Other Funny Blunders

Plumb or Die

Hi I'm new, love the site. Killed myself laughing at the "Homeowner Blunders". I worked mainly in big construction before I started teaching. The best one at work I saw was at a 210 bed extended care home. I started the job as a foreman about 1/2 way into the project, and the main mechanical foreman was an old friend of mine and a bit of a drunk.
All the guys on the job were green apprentices. When my buddy showed the guys how to use the threader, he told them you knew the dies were set properly when you could get 3 1/2ish turns of a fitting on by hand.... And that's all he told them.
So my first day on the job the guys were filling up a wing of the hot water heating pipe for a pressure test and there were leaks everywhere. I grabbed a ladder and went to the end of one of the run outs and I started spinning the pipe out without even using a wrench.
Turns out they installed several hundred feet of 2" to 3/4" steel pipe hand tight, didn't even use pipe dope or teflon tape.
Other than that, for a bunch of untrained apprentii with an alcoholic boss they did a very nice job. And after they took the whole wing apart I showed them the benifits of pipe wrenches, teflon tape and pipe dope and they had no more leaks.
Sorry my first post was so long.

Glasshousebltr

Sounds to me like the terms hand tight and screw severely disturbed they're concentration.

Bob

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Bob

Squench

PoD, I can relate. I did a lot of 300 bed Retirement homes a few years ago.
Check this out...We were a large building Co. with a crew of about a dozen plumbers. We would hit a small town like an army, from backhoe to handi-wrap, knocking out about 2 a year. We had our $#!+ together. They had a turnover rate on the Masters involved, and they would send us a new one occasionally, and most were smart enough to say "Carry on" and go have some coffee. Well, they send us a new 'boss' one day...this guy introduces/asserts himself to the crew, and asks us what we are doing. We are standing on a pad with 4" pvc risers everywhere. We say we need some more inside cutter wheels so we can continue setting w/c flanges. The guy goes to the store, and comes back with a Dremel kit! No kidding....1 entire kit complete with Dremel tool and all the little bits involved..the largest of which is about as big as your pinky finger!! We laughed so hard at this guy...in retrospect, it must have been hard for him to take, but never has complete ignorance been so hilarious!!

Sewerologist

I'm new also, nice to be in company with others in the field.

One that comes to mind was an employee who told me on his last job he and his helper went through 3 metal sawzall blades and 45 minutes cutting a "stack". They were only half way through when they realized they were cutting a support post. Needless to say he was terminated within a matter of days.

Nice site.

skyhook

A nice vacant 2 story house in the heights. Absente H/o hired a jack of all trades.... to do several "improvements".
Jack puts in 500 sq ft of pink and red marble floor. Sharp edges, 1/8" spacers, grout joints, nothing is flush or level. thin set everywhere. BUT why did he wash all the buckets of thinset cement and grout in the kitchen sink, lavs and toilets. Hmmm, toilets backed up ? It would take too long to list the other improvements.

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gitnerdun

In '83, when I first started plumbing, the boss handed me a plunger, an auger, and an address, and said go unplug this toilet. I did. It was a while (months I'm sure) later when with one of the other plumbers that he showed me how the closet auger pulls up to control the cable inside the tool. You talk about a light bulb goin' off! Many times before that I remember trying to get that auger to go in a toilet thinkin what a piece of ^%$#!!! Have a laugh on me boys!

Squench

Oh boy, got a real couple of gems this week.
Both stoppages at the kitchen sink. Both dual basin with disposer.
Monday
..and Friday complete with duct tape. Yes, my friends, that is what it seems, a 1 1/2 pvc san tee for the continuous waste.

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Ishmael

...he saved a bunch of money by doing it himself.