Misstakes...?

[stevetheplumber]

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

 

[SafeGasInstall]

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

 

[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.

 

[tamz]

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

That can happen too when you try to get the plug out of an old riser to get the cheap rate gas :wink:

 

[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!

 

[Phil]

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.

 

[WaterTight]

customers should be banned from their own houses while work

 

[jaybob]

customers should be banned from their own houses while work

agreed

 

[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!

 

[Destroyer2813]

Remember to shut the window your drilling under, stood up crack three inch gash in my head blood everywere

 

[WaterTight]

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.

 

[Anton]

In all the lofts I've been in and floorboards lifted over the years, I have never been through anyone's ceiling.
Yet I've done it 3 times in my own house in 22years. There must be a moral there, just can't think of it at the moment.

 

[Guest123]

. There must be a moral there, just can't think of it at the moment.

Yes, don't tempt fate!

 

[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!!

 

[Phil]

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?

 

[Resolute]

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!!

Fair play! However as much as we moan about other trades in my experience I've known plumbers, sparks, brickies, plasters etc all pull together when it's really needed - give each other **** all day but in an emergency will all bail each other out!

 

[WaterTight]

except the builders of course

they're down the bank with everyone's money

 

[tamz]

Here is a good one. Not so much a mistake as a learning experience.

I was an apprentice at the time and my tradesman and i were sent to change a 2" stopcock in a school. The stopcock was in a small basement boilerhouse. 2 big solid fuel boilers heating the place nice.
We had a look around outside but couldn't find the main valve so old Bill decides we'd do it live as it would be good experience for me. We shut it down and disconnected a bit pipework "to give us room to work".
He handed me the stilsons and told me to undo the valve. I had about a turn to go on it when it blew off hitting the far wall. 10 bar of pressure from a 2" pipe is a fair bit of water, believe me. He handed me the new valve and told me to open it up and get it on. Thing was because the old valve had blown off it had wasted the threads of the nut and it wouldn't catch.
I messed about with it for a bit until the water was a foot deep on the floor. Don't worry son just cut the old nut off, i'll go get a hacksaw. By the time he came back the water was up over my knees and running into the boilers putting them out. The place was like a turkish bath with the steam.
Billy sticks his head in and threw the hacksaw in my general direction because he couldn't see me for steam and "couldn't swim". Took me about 5 minutes to find it under the water then another minute or 2 to cut the pipe and get the new valve on.
I got it on and stopped the flow but the water was nearly up to my waist and i was like a drowned rat.
Well done son. Come out and have a ***! As we walked up the stairs the fire brigade came in the gates as someone had reported the place on fire. Here thats handy says Billy, Just in time to pump the place out :smile:
Nobody bothered too much. It was just one of those things that happen. Changed days!