other factors beyond your control, and all the problems that go with working for yourself make it seem to me that I should have gone some other direction, If I wanted to be earning a better than average wage. But like you I love to build stuff and since we spend most of our lives at work, it needs to be something you enjoy. I had this same talk with my 18 year old son. He worked with me his whole life and chose to start his own company rather than do something else.

Answer 3

I went to One University, Two State colleges, one medical tech school. I was a carpenter while going to school. After I got out of school I worked at a large medical facility for a year but, I missed the smell of wood so much, working with wood, I went back to building homes. I also was making three times the wages so, I started eating three times a day again.

You can go to a journeyman's school. You can't have an felony's against you. You'll have to spend two years in school but, you'll also work on the job for training. Then you will work on the job and get certified.
You have to know how to read blueprints, you have to know for instance which side the door to put the light sockets on. How far off the floor to put the light switch holes in.
There's a lot to know but, a nail ponder can make about $8.00 an hour. A carpenter that can read blueprints should be able to make about $15.00 to $18.00 an hour. A carpenter that can work alone and can do his own work without help, read prints and order materials and design his work can make all of $25.00 to $ 45.00 an hour. I made $ 48.00 an hour, I only checked in with my client once a week, I had his expense account for over $85,000.00 and no questions asked. But, I was good. He still calls for me to come back. You have to go a long way to get this far.