A Quick Word on the Logic of Providing Analyses for All/Full-Time/Part-Time Builders: Throughout out the project, one reaction I've routinely heard regarding who I should speak with--or who I should invite to complete the survey--is that only "full-time" or "professional" builders should be included. There are a couple basic problems with this. For one, as … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Part-Time Builder & Business Demographics →

Still focusing on full-time builder livelihoods, let's delve more into incomes, both from framebuilding and within the household more broadly. Let's first look at income from framebuilding alone: What is your typical recent annual income from the framebuilding business? 47 responsesMean: $32,660Median: $30,000Mode: $50,000 With median and mean being pretty close, we see a less skewed … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Full-Time Builder Livelihood Part II →

Picking back up--after a few months off here--with the analysis of only self-reported "full-time" builders. I will basically follow the same question ordering and structure below as I did in my earlier "livelihood" posts for the full sample, to make for an easier comparison. That said, I should repeat my same warning about making comparisons … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Full-Time Builder Livelihood Part I →

Just as I got going on the analysis of full-time framebuilders, things got real quiet around here! I'm still around, but a few things came up: I realized there were a couple of problematic cases that still needed "cleaning" in the data. Nothing fishy....but somehow I'd overlooked some internally-contradictory responses from a few builders, mainly … Continue reading Quick Update for Late September →

Having completed the basic analyses for all builders, I want to run back through much of the same material - but this time narrowing the focus to "full-time builders" only. Why the scare quotes? Well, what constitutes a "real", "full-time" or "professional" framebuilder is a touchy issue - one for perennial debate in forums, at … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Full-Time Builder & Business Demographics →

Picking back up on analyzing builder livelihoods, let's delve more into incomes, both from framebuilding and within the household more broadly. Quick reminder as a bridge from last post: right now we are talking about all of the builders in my sample. About 44% of those builders do not identify as being "full time" builders...though nearly all … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Livelihood Part II →

The final set of descriptive analyses will focus on builder livelihood - how builders are making a living, and what kind of a living - although this will take a few posts as I'd like to slice the data a number of different ways (e.g. later looking at full-time vs. part-time builders, looking at the … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Livelihood Part I →

Last week, I saw on Instagram that Henry James was "going dark" after 5.15.2020. I'd noticed a while back that they had moved locations but thought, from a distance, that maybe they were transitioning with ownership or strategy. What is most surprising to me right now, though, is that I haven't really seen any commentary or … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: A Brief Aside on the State of the Trade →

Last time, I looked at what I consider the basic demographics of the framebuilding businesses included in my sample - things like the age of the businesses, employees, sales channels, etc. Now I'd like to turn to what those builders are producing and what this tells us about the U.S. handbuilt segment and its output … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Segment Output →

I'll turn next to what I think of as the business demographics of framebuilders - recognizing that these category headings don't have super distinct boundaries. Here I'll focus on different aspects of framebuilders' businesses, leaving more detailed analysis of production and output types/categories, along with consideration of selling prices and such, to later posts. Tables below … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Business Demographics →