Your biggest plumbing Blunders.

[kozak1968]

Problems happen when customers or the boss is watching you!

 

[Mike Jackson]

Many years ago I was called out to a blocked rainwater outlet at Debenhams in Hastings. There is a hidden gutter halfway down the facade of the building and this was overspilling in front of the main entrance.

I took the apprentice with me as it was a big ladder job to access the gutter. There were no traps at high level and the pipes were full. We tried rodding and plunging from the top but had no luck.

Next stage was to attack the blockage from the bottom. The pipes were hidden behind the facade and re appeared in the basement. There were rodding points in the basement and i know what you're thinking now but we tapped the pipe first and could tell that the pipe was empty. We took off the rodding point and started feeding rods up the pipe. In hindsight we should have had something around the rods but this didn't occur to us at the time.

The first warning we had was a rumbling in the pipe. We both had the same thought and ran for it. We were halfway to the door when the tsunami hit. Gallons of black foetid water sprayed from the rodding eye in a wide arc covering everything in a thick black slime, years worth of rotting vegetation had been stirred up by out attempts at rodding from above.

It was at this point that the maintenance manager for the building turned up and fell on the floor laughing. From the front, the two of us were perfectly clean but our backs were completely coated with the smelly black slime. Luckily the room we were in was a disused workshop and cleaned up with a good hose down. Some of the other basement rooms were used to house excess stock and we could have ruined thousands of pounds worth of clothing.

When the manager stopped laughing he was good enough to go out to the van and get our spare overalls in so that we could get clean and dry enough to walk back out through the store.

 

[Oscar Wildefan]

Early on in my plumbing life i fitted a bathroom for a friend. I failed to note that the pipework under the bath for the taps was in imperial 3/4". I fitted a pair of push fit flexies onto the 3/4" I had cut in readiness. The bath went in, then tiling, bog, handbasin, shower valve, all the stuff. When it was all done, everything fine; the shower was a manual mixer running off gravity (the bath cold was gravity off the header tank too) and it was a crap dribble as I told her it would be. After putting up with the crap shower for a few weeks she lobbied the landlord for a boiler change to a combi. you know where this is going?...... Big pressure increase to the bath taps and the shower valve tapped off the tap pipes. It lasted two days. While she was out the cold flexy blew off the 3/4" imperial copper(slightly smaller than 22mm). Result? One entirely flooded house. A small lake. Boating was possible. She took it all very well. Claimed on the insurance, got new everything upstairs and down, carpets, laminate, full re-paint. Delighted in the end. Even then, I didn't twig what had happened until a few days later when a plumbing mate pointed it all out. I have a 3/4"/22mm end feed adaptor in my toolbox now to prevent that happening again.

 

[glenno1]

I was once on a shower replacement few years ago,shower didnt work at all,turned off stopcock then drained taps and proceeded to take off shower,it was on tight so i gave it a tap with a mallet and it came off with water hitting the ceiling and everything else,i managed to get the shower back on straight away but did get quite wet.When i investigated what was wrong i found a seperate stop tap buried in a cupboard that only supplied the shower.Been over caucious since

 

[codcutter]

When i lived in Bexhill got the job of cleaning the wastes and stacks of 6 blocks of flats. Cleared all internal wastes on 1st block o.k. Had apprentice at base of internal soil stack (taking kitchen waste) with rods and worm to keep stack clear while i went on roof with drain jetter. Merrilly working away when managing agent of block screams at me "What the f**k are you doing"?? I have to admit his face was purple, thought he was going to explode:bomb2: or have a heart attack.
Went down to his flat (3rd floor) to find his kitchen about an inch deep in stinking black sludge. Apologised profusely, stuck £20 in his hand and told him to go to the pub for LONG lunch(this was in 1989). Then went and slapped the apprentice 'cos he hadn't noticed water flow had stopped. Aquavac, mops and buckets all sorted about 3hours later..... NO i don't clean soil stacks anymore

 

[nicro3]

Ever starting in this game, what a waste.

 

[stevetheplumber]

Lol ha some great ones. I know someone that somehow piped a cold water main into a gas main and pumped water into the gas meter. Woops.

yes me