# Welcome to hell - Post the worst houses/working conditions you've ever been in



## Nazareth (Sep 30, 2017)

Let's see some of the nastiest conditions you've worked in.


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## Nazareth (Sep 30, 2017)




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## Nazareth (Sep 30, 2017)




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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

look on the bright side, you dont have to worry about working neat or getting the carpet dirty....


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

No pics, but the worst I've been in are a few restaurants over the years. Dive bars also are on my list.


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## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

No pics either for this. Way back when I worked for a plumbing and a/c company, we did a lot of a/c change outs in apartments. Many were pretty bad, but one in particular just reeked of ammonia as soon as the door opened. Trash all over the place like in Nazareth's first pic. Woman apologized for the mess. So I head to the bathroom to start getting the First Co. air handler out from it's location over the tub. I pick up the bath mat that was in front of the tub so I wouldn't get it dirty. Well it was heavy and it immediately started to release the liquid, and not just drips but full flow. Cat had been peeing on the mat for awhile since the litter box sitting in the corner was full to the rim with turds and solidified piss clumps. Looked like the box hadn't been cleaned in weeks.

I quickly dropped the mat and ran to the truck to get my hand disinfected. Went back and told the lady she needed to clean up some in the area we would be working in before we continued. Nasty as heII.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

I have a few customers like that. Once you enter their home and act like you don’t mind, that is a huge advantage! They are now comfortable with you despite their insecurities about their living conditions. They also are less likely to question their bill because of the trust you’ve established.


Years ago I was sent to a main line. Guy in his late 40’s? Living alone, retired from GM. Said “it’s pretty bad down there “ (basement). About a foot deep, the entire basement! I was somehow able to find the clean out and once it opened there was a 12’ diameter of sht and tp around the floor drain. I had to take my boot and move the dam so the rest the basement could drain. Told the HO how bad it really was. He said “I’ll just put some lime down.” This was the one and only time I called code compliance to report an unhealthy living condition. This was before camera phones.


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## goeswiththeflow (Feb 24, 2018)

Early in my second year I was sent to a mobile home in the middle of summer that had no AC, and the plastic over most of the windows from the winter had not been taken off. Seen worse, but still pretty filthy. There were two toddlers and a baby only a few weeks old. It was a quick fix so I was in and out, couldn't have stayed long in there otherwise between the smell and the heat. Poor baby was crying the whole time. I was fresh with a new company and didn't want to make any waves, but I still regret not reporting them to the health department for at least a welfare check.


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## goeswiththeflow (Feb 24, 2018)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> look on the bright side, you dont have to worry about working neat or getting the carpet dirty....


I've been in places where drips that I got on the floor resulted in that area being the cleanest spot in the room when I wiped them up. One mobil home had trash and clothes piled literally from floor to celing in the entire place. No furniture visible anywhere except for the couch she slept on. Narrow paths you could barely squeeze by snaked from livingroom to the bathroom and kitchen. 2 bedrooms crammed completely full to the door. You could not even get in. Most of the windows were blocked with stuff, so that you needed a flashlight to walk around in there in the middle of a sunny day. I had to tell her that she needed to clear out the bedroom so I could get to the breaker panel to shut off the water heater. When I came back she had "cleaned up", and I could still barely get to the panel.


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## SC Plumbing Repair (Dec 7, 2020)

I have seen similar situations as the pictures that are posted but for me personally, I refuse to work in those type situations. The earnings from one quick job will not pay the medical bills that a situation like that could possibly incur.
Not that I think that I am too good, I just have a wife, children and grandchildren to think about and I want to be there for them.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

goeswiththeflow said:


> I've been in places where drips that I got on the floor resulted in that area being the cleanest spot in the room when I wiped them up. One mobil home had trash and clothes piled literally from floor to celing in the entire place. No furniture visible anywhere except for the couch she slept on. Narrow paths you could barely squeeze by snaked from livingroom to the bathroom and kitchen. 2 bedrooms crammed completely full to the door. You could not even get in. Most of the windows were blocked with stuff, so that you needed a flashlight to walk around in there in the middle of a sunny day. I had to tell her that she needed to clear out the bedroom so I could get to the breaker panel to shut off the water heater. When I came back she had "cleaned up", and I could still barely get to the panel.




Being the boss, I cannot contain myself and be polite to some of these pigs I have
run into over the years... I cant be fired, so I get a little nasty on occasion.....like the time
we went to someones house and the crap was literally piled up out of the toilet bowl about 6 inches
above the seat and the toilet paper was just dropped next to the john....... 

and they expected us
to clean this toilet out and make it flush again......  
I told them I would be back with a special
auger to attempt this later in the day and mentioned they needed to clean the area up before 
we would try to make repairs..

a few hours passsed and they called me and said it was pretty clean now and come on back
which I said back to them it still cant be that clean yet so keep on cleaning.....

we never went back and they got pissed off at me eventually.
probably because i tricked them into cleaning up their hell hole.....   .


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

SC Plumbing Repair said:


> I have seen similar situations as the pictures that are posted but for me personally, I refuse to work in those type situations. The earnings from one quick job will not pay the medical bills that a situation like that could possibly incur.
> Not that I think that I am too good, I just have a wife, children and grandchildren to think about and I want to be there for them.


LOL..how else are you gonna build up your immune system if it wasnt for those type of places...


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## SC Plumbing Repair (Dec 7, 2020)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> LOL..how else are you gonna build up your immune system if it wasnt for those type of places...


There are just some things in life that I do not want to become immune to.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> LOL..how else are you gonna build up your immune system if it wasnt for those type of places...


*
We don't eat schit like you do.*


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

skoronesa said:


> *We don't eat schit like you do.*


you the one missing out.....


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

*Yesterday...This guy loves pepsi! The house was dirty too.*


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

You want dirty check out my Sheist thread below. I posted several other pics in my soaps.









ACHTUNG! WARNING! Graphic contents!


A sheist load of sheist. Got a call at 4pm today(sunday) for a clogged toilet on the 3rd floor of an apartment. The girl wanted it done now. I told her I’d be there at 6pm. She calls me back saying if I can pick up a check from her mother because she didn’t have all of it. Sure but my time...




www.plumbingzone.com


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## SC Plumbing Repair (Dec 7, 2020)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> LOL..how else are you gonna build up your immune system if it wasnt for those type of places...





ShtRnsdownhill said:


> way back when I worked for a guy , he sent me to a unclog the bowl job, I got there and not only was the bowl filled to the top with $hit but one of the kids was taking a dump on top of it all..I went back to the truck and drove away to the next job, aint no way in hell I was going to dig through all that crap, and for what?..wasnt worth the $$ even if I got that now I would walk away, not enough $$ to make it worth while..


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## xandaram (Oct 12, 2021)

It's sad to see houses that were once beautiful and well-maintained and then neglected.


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## Logtec (Jun 3, 2018)

xandaram said:


> It's sad to see houses that were once beautiful and well-maintained and then neglected.


it’s also sad to see when people litter right next to a garbage can.


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## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

Cat lady houses. Those are the worst. 

A close second is the trust fund dude in his 40’s who plays video games all day and doesn’t work.


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## jakewilcox (Sep 3, 2019)

@*xandaram 

did you post an intro? *


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## goeswiththeflow (Feb 24, 2018)

I was thinking..... cat lady houses, well that could be fun, then, oh, yeah, never mind.

We hired a new salesman a few years ago just to do estimates, seemed like a decent enough guy, don't really know his background but it wasn't much in the field, at least not as a plumber, a polo shirt and khaki kind of guy, didn't last long. One day he arrives at my job, the boss was having him tag along to get a sense of what we deal with on the job. I ask him if he minds cats or is allergic. Small apartment, dirty litter box, far from the worst I've seen, but the smell hit you when you walked in the door. Of course he's all tough and everything, not ascared of no puddy cat. He steps one foot inside the apartment and starts gagging and runs out, wouldn't go back in. We didn't see much of him after that.


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## Michael Storm (Oct 6, 2021)

It looks terrible. Feel sorry.


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## xandaram (Oct 12, 2021)

It's sad to see houses that were once beautiful and well-maintained and then neglected. And okay, if the house just needs repairs. But usually, such dwellings are just unmaintained; people don't clean them, they don't put things away, and they don't clean them at all. That's what makes me sad. Naturally, as a worker, I won't give my unsolicited opinion to them. But when they ask me for advice, I recommend doing general cleaning, you can just call a cleaning company. And then there are many companies, and restore the house, where you can live in pleasure.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

xandaram said:


> It's sad to see houses that were once beautiful and well-maintained and then neglected.











READ BEFORE POSTING: Welcome To PlumbingZone.com


PlumbingZone is a site for Plumbing Professionals Only, who are interested in promoting and improving the Plumbing trade. We want to take a moment to welcome you to the community! We truly do look forward to getting to know you and interacting with you in the forums. :) Please take a moment...




www.plumbingzone.com













PlumbingZone.com Is For Plumbing Professionals Only


PlumbingZone is a site for Plumbing Professionals Only, who are interested in promoting and improving the Plumbing trade. In our community the term "Plumbing Professional" refers to the following persons: Master Plumber, Plumbing Contractor, Journeyman Plumber, Pipe Fitter, Apprentice...




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## sparky (Jan 8, 2014)

OpenSights said:


> I have a few customers like that. Once you enter their home and act like you don’t mind, that is a huge advantage! They are now comfortable with you despite their insecurities about their living conditions. They also are less likely to question their bill because of the trust you’ve established.
> 
> 
> Years ago I was sent to a main line. Guy in his late 40’s? Living alone, retired from GM. Said “it’s pretty bad down there “ (basement). About a foot deep, the entire basement! I was somehow able to find the clean out and once it opened there was a 12’ diameter of sht and tp around the floor drain. I had to take my boot and move the dam so the rest the basement could drain. Told the HO how bad it really was. He said “I’ll just put some lime down.” This was the one and only time I called code compliance to report an unhealthy living condition. This was before camera phones.


What did compliance do??Id venture to guess absolutely nothing,which is all they ever do when you call on someone


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## Sstratton6175 (Jan 10, 2021)

I know a lot of you guys follow Steve Lav on YouTube. Here’s a good one he posted to his channel.


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## northplm (Jul 11, 2021)

I got called out one time by a neighborhood association, not the kind where you have to pay a fee to live in a subdivision, it was more of a non profit organization based on improving an older, lower/working class neighborhood. I got to this guy's house and he met me out by the truck, told me we had to go in the back door. You could tell right away he was a packrat, just from the yard. Back porch was a goat trail, we came around the corner and entered his house, there was a mountain of trash and junk, I'm talking rolling hills like a landfill. You couldn't get into the front half of his house because the doorway was obstructed by the mountain of junk, it was an old house with 10' ceilings and I had to duck to keep from hitting my head as I climbed the hills of trash. I knew I should run out the door but morbid curiosity kept me going. He had five gallon buckets for toilets, most were full. We came down a hill of trash and I looked down into the bathroom, he told me he needed his toilet fixed. The toilet was at the bottom of a valley, you couldn't see much because the seat of the toilet was level with the trash, but at the bottom of kind of a funnel of trash. It was overflowing with hardened crap, and if you got too close to the edge of the funnel you felt like you would start sliding down the hill and into the toilet. I told him I was leaving, and he asked me if I had time to fix the drain in the basement too. I told the neighborhood association and they had a cop come and take pictures and condemn the house. I've never seen anything like it, but it was before camera phones so I couldn't really take any pictures. That was probably the worst I've ever seen, or one of the worst.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

sparky said:


> What did compliance do??Id venture to guess absolutely nothing,which is all they ever do when you call on someone


Honestly I don’t remember if they did anything. It was before the city got greedy, so probably nothing.


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## leakfree (Apr 3, 2011)

Did a remodel in a Taco Bell Years back haven't eaten at one since. If you walked in with any moisture on your boot soles you slid across the entire restaurant from all the grease and slime on the floor, the other surfaces weren't any better.


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## OpenSights (Mar 23, 2015)

Most Taco Bells around here are “clean”. The one in my town sucks! 45 minute wait at the drive through, order ahead, 20 minutes, so we wait 15 minutes to drive there, wait 20 minutes standing there, tell them to cancel the order. Oh, we’re making it now! Forget it!


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

I used to do a lot of work at Taco Bells, I still eat there when I can, Besides the usual Plumbing I also did work on their
stoves and other burners, this was back in the late 70's


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