# What was the easiest job you did?



## Ron (Jun 12, 2008)

My easiest job I did was reseting a GFI breaker not but 4' from a sump pump to start it working again :laughing:


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## Ishmael (Dec 9, 2009)

Call for no heat/hot water. Turned on the emergency switch at the top of the basement stairs. :thumbup:


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## rocksteady (Oct 8, 2008)

I was called out to a house for a backed up tub and just flipped the trip lever to drain it. Then I was called back a few days later by one of the room-mates thinking it was a call-back but it was the same thing, flipped the lever and it drained great. I had to take all the kids that lived there into the bathroom and give them a lesson on tub trip levers. 





Paul


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## Ron (Jun 12, 2008)

rocksteady said:


> I was called out to a house for a backed up tub and just flipped the trip lever to drain it. Then I was called back a few days later by one of the room-mates thinking it was a call-back but it was the same thing, flipped the lever and it drained great. I had to take all the kids that lived there into the bathroom and give them a lesson on tub trip levers.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That is my 2nd. :laughing:


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

Pleasured my wife. 






If ya know what I mean :brows:


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## TheMaster (Jun 12, 2009)

Drove over to a house and turned the backyard hose bibb off. leak repaired
No gas to stove.......The stove was electric and the breaker was turned off.:laughing:
Leak around the toilet when flushed......refill hose out of place.
Toilet running......refill hose out of place on a fluidmaster.:thumbsup:
No water to guest house.......water valve off in valve box under the front hose faucet.:jester:
No water to faucet......replace areator:thumbup:
leak around toilet base........Old man peeing on the floor(proved this with white tissue....water aint yellow sir but pee pee is and when I hold a flashlight at an angle I can see your pee pee streaks running down the front of the bowl...can you see them sir?:laughing:
This is the short list....I shall post more dumb things people call me for.


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## Flyin Brian (Aug 22, 2009)

plugging in the power cord to a sump pump that was unplugged.


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## ESPinc (Jul 18, 2009)

An elderly woman said her toilet was not working. Turned the stop on, she thinks she has ghosts in her home, she has no idea how it got shut off..


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## Ishmael (Dec 9, 2009)

TheMaster said:


> ...leak around toilet base........Old man peeing on the floor(proved this with white tissue....water aint yellow sir but pee pee is and when I hold a flashlight at an angle I can see your pee pee streaks running down the front of the bowl...can you see them sir?


:laughing: I had one of those, too, except it was an old lady. That was an uncomfortable conversation: "_Maybe you need to lean forward a little more when you use the toilet, Ma'am." _


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## bartnc37 (Feb 24, 2009)

switch under sink for dishwasher that had mysteriously quit working. H.O. had already changed the breaker and bought new wire, he was going to rerun the line to the DW as he thought he had a cracked wire. also re hooking chain on flapper


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

Easiest, trip lever on a tub was down and the engineer from India thought the drain was clogged. After I left he took the trip lever apart "to get a better understanding" and could not put it back together again. Got really mad when I charged him to come back a 2nd time.

Most aggravating? Pumping a flooded basement that had four feet of water only to find out the sump pump was barely unplugged and reachable from inside the doorway.


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

Flyin Brian said:


> plugging in the power cord to a sump pump that was unplugged.



Well, i hope you piggy backed the damn thing.:laughing:


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

I think it was probably back when I was in the service fixing F-111 com/nav/ecm systems in the planes...

A student pilot wrote up the UHF radio...
"UHF radio inop in "OFF" Mode"... :blink:

I didn't have high hopes for this guy making it through training...:laughing:


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## SlickRick (Sep 3, 2009)

Kitchen sink stoppage, walked up to it, stuck a plunger on one side, stopper in the other, hit the disposal switch, BAM! $136.50 please. And TM it was tubular


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## D'Brie (Nov 8, 2009)

Turn angle stops on all the way (call was for banging noise and low water pressure).


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## Ron (Jun 12, 2008)

D'Brie said:


> Turn angle stops on all the way (call was for banging noise and low water pressure).


I did one just like that today, but had other work at the same place.


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## LEAD INGOT (Jul 15, 2009)

Got a call for a drip coming from the cieling in the basement. Got there saw the drip, went upstairs, quickly pinpointed the approximate location. Opened the closet door and found a bucket of mop water that had a small hole in it. I didn't even need a flashlight. Cha Ching!


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## Ron (Jun 12, 2008)

I got a call one night, leak into the basement, show up determined area above, went up top but no plumbing in that area, starting talking it over with the owner, and he told me the dogs water bowl was there and the dog had tipped it over. Cha Ching!


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## Plumber Jim (Jun 19, 2008)

I go to a condo and they have white liquid leaking from the kitchen ceiling. I go up stairs and ask if anyone spilled milk and they answer yes a gallon. how did you know? I say you neighbor below has it downstairs!


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## AKdaplumba (Jan 12, 2010)

hooked the chain back onto the leaver to flush the toilet


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

Ever have this happen? Get a call from a condo that has water flooded all over the floor, only to find the culprit being the kitchen sink p- trap knocked off because the maintenance man was rodding the drain from next door and he rodded through the back to back fixtures. 

He never unstopped the drain, only let the water drain onto the floor??


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## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

TheMaster said:


> leak around toilet base........Old man peeing on the floor(proved this with white tissue....water aint yellow sir but pee pee is and when I hold a flashlight at an angle I can see your pee pee streaks running down the front of the bowl...can you see them sir?:laughing:


I've had that call multiple times, both with old men and people with young boys. They'll never believe you until you take clean toilet paper and wipe the floor and let them see and smell it. The old man argued even after that. :laughing: He was more than half blind I think - that toilet and floor was covered in piss.


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

Ahh, yes, piss on the floor. I had that happen to me once and I tried to blame it on the customers dog, although I knew they didn't have one. The homeowner was a retired Major General WW2 veteran and was loud and liked to speak his mind. When I blamed it on his dog, he said, "Chris, I haven't got a G#[email protected] DOG!!, IT'S ME, I AM PISSING ON THE FLOOR, I AM OLD AND I CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT!". I laughed and told him to aim for the tub instead.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*how did you do that???*



ILPlumber said:


> Pleasured my wife.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
and how was that so easy??? 

I have tried everything with my wife...

giving her 200 bucks and letting her go shopping seems to work best for me....


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

Ishmael said:


> :laughing: I had one of those, too, except it was an old lady. That was an uncomfortable conversation: "_Maybe you need to lean forward a little more when you use the toilet, Ma'am." _


I had one of those too. It was in a new subdivision we were doing the plumbing in. We went to this ladies house seven time to fix a leak on a basement toilet. we even changed the toilet once cause we thought it was the bowl that had a defect in it. The last time I happened to be working across the street when she called. I went right over and as soon as she opened the door she lead me downstairs saying how she could not understand this and she apologize for not having the bathroom clean when I got there. When I walk in the bathroom ahead of her there was a dogs bowl by the toilet. Problem solved.


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

easiest and most profitable one I ever did was in knoxville tenn. We had a dr call that was getting water in his under the slab heat duct and wanted us to camera it and give him an estimate to possibly line it . Drove 7 hrs from missouri to knoxville opened the closet door took the flashlight looked inside the 12 inch duct that was totally collapse. Told him there was no way I could get a camera in there without busting floors up. he said no collected 1700 dollars and left. Got out of town pay ( which was 5 dollars more per hr) for 8hrs plus 7 hrs out of town ot pay. And had a beautiful drive.:thumbup:


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

I once drove 50 miles to a no hot water call at a restaurant. 

I lit the pilot, turned the gas valve on and the pilot went out.

I look up as I'm saying "WTF" to myself and see the gas cock, almost completely shut off from someone rolling a mop bucket into it.


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## Bollinger plumber (Apr 3, 2009)

Push the reset button on a badger v garbage disposal.


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## plumbrsteve (Jan 16, 2010)

leak under K.S. fauc., hose to wand conn on pull out was loose


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## Nevada Plumber (Jan 3, 2009)

I don't know if this was my easiest one, but it is certainly right up there.

Got a call at about 11:30 AM one day from a family member of a long time customer. She said they have a really unusual problem, did I think I could help. I said more then likely, what do you need?

My customer was updating her will, and got sick the day they were supposed to go to the lawyers office and sign the papers, so the lawyer and notary came to them. The problem was they didn't have enough witnesses, and the lawyer would be there in an hour.

I think me invoice read service call for witness to signing of legal documents. I wonder what section of a flat rate book I should put that under?


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## Flyin Brian (Aug 22, 2009)

ROCKSTARPLUMBER said:


> Well, i hope you piggy backed the damn thing.:laughing:


i actually installed a submirsible back up pump powerd by natural gas,just hope they don't turn off the gas cock by mistake....


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## para1 (Jun 17, 2008)

ILPlumber said:


> Pleasured my wife.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
*" Happy Wife, Happy Life"*


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## TheSkinnyGuy (Sep 15, 2009)

Nevada Plumber said:


> I don't know if this was my easiest one, but it is certainly right up there.
> 
> Got a call at about 11:30 AM one day from a family member of a long time customer. She said they have a really unusual problem, did I think I could help. I said more then likely, what do you need?
> 
> ...


replacing a hard to reach brass gate valve... being in the same room as a lawyer must rank up there.


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## A Good Plumber (Jun 18, 2008)

Got a call from a guy who had a broken water service, on a Sunday at about 8pm. He needed help now cuz he was having some visitors the next morning.

I told him to run the garden hose over from the neighbors house and hook it up to his hhouse hose bibb, then shut off his service valve.


He sent me a check for $60.00. 

I never did get a call to replace the service, but I got 60.00 for helping over the phone.


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## LEAD INGOT (Jul 15, 2009)

It wasn't the easiest job, but it was the easiest diagnosis. Customer just moved into the house and the toilet in the basement wasn't working. Got there went downstairs looked at the toilet. It was up against the foundation wall with no supply to it. So I rocked the toilet from side to side and picked it up. Told the homeowner, there is no plumbing there. Someone just set that toilet there. He had me come back the next week and start the basement bath.


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

A Good Plumber said:


> Got a call from a guy who had a broken water service, on a Sunday at about 8pm. He needed help now cuz he was having some visitors the next morning.
> 
> I told him to run the garden hose over from the neighbors house and hook it up to his hhouse hose bibb, then shut off his service valve.
> 
> ...


I would have to take a long look at my neighbors plumbing before doing that. I didn't know hose was approved for water services:laughing:


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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

Ishmael said:


> Call for no heat/hot water. Turned on the emergency switch at the top of the basement stairs. :thumbup:


This once happened to me when the New England Patriots were in an awesome superbowl game. Old, rich, customer said she had no heat, and that she had already checked the switch. I drove 40 minutes out to her house and hit the switch at the top of her stairs that goes to the furnace.:furious: I was pretty miffed at her for making me miss the superbowl just because she couldn't bebothered to check the "on/off" switch.

This happened years ago, and it still gets me in a bad mood when I think about it.


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## 3KP (Jun 19, 2008)

Here are a few for me:

No Hot water (Gas) Pilot light was lit just needed to turn the thermostat dial to an heating postion.

This happen 2 time to me: Whirlpool tub will not turn on. one flip the breaker on in the panel. The other one worked off a light switsh (guy goes wondered what that switch was for?)

Guy calls and says he has no water to his toilet (acorn stops) just had to pull out the knob to turn it on. 

Leak in ceiling went into the bathroom and the ran the tub, turned on the shower. The tub spout was spraying back into the wall (last person did not use tape or dope on it) Ran a few wraps of tape and out the door I went.

Got a


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

I was called for a broken water main cut off valve. Man told me he turned and turned and turned and turned and turned..............
But the water wont cut off. He says the valve must be broke. I drove for 1 hour, got there, climbed down the hole where the shut off valve was located at and turned about 1/4 turn and the water stopped! He was dumbfounded. What he failed to understand was it was a 1-1/2" gate valve which you have to turn several times to shut it off. He stopped a quarter turn shy of turning it off! Easy money!!

Woman calls, says her toilet was stopped. She tried plunging to no avail. I get there, pull out my plunger and with one push, SWOOSH! Needless to say she was embarrassed. I told her it was the plunger, you can only get this type if you are a licensed plumber!

Easy $ strikes again!


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

Being the boss, most jobs are easy these days.:whistling2:


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## mselkee (Aug 13, 2009)

Engineer that we did the infloor heat and plumbing for his new house calls and says it's too hot in here. OK, we scheduled a service call for a few days later to coincide with installing a washer dryer he ordered. He insisted that the reset curves were wrong or we had the boiler set up incorrectly. 

We get to the job, connect the washer dryer while listening to his wife tell her kid in a stage voice "yes honey I know it's been too hot in here for THE WHOLE WEEK, but the nice men are going to TRY to fix it." 

We check the thermostat and it's set to 8o degrees! Thank you GOD.

The phone rings and she talks a bit and brings it to me. Her husband the engineering genius is on the line to help me because I'm obviously too stupid to figure this one out.

Engineer Dave: (In official job site command voice)Well hows it going? Did you reprogram the boiler reset curves like I told you to?

Me (stupid plumber) Dave, you are aware of an invention called a thermostat? It's the little box on the wall. It has numbers on it that correspond to the room temperature. It even allows you to change the temperature in the room. Yours is set at 80, let's turn it down and see what happens before I reprogram the whole boiler. (my help left the room to keep from busting up)

Engineer Dave: (Not missing a beat) Actually, I was going to look into that if you couldn't solve the problem. 

I could start a whole new thread on engineers!


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## user2090 (Sep 26, 2009)

Cleared toilet by waving my hands. Filled clogged stool up near rim to get a good flush when clear. Knocked plunger over, went to pick it up an swoosh, stool cleared. First question out of homeowners mouth "Are you still going to charge full rate, you really didn't do anything?"


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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

mselkee said:


> Engineer that we did the infloor heat and plumbing for his new house calls and says it's too hot in here. OK, we scheduled a service call for a few days later to coincide with installing a washer dryer he ordered. He insisted that the reset curves were wrong or we had the boiler set up incorrectly.
> 
> We get to the job, connect the washer dryer while listening to his wife tell her kid in a stage voice "yes honey I know it's been too hot in here for THE WHOLE WEEK, but the nice men are going to TRY to fix it."
> 
> ...


:notworthy:


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)

I had a guy call me, want's a quote to install a munchkin boiler. About 3 minutes into the conversation, I can tell. He's an engineer. He's got it all figured out. I told him we are busy untill the summer, or the next summer.

Take a hint, buddy. I ain't working for you!


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## retired rooter (Dec 31, 2008)

A friend of mine who does new work only had a condo in EUFAUFA al, had a stopped up tub in a new condo unit ,never used.He offered me 900.00 if I could get it open 600.00 if I couldnt! They were going to remove the tub next to dig grout out of the drain) They had used 2 RR's and a local plumbing co. I guess they all had used their hand drills and couldnt knock the grout out.I got my (my tanna) m666 with a 3/8'' cable and got out my blankets to protect the tub ,I stuck the cable down the overflow and it hit a hard spot and I bore down on cable @@pop!!!! it opened in less than 15 minutes I turned on water and washed it out ,nobody was watching me ,so I cleaned up and headed out of town to TOM MAMS FISHING musuem and had some time to kill ,ate a nice lunch and headed to the plumbers house that called me, he was waiting with 9 big ones, this was approx 10 yrs ago when my GMC was brand new, I called that my easiest day all riding and I loved to ride in spring nice scenery in spring ,If I had known it was so easy I would have taken my boat and spent the night,,, cha ching


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## LEAD INGOT (Jul 15, 2009)

ChrisConnor said:


> Ever have this happen? Get a call from a condo that has water flooded all over the floor, only to find the culprit being the kitchen sink p- trap knocked off because the maintenance man was rodding the drain from next door and he rodded through the back to back fixtures.
> 
> He never unstopped the drain, only let the water drain onto the floor??


Been there, done that. And so began my hatred for the san cross.


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## dankman (Nov 19, 2009)

mselkee said:


> Engineer that we did the infloor heat and plumbing for his new house calls and says it's too hot in here. OK, we scheduled a service call for a few days later to coincide with installing a washer dryer he ordered. He insisted that the reset curves were wrong or we had the boiler set up incorrectly.
> 
> We get to the job, connect the washer dryer while listening to his wife tell her kid in a stage voice "yes honey I know it's been too hot in here for THE WHOLE WEEK, but the nice men are going to TRY to fix it."
> 
> ...


Funny you should say that. I took my truck into the shop to get the belt changed this morning, I've known the tech that did the work for more than 15 years and he had all sorts of new, interesting ways to describe engineers.


I never miss the opportunity to bash an engineer for what they do to their face, even if they are a customer.


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## mssp (Dec 15, 2009)

Had a HO of a new house I plumbed say her gas dryer didnt work. I thought maybe an old chunk of pipe had a mud daubers nest or somdthing like that. NO, I plugged it in and told her that will be 95.00 She didnt want to pay It is gas why would it need electricity?:whistling2:
Another HO said her outside hydrants wouldnt work. Spinklers plugged with mud Heres your bill mam!


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## Phat Cat (Apr 1, 2009)

Responded to numerous drains backing up in the indoor pool area of a large condo complex. They were petrified that the drainage would contaminate the pools/spa. We bring the cable machine into the Mechanical Room and the Hotel Supervisor comes in to report that what we were doing was working. The drains are doing their job. The cable machine had not even been plugged in at this point. We still ran the cable just in case there was still a small blockage.

2nd - Four years ago, our son was 9 and went on a clogged kitchen sink call in a vacation rental property with his Dad. He pushed the reset button and promised Dad he would not tell the maintenance men about the little secret button. :laughing:


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