ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Bidding burn't out houses???

Fire job:True Story.
I did a complete rewire on a fire job. About 2 weeks after the job was finished I get a phone call from the GC,Bob. The phone call went like this.

Arthur:Hello
Bob:Hi,it Bobby.
Arthur:Hey Bob how it,s going.
Bob:Not good.
Arthur:Bob What wrong?
Bob:The house you just finished burnt to the ground yesterday.
Arthur:Bob what the hell happen, anybody hurt.

Then a looooong pause.

Bob:The homeowner left his electric blanket on,with a blanket over it,it caught the bed on fire. There was no one home, so it burnt to the ground.
Arthur:Bob you as*hole why didn't you tell that in first place.
Bob:Just wanted to see you sweat.
Arthur:Well hope you know it's going to cost you twice as much to do the job again.

Ahhh....fire jobs.....no thanks. One thing to watch out for though...the refrigerator.

To make a long story short, we did a fire job. Entire house cleaned out except for fully-stocked-with-meat fridege. Power was cut to house immediately after fire. House sits for 8 months before rebuild (all summer long-you know where this is going.)

The day we start the rewire they decide to clean out the fridge. GC removes contents of fridge (I don't know how!), runs to window over the dumpster, throws box filled with putrid liquified meat, misses the dumpster, and contents splatter all over the side of the house.

The smell? Words can't describe it. I was standing 5 feet away when it happened. I ended up crawling through a burnt out hole in the back of the house onto the roof to escape. My boss was on the front lawn ready to pass out.

Gramps, thanks for the kind offer. I'll consider it if things don't look up here in a week or two. Does Ohio resiprocate with WV as far as licensing?

CT, Ewwwww!

sparky,
i'll make the call today and find out for sure.....but i think they do, along with kentucky and pa., and maybe mich.
i'll post back as soon as i get the details

one of the jobs....the one i could REALLY use the help on....is a large combo warehouse and office complex, with six roof-top a.c. units, along with 15,000 ft. of EMT and MC cable inside, troffer lighting, 277 v. high-bays, etc. sound like something you could get into?....july 1 is the comp. date that the GC is shooting for....GC is Adena Corp. from s.e. ohio..(reynoldsburg, i think, is their home office). jobsite location is fairfield county, (s.e. of columbus about 25 miles)

i'll post back when i find out about the licensing .....


gramps

Rebuilt a partially burned garage, owners were reimbursed by insurance for all contents and didn't want to mess with the smoke smell, so we were allowed to keep anything we wanted out of it. Ended up with lots of hand tools, cords (only smoke damage), even two pairs of snow shoes. Everything washed up with a little soap and elbow grease, and two years later you hardly notice the smell anymore.

Also did a restaurant to replace one that burned in the kitchen. Had wood framed flat roof. Amazing that the structural guys said that since the charcoal on the rafters was less than 1/4 inch deep they did not need to be replaced.