School Boy Errors.

[Kiers1970]

Todays....

Knocking that noggin out of the way with a hammer, and bursting lathe and plaster ceiling.
Connecting 8 way Consumer unit, and realising I actually needed 9 ways.

Grrrrrrrrr.

 

[Thefailsafe2012]

Making off a nice big SWA and forgetting to put the shroud on argggghhhhhhhh

 

[Phil]

terminating pendants and realising you have not gone through the hole

 

[spidersparks]

Micc then remembering the shroud is the worst, question is as its my first one do I unwind the coil of cable and slide it on or re-pot the cable?

 

[Sintra]

Driving 100 miles to test a job but forgetting the meter.

 

[Resu]

Micc then remembering the shroud is the worst, question is as its my first one do I unwind the coil of cable and slide it on or re-pot the cable?

Or cut the shroud and tape it?! (Have seen but not done this!)

 

[Phil]

driving back 180 miles feeling annoyed because I have lost or left my glasses on the job. got out of the car and they were in my back pocket one big head ache later urghhhhhhh

 

[RogertheBodger]

Leaving Lancaster with set of triple extension ladders on the roof rack. drive non stop to Manchester - no ladders?

 

[tidyboiler]

Ex-hubby stating 100 miles into a journey to Wales that he thinks he left the immersion heater on. We go back, 2 squabbling kids in the back of the car to find he had turned it off!!! :63::rifle:

 

[ExArmy]

drilling holes for 30 downlights in a freshly plastered ceiling that are too big for the lights! (not me btw!)

 

[RyanCheetham]

I was first fixing an extension just pulling the cables off the cable runner. Got to the end of the day started to clear up and happened to notice i had pulled 3 links of the ring main in 1.5mm 3core and had to redo it

 

[Welchyboy]

Making off a nice big SWA and forgetting to put the shroud on argggghhhhhhhh

Ha been there plenty of times mate!

 

[Welchyboy]

I was first fixing an extension just pulling the cables off the cable runner. Got to the end of the day started to clear up and happened to notice i had pulled 3 links of the ring main in 1.5mm 3core and had to redo it

Done that one too!!

 

[johnboy6083]

removing old redundant cables, without permission. I identifed the correct cable to be cut, as it enetered a duct. started cutting, BANG. I soiled my pants, and had to quickly drive to the wholesalers, buy a joint kit, and repair my mistake, before anybody noticed what i had done!
The cables ahd been in place years, and were buried under lots of other live cables. I needed room on the tray, and thought that i may earn a few quid whilst at it!
God job i was never caught, and a good job i had spare fuses to re-energise the damaged cable!

 

[sparkymalarky]

becoming an electrician!...only joking...I think.

 

[High Tower]

terminating pendants and realising you have not gone through the hole

Done that!

 

[SYKRAPS]

Chopping in a socket on the dividing wall between 2 houses not realising there was no cavity, 3 hits later waving at the neighbour watching TV because I hit too hard

 

[MarkieSparkie]

It's late Friday and the bathroom virtually complete, only the extractor fan to fit and wire up, when the apprentice realises he's forgotten to remove the metal grating to the air duct where he has to fit the fan. Quickly out comes the 2ft crowbar and without thinking he levers the cast iron grating off, crash! clouds of dust! and the grating falls into the bath full of water the fitter has left whilst his sealant sets.
All in a panic the apprentice realises the mess he has created and tries to clean it up ruining the silicon sealant with yet more plaster and dust. That's only the start of his problems when he sees that the bath is leaking water all over the new flooring because a corner of the cast iron grating has chipped the enamel and punched a hole through the steel bath.
Wisely he owns up to the bath fitter, only to be informed that was the last bath of that particular size in stock and he's just put the whole job back 4 days and that his wage packet will be at least £250 lighter at the end of month. 5 minutes of madness he and the rest of the team will never forget!

 

[AP Electrical]

doing some work at an old factory, some idiot left a fork truck in way so I moved it to top of hill to get it out of the way, ran back got back to work only to see a big red flash go by, turns out I forgot the handbrake!, crashed straight into corner of building, massive crack and loads of loose stone. Anyway next day after not telling anyone what had happened arrive there to find gaffer going mental, apparently that night a skip driver had been and crashed into a wall causing loads of damage all of which the skip company were denying, saying they had not even been on site , long story short we didn't use that skip company again and I've carried this guilt around for years.

 

[kingeri]

Drilling 6 holes down from the loft above a partition wall for light switch/socket feeds only to find I'd measured wrong and the holes were in the ceiling in front of the wall.

 

[wade88]

Picking up cheese and onion instead of salt and vinegar, total disaster. Day ruined

 

[44ALLAN]

Chatting away merrily with the IT office staff while making up some 4 way extension cables for them.
Gave the 1st one to its new owner...........I'd put a 3 pin plug on each end:-------:

 

[loop3]

Put in a new board but forgot the busbar.

 

[loop3]

A old collegue, working in a design college, got chatting away to some students while wiring floor socket... Two sockets forming a ring ..no supply.

 

[ExArmy]

second fixing an alarm panel with 10 cables coming in, all labelled up as the different zones, keypads, sounder etc and i decided to trim them all to length at the same time, cut all the labels off. whoops!

 

[jaresquire]

LOL - done that one!

 

[Guest55]

wiring up click type lighting socket couplings and not remembering to slide the cap over the flex first.
i will do that every time till the day i die lol.

 

[DNS1]

Making off a nice big SWA and forgetting to put the shroud on argggghhhhhhhh

Where I used to work we would always make our own audio cables... It seemed like every other one would be soldered perfectly, but having forgotten to put the shroud on the cable first! I should have learnt having previously done the same thing our university radio station... (only we couldn't be bothered to re-do the work, so half the plugs ended up wrapped in tape!)

I can't remember exactly what I was doing, but fairly recently I spent 10 minutes measuring and marking for a hole I had to drill... Checked it, double checked it, then picked up the SDS and drilled the hole on a random mark on the wall, rather than my very precise pencil mark 3 inches away! Doh!

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Took 2 bedroom floors up, carpet and laminate, to try and find the supply to living room and kitchen light fittings that weren't working. Only to realise about 4 hours later, that all the lamps in both were blown. They were those bloody awful 12v fittings with half a million of those little crappy lamps.

 

[bigbaddave]

Drawing round cavity wall boxes facing the wrong way and finding they slip right through

 

[Thefailsafe2012]

Took 2 bedroom floors up, carpet and laminate, to try and find the supply to living room and kitchen light fittings that weren't working. Only to realise about 4 hours later, that all the lamps in both were blown. They were those bloody awful 12v fittings with half a million of those little crappy lamps.

Hahaha that's a good'un!

 

[Thefailsafe2012]

Drawing round cavity wall boxes facing the wrong way and finding they slip right through

That was the first job I was given when I started on the tools, and I did exactly that. Gave the boss a good taste of what the next few years was gonna be like!

 

[Thefailsafe2012]

Flicked the dregs of my tea out of the mug whilst up about 4 lifts of scaffold, the mug snapped off the handle and sailed into the neighbours drive :frown:

 

[ExArmy]

whilst testing a house that had sustained severe water damage (but dehumidifiers had been in for a month so it was dry now) from a burst pipe, i really needed to go to the toilet(house was in the middle of nowhere) but there was no water in the toilet, so i thought i'd just turn the stoptap back on. still no water, so i go out onto the drive to see if i can find the main stoptap, found it, turned it on, went back to the house to see it raining in from the hole in the ceiling, bloody water everywhere so the bloody pipe had not been fixed! ran back 100m to turn it off, got back to the house, bloody soaked. quickly mopped it up with rockwool and parked some dehumidifiers on there to dry it out and went home to the toilet. by the time i got back it looked dry so i got away with it, and i heard through the grapevine they done some tests to see how it was drying out the next day and there was water trapped in the stud walls and they had to rip them out because if it was still there after a month then it was never gonna dry out. whoops

 

[Guest55]

Took 2 bedroom floors up, carpet and laminate, to try and find the supply to living room and kitchen light fittings that weren't working. Only to realise about 4 hours later, that all the lamps in both were blown. They were those bloody awful 12v fittings with half a million of those little crappy lamps.

that is shockingly inept sirkit , lol.
sounds like someone needs a neon screwdriver from santa this year.
;-D

 

[Sintra]

Got keys today for a vacant house to check out the time clock. Opened door took jacket off had a look at time clock decided it needed replaced. Go out to car to get new time clock, door slams behind me house keys and car keys still in my jacket inside. Lucky enough I had my phone but I had to stand for over an hour freezing.

 

[silver surfer]

The daftest one I can remember was seeing another guy installing YT2 mini trunking drops by fixing the trunking lid to the wall first !!
DIYers changing a pendant for a Centre light chandelier etc and terminating all the reds/browns together and all the blacks/blues together when the switch wire ain't been flagged.

 

[Tim]

I worked at bbc television centre for a while, one of the guys had to add a few floor boxes to install an office, the office is electrically split in 2 halfs as it controlled the news 24 tv channel, he isolated the wrong half, and news 24 was a blank screen for around 3minutes.

 

[drew35]

Just yesterday after a long day I went to get in my van which was parked in a line of vehicles but the remote wouldn't unlock the doors. I kept trying the remote, and all the doors handles, "bloody thing why won't you open" and worse. I was scratching my head for a few minutes.

Then I realised my van was parked behind the one I was now trying to break into, exact same van.

Mine must have been sitting their lights flashing away, I got into it red faced, head down, and left quickly...

 

[ferg]

Far too many times I've driven to the back of beyond only to realise I've left something on my desk, in the shed etc.
I learned eventually... now I'm psychotic about checklists and packing the van the night before
If a wise man learns by his own mistakes I must be an effing genius by now.