bad mistake

[secret squirrel]

Ok, I'm interested in your worse mistakes!

doesn't have to result in an insurance claim but must be a bad error of judgement!

I will take getting married and having kids as a mistake most of us make....

Blame your mate, apprentice or own up to the mistake yourself if you like

 

[dontknowitall]

Not my worst mistake but I've done it more than once ...

Removing the U bend under a kitchen sink then immediately pouring the contents down said sink.

 

[johnmcginty]

rad sludge white carpets , anyone know where you can get those elastic clips that blocks off the ends?

 

[traineedrip]

mate of mines fitting a new bathroom... owners making lunch for him and tilers due. matey fills the bath to stabise it, then goes down to lunch.

tiler arrives and their all sitting in the dining room with heaverly pregnant owner munching away. then my mate spots a growing bulge in the ceiling above the ladies head, after annoucing that a swift move into the conservatory was in order , just as they reached saftey the ceiling comes down.

unfortunatly the ladies 3 year old decided to unplug the bath and sadly the waste was a after lunch job, so hadnt been connected..

another huge house he did lots of work on, lady goes on holiday and returns to find police and fire brigade bailing out. he goes round there absolutly crapping himself to find overflow pipe in loft lying on the floor. turns out the builders had put new cladding up and forgot to reconnect it to the outside world... not even a hole! she had to live in temp housing for 6 months!

im still too green and clean to have made any boo boos although my mentor did chuckle when i decided to drain the pipes at the cold kitchen tap after tying up the ball valve in the CWS. He couldnt work out how long it would take to empty the local reseviour but commended me on finding new ways of stretching the job out.
oh and my annoying habit of forgetting to reconnect sink and bath overflows when i have moved them for access

 

[newbie1]

tried cutting and capping cold main without checking it was turned off the other day...water was freeeeeezing and hit me in the chest and face

 

[justlead1]

Hi Re plumbing a street of council houses, all gear dropped of in front garden. Sitting down with a cup of tea with tenant, Water through ceiling rose. Turns out plastic overflow pipe had a core of clay in end and ball valve failed. If it were not for bad luck i wouldn't has any luck at all.

 

[stevetheplumber]

Not my worst mistake but I've done it more than once ...

Removing the U bend under a kitchen sink then immediately pouring the contents down said sink.

Oi thats my party trick doesnt it make you look silly?
my worst one was trying to light an old appollo rs in a tight cupboard tried to long without letting the gas clear and it blew the biscuit tin lid front panel straight of and hit me on the nose i emerged from the cupboard to find every one in the room to see what the bang was ,eyes running and nose bleeding trying to look like nothing had happened think i mumbled something like they always do that

 

[newbie1]

Oi thats my party trick doesnt it make you look silly?
my worst one was trying to light an old appollo rs in a tight cupboard tried to long without letting the gas clear and it blew the biscuit tin lid front panel straight of and hit me on the nose i emerged from the cupboard to find every one in the room to see what the bang was ,eyes running and nose bleeding trying to look like nothing had happened think i mumbled something like they always do that

thats a claissic nearly chocked on my cup of tea as i read it

 

[stevetheplumber]

Not my worst mistake but I've done it more than once ...

Removing the U bend under a kitchen sink then immediately pouring the contents down said sink.

Oi thats my party trick doesnt it make you look silly?
my worst one was trying to light an old appollo rs in a tight cupboard tried to long without letting the gas clear and it blew the biscuit tin lid front panel straight of and hit me on the nose i emerged from the cupboard to find every one in the room to see what the bang was ,eyes running and nose bleeding trying to look like nothing had happened think i mumbled something like they always do that

 

[dontknowitall]

Can't stop giggling with that one Steve!!

"They always do that" !!!! hehehe

Excellent!

My worst mistake was on the training course. Fitted CWSC and cylinder together. Went back next morning and was given a mop and bucket to clear up the warehouse floor as I'd not checked all my fittings were tightened properly.

 

[REDSAW]

went to fit an american fridge with ice maker etc.
thought i would be in and out in a couple of hours.
drilled a hole through the kitchen wall thru to old garage/diner room where the fridge was sited and went straight thru c/h pipe hidden behind plaster board.
any way, laminate floor mopped up, skirting repaired along with plaster board- 6 hours later came to top up combi and filler valve screw-turn broke of over pressurising system-6pm.
next day 2hrs later job done nice little earner - £60. of home back to the missis= with a greating of where's me fkng shoping money!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[johnmcginty]

Turned a quater turn outside stopcock with the big key on an old couples property in their garden at about 7pm , turned it far too much and it snapped off, water flooded all his garden plants and drive way , had to sit on the damn stopkey to relieve the pressure and wait 4 hours for aquaforce to turn up and dig up his entire driveway to put a new stopcock in at 11 'o' clock at night.

 

[stevetheplumber]

Can't stop giggling with that one Steve!!

"They always do that" !!!! hehehe

Excellent!

My worst mistake was on the training course. Fitted CWSC and cylinder together. Went back next morning and was given a mop and bucket to clear up the warehouse floor as I'd not checked all my fittings were tightened properly.

we had a gatevalve let by in a house with parkey flooring front room looked like the himalayas by the morning

 

[Alan35]

Think was the 2nd plumbing job I ever did
After doing some work on a rad filled up with filling loop, stopped at 1.5 bar, the gauge kept rising! hit 3 bar and the PRV valve kicked in, Hell of a noise and was a new boiler. The old dude almost had a heart attack. I told him well at least we know its all working properly, lucky was a draincock close by.

 

[Jimbob]

ones that stand out to me was losing a template to drill out tap hole on a bath, so measure the distance on the taps and drill it out. then picked up the tap and looked at the chrome elbows which kicked out and made the holes 20mm to close. No way of getting around it, needed a new bath.

Tipping the Trap water back down the sink is an absolute classic.

Worst of all mistakes was leaving a gas pipe poking out a wall on set of flats ready to be run around to the meter. The clever builder thought it was an old one (despite it being shiny) and cut it off and rendered it in. So had to chip around it but wouldnt get the block of concrete from the centre of the pipe, so thought it would be clever to compress the gas pipework (to 3 bar) and open the lever valve and shoot it out. Unfortunely the pipe was facing my car on a road about 20 yards away. So compressed it up and fired away regardless, then i heard a shout... so i ran out the front and luckly the tiler was standing on the road on his phone where a lump of concrete had hit him on back of his head, he was alright about it after i explained but he thought id shot a paintball gun at his head.

At least it didnt hit my car though, just had a new windscreen.

 

[Smcart5]

3 bars of pressure is enough to dislodge hardened concrete from the center of a pipe?

 

[Jimbob]

oh yes