It's Just Not My Day......

[davesparks]

I always make a point of finding out where the stopcock is now before getting the SDS out.

Well it's important to inspect the incoming services for main bonding before you start

 

[Andy78]

I once caused a leak in a pipe by lifting a board. The floorboard had previously been up for pipes to be installed and when screwed back down a screw had pierced and sealed the pipe.
"Ah Crap, you're gonna need a plumber down here" I said to the landlord of the rented house. "Weeelll, it wasn't leaking with the screw in was it ?" he said. He honestly just made me put the screw back in, although that was by no means the worst thing I saw him do in a property he rented out.

 

[sparksburnout]

Well it's important to inspect the incoming services for main bonding before you start

Ohhh you contentious devil you. Might have just been replacing an outside light.....

 

[davesparks]

Ohhh you contentious devil you. Might have just been replacing an outside light.....

I was meaning more that it's a good excuse to ask these questions without getting the customer worried about why you are wanting to know how to shut the water off

 

[sparksburnout]

I was meaning more that it's a good excuse to ask these questions without getting the customer worried about why you are wanting to know how to shut the water off

Good point, good point.

 

[sparksburnout]

It's coming out now lads isn't it??? What other F*** Ups have we all done in our work????

This is what its all about come on lads don't be shy

 

[Kamikaze]

I once started to lift the floorboards in a house when the insulation on the old black rubber cables decided they have had enough and turned to dust. It was the main run for all the cables back to the board. All the cores fused themselves together and in an instant the landing was ablaze. Shot down the stairs, past the lady of the house and the kitchen fitters, and threw the main switch. Then legged it to the van for the fire extinguisher. Had that situation under control in no time. The interesting part of that story is the fact that none of the rewirable fuses had popped and the lady of the house quite rightly was very upset. She had only just bought the property and it had a periodic inspection the month before, which gave the installation a clean bill of health. On the plus side, it was better to do all the redecoration after the place was rewire than if she had done it before.

 

[Vitesse]

I nearly flooded a pub today changing an immersion heater element. Put it another way I know the RCD works ok now!!!! It wasn't my fault, honest. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances and fortunately no lasting damage was done.

 

[Geordie Spark]

.... Slept in, an hour late to pick up the "mate" (not a good start).

Later on showing him how to put up some door coach lights and drilling from the outside, this happened:-

View attachment 31403

Whoops :rofl:

Within an hour this happened:-

View attachment 31404

Yep,,,, that is my right leg hanging through the ceiling of the living room! I was looking up at the light fittings and not looking where I was walking! Think I may have to slip the plasterer a couple of quid to sort it out lol :rofl:


Enough is enough so we packed up and quit at 3pm. Tomorrow is another day

WOW!! ...... All that damage and not a plumber anywhere in sight!!

Well done .... I'm impressed!! :sailor:

 

[dansk]

Arranged to go to site whilst customer was out, key left in safe place and customer said ill see you when i finish work - just finishing off putting floor boards back down, checked for pipes underneath and wacked the nail right into the pipe! - dohh - i even looked to see where they where....right at that point the customer come home and i had to introduce myself with water spraying out of the pipe.

 

[AndrewMgan1976]

During my apprenticeship, I put my foot through an ornate ceiling in a museum, about 30 feet above the stairwell. Scaffold and all sorts to fix that one.

 

[UNG]

I think the worst day at work I've ever had started one evening while pulling in a comms coax from the roof of an 18 storey building down a riser to the basement comms suite all was going well until we got it down to the ground floor I was on the top floor and the person working with me was taking the cable down floor by floor at the ground floor he got on the 2 way radio to say he thought we had a problem my response was what sort of problem the reply was he was getting wet and it was getting worse my first thought was we had knocked a valve on one of the vent pipes in the riser unfortunately we hadn't at some point the cable had broken a pipe joint on a 11/4 pipe for the next hour or so it flowed full bore until the on call plumbers stopped it by driving a wooden bung in as all the valves were seized in the meantime the building reception was flooded and the post room directly below the riser was awash the plumbers reckoned about 40 - 50 thousand litres of water had dropped through the riser from the second floor.

We where working out of town and finally left the site about 9pm and found a chinese restaurant to get something to eat lost count of how many beers got knocked back as I contemplated filling in the insurance claim form and how to explain it to our contact on site the following morning.

The following morning we got to site a little late wondering what the day would bring our contact on the site had already made some calls and was having a good laugh when we met and we were feeling a bit down and waiting for the proverbial to hit the fan she then told us none of it was our fault the pipe in question should have changed 18 months before because it was badly corroded and the company brought in to do the job hadn't changed it but had charged for changing it and they were being held responsible for the damage.

I have never been so relieved given the the amount of damage it took out five main lifts, the service lift, the post room and the reception area there was also flood damage on the first and second floors don't know what the repair cost was but it must it must of cost 10's of thousands when you factor in the disruption of the post room

This all happened at the head office of a well known breakdown company one Tuesday evening 14 years ago we walked away from that job commended on the quality and attention to detail of our work still wonder how to this day when the outcome could have been so different

 

[ipf]

About 25 years back we were doing some alterations in an old main street shop. I'm downstairs and my mate was upstairs, knocking hell out of a wall for a socket. Then I heard a loud obscenity, ran upstairs to find a gaping hole through a single brick wall into next door.......Barklays Bank.

 

[Simonslimline]

Drilled up in the corner of a wall in a bedroom of a bunglow through to the loft. Felt the drill go through and went up to check the position. Couldnt see the bit so went back down and gave the drill a couple of light spins and hit what felt like more wall, carried on and felt the drill go through. Excellent I though im there. Went up to check where I was and still couldnt see the bit. Panicking by this point. Went outside and saw the 25mm metre bit sticking straight out the roof. Not my proudest moment imust say. They had a tile vent put in at another position on the roof so at least there was a spare tile once the hole had been repaired.

 

[hightower]

She had only just bought the property and it had a periodic inspection the month before, which gave the installation a clean bill of health.

Where would somebody stand in a situation like this? Does the previous 'drive by inspector' have a leg to stand on, or does the owner just have to bite the bullet

 

[Richard Burns]

Where would somebody stand in a situation like this? Does the previous 'drive by inspector' have a leg to stand on, or does the owner just have to bite the bullet

Cables under the floorboards are not inspected!

 

[hightower]

Cables under the floorboards are not inspected!

That was my original thoughts.... surely there's more to it than that, otherwise what's to stop these 50 quid cert from a van window jobs?

 

[joehat]

IR tests would surely Hightlight this as being under 1M or very low surely??

 

[hightower]

IR tests would surely Hightlight this as being under 1M or very low surely??

My name's not Shirley.

 

[Pete999]

Just finished my Apprenticeship here you go Pete nice easy job for you to run 24 flat simple job, yes? Anyway it was 4 blocks of 6 flats per block with a shared stairwell metered separately, unfortunately the blocks were not at equal heights a difference of about 3-4 feet which posed a problem when trying to get feed from one block to another for the stairwell lighting.

I had an Apprentice with me and this particular day we were wiring the two stairwells, me in one roof space and matey in the other, I had a 2ld lump hammer and an 18 inch chisel bar, (non of your SDS drills in those days, men were men and all that) I was belting a way whilst matey was looking for signs of my chisel in the other roof, the wall was 2 concrete block with cavity construction, anyhow one final smack with the hammer and my chisel meets no resistance ,"I'm through I thought, must be, can you see my bar? I yelled, Nah Pete nothing, are you sure? yep no sign"

Imagine my dismay when I extricated my bar from the hole, I could see electric light and wall paper, only gone and forgotten about the height difference, no doubt who was the plank that day.