# Bone head moves



## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

What screw up have you done that you have to laugh at now?


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

Mis diaganosed a water heater. Thought the water heater was bad, come to find out after installing the new one, it was a slab leak.


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

When I was a first year apprentice I was helping the journeyman run black pipe. We had a long run about ten feet up and had a heck of a time getting the male side threaded into the female. After fighting it for some time we got it. When we started to clean up we realized that we had put the pipe right thru our ladder and would have had to take apart the ladder to get it out. We unthreaded the pipe, moved the ladder and fought threading the pipe again. This time with the ladder in the way.


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

I turned on an electric water heater once... But forgot to fill it first. Opps! New elements needed.


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

I told a good buddy of mine how to remove his stem from his tub valve. And since it was a tub vavle, I never once mentioned to him to turn the water main off. Heard the whole thing live in action. It was damn funny.


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## user823 (Feb 3, 2009)

I did an 80 gallon electric WH replacement for a big wig when I lived out in Ca., huge house, big iron gates etc. I turned off the breakers, but one of them was still live, didn't shut down. Touched the wire with my 4 in1 and kapow, all the power goes out in the place.
I can't leave because the gates shut electronically. Had to call an electrician.:laughing:


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

I got myself a pretty nasty throat infection from removing copper pipe from brass fittings two days ago. 

Breathing just a couple times of that stuff was enough...and now I'm paying for it. 


I've got some remarkable video of this job where the customer asked for what was taken out to be put back in, and I made sure that I honored those statements.


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## UnclogNH (Mar 28, 2009)

When I was an apprentice. I was caring a bucket of tools and a length of 1/2 copper Tripped over my own feet and fell into the customers in ground pool. Some of the tools sank to the bottom. It was early fall and I had no change of clothes to change into. Scrapped my knee and palm pretty good.


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## user823 (Feb 3, 2009)

UnclogNH said:


> When I was an apprentice. I was caring a bucket of tools and a length of 1/2 copper Tripped over my own feet and fell into the customers in ground pool. Some of the tools sank to the bottom. It was early fall and I had no change of clothes to change into. Scrapped my knee and palm pretty good.


That would have been a funniest home videos moment for sure!:laughing:


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## UnclogNH (Mar 28, 2009)

I was picked on about it so much..for so long. I look back and laugh about it now. :laughing: I almost quit over it because I was so embarrassed about it.


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## Down N Dirty (Mar 12, 2009)

When I was an apprentice, one of the licensed morons couldn't find a gas leak on a black steel pipe gas system. He went to the store to cancel the inspection and told me while he was gone to WATER IT UP so we could find the leak. Damn near lost my job for his boneheadedness.

As for myself, I was repairing a water leak at a house where I couldn't find the shut off valve, so I went to the meter outside and just shut off the whole house. Went inside, cut the wall, was cutting the copper with some mini cutters and blamo, water, water, water. Dummy me I didn't even think about there being a meter for their sprinkler system as well.:laughing:


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## leak1 (Mar 25, 2009)

was trying to make a phone call, my calculator is beside my phone, had the phone to my ear and was dialing on the calc. and getting all pissed off because i keep getting a dial tone before i realized what i was doing! turning the power on to a electric water heater with out filling it first is something i think alot of us plumbers have done- WHOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

leak1 said:


> was trying to make a phone call, my calculator is beside my phone, had the phone to my ear and was dialing on the calc. and getting all pissed off because i keep getting a dial tone before i realized what i was doing! turning the power on to a electric water heater with out filling it first is something i think alot of us plumbers have done- WHOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!


I got a. Mental image of that. Lol!!!


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## stillaround (Mar 11, 2009)

As an apprentice I thought I'd change an 1 1/4" water valve in the garage of a 38 story building on the fly. Just as I was about to remove it the boss walked in and asked me if I knew what kind of pressure would be on the valve and that the garage would be full before I got it on. No way to tell now, I was pretty cocky--(back then)


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## rickmccarthy (Jul 20, 2009)

Well I dont know how funny it is but boy was it bone head I was putting in a water service on a new con home and We had a 1 call but it had expired and I pretty much new where the gas main was so I decided that I had the time that day and I wanted to get it done I was going to stop about 2ft before the meter and hand dig because of the gas........well I had dug as far as I was going to and was taking one final sweep with my bucket to clean the ditch and there was that unmistakable sound of hitting a 2" gas main. Utility had to come out shut down the whole neighborhood.....god what a nightmare I was embarassed beyond belief I know better than that well I do now i will NEVER dig without a 1 call anymore
BONEHEAD


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

Looong time ago, we were asked to make repairs at an apartment complex that was in the court system for bankrupcy. We went apt to apt, fixing faucets, stools, etc. It's where I learned delta faucets. 

Anyway, Myself and the boss were together in an apt. He starts to rebuild the kitchen faucet, phone rings, says " do this one next, I'll be right back." 

He had the handles off, I ASSumed he shut off the stops. I took the hot stem out only to find out he hadn't. The stem shot to the ceiling. I'm in a panic because I can't hold anything over the faucet because the water is so dam hot. I finally throw my sweatshirt over the faucet, dive under the cabinet and shut off the water. 

That's when the boss came back, of course.


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

I was working on my bosses brothers house repiping some copper pipe in the ceiling of his computer repair room. He didn't want us to cut too much drywall because he didn'r want all that drywal dust going into his computers. So I had this little tiny hole too work in and couldn't see or have the room to work the way that I like to work. This was on good friday before easter. Well I put a 1/2 inch slip coupling on and it looked like it went on good so I sweated it. Turned the the water on checked for leaks all was fine so we packed up and left. He went away for easter weekend and when he came home on monday he had 4 inches of water all over the basement and all the computers were destroyed. He called my boss and through a fit. This is where I got a lot of respect for my boss because he backed me up all the way on this. He told his brother that if he would have let us cut more drywall out I would have been able to see what I was doing better and this would have never happened.


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## pauliplumber (Feb 9, 2009)

ROCKSTARPLUMBER said:


> Mis diaganosed a water heater. Thought the water heater was bad, come to find out after installing the new one, it was a slab leak.


 I did the same thing a couple months ago. Puddle of water under 11 year old waterheater. Must have been a low point because it was the only puddle in the basement. Week later HO calls me to tell me the new waterheater is leaking.nline2long:


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## para1 (Jun 17, 2008)

I ran 3/4" water pipe from fire hydrant to job trailer. The 3/4" pipe comming out of the bottom of the trailer turned out to be the T&P drain.:blink:


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## albplumber1975 (Jun 20, 2009)

My 2nd year I was told to hook up a pressure tank for a rual home fed from a well. Seems easy enough. After 9 hours of pissin around I still had not gotten it hooked up properly because of how the piping in the house was. I had to have my journeyman come and rescue me and he tore the whole thing appart and had it re done in less then one hour...


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

para1 said:


> I ran 3/4" water pipe from fire hydrant to job trailer. The 3/4" pipe comming out of the bottom of the trailer turned out to be the T&P drain.:blink:


 This is my fav so far...:laughing:


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

Another for me. I was working on a few things at a fire station and lost track of what I was doing. I went and turned the water back on to the building. As I was walking back I heard a calm voice over the intercom, "Plumber, you may want to turn the water off." I did and then went to the bathroom where I was working. All the fireman had were cleaning up water toward the floor drains. It seems that I forgot to put the new stop back into the urinal flushometer.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

Down N Dirty said:


> When I was an apprentice, one of the licensed morons couldn't find a gas leak on a black steel pipe gas system. He went to the store to cancel the inspection and told me while he was gone to WATER IT UP so we could find the leak. Damn near lost my job for his boneheadedness.
> 
> As for myself, I was repairing a water leak at a house where I couldn't find the shut off valve, so I went to the meter outside and just shut off the whole house. Went inside, cut the wall, was cutting the copper with some mini cutters and blamo, water, water, water. Dummy me I didn't even think about there being a meter for their sprinkler system as well.:laughing:


That's the problem with using cutters. When you cut it, it's all the way. If I'm not really sure, I'll make a small cut with a hacksaw first then use my cutters.


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## Va. Plumber (Dec 8, 2008)

airgap said:


> That's the problem with using cutters. When you cut it, it's all the way. If I'm not really sure, I'll make a small cut with a hacksaw first then use my cutters.


 
When I'm not sure, i drill a tiny hole and have a hose clamp and piece of rubber handy just in case.


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## trick1 (Sep 18, 2008)

When i was 18, I was with my mechanic and he asked me to repair a Sloan Royal flushometer. I said "Sure, no prob". I shut off the stop and began to remove the cap nut on top of the unit. I NEVER flushed the flushometer to check if 

1) the pressure was released from the diaphragm, making the cap nut removable.
2) THAT THE STOP HELD

Well, it didn't and I flooded the entire east wing of my high school, which was a technical high school. The same high school where I learned the trade

I was on a work study program, that means that I worked with a contractor 3 days a week and attended school two days. I was still a senior and attending the school when I did this:laughing:

I was so embarrassed that I didn't go to school for two days. 

Nothing worse than trying to get a cap nut on a flushometer with 75psig flying out of the body

I check every flushometer THREE TIMES before I touch it now.


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## HandsomeMike (Feb 8, 2009)

I had an irrigation main, after the rpz, out in the lawn that wouldn't hold pressure. It didn't bleed down steady either. It would leak, then stop for a moment, then leak again ( on the gauge ). I looked for it for a couple of days with no result. Finally I put a bunch of dye in it. Ten minutes later the home owner says, "why is my pool bright green?". Auto-fill.


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## Plasticman (Oct 14, 2008)

I was on this job that were some weird mobile homes stacked on one another to make 2 story housing for colledge students. The lower units were so close to the ground that even skinny me had trouble crawling under. Our job was to tie in all the abs drops on this units and connect them to the sewer. Well, there were dozens of drops ranging from 1 1/2 up to 3 inch. We had to crawl around with flashlites and find them all first, then hook them all up. We had this one main 4 inch line with 4x3 and 4x2 double combos everywhere. Took 2 days to complete and it all looked great. After the tennants moved in they were complaining about sewer smell. Long story short, the fart fans were piped with 3 inch abs and stubbed through the floor just as all the main drains were. We had 4x3 double combos tied in to these f fan pipes along with the drains. Another whole day spent disconnecting them. Needless to say we were shamed.


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Awe damn!


That had to suck plasticman...but they shouldn't of been too hard on you for that mistake. Could of easily happened to anyone not knowing those were vent fan circuits.


I've only done one job in that fashion for vent fans, and it wasn't worth the effort.


The guy had me connect two together, relying on the swing baffle inside the fan assembly.


I was there the day the son used the bathroom next to the one I was working in...and sure enough, I could smell everything he was dropping in the toilet.


All because someone didn't want a second hole in the roof. :no:


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

Changed out the water heater at the wrong house.


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## user823 (Feb 3, 2009)

Plumbus said:


> Changed out the water heater at the wrong house.



Had one sort of like that, customer told me to just walk in the back door when I got there. I just walked right in the wrong house and said I was here! Oh man, lady of the house was barely dressed and was not happy. I said sorry, I'm leaving! Wrong house!:laughing:


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

trick1 said:


> When i was 18, I was with my mechanic and he asked me to repair a Sloan Royal flushometer. I said "Sure, no prob". I shut off the stop and began to remove the cap nut on top of the unit. I NEVER flushed the flushometer to check if
> 
> 1) the pressure was released from the diaphragm, making the cap nut removable.
> 2) THAT THE STOP HELD
> ...


This is my new fav...


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

Had the laser pointing the wrong direction. We laid a good 100' of 8" sewer main @ 2% falling the wrong direction.


Just finished a sub-slab rough on 2 very large bathrooms. Didn't know the brakes on the backhoe were virtually non-functional. Ran it into the trech shearing off MANY pipes. 


Lost a $1,000 bandsaw out the back of my pick-up.

Sparked windows in a school from grinding welded fittings.

Dropped a 6" schedule 80 45 in a 1000 ton injection molding machine.


Forgot to add excavation into a sizeable bid. Got the job


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## leak1 (Mar 25, 2009)

WOW IL !!!! i thought i had bad luck?


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## Tankless (Jun 12, 2008)

I was walking a job (bathroom remod) and the carpet layers were there just finishing up the LV and hallway areas with a kinda dark green carpet. As I am walking around I see the seem iron laying flat on the carpet. So I am thinking it's going to burn the new carpet as the installer was down the hall and I thought he forgot about it. So me and all my genius decided to pick up the iron and tell the installer hay, you're burning the carpet. Well apparently there is a portion of the iron that holds hot liquid glue....i think, and I managed to spill some of it as I am walking down the hall to give him his iron. He starts screaming and cursing is spanish. He is moving at record speed and now I just realized what I had done......He managed to get most of it up, but one portion he had to cut out......I felt so bad and just beyond stupid. What the hell do I know about carpet? I call a flooring guy for that stuff. I did get the job, and spent a week walking back and forth looking at my drip marks that never quite got up.....

Installed a tankless and connected copper to pex in the crawl. Was relocating the heater and was picking up the kitchen / bathroom from the new lines. I crossed hot and cold when I transitioned to pex. Crossed the heater - bathroom - kitchen. Homeowner never knew, took an extra hour to correct it all.


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## trick1 (Sep 18, 2008)

airgap said:


> This is my new fav...


I'm glad SOMEONE found it amusing!!

My ego's been bruised for 12 years and counting!!:thumbup:


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

I was setting fixtures in a home in maryland. I had brought my 16 yr old nephew along so he could work on the transmission on my truck. They had white carpet all over the house. I was under the vanity hooking up the trap when I look over and see this black leg standing overme. I crawl out and my nephew is standing there covered from head to toe in grease and transmission fluid. I look at the carpet and he had grease foot prints all the way from the front door to the bathroom. Boy did I let him have it hasn't spoke to me since. cost me 1200 hundred dollars out of pocket to replace the carpet. But hey I got a hundred dollar transmission repair for free..:thumbup:


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## Christina (Jul 14, 2009)

*OK, so I will tell.*

I have to say that my funniest screw up was last summer. We had a rush of gas water heaters. I think we replaced 5 in three days. So, toward the end of the week, one more water heater. I was sure to go to the parts house, pick up the water heater, a few different lengths of DW vent pipe, a cap, collar, flashing... etc. Oh- Did I tell you the last water heater was ELECTRIC??


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## Proud Plumber (Sep 15, 2008)

*Great flood of '92*

As long as everyone is fessin up... 

When I was first cut loose to do some jobs on my own I was sent out on a Friday afternoon to start a trim. I killed the meter and the valve at the house just as I was taught. I set the heater and stopped the house out so finish on Saturday would go quick and smooth. 

Back then... Fridays meant an old tub full of ice and beer back at the shop. So as you can all imagine I was in a hurry to get back to the shop as any good student of the trade would be. Not to mention the bosses were cookin on the grill on this particular afternoon. (I am a sucker for a grill.... always have been) I left the meter off and the valve to the house off. 

I figured the rest of the world was like us so surely no one was coming to the job after 3:30 on a Friday. I got there the next morning and the house was destroyed. Apparently the sod guys know how to fire up a meter, and a house valve. I left the stops on in the kitchen and not only did the cheap particle board cabinets buckle instantly, the uppers in the kitchen did as well because the water shot straight up out of hole for the sink. Same holds true for the bathroom particle board medicine cabinets swell and buckle. I also learned the vinyl flooring submersed under 6+" of water overnight will peel like a fresh peach. As I stood there and looked at the damage the owners were there and the lady was crying, the builder was there also his eyes were welled up but I don't think he was crying. I couldn't bring myself to ask him how he felt. There was also some a$$ kissing punch out geek pointing out all of the little details of damage as I stood there extremely hungover.

I was beside myself, I thought I was fired for sure... I did get a series of long long lectures and unbelievable harassment for years to come. I wanted to move to another planet. I worked for that company for three years after that, never to live it down.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

trick1 said:


> I'm glad SOMEONE found it amusing!!
> 
> My ego's been bruised for 12 years and counting!!:thumbup:


The reason I found it so funny is, I did the same thing except I was in a 

pipe chase I could barely fit in. Finally made it back to the main shut off 

at the entrance of the chase. Did'nt know if I was going to drown or not tryin to get back outtta there!:boat: Water was risin fast...


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## TheMaster (Jun 12, 2009)

Here a good one that was the boss's fault. Bossman says go tear out the tile and bathtub in this vaccant condo.....I say "ok which one?" He says its only one bath and you can see it from the front door when you walk in. "Cool ok we'll be done by Lunch" We go to the job and enter the condo. Sure enough you can see the bathroom from the front entrance. The plumber and I (apprentice at the time) walk into the bathroom and I have a hammer in my hand....I hop over into the tub and started acting like the plumber was the homeowner and I was the plumber.....I say "Yes sir I can replace that tub spout for you" and I took the hammer and knocked it off the wall!!!! and took a big chip off the tub. Then I smashed the ceramic soap dish when the plumber(acting as the H.O.) started complaining about me busting his tub!!:laughing:. That was all good fun and we had a laugh.....I tell the plumber to go to the store and get me a pack of smokes and a big gulp from 7-11 store. He goes to the store and I stay there and start snooping around and looking through all the rooms....thats when the chit hit the fan. I opened another door and there was another bathroom:laughing:. I walked to the front door of the condo and you could see both of them...both tubs. :laughing: I said well we have a 50/50 shot of having started on the right one. I had to wait until the plumber got back and then we went back to the store at the pay phone to call(no cell phones then) we didn't have radioo's because people would sit home and listen to all your business on police scanners. We anyway we did tear the wrong one out and ended up having to replace both tubs for the price of one!!! Customer was very happy and paid for a new faucet because she wanted one anyway.....cool!:laughing:


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Proud Plumber said:


> As long as everyone is fessin up...
> 
> When I was first cut loose to do some jobs on my own I was sent out on a Friday afternoon to start a trim. I killed the meter and the valve at the house just as I was taught. I set the heater and stopped the house out so finish on Saturday would go quick and smooth.
> 
> ...


To me, that's the sodbusters' fault. Sure, you should have closed the stops, but they blew through two stop signs: the meter and main valve. They should have got the ass reaming. besides, they would have heard and felt the water going thru the pipes to the open stops.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Repiped my house and crossed the waters. Defense: It was about a 16" crawl and impossible to look at the lines and see what was what. I was marking them as I went along, and still crossed them.


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