we are all quick to say how good we are and to let others know what they need to know..but who among us have made the best blunder ,mistake,botch up etc........i'll start,i took a stat out of a vokera thinking it will be the same as the baxi i had done the day before,but to my horror it was not in a pocket it was in the live pipework,and you can quess what happened,needless to say i did not make the same mistake again and it took a while for my boss to see the funny side of it...WHAT YOURS.
Currently reading:
Misstakes...?
Discuss Misstakes...? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net
V
vectra65
me being a plumber
You should bought a few Lottos, with your luck (not becoming toast) you wouldn't be on here now.:icon12:
L
Leadbetter
Doing a full central heating system a few monts ago, turned the stop tap of 25mm alk, tap was realy stiff, all day worrying about the stiff stop tap, turned it back on later that day, and just a trickle coming through the taps,, spent 2hours trying to locate another stop tap and calling tge water supplyer (useless), the next morning i arrive with a freeze kit and a new stop tap, left the freeze kit on fir the required time, cracket the nut on the stop tape , slowly undid the nut removed the tap, BANG ice plug blew out, mains water every were, so lucky the customer was away for a week
Not my mistake as such. But a long time ago, when I was an apprentice, (that was a long time ago) I was with a fitter, and we were to fit a new cooker at a top floor flat of a four storey building. We carried the new cooker up the stairs (no lift).
The new cooker was light as a feather compared to the old Cannon cooker we were to take out. The Cannon was one of the old mostly cast iron and steel frame type, bloody heavy.
The guy in charge said "we're not carrying this down the stairs, we'll chuck it off the fire escape at the back" which we did.
It landed in the back garden and pretty much disassembled itself in the grass.
As we were leaving, the old dear says "can you put the old cooker in the cellar because my friend wants it for her kitchen"
I can't remember what the outcome was, but I do remember we left pretty sharpish.
The new cooker was light as a feather compared to the old Cannon cooker we were to take out. The Cannon was one of the old mostly cast iron and steel frame type, bloody heavy.
The guy in charge said "we're not carrying this down the stairs, we'll chuck it off the fire escape at the back" which we did.
It landed in the back garden and pretty much disassembled itself in the grass.
As we were leaving, the old dear says "can you put the old cooker in the cellar because my friend wants it for her kitchen"
I can't remember what the outcome was, but I do remember we left pretty sharpish.
D
Danny25
Working in a monastery at my first "big" job fitting a shower room and basins, pipe runs were going through the loft. walking around in the loft with no torch and steel cap boots on tripped over and managed to kick the speed fit cap end the incoming mains feed, flooded a few rooms but luckily not the room a few feet away that was used to contain all the old statues and antic books. oh dear.
- Messages
- 526
i,ve got hundreds of much ups but a good one was fitting one direction trv,s on the wrong pipe southampton job centre vibrated as the pumps belted against the closed valves
Alpha man
Gas Engineer
- Messages
- 1,140
Ive had a few in the past like most, but the most costly one I ever did was to fit a 6 bar PRV on a combi, (both 3 and 6 bar PRV's I use have got red caps so didnt notice), cust left the filling loop on a few months later, which split the expansion vessel and most o ring seal joints and pi$$ed water through the ceiling.
Had to take the boiler off the wall to do repairs and repainted the ceiling for them FOC!!!
Had to take the boiler off the wall to do repairs and repainted the ceiling for them FOC!!!
J
jaybob
another one i remember was stripping out and first fixing for a loft conversion usual stuff rad and on suite with towel rail. got it all done without any issues there was no floor down just crawling boards on ceiling and steels in place everything mark out to some degree anyway just finished and as paking up and walking away triped up over the sparks wires he didnt clip up i went flying tools in hand feet through ceiling luky for me the customer had just got up from exactly underneth where i fell just moments before i put it all right foc for them
- Messages
- 526
set alight hessian lagging in a roof space that one for stopping your heart it spreads like a forest fire
T
tamz
Done that one lots of times. Had to cut through the main to put one out.
- Messages
- 2,504
using my rothenburger torch thought it had turned off, put it behind me, then smell of burning, looked round to see 6 pot towels hung on the back door well alight and setting fire to blind on the door, unfortunately no water because that was what I was working on, emptied flask full of warm tea, still we learn.
B
Billy Bob Bob
try filla foam up a cavity heart stopped and pants filled up
T
tamz
Try setting fire to the building paper on a timber kit house for a heart stopper :lol:
B
Billy Bob Bob
now thats a pants filler when i was in tech years ago we set fire to one of the other trainees coat,he was wearing it at the time,now he did soil himself,nobody would say it was me funny at the time bloody stupid in hindsight
- Messages
- 10,607
certain types of net curtains can shrivel without the gun actually touching them
alledgedly
alledgedly
- Messages
- 10,607
when i did welding at college one guy let the gun touch his clipper lighter which was on the bench took of his eye bvrows lashes and most of his beard looked like a god with his fiery halo
- Messages
- 8,587
snapped in my hands 1 inch still pipe , uncontrolled old GAS MAIN in the kitchen not controlled by ECV ! national Grid loved it they turn the Gas OFF to the area
J
julesverne
best lesson i learned never drink hard the night before if you have work.was a bit hung over and 2 months into working for myself. cutting up some floorboards on a big bathroom conversion and chopped through a hot and cold that i knw were there water everywhere. managed to mop up water and thought i had got away after a big red face apologies with cust. but lateon evening call to say had come down and wrecked a £1250.00 cooker. i now never drink if i'm working the day after. i replaced the cooker re boarded the ceiling and plastered the ceiling and the biggest bunch of flowers for the lady of the house. i finished the bathroom without a hitch after and have done loads of work for them since then which was 4 years ago.
the funniest one . was knocking some some bricks out with a lump hammer left the hammer on top step of step ladder. forgetting they were there folded step ladder to move it and half through moving the lump hammer fell off and hit me( fell about 2 feet) on my head before landing on the shower tray luckily i had folded a dust sheet about 4 times over so not a mark. but the sheet had gone from a cream colour to red from all the blood pouring out of my head. i sat down to take it easy for a minute and the cust came up to see what had happened and fell flat on his back when he saw all the blood. not funny at the time but now i still chuckle to myself when i think about it. were theres no sense theres no pain.
the funniest one . was knocking some some bricks out with a lump hammer left the hammer on top step of step ladder. forgetting they were there folded step ladder to move it and half through moving the lump hammer fell off and hit me( fell about 2 feet) on my head before landing on the shower tray luckily i had folded a dust sheet about 4 times over so not a mark. but the sheet had gone from a cream colour to red from all the blood pouring out of my head. i sat down to take it easy for a minute and the cust came up to see what had happened and fell flat on his back when he saw all the blood. not funny at the time but now i still chuckle to myself when i think about it. were theres no sense theres no pain.
T
tamz
That can happen too when you try to get the plug out of an old riser to get the cheap rate gas :wink:
R
Rayner
Only been plumbing a year...still on my apprenticeship but it seems as though loads has happened to me already. The lad who I work with left a 15mm pipeslice in the loft; I stood on it and went straight through the ceiling. Snapped a radiator bleed pin. My gaffa refuses to buy proper tile drill bits because "he's never cracked a tile before" new designer porcelain tiles...using an sds I made a lovely crack. Working on a bathroom in a massive house turned the water off and opened all the taps. When we went to fill up I had forgotten to close the taps in one of the cloakroom suites downstairs; tiny room, small sink. A good 10 minutes worth of mains water. Luckily customer was out for a couple of hours and I used 4 old dust sheets and a mop to soak up the water before anybody was any wiser. Lad I work with was adament that an old pipe under the boards was a dead gas pipe. Told me to cut it out whilst he went to merchants, low and behold it was cold and there was nobody there to turn water off. Gave it as long as I could with my finger over the end and gave up and ran to find the stoptap..just my luck I couldnt find it, doubt I need to explain the rest. When these things happen I feel like knocking it on the head and giving up, no doubt I'll make more mistakes in my time but I think I've learnt from the ones I've already made....hopefully!
I was fitting a shower with some of that tounge and groove pvc shower panels (horrible stuff). The panel behind the electric shower was especially difficult and took 2 attempts as there was a spare panel. I got it right in the end and then slid the other vertical panels in and locked it in place. Fitted enclosure.
Last finishing touch was to fit the riser rail, my drill bit snapped and I punched a hole 2 inches away from where I was drilling through the difficult panel and there were no spares.
At that exact moment customer came in to see how I was doing so I paniced and moved something in front of it, sorted now though.
Last finishing touch was to fit the riser rail, my drill bit snapped and I punched a hole 2 inches away from where I was drilling through the difficult panel and there were no spares.
At that exact moment customer came in to see how I was doing so I paniced and moved something in front of it, sorted now though.
- Messages
- 5,435
customers should be banned from their own houses while work
J
jaybob
agreed
G
Guest123
Sent 2 almost identical quotes to 2 different customers. One was a family friend and her quote was at almost cost price. The other quote was a lot higher. Sent the quotes to the wrong people and the cheaper one was accepted and I lost the friend as she thought I was too dear and trying my luck with her!
Ah well you win some, you lose some but I double check adresses now!
Ah well you win some, you lose some but I double check adresses now!
- Messages
- 3,404
Remember to shut the window your drilling under, stood up crack three inch gash in my head blood everywere
- Messages
- 5,435
Oh don't get me started on injuries I didn't think we were including those. I can mutilate myself in my living room so on the job I'm essentially a horror film. I cracked my head on a toilet handle so many times in a row when working behind an adjascent basin I ended up wrapping it in toilet roll and ran gaffa tape round it to soften the inevitable blows. And yes, I forgot to remove it. Customer must have been properly confused.
G
Guest123
Yes, don't tempt fate!
R
ryanlee
THese are brilliant!!Had plenty of injuries and plenty of cock ups. One of my best was when we had a contract to install a load of stop taps on an estate of flats that for some reason didnt have any for individual properties. Most of the outside mains taps were knackered so we had to freeze a lot of them. Froze up a 35mm pipe left it about 10 minutes or so, cut pipe, put on the fiitings needed, turned around to get spanners and boom... 35mm ice plug shoots 4m accross kitchen, never seen so much water in my life. tried to hold back water with my hands , no chance. 2 sparks run in, and fairplay to them, didnt stand there laughing but one drilled a hole through external wall and started bailing water out the window and the other wrapped a tea towel onto the end of a broom handle and jammed it in the pipe and between us we managed to stem the flow slighty. By this time there were about 5 people involved. Whilst we held the broom in place a big strapping polish lad got the fittings and stop tap assembled and ready to go on the pipe and on the count of 3 we let go of the broom and the polish lad rammed the fittings( there was a lot of polish swearing ) on whilst 2 people tightened it up. Luckily was ground floor flat. there was about 2 inches of water in every room, had to replace all flooring and redecorate some rooms. Everyone was drenched to the bone but we were laughing about it an hour later. Never known sparkys be so helpful!!
Funny!
Although I'm curious, "one drilled a hole through external wall and started bailing water out the window"
Do you mean at floor level in a decorated house?
- Status
Reply to Misstakes...? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net
Similar plumbing topics
- Locked
- Question
- Ryan Smith
- Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board