# YOUR stupidest mistake!



## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

Thats right, what was your stupidest mistake!

Mine was when roughing in for a kitchen sink, I mis calculated the height of the drain. Came back to trim out and the p-trap wont fit! Had to hurry and cut the back of the cabinet out and cut the line and lower it before anyone saw me!


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

I missed diagnosed a slab leak on the hot water side as a bad water heater, it was when the HO called me that afternoon and asked when the water was going to get hot. Went over there thinking I somehow forgot to turn on the breaker. when i arrived the HO also wanted to know why water was coming through the floor where the toilet was behind the water heater wall. Said it just started doing that. So know i know that the sound of a water heater heating water, could also be a slab leak. Man I felt stupid that day.


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

Taking off a day because my ex wife wanted to go out of town, That got me fired from a job I loved, I have been hurt ever since, I loved that shop!


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## Plasticman (Oct 14, 2008)

I had a around the corner dishwasher to install. New house. Electrician had previously wired it and the wire was too short to allow me to take it out of the cabinet to install the dish ell so I put it back in place and fastened it to countertop.Leveled it, whole 9 yards. Drilled cabinet for piping and the bit went though double panels, I could feel it when it went through the second one. Drilled through another. SAME THING. Last panel to drill, I assumed the bit should go through 2 panels . I went through the first and had to push like hell to drill through what I thouhgt was the second panel. I then proceeded to fish the flex line from the sink to the dw. After 10 minutes of cussing and can not feel the flex line with my hand stretched under the dishwasher as far as I could reach, I decided to just unhook the wire, pull the xsgssjkieywi thing out and see what the f was wrong. well, when I grasped the handle of the dishwasher located in the center, I inadvertedly opened the door. There, in the bottom of the dishwasher was my flex line, Yea, I drilled right through the dishwasher.
I now own a new 600 dollar dishwasher with mighty putty on the inside. Day from hell indead. :cursing::cursing::cursing::cursing:


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

Plasticman said:


> I had a around the corner dishwasher to install. New house. Electrician had previously wired it and the wire was too short to allow me to take it out of the cabinet to install the dish ell so I put it back in place and fastened it to countertop.Leveled it, whole 9 yards. Drilled cabinet for piping and the bit went though double panels, I could feel it when it went through the second one. Drilled through another. SAME THING. Last panel to drill, I assumed the bit should go through 2 panels . I went through the first and had to push like hell to drill through what I thouhgt was the second panel. I then proceeded to fish the flex line from the sink to the dw. After 10 minutes of cussing and can not feel the flex line with my hand stretched under the dishwasher as far as I could reach, I decided to just unhook the wire, pull the xsgssjkieywi thing out and see what the f was wrong. well, when I grasped the handle of the dishwasher located in the center, I inadvertedly opened the door. There, in the bottom of the dishwasher was my flex line, Yea, I drilled right through the dishwasher.
> I now own a new 600 dollar dishwasher with mighty putty on the inside. Day from hell indead. :cursing::cursing::cursing::cursing:


Oh man! That got to hurt!


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

When I was a green apprentice of about 6 months in trade, I was working for a shop that did resi tract housing almost exclusively. The delivery truck showed up with all of the one piece fiberglass tubs it could carry. We unloaded and started setting them. I had one in the hole just a bit too far so that it was out of plumb. I tried to pull it without success so I put my foot inside the tub and kicked backwards with the heel of my boot and of course kicked a hole right through the fiberglass. Man I felt stupid. 

I don't know if this was the _MOST_ stupid thing I ever did on the job but it was the first one that came to mind.

I do remember another time that I was relocating some copper water lines because the ho was reconfiguring her bathroom. She clearly explained that their would be a door in a certain location. I acknowledged her and turned right around and ran the lines through the wall where she had just told me that there would be a door. The worst part was that I never did catch the mistake and only became aware of it after I thought I was through and she pointed out that their was going to be a door there. I heard her tell me that the door was going to be located there but apparently didn't listen.


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## uaplumber (Jun 16, 2008)

Moving a laundry upstairs for an old couple.
I took great care to clean the legs of the stepladder because the carpet had just been laid that morning.
Opened the tile ceiling and began working. Dropped my damn glue pot (open) onto the new carpet.
Now I tell my guys, GET A DROP CLOTH!!.


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

If ya ever drip pvc primer down expensive wallpaper behind a pedistal sink.

Let it evaporate. DO NOT wipe it off :whistling2::whistling2:


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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

A few years ago, when I worked at a Mr. rooter, I once dug up a 300 foot pressure line from a sewage ejector pump, because I thought it was stopped up somewhere. I dug the whole thing up with a backhoe and couldn't find a problem. It turns out the sewage pump was undersized and wasn't pumping all the waste uphill enough.:blush: I never even thought to check the sizing, because the pump was working and it had been working for a couple years. I guess it was starting to burn out under the heavy head-pressure. (another company had installed the undersized pump.)
I am not sure, but I think the customer paid anyway...I am pretty sure my bss had to cut him a deal though. OOPS! :whistling2: I felt like a total moron.


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

You worked for Mr Rooter?

How did you like there business structure, I went on an interview once and it was well....not for me.


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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

******* said:


> You worked for Mr Rooter?
> 
> How did you like there business structure, I went on an interview once and it was well....not for me.


I quit and I now work for myself. So obviously I didn't like it.


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

Right oN!


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## H2O_Fixer (Jan 15, 2009)

Worst day ever was doing a softener install. I knew I was sick and gave some serious thought about calling out that day. But no, I'm a team player and I know I'm scheduled to go a softener install that day, so I go in figuring I'd go get the install done and then go home.
Load up the van and head for the customers house and on the way had to pull over so I could puke on the side of the road.
Finally get to the customers home and get the install done. Looked good too. I stood back admired my fine looking work and started the system up.
Went upstairs and ran the water and had no pressure. Go back to the basement to be certain that I had the water turned on. It was. Upon closer inspection I realize that I have hooked up the softener backwards.
Oh sht, just fuk me silly.
Go back upstairs and take off the aerator to find that I had blown resin into the home. To make matters worse the customer has already gone around turning on faucets and plugging up every faucet in the house with resin.
By now I've got a whole new kind of sick feeling as I realize that I've got to get hose lines cleared before I can drag my sorry backside home.

Three hours later, I managed to climb back in my van and limp home with my head hung really low.

The one bright note was that the customer was really gracious about it and even suggested that maybe the tank was defective. With the lines cleared and the plumbing corrected, I saw no reason to discourage the customers opinion that the control valve was the problem and end up giving them a bad start with us.:whistling2:
I promised to return the next day with a replacement tank and ended up with the customer feeling great about how we handled the problem.:thumbsup:


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## muck (Oct 10, 2008)

does join all you guys in conversation everyday count?


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## para1 (Jun 17, 2008)

Clearing a 3/4" A/C line in attic with CO2 gun, gitter dun and starting down stairs I pass a powder bath with what I thought was WHACKY looking wall paper. Well, it was WHACKY allright, because I just blew A/C scum all over the walls, carpet and towels.


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## Plumboob (Dec 7, 2008)

Ran a jetter up a floor drain in the middle of Burger King...at LUNCH TIME, lol. Oops, it never did that before, sorry BK Maneger was PISSED.


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## Marlin (Aug 14, 2008)

I asked my mechanic if the water was off to a sink so I could install angle valves. He told me that it was, he had shut it off earlier. I proceed to un sweat the caps. Normally I would cut the caps off but the stub outs were a little short and I needed all the length I could get. When molten solder and hot water started spraying out of the joint I turned off the heat. Too late, cap goes flying across the room followed by a stream of water. So I'm running across the house to grab buckets while yelling for him to go shut off the water.
Now we have a bunch of water on the second story of a newly finished 12 million dollar house. Venetian plaster, plaster mouldings, recessed ceilings, and all kinds of other expensive things you don't want to wreck. Forutnatly I got the buckets there pretty quickly and caught most of the water. We went to work with a shop vac and towels and got it soaked up pretty quickly. Amazingly their was no damage to the house.
So now I no longer take other peoples word for it that the water is off.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Reworking a 4" PVC drain line through a storeroom at a power plant. There was one private bathroom upstream of us. A 1st year apprentice asked me if I wanted him to put a sign on the door. Nope, it's only used by stockroom guys, we will have the line cut apart and replace a tee on it's side with a wye and 45 in 5 minutes. Wrong, I got it cut apart, and we hear a flush. The turd shower landed on a shrink wrapped pallet of laptop computers. You could see the corn. :laughing: Luckily, it is hot and dry in this room. We got a roll of pig blanket and cleaned everything up and it took longer to cleanup the mess than do the pipe work.


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## A Good Plumber (Jun 18, 2008)

smellslike$tome said:


> I do remember another time that I was relocating some copper water lines because the ho was reconfiguring her bathroom. She clearly explained that their would be a door in a certain location. I acknowledged her and turned right around and ran the lines through the wall where she had just told me that there would be a door. The worst part was that I never did catch the mistake and only became aware of it after I thought I was through and she pointed out that their was going to be a door there. I heard her tell me that the door was going to be located there but apparently didn't listen.


 
Are you married to her?:laughing::laughing: 

Cuz not hearing her would be acceptable, stupid but acceptable.


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

the worst one for me was a bathroom remodel where the kitchen and bath were back to back. i was removing the ci stack and didnt have enough room to use a snapper so i had to sawzall it. before i started i went to the kitchen and started to remove knick knacks, pictures , anything on the walls that could vibrate loose from the cutting and fall. so i begin cutting and im almost through when i hear the big crash. so i run to the other side and find a clock that crashed through the solid surface cook top on the range. i removed everything from the walls but forgot to look up at the soffit that hung over the range. DOOHHHH! this was before i had my own shop and my boss was cool about it and he was more worried about the clock than the cook top. it was not damaged but was made by the ho's kid so the top can be replaced but the sentimental value of the clock could not. i check recheck and do it all over before cutting ever since that day. those damn cook tops are almost more to replace than the whole range.


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

Capping water lines in crawlspace between 2nd and 3th floor of hospital. SOP was to freeze the line and then swet a cap on it. Did a couple, no problem. Third line was 3/4" hot water. Just as I get the joint hot enough for solder to flow, the cap blew. And me with no plan 'B'. Hospital hot water everywhere. It was all I could do not to get burned. By the time I crawled out of the space the hospital people were mobilized. They turned off the water and were funneling the river down the halls with rags and bed sheets. Just as GC and I were commiserating over the mega damages we'd be on the hook for one of the hospital people let slip that a similar event occured a couple months before to another contractor (in their case right over an operating room). No lawsuit, but still a lousy feeling. Next time I froze a line to cap it, I used a male adapter and a brass plug, with a properly sized wood dowel and hammer handy, just in case.


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## Proud Plumber (Sep 15, 2008)

I pulled a tank lid off once and spun around to set her down and realized I had grabbed the BIG bottle of blue "stuff" hanging inside the tank. Did you know the blue "stuff" is extremely hard to paint over? The professional painter my boss hired after I really screw it up said it was a real bear for him too.

It is difficult to fix stupid sometimes.


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## super plumber (Oct 19, 2008)

set my little bucket under trap, remove trap, dump water into bucket, remove bucket and pour into sink that i just removed trap from....dumbass attack


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

Plumbus said:


> Capping water lines in crawlspace between 2nd and 3th floor of hospital. SOP was to freeze the line and then swet a cap on it. Did a couple, no problem. Third line was 3/4" hot water. Just as I get the joint hot enough for solder to flow, the cap blew. And me with no plan 'B'. Hospital hot water everywhere. It was all I could do not to get burned. By the time I crawled out of the space the hospital people were mobilized. They turned off the water and were funneling the river down the halls with rags and bed sheets. Just as GC and I were commiserating over the mega damages we'd be on the hook for one of the
> hospital people let slip that a similar event occured a couple months before to another contractor (in their case right over an operating room). No lawsuit, but still a lousy feeling. Next time I froze a line to cap it, I used a male adapter and a brass plug, with a properly sized wood dowel and hammer handy, just in case.


Sharkbite, by tect tite. Never heard of the dowel thing though. Toche.:yes:


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## Marlin (Aug 14, 2008)

super plumber said:


> set my little bucket under trap, remove trap, dump water into bucket, remove bucket and pour into sink that i just removed trap from....dumbass attack


I had that happen to me. Put bucket under trap, remove bucket and ask someone else to get rid of the water. They pour it down the sink while I'm under it removing the faucet.


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## muck (Oct 10, 2008)

super plumber said:


> set my little bucket under trap, remove trap, dump water into bucket, remove bucket and pour into sink that i just removed trap from....dumbass attack


 done that my self too :blink:


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## rex (Jun 13, 2008)

super plumber said:


> set my little bucket under trap, remove trap, dump water into bucket, remove bucket and pour into sink that i just removed trap from....dumbass attack


 
yep im good at doing that


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## A Good Plumber (Jun 18, 2008)

super plumber said:


> set my little bucket under trap, remove trap, dump water into bucket, remove bucket and pour into sink that i just removed trap from....dumbass attack


 
Never done it:whistling2:



More than once:laughing::laughing:


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

super plumber said:


> set my little bucket under trap, remove trap, dump water into bucket, remove bucket and pour into sink that i just removed trap from....dumbass attack


 I was getting ready to post this exact thing! I've done this more than once:blink:.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

If you look at the pic of my avatar, that is what can happen if you leave a ditch open with a bunch of wild kids around. Three boys managed to drop about a 60 pound rock on the 1" black poly line we were working on. Nice surprise after lunch:furious::furious:!


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## Ron (Jun 12, 2008)

airgap said:


> If you look at the pic of my avatar, that is what can happen if you leave a ditch open with a bunch of wild kids around. Three boys managed to drop about a 60 pound rock on the 1" black poly line we were working on. Nice surprise after lunch:furious::furious:!


What are you saying in the picture? Can't read the comments within it.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

Ron The Plumber said:


> What are you saying in the picture? Can't read the comments within it.


 That's actually one of the carpenters on the job that got there first. My buddy who took the picture thought it would be funny to put in some dialogue and send it to me. It says, "has anybody seen Josh? I'm tired of fixing all these water problems". We were able to laugh about it later on. He actually ended up jamming a broom handle in the end until we found a shut off. So, I was thankful he was there.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

I'll let you know when I do it. :laughing:


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## Plumber (Jan 18, 2009)

I made the last connections on a new 1" poly water service, tested the line for 30 minutes and had the kids backfill the 4' deep hole. I went into the cellar to tidy up and heard water running, but it was late, I was tired, and it was time to go, so I figured that it was a toilet filling up. Wrong.

I had used a 9v screwdriver to tighten the last fittings and it blew out big time. They had to dig out the mud to access the poly-to-brass fitting that wasn't tight enough.....we didn't get out of there until 9 p.m. and I had to pay o.t. and a bonus because those kids did what few men could do.

This was the same job that I bought a utility sink from Lowes that was as cheap as cheap gets and I had to go buy a different one.

Not to mention the hotshot, well-connected customer that wasn't amused about anything.

I threw the 9v screwdriver out and bought a new t-wrench and a 19v driver.


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## Pipelayingghost (Jan 1, 2009)

While training a new service guy to do drain calls I open a cleanout which was over head in a garage apt on a 2 story,have also put 200 ft of cable in a grease trap too in my younger years.


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## arkyplumber (Jan 10, 2009)

Doing a new 2 story house, it was friday and just put on angle valves through out house. I shut off the 3/4 gate valve under the crawl space, and thought I would leave it off until monday. Well come sunday I got a call from the general contractor telling me that I had water running down the wooden stair case onto the 1st floor, were the wood floor was starting to buckle. When I got to the house I discovered that I had shut off all angle valves except for one under the upstairs vanity. Gate valve had a slow leak were it built up to the 2nd floor and out the one angle stop that was not shut off. Man u talk about mouth wide open!!!!! That is a bad feeling when you flood a 3/4 of a million dollar house, and it was almost finished. Never new I could solve so many problems at once!!!!!!!!


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## Dr Steevil (Jan 25, 2009)

Dumbest thing I ever did? Wow, lets see now...

Back before I got my journeyman's license I had plumbed drain system under a trailer type of building. It was the first one I had done all by myself and I was quite proud of it. Had perfect fall, real clean, real straight, pretty much perfect. So full of pride, I had the plumber come take a look and he concurred with me that it was indeed a nice job. Except all of my combos were backwards.:blush:

Dumbest thing I ever saw? Too many to list, but I guess the one that comes to mind is this. My previous employer did new construction for tract homes and we had one house that was less than a week from closing. On a Friday, we lit the water heaters and verified everything was working properly, hot and colds weren't reversed at any fixtures, etc. Monday morning, we get a call from a frantic builder. The house is completely flooded. I found the issue. Apparently one of our topout crews decided it would be ok to solder 2 3/4" 90s "hub to hub" but without a piece of pipe in them! It had managed to hold test (even a 100# hydrostatic test) before the house was sheetrocked, but once hot water got to it, whoops! About 1/2 of the house had to be gutted back down to the studs (including the master suite and kitchen areas). No idea how much that one cost our company!


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## SPH (Nov 4, 2008)

I was replacing a zone valve on a heating system. It was a friday near the end of the day and i was tired. So i turn off the water, and i had to replace the whole body, so i fire up the torch to unsweat the connections. But i forgot to have somewhere for the steam to expand, so the centre of the valve shot out at my chest and knocked me right over, leaving a huge welt on my chest and steaming hot water scalding me.

haha last time i ever did that.


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## Dr Steevil (Jan 25, 2009)

SPH said:


> I was replacing a zone valve on a heating system. It was a friday near the end of the day and i was tired. So i turn off the water, and i had to replace the whole body, so i fire up the torch to unsweat the connections. But i forgot to have somewhere for the steam to expand, so the centre of the valve shot out at my chest and knocked me right over, leaving a huge welt on my chest and steaming hot water scalding me.
> 
> haha last time i ever did that.


Ouch!!

That reminds me. I once was getting ready to connect the waterline to a house. It was 1" PVC and was capped. The other end was connected to the meter and I checked to make sure it was off. I did have the presence of mind to realize that pressure could still be locked into the line (especially if the meter was leaking by), so I proceeded to cut the cap off with my PVC cutters. I barely penetrated the pipe when BAM! The cap fires off like a bullet and smacked me right between the eyes (even drew blood). Hurt like hell!


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Wearing foot booties in the snow today with my Spartan 81 in my right hand, fell down pretty hard in the snow.


My entire right side of my body is hurting and I'd be snorting my pain medication if I didn't shave my nose hairs yesterday. :whistling2:


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## I'mYourTourGuide (Jun 23, 2008)

There's a huge curve below my house and a lot of the times in the evening, when I'm coming home (worn out), I'll throw the turn signal on, lol.


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## super plumber (Oct 19, 2008)

I'mYourTourGuide said:


> There's a huge curve below my house and a lot of the times in the evening, when I'm coming home (worn out), I'll throw the turn signal on, lol.


i live just past a sharp curve and someone may have seen me do the same thing...but i would never admit to it ...especially in a public forum:whistling2::whistling2::whistling2:


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Dunbar,
did you get up and look around to make sure nobody saw ya fall? Then realize how much pain you were in?


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## I'mYourTourGuide (Jun 23, 2008)

I have also glued CPVC M/As on before sliding the escutcheon over the pipe! DOH


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

jjbex said:


> Dunbar,
> did you get up and look around to make sure nobody saw ya fall? Then realize how much pain you were in?


 
No. I was in a state of shock when it happened. Happened too quick.


Almost fell twice today with those foot booties on. People really appreciate that ability to instantly make a clean shoe in their home. :thumbsup:


The pain sucked yesterday...today I'm not feeling it as bad.


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## joetheplumber (Feb 2, 2009)

It was my first time working on a boiler, and my first time working with black iron threaded pipe. Well it was pretty much the end of the project and came time for the air test. after filling up with air and noticing the pressure gauge dropping, decided to ckeck for leaks. turns out over half the joints were leaking. I never once thought that teeth on the threading machine need to be checked and reset every once in a while!!! cost the company bigtime that day. still managed to hold on to my job for a while after that.


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## Wiser (Jul 25, 2008)

I thought it would have been asking Obama that silly question. :laughing:


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## Plumbergunz (Jan 27, 2009)

I was doing a water repipe in a house, running the water lines through the attic, when i stepped on a truss, the thing twists, i loose my balance and come crashing through the kitchen ceiling. Hanging only by the back side of my knee over the truss which just threw me off. Upside down, and hanging in the middle of the kitchen, the owner of the house turns and looks at me. He is a 90+ year old man and says "What the hell was that?" Embarassing and scary!


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## gladerunner (Jan 24, 2009)

This is a mistake you only do once. Years ago while installing a new water service, I backfilled, tamped and restored the street and then relized that I forgot to turn the ferral on at the main. Had to redig the road way by hand.


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## Plumber (Jan 18, 2009)

gladerunner said:


> This is a mistake you only do once. Years ago while installing a new water service, I backfilled, tamped and restored the street and then relized that I forgot to turn the ferral on at the main. Had to redig the road way by hand.


This has to be the Grand Prize winner.


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