# biggest pain in the butt..or back job you have ever done



## timrath (Sep 28, 2013)

The worst I can think of was digging a sump pump pit in a hurricane. The customer's back yard literally looked like a pond. All that water was pouring into the pit I was digging. I had to do a lot of pumping for a shovelful of dirt


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## Flyout95 (Apr 13, 2012)

Carrying the 16x16x4 concrete blocks out of a basement when I was an apprentice. 800sqft of basement saw cut.


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## KoleckeINC (Oct 22, 2011)

Standard basement bath, ejector pit etc right next to white carpet-white walls-white stair carpet-white hallways. Yeesh...thank goodness for carpet runner plastic stuff and tons of duct tape. Not one spot, cuz I'm a boss!


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## timrath (Sep 28, 2013)

That's impressive..white carpets are a pain


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

timrath said:


> The worst I can think of was digging a sump pump pit in a hurricane. The customer's back yard literally looked like a pond. All that water was pouring into the pit I was digging. I had to do a lot of pumping for a shovelful of dirt


You should have used a mud shovel.


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## GAN (Jul 10, 2012)

Doing upgrading at a State Sanitarium, going through locked portions and worrying about getting back out........


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## dhal22 (Jul 30, 2010)

Carrying heavy 5' handicap fiberglass shower stalls up 7 floors of hospital stairs at night as a helper.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I can remeber being in some attics in S. Florida in the summertime. When I came back out to the regular 90 F. weather, the 90 F. temperature felt like air conditioning.

I used to sweat as a kid shoveling snow {upstate NY}; heat is to me what kryptonite is to Superman......:laughing:


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## leakfree (Apr 3, 2011)

18x36 ejector pit in sand with water pretty much flowing thru it


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## gear junkie (Jun 20, 2008)

put a 6" gate valve on a live 15psi line after Katrina.


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## Shoot'N'Plumber (Apr 27, 2013)

...I'm still thinking


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## KoleckeINC (Oct 22, 2011)

Tommy plumber said:


> I can remeber being in some attics in S. Florida in the summertime. When I came back out to the regular 90 F. weather, the 90 F. temperature felt like air conditioning. I used to sweat as a kid shoveling snow {upstate NY}; heat is to me what kryptonite is to Superman......:laughing:


I know right! 
Brutal....best thing I ever did was bring 2 fans. It was bearable after that.


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## Jon59901 (Dec 8, 2013)

Installing 6" sewer main in a hole about 15' deep right next to a big lake with waders. Three excavators going all out trying to keep the water out while us two idiots are in the bottom trying to glue pipe.


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## titaniumplumbr (Jun 11, 2014)

Me and two other guys were tasked with replacing 2x 80 gal gas hwt's in a boiler room on 20 th floor of a high rise. They were positioned on a grate over a pit the walls of which were raised 3 feet above the floor. Not only this but after we removed and carefully moved the old tanks to the floor we had to move them one at a time down three large sets of stairs and down a long hallway into an elevator, we barely fit and we had to hold the heater on the hand truck at an angle to make it in. x 2..... Then new ones in place the new ones were easier I made handle bars which fit nicely in the drain at the bottom of the heater and one for each nipple on top. My boss was under the impression we could cut the old heaters in half with a sawzaw ha


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## titaniumplumbr (Jun 11, 2014)

Another time I was tasked with shooting 3000'of 6" clay in a trailer park my office bought all of the equipment shooters boilers etc. the trainers taught me and a few others in two days to use the equipments then left us and as luck would have it all of the guys who learned with me were put in other jobs! I had to teach after just learning myself. Now they were doing 200' runs man hole to manhole however one run was over 450' of 6" vcp it consisted of three holes ( the entry was a 6" co it had a manhole in the middle and a manhole at the end. We started by offloading the 450' liner from the reefer truck ( it weighed about 600 lbs so it took four full grown men to unload it. We started to feed it into the gun for inversion at 9:00 am it fought us for over an hour and a half. My boss was on sight he kept pacing and trying to keep up moral finally at around the 2 he mark we had added enough water and were using two atlas compressors at this point it went and boy did it go. When it the opposite end it came out of the manhole and threw water 200' in the air with what sounded like a bomb blast. I was drenched from head to toe with sweat and veggie oil. My boss came over and told me I had balls and that most guys would have given up and pulled the liner back.


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## kimo (Jul 22, 2011)

Before plumbing, working as a Termite operative i had to dig a hole, break through the foundation and continue digging a trench under the house (no crawl space room) for two days, on my own. Then slide in replacement beams and lift and drive them into place.

Termite company then fired me, turned out they'd only hired me to dig the trench - cheaper than ripping up marble tiled floors.
I feel for those guys standing outside HD, i never did that but i know how they will get ripped.


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## Texan (Feb 21, 2015)

Yard leak with water pudding around the concrete walkway. New house so we knew where the line was. Chipped up the walk then hand dug 4' down following the water. Found the 1" upnor in a three inch PVC sleeve running all the way under the driveway. Leak was coming from under the driveway. Two more holes and a pex ring coupling in the pipe and we pulled a new line through. Cant remember why the pipe had been damaged. Ill ask my helper Monday he'll remember the job for sure.


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## mccmech (Jul 6, 2011)

Worked on a master bath remodel for one of those Home improvement shows, "Pimp My Bath", or something like that. Serious production time crunch the whole job since the theory behind show was it all got done in two days. HO got a Kohler cast iron jacuzzi tub as part of the "pimp". 700+ pounds of pure joy going up to 2nd floor master suite. Floor joists had to be reinforced to carry the load, railings removed since stairway had offset landing midway up. At end of filming, go to run the Kohler Roman Tub faucet with hand spray, and hands pray won't work. Turns out the the part to feed the hands pray was never bored at the factory. That was a pain in the back & the ass!


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## bct p&h (Jan 19, 2013)

mccmech said:


> Worked on a master bath remodel for one of those Home improvement shows, "Pimp My Bath", or something like that. Serious production time crunch the whole job since the theory behind show was it all got done in two days. HO got a Kohler cast iron jacuzzi tub as part of the "pimp". 700+ pounds of pure joy going up to 2nd floor master suite. Floor joists had to be reinforced to carry the load, railings removed since stairway had offset landing midway up. At end of filming, go to run the Kohler Roman Tub faucet with hand spray, and hands pray won't work. Turns out the the part to feed the hands pray was never bored at the factory. That was a pain in the back & the ass!


I've put in one of those tubs once before. Hired piano movers to bring it upstairs. I never would have attempted moving that tub up. It was in a historic 1870s house with the original floor, stairs and railing.


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

Replaced a cracked grease trap in the crawlspace below a cafeteria at a college. They didn't call us out until the smell was unbearable and their own maintenance people refused to tackle the job. First thing we did, with suits and masks,
was to spread a bag of lime over the sizable puddle below the trap which was suspended through the floor. Two days later the air was much less offensive and the change out went off without a hitch.


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## Dpeckplb (Sep 20, 2013)

I had a 1 1/4 barbed 90 on a trailer water service leaking. So once I found the line and the split it was located between a shed and a rose bush that the park had planted since the lady who owned the trailer late husband was the superintendent. I fought that stupid thing for two hours. The water was coming in faster than I could pump it out. I finally got it though. I was soaked and my back was cut all to he'll from that stupid rose bush.


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## heaan (Oct 23, 2012)

Had a 2 inch poly line coming into a new site in port of seattle. Only needed 3\4 inch for a bathroom only. Looked for an hour to find the main shutoff or meter and couldnt find it. Thought it would be fine just to unscrew the cap and screw on a ball valve while it was live. 
Was being cheap so instead of using a 2 inch valve i used a 2 × 3\4 bell reducer and a 3/4 valve. None the less i was pretty soaked after that. But it was kinda fun


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## HonestPlumb (Jan 25, 2015)

I had to dig a sump underneath the stairs. The water level was about 6" below slab. Height under stairway was about 4'. Couldn't even use my real shorty shovel. Laid on my stomach and scooped with a small metal can and my hands for 5 hours, in between pumping it out every 5-10 minutes. Without a doubt, one oh the worst ever. Homeowner gave me front row seats at a hockey game with priority free parking. Still a few appreciative customers out there. Boy was I hurting the next day


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## HonestPlumb (Jan 25, 2015)

kimo said:


> Before plumbing, working as a Termite operative i had to dig a hole, break through the foundation and continue digging a trench under the house (no crawl space room) for two days, on my own. Then slide in replacement beams and lift and drive them into place.
> 
> Termite company then fired me, turned out they'd only hired me to dig the trench - cheaper than ripping up marble tiled floors.
> I feel for those guys standing outside HD, i never did that but i know how they will get ripped.


People like that would get a good pop in the "jaw" where I live for doing you wrong like that !! That is just plain wrong. My hat's off to you for not only the hard work, but the proper restraint !!


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## HonestPlumb (Jan 25, 2015)

In 30 years I forgot a lot of them, but some where gross like laying under a kitchen sink cabinet and doing a faucet change out and looking down and seeing fleas jumping all over my chest. Another, I rang the doorbell and could smell cat urine through the closed door in winter. Went in the house and there had to be 30 cats running all over the place. There was definitely one missing though. The smell of a dead animal is unmistakeable !!! Went down the stairs and out the basement steps and left skid marks !! Another was a clean out over head for the 4" building drain. It was backed up and I was slowly draining it off into buckets from standing on the ladder. Until the cap blew off the last thread. You can imagine the rest. Have had some heavy ones. 6' cast iron Kohler whirlpool up a flight of stairs where only one guy could fit. Tub flipped on it's side, with the end on my chest, a guy behind me with his hands on my back so I don't fall back. Was back when I use to lift weights, Had the strength to hold it, was just afraid of going backwards with it, and that would have been the end of me. Especially if we were almost to the top. I could go on and on. Wish I would have kept a journal of the strange,funny,bizarre and the very wealthy women whose husbands left them alone a bit to much stories. About 27 years ago I had a woman come into the master bath where there where 4 other bathrooms in the house and said"I have to get intimate with you", course my head spun around. She meant she had to put make up on, and bent over to be real close to the mirror that was over the vanity. I was doing a tank to bowl with the tank sitting on top of the closed toilet on I was on my knees right next to the vanity. Looked over she had a short tennis skirt on with nothing underneath. I was in my early 20's,very much in love with my wife and was scared to death. Sweat started to run down my face. I said I have to go to the supply house and left. Went back to the shop,told the boss I am not going back there !! Like I said,wished I kept a journal. Wouldn't be doing this anymore. It would be a NY Times Bestseller !!


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## kimo (Jul 22, 2011)

We went into a rough house, the beautiful young woman (19?) tenant had 3 big wolfhound dogs that lived in the house. The dogs were crapping everywhere and had scratched a hole in the kitchen floor.

The girl was loopy, talking about a non-existant friend. She said that if she let the dogs out that they ran away. So did we. We did the basics to get her plumbing working and then split. So sad, at least the dogs should protect her.

I'm happier working on tracts, no social work there just the wood butchers to deal with, and Oh yeah, the mech guys trying to beat us to the framing spots - no way.


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## HonestPlumb (Jan 25, 2015)

kimo- Don't you love those guys. I had a fairly young GC once who was paranoid about cutting floor joists so bad, he asks me if I can run 2" to the toilet instead of 3" ? So I am like super careful with all my drill holes to maintain pitch and snap chalk lines across the joists, measure 3 times before drilling so I don't have to carve the hole a little to get some more pitch. Just about finished with the rough, with the ultra paranoid GC standing behind me every drill hole I did. Duct guys come in downstairs. I here Ruppppp, Ruppppp, Ruppppp, then Roaring Chain saw sound, then it cutting wood. That GC was down those stairs so quick I think he leaped from the top stair to the bottom. They are cutting out top and bottom framing plates to run their rectangular duct up from the basement that is like 15"X 3" ! The GC freeaked out ,screaming "What the F... are you guys doing". They are telling him, you want heating and air conditioning ? How do you think it is done ? It was either come up from down stairs or down from upstairs. There were three floors to the house. So putting a unit in the basement and putting a unit in the attic, they still had to bring duct work through a set of plates. The GC I thought was going to have a heart attack !!! This was back in the day before the high velocity 2" stuff. My helper and I were in tears watching thsi guy freak out every time they had to do it, which was about for every room in the middle floor. He would here that chain saw start up and there he would go running by where we were. Hilarious stuff !!


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## Hosty (Mar 22, 2015)

Showing up to do sewers At a custom house only to find the basement has flooded 2-3 feet, and that boss wants it done yesterday, but that pretty common


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