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

[Paul.M]

.... 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:-



Whoops :rofl:

Within an hour this happened:-



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

 

[Pete999]

Oh dear

 

[ruston]

Not as bad as it looks, at least they did not bite your leg. Evil stuff that.

 

[davesparks]

Monday and Tuesday I was working in London replacing emergency lights. The delivery was one fitting short so I picked one up from the wholesaler Tuesday morning and duly jumped on the train with the fitting in a carrier bag.
Naturally by the time I had got to the job I wasn't carrying the carrier bag, that was still happily sitting on the train, probably on its way down to Portsmouth by then.

And of course this happened just to wind me up.

 

[Darkwood]

You Dozy Pirrock... :smartass2: Paul....

Done the angle drill through a frame but never gone through a ceiling YET!

 

[Besoeker]

Oh dear

Very dear!

 

[Paul.M]

You Dozy Pirrock... :smartass2: Paul....

Done the angle drill through a frame but never gone through a ceiling YET!

Put my backside through a ceiling once when I was younger! In a loft clipping cables and thought it was a good idea to use a plank of wood to sit on in-between the rafters..... Plank of wood broke in the middle, my arse is now in the spare bedroom, posh customer going frantic. Trip to the local DIY store, bought stuff, fixed stuff, customer gave me a £20 tip!!!!

I'll never forget this moment... my 501 jeans protruding from the kids bedroom!!! Thank God the kid was at school at the time :rofl:

 

[davesparks]

One of my best moments was drilling into a wall for fixings and pushing a bit hard and going through the wall, and then the enormous old painting hanging on the other side!

 

[Andy78]

Monday and Tuesday I was working in London replacing emergency lights. The delivery was one fitting short so I picked one up from the wholesaler Tuesday morning and duly jumped on the train with the fitting in a carrier bag.
Naturally by the time I had got to the job I wasn't carrying the carrier bag, that was still happily sitting on the train, probably on its way down to Portsmouth by then.


And of course this happened just to wind me up.

I'm gonna estimate it took you a stack of a dozen washers to make up that gap

 

[Paul.M]

One of my best moments was drilling into a wall for fixings and pushing a bit hard and going through the wall, and then the enormous old painting hanging on the other side!

Here is one for you all....

Company owner and head spark says "drill here, I've marked it up for you for the 2 x SWA to the outside...... chop chop, time is pushing on so just do it". SO I DID.... 2 x 25mm holes,,, but I cant see day light????? Strange, lets have a look where my drill bit has ended up....... ONLY IN THE CONTROL ROOM OF A POLICE STATION!!!!! Now that took a bit of explaining :rofl:

S**t happens, it how you deal with it that counts.

 

[davesparks]

I'm gonna estimate it took you a stack of a dozen washers to make up that gap

Them circular pattress jobbies you get for fitting pendants on mini trunking jobs were the perfect fit.

 

[davesparks]

Here is one for you all....

Company owner and head spark says "drill here, I've marked it up for you for the 2 x SWA to the outside...... chop chop, time is pushing on so just do it". SO I DID.... 2 x 25mm holes,,, but I cant see day light????? Strange, lets have a look where my drill bit has ended up....... ONLY IN THE CONTROL ROOM OF A POLICE STATION!!!!! Now that took a bit of explaining :rofl:

S**t happens, it how you deal with it that counts.

I know of a spark locally who liked to wire things through wall cavities. He hadn't quite realised that the party wall on a semi was solid and didn't have a cavity.
The neighbours were impressed with the new bit of White T&E running down the wall

 

[Andy78]

I know of a spark locally who liked to wire things through wall cavities. He hadn't quite realised that the party wall on a semi was solid and didn't have a cavity.
The neighbours were impressed with the new bit of White T&E running down the wall

I don't run cables through cavities but I did knock through into a next door property a few months back. Not really my fault though, the downstairs toilets had been fashioned out of the original outhouse and coal hole and were a single brick wall dividing the rooms.
Apparently the weird old guy next door and the previous owner of this house were "in sync with their movements". He told me that "they knew all each others' noises" due to the thin wall !!

 

[davesparks]

I was clipping a bit of 2.5 twin along a wall under a desk when one of the clips flew across the room followed by a stream of water. It turns out the room used to be a bathroom and there was an old unused but still live lead water main buried just under the plaster'

 

[Paul.M]

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

 

[NDG Elecs]

I have drilled through to the neighbours property once. Single skin wall between two flats. Didn't realise til the neighbours knocked on. Thankfully it was an easy patch up. In my younger days I helped out a roofer once. Did exactly the same; foot through bathroom ceiling. In mitigation it was starting to rain with no roof on and the joists were slippy!!

 

[sparksburnout]

Hows this for a potential mega cock up but saved by a stroke of luck. I was working at a very "posh" gaff a couple of years back, had to drill a hole from the swimming pool area into the 3 car garage. I was under the impression that it was a cavity wall, so I put some tape round my drill bit to make sure it only just went through, as it was impossible to work out exactly where it was going to emerge and there was wall to wall racking on the other side stacked with tons of god knows what. Unfortunately it was a single skin so when the drill suddenly lurched forwards I was a bit surprised to hear a dull thud from the garage. When I went round to check a 5 litre tin of Creosote had flew off the racking and landed plum in the space between a brand new Jag and a vintage soft-top Mercedes bonnets. Still makes me go all queer now when I think about it, owners were out so couldn't move them before starting...........

 

[sparksburnout]

I was clipping a bit of 2.5 twin along a wall under a desk when one of the clips flew across the room followed by a stream of water. It turns out the room used to be a bathroom and there was an old unused but still live lead water main buried just under the plaster'

Haha that's brilliant. I don't mind going through anything that can be easily be re-plastered or otherwise sorted (like door frames) but water it a ****er. Not done it yet but I am sure the day will come. My mate drilled through some buried central heating pipes that he had plumbed in himself! what a plonka. Does anyone have an emergency plan for hitting a water pipe? I have a cycle inner tube in the door pocket of the van, they can be stretched round a leak and work amazingly well in an emergency, although only tested at home.......

 

[davesparks]

Haha that's brilliant. I don't mind going through anything that can be easily be re-plastered or otherwise sorted (like door frames) but water it a ****er. Not done it yet but I am sure the day will come. My mate drilled through some buried central heating pipes that he had plumbed in himself! what a plonka. Does anyone have an emergency plan for hitting a water pipe? I have a cycle inner tube in the door pocket of the van, they can be stretched round a leak and work amazingly well in an emergency, although only tested at home.......

I was cards in with a local building company with every trade on the company. So I turned the stopcock off and just phoned the office and asked for a plumber, then the painters were sent out to fix the mess.

 

[sparksburnout]

I was cards in with a local building company with every trade on the company. So I turned the stopcock off and just phoned the office and asked for a plumber, then the painters were sent out to fix the mess.

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

 

[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.

 

[Kamikaze]

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

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

I’m pretty sure the sparky that this particular company send to carry out the test and inspection, never even as a token gesture got his testers out or removed any of the outlets to have a closer look. None of the paintwork around the ceiling roses, sockets or switches was disturbed. The report was probably a work of fiction. Anyway, she never got anywhere with the company or the NIC, so she had to bite the bullet.

 

[rattlehead85]

Was working in a flat on the 5th floor of a council block a few years back. One of the sparks decided to drill a hole through the bathroom wall into the hallway to run a bond to the main water stopcock by the sink. Drilling through the bathroom he managed to penetrate a double panel radiator through both panels. Needless to say it was an empty flat so he quickly packed up and left. 2 hours later the company received a call from the council saying the flat below had water running through the ceiling and had ruined the decor!

 

[dansk]

^^ what the chuff? How the heck would you not know you hit a metal rad?

 

[Richard Burns]

Changing a consumer unit at high level, fell off the ladder, broke customers front door, bled all over the porch, knocked myself out and left the customer with no power (or consumer unit) whilst I was in hospital! Not my best day!

 

[hightower]

Following on from Richard just last week I was doing some work at my parents. Shoes off is the rules they have. Stood on a claw hammer, bled on their lovely cream carpet everywhere before noticing. No shoes off policy anymore where work is involved

 

[dansk]

i always keep meaning to get some shower caps for my boots!! - always forget until i see cream carpets.

 

[Midwest]

As an apprentice, I was working at a boarding school. We were rewiring the dorms, and brickies putting up some new walls. I was in the loft space, electrician below. As I stepped onto the joists towards the large loft hatch, I slipped falling thru the hatch. I managed to catch the edge of the hatch door, but the effect caused me to swing like a gymnast on bars, with my feet knocking over a recently laid block wall. Brickie tried to kill me. Electrician said I wasn't allowed in the loft anymore.

Following week, we were putting up some new light fittings in the sports hall. Electrician was in the loft space, to postion the wood battons for the lights, I was pushing the tower scaffolding around and screwing up the new lights. I had just got down off the tower to move the next position, when I heard a crash and a loud scream. Looked up and saw the electrician hanging from a hole in the hall ceiling, with him yelling to get the tower under him.

We never spoke about it!

 

[not clever]

Cored an 18" wall only to find I'd also gone through a 4" waste pipe, dead centre mind so out with a few bricks wrap a rubber gasket around pipe jubilee clip it, cement bricks back in & skim wall. also dropped in a bit of duct to save having to core in a new place.

Drilled through wall into a ply internal door that had been left open.

Cut plaster board for a back box & found the microbore pipework running diagonal across the wall.