ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area On the job mishaps/ screw-ups

One project last year I remember dropping a nearly-full reel of cable (Romex-type) between the ceiling joists. It went clean through leaving about a 2 ft. jagged hole, plaster dust over everything below.

Fortunately, the ceiling was old and crumbling and was going to be renewed anyway. Phew!

I've drilled through into the wrong place a few times and had a bit emerging the wrong side of a wall (into new paint and paper usually).

One of the perils of the very old buildings here in England is that brickwork and plaster can be very weak and crumbly! I've often been trying to make a nice neat job, only to have a ton of plaster fall off an old wall as I've drilled into it.

We should have an ECN motto:
We do not make mistakes. We create opportunities for amendments!



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 11-01-2003).]

Paul:
Sometimes you can avoid problems with plaster by putting a piece of tape (the "invisible" kind of "Scotch" tape is usually OK) over the area where you will drill. It helps to prevent cracking. Sometimes not

And here I was gonna be embarrassed about my couplings that came loose after the finish work had been done...

Boss: "Hear that? The wire's in the wall..."

Wound up having to contort myself in an attic and reverse-grip my stubby screwdriver while my super helped push the sticks together. This was, of course, in the middle of one of my more "creative" 359 1/2 degree worth of bends between boxes runs, due to decorative framing, and last minute run changes, thanks to the AHJ.

Had a few more that loosened that job. The boss said "Don't worry about it...we all mess up. Just slow down, do it right, and remember it so it doesn't happen next time."

At least I didn't have to explain short cut lengths of 750 mcm AL !

I went to view and take pics of a big job gone bad last week.

A 4000 amp 480v service (one of 4 services to this building). When they tried to energize the main switch, there was a second or two and than the show began. They tried to open the switch, but it welded closed and finally a cable burned clear. There was still power to the switch and the POCO had to kill their end to deenergize the service.
It all happened because they transposed the neutral for phase A.
It destroyed all kinds of equipment in the building, including Asco switches and other 'juicy' $$$$$ equipment and wiring. They are estimating $500,000.00 in damage.
OUCH!!
There are so many things that were wired incorrectly, I do not have the time or space to explain.
The big question being asked though is; how did they energize the service switch without any prior testing?

Pierre

Pierre,
Could you send a pic or two to Bill to post in the "Photos for Discussion" area?...S

PCBelarge and Golf Junkie,

I thought life was tough enough, but if I had to deal with those problems, life would be RUINED! How in the world do you come back from that? They person financially responsible has to be ripping his hair out!

I think I'll stay in the house and not take any chances ever again!

I've got a couple of stories to relate in this post.
Not my fault but, I was there when it happened, like:
I was working in a Dairy shed (where cows are milked) and I was servicing a Motor Starter, a few years back and there was an Apprentice from a competitor company working on the Main Switchboard(PSCC 2500A)
replacing all of the Contactor coils that burned out, because of a Lightning Strike the night before, I finished what I had to do and went to see why there was no power at my motor starter.
Corey, (the Apprentice) had shut the whole Installation down, to make sure that he wouldn't get a shock on the 400V control circuits.
But, when he pulled the lever back up to re-energise the Installation, there were sparks and flames and a really nasty sound coming out of the panel.
We finally put the fire out and discovered he had installed 24VDC coils to all of the contactors.
Like I said, imagine that sinking feeling!.
This other story was related to me by a guy that worked on the West Coast of the South Island here in NZ, during his Apprenticeship.
He had just bought a brand new Brace and Bit (the Armstrong version of the now common Power Drill).
Him and his employer were working in a brand new shop in Greymouth and the owners were very proud of thier new Scrim wall coverings and wall-paper.
They required a new power point on the opposite side of the wall to another (Called back-to-back, over here), that had been left out during the original alterations.
So Pete get's in there with the new B'n'B and drills through the other side of the wall.
He noticed after a while that the Brace was getting rather hard to turn and thought that it was just the bit breaking through the wall-lining, so he kept turning it.
He said he walked into the room next door, to see if the bit had in fact come through, only to find the entire Scrim gone off the wall and wrapped around his drill bit, wallpaper and all, it was all on the floor.
How would you explain that one, eh?.

Did you see the one on TV recently where the guy fell off a ladder, landed on his skyward-pointing drill with auger bit, the auger bit went in his eye and out the side of his head? Gnarly.

I've been sitting here trying to remember a few of mine over the years.

I built a large commercial warehouse type store once, and it was built with poured tilt walls. I slabbed in quite a few stub ups into the tilt pours, for wall switches, exterior lights, Fire alarm, door security, etc.

When you calculate the stub up heights, you want the stubs to come out of the wall at bar joist level, but you have to factor in that the tilt walls sit on the footers, about 2 feet lower than finished floor.

Somehow I screwed that up, I think maybe I doubled the height difference, and as the roof joists went up, I began to see that every one of my stubs came out 2 feet ABOVE the roof.

Oops. And we're talking a Home Depot size facility, lot's of stub ups. Chipped out and recaptured the critical ones, surface piped the rest.

On another job, on a Sunday Father's Day, I was carrying a 2500A main switch gear across a site on a Lull, to place in the building. I tipped it forward and dropped her face down in the dirt. Snapped the handle off the main breaker. I called the project manager at home. I said "Happy father's day, I broke the gear". But we we're pretty good friends, so he said "Must have happened in shipping".

I did a nursing home one time, and on the third floor, I had a guy hook up a transformer wrong. I think he swapped the neutral for C phase on the secondary side. When it turned on, I noticed all the wall sconces down the hallways glowing rather brightly. 208v on a 120v fixture will do that...lol. The bad part was in all the patient rooms, above the ceilings was a stepdown transformer/controller for the patients bed switches for their lighting. We fried about 35 of them at $100 each.

I'll try and remember some more....

Figured this was appropriate to resurrect this thread:

We've had a couple of guys in the company mis-step while in attics and put their foot through the ceiling. Everyone busts their chops about it, but it's all good-natured.

Working in an attic today and wondering what practical joke I could play on my boss in light of his birthday. Figured I go up to him all morose and claim I'd also screwed up and stuck a shoe through the ceiling. No sooner had I formed the thought than I actually did plant my foot right through the sheetrock.

But I didn't stop there.

There was nothing nearby to grab, and I succeded in falling entirely though the drywall ceiling. My boss hears my surprised exclamations and walks into the Great Room to see me swinging from a truss, in the middle of a hole the size of a Volkswagon, with 20 feet of air between me and the huge pile of cellulose insulation on the floor.

I don't know what ended up worse, the ceiling or my pride. But I'll bet I never managed to live this one down.

-John