Expensive Breakages

[Pete999]

Sat at home thinking about things in general, and an experience came to mind regarding damages / breakages during the daily work we do, and wondered if you have any funny expensive experiences.

Mine revolves around working overseas in a prestigious building, I'll say no more, anyway I was asked to install some 13Amp sockets in this building using mini trunking of different colours to match in with the decoration, all this work was to be dome whilst the soft furnishing department head installed new wall coverings. (Damask which is a very costly covering fixed to battens and there was a great deal of it. The lady in charge (Pol Pot had nothing compared to her) asked me if I could supply labour to remove the myriad of portrates on the wall, some of which were about 6ft x 4 ft heavy and worth zillions according to her.

Took the down OK but as you can imagine the fixings, although they had held these pictures for donkeys years, weren't really up to the job, so being in charge of the maintenance I decided to source some new fixings, she was having none of it "put it back up with the originals" despite my arguments word from the big noises in the building didn't want to upset her, went with her idea, I wasn't happy and got the instructions in writing, you've guessed it the biggest picture stay up for about 5 mins and gravity took over, would have probably been not to bad, save for a large chair which broke the fall, only trouble was the back and canvas met and the canvas lost, resulting in serious damage to the painting, all sorts of brown stuff flying around, mostly aimed at me, but I had the email, she was sent home in disgrace. Important to get any dubious instructions in writing, save my backside, sorry it's a bit of a long post. Lets hear about yours.

 

[Marvo]

I guess I've been pretty lucky, apart from a small window and a few paintwork scratches I haven't had many incidents.

I did get a sub-contractor on site to do some core drilling in a large shopping centre several years ago which resulted in problems. He managed to cut through a large steel tensioning cable in the second floor concrete slab. Apparently it was like a bomb went off (I wasn't there at the time) and the severed cable tore a trench in the slab about 10 meters in length and about 4 inches deep. Pieces of concrete and floor tile were found 15 meters away and the damage was considerable. The drill operator was wearing full PPE and only had a few cuts and grazes but they found him wandering around in a disorientated state and he was treated for shock. Nobody else was hurt luckily. The company doing the drilling was reputable and insured so I wasn't directly involved in the fall out that followed but I believe the insurance claim figure was quite something to behold.

 

[Deleted member 72666]

Marvo, your dog needs to cut down on the pies and get some exercise lol!

The second week of my employment as an apprentice I was tasked with testing the fire alarms, they were tested each week and I'd been shown the call points and routes the week before. I managed to get about halfway around the site and noticed a call point on a large panel on the wall next to doorway in the carding room (in a textile mill), now the call points back in the day were round in shape but these had recently been changed to the square type that needed a 3mm of 1/8th allen key to open them and the test involved unscrewing the cover slightly so the door sprung open a little just enough to activate the bells, just as I released the cover on the call point there was a loud bang and the whole of the plant came to a complete stop and all the operatives stood looking at me and I thought oops, what have I done as the call point didn't set the fire alarm bells off at all but set off the bcf (halon) extinguishers all 6 of them at 2kg each. The loud bang was the material transport shoot damper dropping shut.The panel that the call point was attached to was the automatic fire detection for the highly combustible carding material. The cost back in 1979 was huge as the bcf refills were £80 each and coupled to the down time I was left red faced to say the least.

 

[IrishSpark]

Back when I was a first year apprentice I was doing a massive house which was owned by a local businessman who was minted. Was given a chandelier to put up in a bedroom which was worth £200 and dropped it. Went and told my supervisor and the guy was stood beside him. Told him and was bricking it but the guy turned and said 'never worry, the wife picked it and I thought it was terrible looking, well just get a new one.

 

[Parker27]

Worked with another apprentice in a call centre in a long rectangular room with a quality fitted carpet, whilst drilling holes in the wall between phone calls, the other apprentice put the drill down with the chuck still spinning and the drill bit snagged on a tread in the carpet, the tread of the carpet was then ripped out the carpet wrapping round the drill, right to the other end of the call centre - the call centre supervisor was none to pleased and we got kicked off the job.

 

[gavin.sibley]

£1500 worth of RGB LED strip lighting and controller went up with a bang once. Unfortunately my order was too put power too a cable that fed the lights, so wired them in as I was told too the DB flicked the breaker, all fine, flicked the switch and was met with an almighty bang! Turns out everyone had overlooked putting in the transformer so some lovely 12v lights have 230v shoved up them!

When I told the customer what had happened he was so stinking rich he just laughed at me and said ok no problem I'll go get some more. Hour later he turns up with a brand new set ready too install, with transformer this time!!

 

[Kamikaze]

When the kids were still little, I was working in London and showed the family around the place one weekend. Popped into Harrods for a good look around but gave them this big long lecture before we went in about not touching anything because there were signs everywhere “If you break it, you have bought it”. We got into this section where all the Lilliput Lane miniature cottages were. There was this hugely imposing castle on display but all the prices were underneath the items. Being a nosey git, I lifted it up, saw it was a mere £1500, and as I lowered it back down it fell into pieces. There was this added problem that I was in the presence of three little snitches. So I did what any father would do, and took them into Hamleys and bought their silence with some toys. Sorry Mr Mohamed Al-Fayed! I hope you can forgive me!:cry_smile:

 

[stevethesparks]

Many moons ago I was working in a house, for some reason I used to have this habit of spinning my pliers like a six shooter when taking them from my pocket. On this occasion I dropped them straight onto a record deck cover below, putting a big crack across it.
I nearly pood myself, but the customer was fine about it, and so I put an order in at a local dealer for a new cover. After about 3 weeks it arrived costing me about £18.00.
I replaced the cover, carried on with some additional work I was doing, span my pliers, and cracked the same bloody cover again.
By then I had struck up a friendship with the customer, and he just said, don't worry, I was going to give that deck to my son and get a new one anyway.
I think that's when I got out of that stupid habit of being a gun slinger with my pliers.

 

[th_walking_dude]

Nothing too terrible on the electrical front. My first job when I was 16 was in a frozen food store. I was throwing boxes of crisps on top of the cold store (where we kept them) and heard a click.
Didn't think much of it until a few days later when a huge order turned up that needed to go in there. The supervisor walked in and said "that's funny it's not cold in here..." Turns out the box had hit the power button, about 5K of lost stock, they had to get a skip in to hold it all. All I could think of was my Gran saying "think about the starving children in Africa....." pretty sure I'm going to hell!

 

[Robert Turnbull]

There is a Reason Why Tower Bridge Has now got some glass sections in the floor on the high level walkway....

I was asked as a favour if I could go to tower bridge and re install the information signs on the high level walk ways.

basically they had been removed whilst new heating pipes and rads were fitted, now the new stuff was in the and the sub plumers weren't playing ball about refitting them.

Pain in the --- job two height adjustable front legs and the rear clamped on to the pipes using 6mm stud (about 40mm lengths bent in all different ways to clear obstacles).

Some of the signs had to sit over the new rads (which got knocked about a far bit)

Long story short we were working though the night, the plumbers came back in the morning and started filling the heating system up. which flooded the walkways.

I passed responsibilty onto the plumbers as it was there stupidity to fill a system without walking round checking it. But end of the day we working for the same people so they weren't impressed. There was some considerable damage to the solid oak floor in a couple of areas.

Luckily the guy from City of London was fairly cool and he came up with the idea of cutting those sections out and putting glass in.

this was a couple of years ago, a few months ago I see in the papers about the newly installed glass floors...

 

[shanky887614]

go on blame the plumbers they should have pressure tested it with air first

 

[vjsmarwick]

This had no monetary costs but embarrassment costs were high !
The firm I was working for were doing a refurb on an old folks home and we were running late so overtime was approved for anyone that wanted it. I decided to stay on and try to finish off the fire alarm cables in the roof space something like 20 pyro ends to do. Anyway the other spark went home he had something on and I was left alone so I started at one end and slowly worked my way along clipping terminating and then on to the next.
It got to about 11.30pm and I noticed there was only one other loop left on the other side of the roof space and went over to do it before I went home. I cut the middle of the loop and saw a slight flash and laughed to my self because we all had a habit of leaving the cables charged after checking them with the meggar just to keep others on their toes.
Anyway I just thought this was what it was until about 5 minutes later a nurse poked her head up through the hatch and asked if I had set off the fire alarm? of course my reply was no I never even thought but she wanted me to come down and evacuate then!
Only after I knew the fire brigade was on their way did the penny drop my mate had connected the wrong zone in to the box before he left I quickly called him told him there was an emergency and he had to get back quick smart!!
He arrived to find me 12 nurses and 26 pensioners standing outside and 2 fire engines arriving at his back.
Now you may think so what but this is an island and half the fire brigade were work mates including the boss bosses son and 3 others ! there were two brothers that owned the firm and my mate was the son of the second! I told him what had happened and he said he would take responsibility hehehe what he did was went in made out he was resetting the board changed the wiring and pleaded ignorance to what had happened !!
Until now we have never told anyone so I guess I should say sorry to all those involved but it was so funny at the time trying to look innocent!

 

[Kamikaze]

Luckily the guy from City of London was fairly cool and he came up with the idea of cutting those sections out and putting glass in.

this was a couple of years ago, a few months ago I see in the papers about the newly installed glass floors...

Paul.M has walked over those glass sections. There’s a picture in the Arms to prove it.

 

[Harni]

Few weeks ago funnily enough i was installing a new power supply for 30 AOV's. The customer had just had a brand new fire alarm installed below the PSU and had the place redecorated and wanted this old crappy PSU changing just to tidy the place up. Anyway, old one off the wall, offer the new one up and mark the holes to drill. Anyway as per usual, i do my best to check for cables where I'm drilling. All of the cables from the fire panel went down to the floor except the mains. I could see where the mains was leaving the panel which was about 300mm away from the nearest hole. Start drilling the first one and BANG! My drills dead, my pants are in need of replacement and the fire panel is showing a fault. Yep. Couldn't of been more central to the mains supply. turns out the cable went at almost a 45 degree angle across the wall!
Customer went bloody mad expecting me to sort it out there and then. All i could do as a temporary measure to start with was a bit of flex to a plug but he wasnt happy to say the least. Then just to make it worse, turns out i had burnt a nice mark into his brand new carpet where i had put a hot drill down very quickly. Thankfully it was covered up by a cupboard under the panel i had moved to work there. Dont know if he knows its there yet!