# Muriatic acid + Plumbing = BAD



## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

had a GC once who decided after all the bathroom was done in a school that dumping a whole gallon of muriatic acid on the floor was the best way to clean it. The alarms went off, they evacuated the school, the fire and cops came, man, what a mess. Set fans and aired the place out, went back in and what a mess! All 6 electric flush valves, the electric ADA faucets, the stainless steel screws on the stall dividers were all goo! Just destroyed the circuits in the flush valves, all stainless was rusted. I tried to tell him!
But, you know how a GC is


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## 22rifle (Jun 14, 2008)

Please do not mention muriatic acid in my presence.

Thank you.

(Yes, there is a story there. A painful one.)


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

That bad huh? for those not familiar with this stuff its used to clean concrete off masonry. It will burn your lungs out in about 15 seconds.


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## Song Dog (Jun 12, 2008)

What in the world was he thinking. A GC w/ experience should know better. WOW!

In Christ,

Song Dog


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

Idiot, thats all i can say. Worse thing was HE paid for all the fixtures in the first place, then he had to buy them again!

Would had been ok if he diluted it, but he dumped it straight from the bottle!
Talk about a green cloud of death!


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## 22rifle (Jun 14, 2008)

When I moved across the country almost 5 years ago I had help loading my trailer. A gallon jug of the devil's piss (as I now call it) was picked up from the "does not get loaded" pile and loaded on my trailer. I had help unloading, and then again I had help moving a few miles to a different house. 

Keep in mind, during all this time I was sick and could not work much at all so I rarely used my stuff.

Well, at this new place I was renting I had only one outbuilding at the time. So I put the tools I used the most in that building and stored the rest outdoors. I spread out a good tarp, set everything on it, pulled up the edges of the tarp, and then covered it all with two decent quality tarps. A year and a half went by. (Remember, I was sick and could hardly work so I didn't need access to that stuff.)

I had bought a pile of stuff from the estate of an old plumber who had passed away. Besides my tools, I had a ton of good stuf from that purchase that I was going to use and a ton of stuff that I was going to sell on eBay to help pay the bills until I could work full time again. (I still can't work full time.)

One day I was walking past this pile and noticed some holes in the tarp. Curious, I walked over and touched it. It disintegrated to the touch.

My stomach knotted up. I started pulling the tarp back. It was all ruined. And I mean ruined. I don't mean rusty and ugly, I mean destroyed.

I was flabbergasted until I found a crate with this gallon jug of the devil's piss laying on it's side. A half gallon of this stuff had leaked out. The tarp acted like a vapor tent and the sun baked it good. I had not even known it came along. I had purposely set it aside as there was no way I would ever haul it with my stuff.

A brand new drum with 100' of brand new Ridgid 3/4" cable.

A complete set of Ridgid pipe wrenches, two of each size from 6" to 36", plus a couple of those straight Ridgid pipe wrenches.

A $1,600 camera for inspecting furnaces.

Over a dozen Kohler chrome cast brass P-Traps plus another $2,800 worth (wholesale) of Kohler stuff. (All this was from that estate.)

Pretty much every specialty tool I owned.

I could go on and on with the list but it's making my stomach knot up again. This only happened last summer and I am still not over the shock or the financial loss. I figure I took an income hit of around $5,000 and a tool loss of around $4,000 at a time when I was living on about $1,200 per month.

I am still sick about it.


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

At least you did not breath the stuff. It takes about 15 seconds to render your lungs useless. Tools can be replaced, your health cant. BUT that is a hell of a loss. Sorry to hear that.


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## 22rifle (Jun 14, 2008)

I about cried when I threw those Kohler p-traps into the scrap bucket.

The stuff that wasn't scrap, I had a friend come by with his dump trailer and it was heaping when he left. Took it all to the dump. 

To see all that good stuff reduced to garbage... yeah, I cried... but then that was most likely more because of my specific illness than anything else.


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

*Muriatic Acid*



*YES BUT IT DO'ES A REAL GOOD JOB ON LIMED UP URINALS :thumbsup:*


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