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REDSAW's 'Plumbing Experience Poll' just had me reminiscing about my first ever plumbing experiences.
My first ever plumbing job was running a new cold main through the cellar of my sister's new house. I'd never even thought about how plumbing even worked until that time really (was a lorry/van driver and did some occasional labouring with my brother and dad) but this first experience made me go in search of a plumbing apprenticeship.
Anyway, me and my brother were fitting my sister's new kitchen and needed to take the cold main from the cellar at the front of the house to the back. As the cellar only went half way through the house I had to literally drag myself along on my stomach through the other half which was built up of rubble and debris leaving about a foot of space beneath the floorboards. With stopcock fitted and about 25ft of copper pipe isolated under the sink it was time to turn it back on in the street.
*SCREAMS* My brother's shouting "Turn it off, turn it off!" so I run back out to turn it off. For whatever reason it was leaking from where the alkathene joined the stopcock and for the next 10 minutes it was "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" - "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" and I just lost where I was up to with it so when he asked me if it was off again, I just thought 'well he must know where we're up to' so I just said 'yeah'.
He untightened the nut and it just went off like a fireman's hose and he's struggling to hold the alkathene in the stopcock in a desperate attempt to stop the flood and I started laughing my head off because it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Looked something like this:
Came to my senses and ran outside, while I'm out in the street lying face down with my hand on the stopcock a girl runs over and starts trying to pick me up. She can hear muffled shouting coming from the cellar window and presumes... well I don't know what she presumed but she told me later that when she came round the corner she thought I only had one arm and had fell over on my face.
After that experience I just knew I wanted to be a plumber - and he stuck to being a joiner.
My first ever plumbing job was running a new cold main through the cellar of my sister's new house. I'd never even thought about how plumbing even worked until that time really (was a lorry/van driver and did some occasional labouring with my brother and dad) but this first experience made me go in search of a plumbing apprenticeship.
Anyway, me and my brother were fitting my sister's new kitchen and needed to take the cold main from the cellar at the front of the house to the back. As the cellar only went half way through the house I had to literally drag myself along on my stomach through the other half which was built up of rubble and debris leaving about a foot of space beneath the floorboards. With stopcock fitted and about 25ft of copper pipe isolated under the sink it was time to turn it back on in the street.
*SCREAMS* My brother's shouting "Turn it off, turn it off!" so I run back out to turn it off. For whatever reason it was leaking from where the alkathene joined the stopcock and for the next 10 minutes it was "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" - "Turn it on" - "TURN IT OFF!" and I just lost where I was up to with it so when he asked me if it was off again, I just thought 'well he must know where we're up to' so I just said 'yeah'.
He untightened the nut and it just went off like a fireman's hose and he's struggling to hold the alkathene in the stopcock in a desperate attempt to stop the flood and I started laughing my head off because it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Looked something like this:
Came to my senses and ran outside, while I'm out in the street lying face down with my hand on the stopcock a girl runs over and starts trying to pick me up. She can hear muffled shouting coming from the cellar window and presumes... well I don't know what she presumed but she told me later that when she came round the corner she thought I only had one arm and had fell over on my face.
After that experience I just knew I wanted to be a plumber - and he stuck to being a joiner.