...
... Well Wewire2,I just got the 2nd installment,..it all went something like this...(All True,by the way),...This past Monday was a nightmare,..my helper called in sick,and I had a pretty difficult snaking job lined up for that day,..it was a pull from the basement of this 60-80yr old house,up 2 floors to the attic,all riding beside the waste vent that exited the roof.I was to be pulling (2)- 12-3 Romex lines,and(2)-14-3's for additional circuits on the 2nd floor..After a couple of shots I was able to receive the snake in the basement bathroom drop ceiling,which was where the vent pipe started it's ascent.
...I made up my "serve",..I don't know what you guys call it,..(the attaching of the wires to the snake hook)..and ran upstairs to the attic to begin pulling.I thought I'd covered ALL of the bases,to save a few dozen trips up and down,..ie;..unrolling plenty of cable,keeping the pathway clear,removing customer property that may get broken..but as I was in the attic,..(mind you,I'm 2 floors up),..I heard a deafening,mind-numbing crash,...The H.O. was home,and called up to me,.."Did you hear that,..is everything OK?" I took a few seconds to respond,..still wondering what the heck could've caused such an earshplittenloudenboomer..I ran to the basement only to find the bathroom floor filled with water,and the toilet still "running"..what I then saw almost literally made me soil myself..
The toilet,which was about 3feet adjacent to the area I was working in had a small knick-nack shelf above it,mounted directly above the toilet tank,maybe some 3 feet above on the wall..once held (among other things) a glass enclosed fragrance candle,that somehow got knocked off the wall,and fell THROUGH the toilet tank lid..splitting the tank lid in two..and the candle was now in the tank,which caused the tank to flush,but broke the valve filler thingy and water was spraying out of the tank now all over the wall and floor...I panic'd,..and went for the "speedie" valve on the side of the toilet..of course it was 10,000 years old,and started leaking as I tried to tighten it...I was definetly gonna have a coronary right at about that time,..and then ran to the main water shut-off for the house.Thank God,..that held,and the H.O. now stood at the top of the basement stairs looking like she was about to go into convulsions...I explained what must of happened,that the snake,or wire,had gotten a loop in it,and knocked the offending candle(depth charge)into the toilet tank..To make a long story longer,I called a buddy o' mine who is a Plumber,and he was in the area,and came by to help out..
He put a new "speedie"valve on at the toilet,and replaced the broken tank filler valve thing-a-ma-bob...I mopped up the mess,and lucky the sump pump drain was close by..I finished the installation that day,and had to replace the toilet tank lid,which wasn't easy,because the toilet was made in 1963,..American Standard..it took us a while for my Plumber buddy to find a tank lid that would fit,and that was the right color,..(off-white),...but we finally found one in his shop..I had to give the dubious H.O. a discount that day,and wound up making 1/2 of what I wanted to...I then went home,..and had me a nice STIFF drink!!!!
Russ..

Thanks, Russ. I needed that. Great story.

Dave

Russ, it sounds like you and I might make more money writing a story about our experiences than doing electrical work

When things go bad, I remind myself that they could get worse. This is a good reminder. My day could have been worse, I guess.

[This message has been edited by twh (edited 10-22-2004).]

twh (which are one of my brother's initials.. lol!), does this mean in the future one could hear you say, "Ugh, well at least I'm not having one of Attic Rat's days..." ?

AR, plumbing problems are my absolute WORST issues because I'm not inclined in the least to try to deal with them. I think if my house really had a bad backup from the system, I'd just move out and never look back.

I'm thinking of naming the loop in the wire that bungs up a pull an "Attic Rat"

AR, just think... you may join the ranks of infamous name-makers! Go YOU!

AR,
Someday I'll tell ya' the story about the time I cut a live water line in an occupied apartment.

You're not alone man!

Another classic by "The Rat". I love it.
I hope the next adventure entails some better luck. Don't make us wait too long
for the next one.

Attic Rat,

This is the first AR story ive read but, now having done so i will stay tuned for the next one.

... Thanx gang,...unfortunately I have a whole trunkful...Just true to life experiences,experienced by none other than me,your friendly neighborhood Attic Rat.I'd be happy to share them with you all... Come to think of it,..it'll do wonders for my Therapist too!!
Russ

Reminds me of the time I was working in a renovated house. I was drilling down through a sill plate into the crawl space below. I just barely broke through with the 7/8" auger when water comes gushing up through the hole. Only thing it could have been was a heat pipe so I run down to the basement and turn off the boiler water feed. I went back to the shop to get my torch and plumbing tools as well as some 3/4 copper tubing and a couple of couplings. I crawled into the flooded crawl space and saw that the stupid plumber ran the pipe almost on the underside of the subfloor. Long story short I replaced the section of pipe, refilled the system and since no one was around we are the only ones who will ever know what happened.

Oh, it's always good to know something about the other trades, you never know when it will come in handy!

-Hal

Attic Rat, I have a trunkful, too. Most of us do. That's what we're underpaid for.

What counts is how you recover from mistakes. You fixed it. That's all that matters.

Good work!

I mentioned this thread to my dad and he got a chuckle out of it. He's retired from a Nat'l Lab where he was the go-between that took what the physicists where dreaming up and translated it for the technicians so they could build the prototype or he would engineer the 'field' version. In other words, he's a southern engineer with a flair for cooking up cool toys.

Now for fun he's the Fri/Sat/Sun employee at our local hardware store & it's like putting a kid in a candy store. His take on all plumbing jobs (for non-plumbers) is that it's never a 1 trip to the store kind of task.

I think it would be handy to know a bit about each trade so you don't get yourself into a real fix!

I feel your pain.

It reminds me of a job I had a few years ago. We were adding some outlets for a counter space in a Butlers pantry. The HO was planning to tile the backsplash so I told my helper to get me the cordless sawsall. I then proceeded to cut a neat 6" by 8ft section of drywall out so we could do our work and place it back for the tile man. I was almost done when water started spraying me in the face. I ran the the basement to find the main shut off, but no luck. I went back up stairs and noticed the water shooting out was hot. I knew where the hot water heater was so I ran down and turned the valve off. At that time I hear a loud scream coming from the master bath. As I came back up the stairs, I see the man of the house with a towel on soaking wet and covered in soap suds at the top of the stairs. As you can guess, he was in the shower when I turned off the hot water. It's a good thing he's a nice guy. The wife gave us lots of towels to dry up the floors and her new cabinets. As it turned out, the cheap builder (million+ house) used CPVC for the water line and I had nicked it. The plumber installed in on the edge of the stud, so it was touching the drywall. The good part is it only cost me about 50 cents to prepair, but if the pipe was copper, I would've known I hit it and probably wouldn't have cut deep enough to cause a leak.

[This message has been edited by Electric Eagle (edited 10-23-2004).]

I was working in a very expensive home installing a new lighting automation system. I replaced one of the existing switches that was mounted in the mirror backsplash of the sink. The backsplash, BTW, had all of the edges beveled. After CAREFULLY tightening the switch down I turned around to my laptop to see if the new switch was communicating with the system. I heard a very strange noise that I had never heard before. You can only imagine the horror on my face when I discovered the noise was the mirror cracking from the switch down to the countertop.

All I could do was offer to pay for the backsplash but my employer declined my offer.

I swear, I only tightened the switch enough to hold it, I SWEAR !!!!

Oh the plumbing stories! It's gotten to the point that I carry enough plumbing supplies and fittings that the plumbers check with me before runninig out to the supply house for that one piece that they are short, and often I have what they need.

One of my worst experiences was about three or four years ago when I had my son cutting open the floor to gain access to drill the joists below. We were told in advance that there was a bit of radiant hot water heat in the floor and met with the homeowner to show us the areas to avoid.

I set a circular saw to just under 7/8" to cut through the 3/4" plywood sub floor and sent my son off to do his work. Shortly he was back asking me if there was supposed to be water squirting out of the cut that he just made.

What we found was the some ingenious plumber designed his own system using 3/4" copper set into notches in the tops of the joists (in an area forgotten about by the homeowner). If that wasn't enough, the plumber inserted shims where ever needed to insure that all of the tubing was in direct contact with the underside of the sub floor.

The boiler in this "mini mansion" was the size of a small truck with a 1" makeup water supply could that pump a lot of water back into the system in a short period of time.
Once the water was finally shut off, we had to wait for the three stories of those huge cast iron radiators to drain to beneath the first floor.

Of course I had the necessary fittings, torch etc to repair the copper. Then to add icing to the cake it was November in the north east and I didn't have a radiator key with me. Helpful Homer at the local Home Depot was not very helpful that day, he just didn't get the concept of needing a key for a radiator it's not like you need to lock them up or anything.

We lost about an hour draining the system, a couple of minutes repairing the problem, about an hour refilling the system, about an hour and a half chasing down a key and finally about an hour bleeding the system and getting heat back into the house.

It was just another monday.

This is a pretty good thread, I may have to post again with the cat story from about thirty years ago with my dad.

FRANK

... Got a new one for you all,..although,it was my helper this time,and not me.We were roughing in for a kitchen renovation,and there was plywood sheathing nailed to the tops of the ceiling joists that had to be cut out from underneath to make way for recessed cans in the ceiling.I assigned the task to my 2 yr. man,feeling confident in his ability to use a "Sawz-All",and extricate the sheathing from our lighting areas....Within a few minutes of sawing,I hear,.."Sh*t,...shut off the gas"...I almost had a coronary,..(once again) when I saw what he'd done.He managed to "Ginsu" thru a 3/4" flexible gas line [you know,that yellow stuff,plastic outside,and corrugated metal flex on the inside,..] that was run thru the ceiling,on top of the plywood,and instantly the room filled with gas.I ran and disconnected the string of temp lights we had,and made a mad dash to the basement,and met the carpenter there,who said he'd shut the gas off....O.K.,I ran back upstairs only to see the H.O.,freaking out,and gas still pouring out of the cut piping.I ran back downstairs and yelled to the Mexican carpenter,"I thought you said you shut off the gas"...he replied in broken English,.."I deed",..I then said "Where is the shut-off?",..and he brought me into the boiler room,and pointed to the boiler gas shut-off...I then ran frantically thru the basement and located the MAIN shut-off,as there was no gas-cock for the flex line,(although in my opinion,there should've been one).We were running around like a pair of Keystone Cops..[you could just hear the rag-time piano playing in the background]I returned to the 1st floor to face the music,and call my "buddy" the plumber.He came by within a half hour and told the H.O. that he could easily splice the line by installing a union...She wanted no part of that,and insisted on a replacement line.The total run was about 50',or so,and he called his supply house to order it.Then came the bad news...it only comes in 100' lengths/coils,and it was gonna cost around $350.00 just for the flex tubing..plus the special fittings that go with it.I told him to go get it,and he returned with the stuff and together we pulled a new line across the ceiling...At the end,it cost me $629.00 and I paid him then and there.My "buddy" charged me $200.00,and the stuff cost $429.00 with tax...I was fuming,...I didn't speak to my helper that day,..as I had to cool down,but the next day,I told him he'd be paying half.I'll eat half,but I'll be damned if I gotta pay the whole thing...I told him if he didn't want to pay for his mistakes,..he'd better be more careful..I think he learned his lesson.I probably could've fixed it myself,but I hate gas,and God Forbid something went wrong(er)[is there such a word??]...I let a Pro do it,and I feel better,as well as the H.O...
You just can't make this stuff up,...
Russ



[This message has been edited by Attic Rat (edited 10-30-2004).]

Nothing as bad as the demolition worker who cut a live gas line with an angle grinder... made demolition much faster!

AR: concerning your last story: Now I know why I like all gas lines here still being rock solid threaded or welded steel pipe!

Now I know why I like all gas lines here still being rock solid threaded or welded steel pipe!

Amen! The first time I saw that flex stuff I couldn't believe it was allowed to be used.

-Hal

These are really great stories, guys.

I'm knocking on wood as I write this, but in 20 years I've never cut a pipe or wire while cutting drywall. I also never use a reciprosaw on drywall. I always use a hand drywall saw, so I can feel if I'm cutting anything more than drywall. It takes a little longer, but then I can leave the plumbing tools at home.

Dave

Well said Dave.
I used long time ago sawzall to cut sheet rock and end up cutting electricle wire. After that never used sawzall for this purpose. If I need fast cut I use rotozip with depth set 1/8 more that width of sheet rock. It works fine and after work put same piece back by using some backing stuff like wood or other piece of sheet rock.
Skill saw can also be used but make sure depth set of blade is acurate.

[This message has been edited by electricman786 (edited 10-28-2004).]

Hi,
Nice story...seen days like that myself...the "SERVE" is called a "HEAD" where I am from and we use a "MARES TAIL" to pull with.

-regards

Mustang

Heh! Gas.

Early on in my career, a GC hired me to help him convert a service to underground.

He'd just bought a rural, small, two story, river front home for his "escape place." The home was built halfway up a wooded river bluff. The bluff is about 300' high.

After the GC and I had spent the entire day working the rented trencher down the slope from the home through a thicket of dog hair understory and way too many roots, we reached the last 30 feet. 5:15 Saturday afternoon. . . The last 30' was flat and open, across a narrow gravel lane and over a bit to the pole mounted transformer. I'm making good time, visions of evening relaxation starting to form. . .when a cloud of dust rises up beside the trencher bar!!! In one liquid instant of emerging realization, I cut the ignition and RAN.

The GC had taken off up slope to get his phone just as quickly, and, after enlisting the gas company's assistance, we waited. . . We blocked off the lane. The dust eventually cleared and all that gave evidence that there was something odd (other than the trencher stopped in the middle of the lane) was the whistling howl from the gas main.

It started to rain heavily. The trench drew runoff like flies on s**t. Now there was a roiling muddy brown cauldron at the trencher bar and I'm imagining mud squirting out of burner orifices for miles. . .

The gas company finally arrives, pulls back the road, fuses in a new 2' section 2" plastic main. 45 minutes. While he's cutting out the damaged section, the pipefitter starts explaining that this is only a 20 pound line, that I was fortunate. He says, "Most of the mains over this side of the county are steel running upwards of 600 pounds. When we come out to those, we generally don't have to dig first, and the trencher is in parts and well out of the way."

It was a long time before the blood returned to my head.

Attic Rat, when your helper helps you finish a job is less than quoted time, do you share the extra profits with him? Of course not.

If your helper does a really good job and you get work references from the customer (known in generall accepted accounting practices as "good will"), when he leaves your employment, do you pay him a commission for his effort? Of course not.

If your helper has a friend who hires you to do work, do you pay your helper a finder's fee? Of course not.

He who shares in the profits, also takes the losses. He who shares in the losses, shares in the profits. If you make your helper pay for losses, you have a new partner. When he leaves, get your check book ready.

... I see what you're saying,twh,but I'm also trying to teach the lad a valuable lesson.Money talks,and if all else fails,he'll be a tad bit more responsible in the future,...if he knows it's gonna come out of his paycheck..This is the language these kids understand..if I were to absorb the cost for his mistake,he'll be more apt to screw up again,and just say,.."Oops, sorry Russ,it won't happen again,.." and expect just a little yelling from me and then it's over....No,this way he has to take responsibility for his actions,otherwise he knows he'll be paying for it...just some "child psychology" that works,..it did when I was coming up the ladder..
Russ

You yell at your helper?