Did your parents ever do something that felt like punishment back then but turned into a life habit you actually like? It's funny how the stuff we swore we'd never do as kids ends up being the thing that grounds us as adults.

The real issue is you burn a whole day on the cheap saw when your time is worth way more than the $25 you saved. I stopped pretending my weekend is free a long time ago.

I used to be the guy who said just rent the lift and be done with it, mainly because I figured scaffold was slow to move around and my guys would waste half a day dragging it. Then I actually watched two apprentices roll a section down a hallway and set up in under ten minutes, and my whole view changed. Now I keep the scaffold for anything under 12 ft and I don't even price the lift anymore on those jobs, since the certified operator thing alone costs me more than the rental. Past 12 ft though I'm with you, that's where the machine earns its money and I stop trying to be cheap about it. The real number isn't height for me, it's how many moves the job needs and whether the ceiling is wide open or chopped up.