My first Mistake what was yours

[franky]

When I was starting out I had to change some pipework in my mates bathroom. Had to solder a joint on the mains anyway, messed up the solder joint leaked then the stopcock broke. Had to catch water in a bucket for half an hour till my dad came round to sort it out. The joys of learning

 

[kay-jay]

more of a faux pas than a mistake but it lost me work.
i'd just done a downstairs bog and basin and rad, fixed the packing gland leak on the stop tap and had arranged to go back and swap some rads upstairs. i was chatting to mrs custard, i asked what she did for a living and she replied she is a bit part actor and is regularly on commercials on tv. she went on to say she used to be a model but she's too old now (40 ish) and instead of saying 'rubbish you aren't old' i actually just smiled and said yeah and nodded in agreement.

needless to say i wasn't asked back for the rads. it was one of my first jobs and i was a bit nervous about dealing with customers but it was a lesson well learned.

KJ

 

[Bartdude]

I went through a ceiling on my first day as a fresh faced 16 year old apprentice.

Fixing a 3 metre rad on my own,lifted one end onto the brackets,went to the other end and lifted,of course it came off the bracket,and I was wearing trainers. 2 weeks off!

I was working on a big heating job in a nursing home,using the existing,big column radiators. The new boilers were fired up,but a few of the rads wouldn't get hot "go round and bleed them all" I was told. I did the first few and there was lots of air,it was taking ages to bleed each one. I got to a particularly large rad in the hallway and I thought I'd speed things up by undoing the 3/4 plug in the other end,just enough to let a bit of air out. I very carefully turned the plug and air was coming out at a steady rate. I turned around to pick up a cloth and the plug shot out of the rad and hit the other side of the hall,followed by the glug,glug of very hot water that was making a bid for freedom. In my panic I put my hand over the hole to stop the water from spraying the recently painted wall and managed to hold on for about 20 seconds before getting scalded and letting go. I had to go to A+E for the burn and got hammered from everyone on site for a couple of weeks. Character building I suppose!

One more,but not mine. We were in an accommodation block in the Commando training centre, we'd fitted the 50mm copper water main and had air pressure tested everything with Nitrogen bottles. the water was switched on and everything was fine for half an hour, at which point the Bakers Blue flux finally let go on a tee where one of the guys had forgotten to solder. It's quite a sight to see a 50mm water main going full bore! He'd been told to use yorkshire flux too!

 

[GQuigley67]

I made quite alot of mistakes on Commercial tbh mostly because my Gaffer puts you under alot of pressure to work your bum off, but at least there were no customers around to deal with just an angry gaffer

Since doing jobs on my own though for customers, I have only made one mistake and that was breaking a half ped for overtightening the Bolts Oops As I walked about with the customer showing him the progress so far, I pointed out what I done incase he noticed himself and told him that it'll be replaced free of charge anyhow. We all learn from our mistakes.

Doing my Apprenticeship what I did notice though when working on site with 10 other Plumbers is that even the older experienced ones make mistakes, which made me stop doubting my ability but then again on site all people remember about you are the mistakes haha

 

[fdph]

Total novice mistake when i was first starting out as apprentice, i was on a job for a small building firm and had just put in a bathroom, the builder was in it looking at my work when i went out the room to liven it up, didn't take long to realise there was a problem from the angry shouting so isolated it again, went back to the bathroom to find a very wet and angry builder from where i'd missed soildering one side of a elbow!

 

[Dannypipe]

I once dropped a basin as I slid it from the back of the delivery van. Only dropped about 12" but went tinkle. I just threw it straight in the skip still in the box, didn't want to look. Said to the driver: 'when you get back, can you order me another one please'. Then I proceeded to swear loudly.

£200 gone just like that.

 

[villa_tom]

A firm I used to work for phoned me as I was on my way and asked me to look at a faulty rad at a property by my house. Reluctantly I said yes as it was an elderly tennant and it was quite cold. Anyway, get there and the rad in the bathroom was not working, faulty trv. Looked at the time and it was nearly half five and I suddenly remembered I had the villa, and it was the semi final of the carling cup (which we wone 6-4 against blackburn.YEAH). I looked at the rad and decided to snatch the valve as I was in a rush and the lady had been let down a few days earlier plus it was a wetroom. Anyway gets all my gear off the van, TRV, tools, dust sheets etc and settle down infront of the rad. Isolated and removed. Then as quick as I could removed the old TRV off the pipework and put my thumb over the pipe. But being stupid and rushing had forgotten to turn the heating off and before you knew it scalding hot water there and I had no choice but to remove my thumb. Somehow I managed to put the new valve on and finish the job. But ended up with a blister on my thumb the exact shape of 15mm pipe and soaking. I'll never do it again. You live and learn I suppose

 

[SafeGasInstall]

one of my first big mistake was ..
boiler change job,old boiler of gas test pass,cup the meter,then turn electric off took the 3amp fuse out ,then got my hose to drain down . when to how way rad nothing ,then kitchen nothing ,then living room yep one there! got my dust sheet down on the laminate floor got my jubilee clip on the hose screw driver and my grips .hose on the drain of quick look hmmm it look a bit green,was bit dark in that morning !got hose on jubilee on here it comes my grips ,start undoing and how thing just bl@@dy snapped off ,water p1$$!%G every where .....
panic attack strait got my thumb on it lucky me ,owner turned heating off 1 hour earlier and water was not hot to scold me....

ever since if i see greenish looking drainoff i know what to do !

lucky me did not get much water on the floor just a splash on the sofa which was dark brown leather and bit on the wall under the rad

 

[SafeGasInstall]

ohhhhhhh just remembered the biggest ever !!!!

boiler change job cancel work down in Lewisham,kitchen to be done ! Old boiler comes of and all the gas steal pipe work !First step ga s test and cupped meter! then i took boiler off, then i look around in the kitchen and see a 3/4 stel coming of the floor and and caped off ,went to my van picked up my stilsons and start undoing it but the it will not give as elbow under the concrete floor ! so i even try harder and guess is snapped of just as it comes of the floor and i could smell gas......as there was labours in kitchen taking off tiles off the wall i could not hear GAS coming out 3/4 old mains been left live in the kitchen !
here it comes panic attack again start shouting every one out ,every one evacuated there is me with my hand on trying to block 3/4 gas pipe ! my supervisor arrived he got every one out 100m away next door evacuated to !
Got did i $h1T my self ...............

well we got quick very clever solution ,brooms handle out and we pushed it down the pipe and waiting for the transco to come !they turned of the how estate off for that day !

It was old main to the house,when they change the main street gas the forgot to disconnect it and was left live !so if it did leak no one would now as it had just been caped of,so from then if you guys see 3/4 or 1" still coming from the floor and is just been caped make sure you undo the cap end take it from there!

I WAS EXTREMELY LUCKY, AS BY THAT TIME I DID NOT OWN RECIP SAW,AS I AM SURE THAT I WOULD HAVE START CATTING IT WHIT IT IF I HAD ONE!!!!

 

[mikegas]

brilliant, how many people at some point have taken off a trap and tipped the water away into the sink minus the trap youve just taken off ?......doh lol

ha ha ive done this a few times