8 Shortcuts You Should Never Take

I was never a very good contractor. I like to think that my calling in life is writing about residential construction, rather than actually doing it, although I did wear a nail apron and drive around in a pick up truck (usually not at the same time) for more than a dozen years.

I worked with some amazing people in the field from 1978 until 1992, and while I learned a lot from them, I should have paid more attention to how they did things. The best of them never took shortcuts, but I sometimes did, (even when I knew better). Here are eight I took but shouldn't have: