# Worst Day Ever On Job



## Regulator (Aug 20, 2009)

This is one thread sure to generate some good stories... What was your worst day plumbing ... ever!

I've had a few bad days but what comes to mind at this moment took place in the mid 80's.

It was a hot summer Friday at around 1:30 in the afternoon. I arrived at a townhouse complex on a service call about a leaking HWT. Last job of the day and nice clean gig. Right on. The electric tank is under the stairs on the slab-on-grade floor. Real tight spot, but least the tenant had cleared out the area. Sure enough, the floor around the tank is wet. Shut off the breaker, remove the panels and test for voltage. No voltage, check around the elements, but no sign of leak there. OK, maybe its a pinhole elsewhere in the tank. Can't hear anything though. Well, they're like that sometimes, right? 

I begin draining the tank and go get one from the site's storage room. Government housing keeps a few in stock, sweet eh? (remember, I'm only an employee). I take the new tank out of the box and dress it ready go. Pulled out the old one from under the stairs.

That's when I see the shut-off for the service to the unit. Behind the HWT of course. And it's poly B with a quest fitting on the upstream side of the shut-off about an inch above the slab. And it's leaking! Damn!
Ok, I'll just snug it up and Bob's your uncle. Pipe wrench on the shut-off, crescent wrench on the quest. You guessed it - it was a cracked quest nut. :no: 
It's not leaking now, it spraying! 
Criminy! Out to the van pull out the emergency towels and try to direct the water to the floor drain. Not working to well as the drain appears to more than partially blocked. Oh oh, the water's coming out from under the stairs!

OK, don't panic. I get the water key and go hunting for the shut-off on site to this row of units. Ten minutes later (lucky) I find the curb cover and pull the cover. Water is now coming out the front door of the unit. I send down the key and viola! I feel it's fitting he stop. Well at least it wasn't full of rocks!

I turn the key a quarter turn. Now this is one of the weirdest feelings I've ever had (sober). I swore the ground moved. I look at my feet and WTH? The pavement's rising?!? What's that sound? That's when the water, rocks and soil came roaring past the water key and knocked me over. I'm on my butt, soaking wet and the pavement's splitting in front of me. Water and soil welling out everywhere. Main pressure at this location is 125+ PSI.

Ok, I know when I'm in over my head.  I call the shop. The shop calls the District. The District doesn't handle the water system, the Fire Department does and they're out on call right now. Well, at least the water's going down the catch basin.

For the moment I go back in the unit and deal with the quest fitting. Done but the tank will have wait until I can test the fitting.

4:00 PM and the Fire Department shows up and shuts off the water to the whole complex. 40+ families without water.:whistling2:

5:30 PM the backhoe shows up. 8:30 PM and we've got it all dug out, pumped out. No shoring though. :no: I put in new 2" PVC and curb stop. That's when my relief showed up and started in with proper bracing for the curb stop. Which wasn't done the originally.:furious: Anyways, I'm on my home at midnight.

24 + hrs to cure. Sunday at 8:00 AM the Fire Department turns the water back on. Everything's good. We open up all the hose bibbs and flush for 1/2 hour. Still good. We back fill. I put in the new HWT. Still good. Everyone leaves but me. Check the temp and thermostat s/o on the HWT - OK. 

I stay to clean off the remaining pavement the best I can, but the garden is taking too long. But did I see a fire hose and
nozzle in the store room? :icon_biggrin: 

Did I mention the main pressure? Have you ever handled a 1 1/2" fire hose? Take my advice and never, ever try to use a fire hose by yourself. I was 27, weighed 190 lbs at 6 feet tall, no mighty hulk but no weakling either. And I was in trouble. :help:

If I had taken the hydrant key wrench off the stem, if I had slipped, tripped and fallen, it would have been game over. Just lucky I was able to back up against the key and turn it with my butt, walking backwards to reduce the flow enough to take a hand off the hose and shut off the hydrant. 

The paving crew came in later that week to finish the job.

Needless to say, from that point on I always locate the curb stop before messing with the building service shutoff.


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## Miguel (Aug 10, 2009)

Yeh, that beats my worst day! 

Mine turned out well but gave me more'n one sleepless night:

I was a newly licensed journeyman. Just got my papers and whatnot in the mail the previous day in fact. First guy in that a.m. was me, proud as a peacock and showing my feathers.

Boss says to drive out to Mrs x's house 4th driveway on the left down a certain road. "It's an old place with cedar shake siding. Disconect and cap of all the plumbing to mainfloor bathroom, remove and dispose fixtures and demolish all plumbing so XYZ Renovations can remodel. Key is under the flowerpot by the barbeque"

Too easy and off I go. Found the place straight away and was finished by lunch time! Just as I'm packing up the guy from ABC Contracting comes by to measure up for the job. I thought that the boss got mixed up and said XYZ Renos by mistake so I go to the guy, smiling, and let him know that everythings ready for him.
He looked at me kinda puzzled and simply said, "I see...", and then nodding to the old bathtub, basin, toilet and pile of old cast and copper sez. "So what's all this stuff?".
Now I'm puzzled and told him what I did. I had no idea why he was splitting a gut laughing so hard and I just left indignantly and headed back to the shop.

It wasn't until I pulled up to the shop and the boss starts in on me about where the h*** I've been and XYZ has been calling all day and he had to pull so and so to go over and do the demo ... that I realized what I'd done.

I'd gone down the wrong road and demo'd the wrong house! ABC was measuring for new windows whilst XYZ was less than a mile away waiting for me. :blink:

This had a better than expected outcome but my peacock feathers got retired that day. :jester:


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## Pipedoc (Jun 14, 2009)

Ouch! :blink:


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## Flyin Brian (Aug 22, 2009)

id have to think about my worst day,but seems like with me when im having a bad day it contineues.......like ok you made a mistake here or forgot someting there it hangs on to me the whole damn day! but i get those days once in a blue moon,i broke a 3/4" sewer cable off in a line one day that sucked luckily we were able to get it out without excatavation.you are right on though any leaking,burst or split line throwing water all over the place is for sure a bad thing and you get put in a touchy situation where you have to think and act fast,anyways i bet after that fiasco you drank a case with ease!


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## tnoisaw (Jun 16, 2009)

Regulator said:


> This is one thread sure to generate some good stories... What was your worst day plumbing ... ever!
> 
> I've had a few bad days but what comes to mind at this moment took place in the mid 80's.
> 
> ...


WOW! I think your bad day is worth ten bad days of mine.


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## Airgap (Dec 18, 2008)

Regulator said:


> This is one thread sure to generate some good stories... What was your worst day plumbing ... ever!
> 
> I've had a few bad days but what comes to mind at this moment took place in the mid 80's.
> 
> ...


You win!! I can picture every second of this in my head. I didn't start laughing really hard till the fire hose part at the end....:thumbsup:


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