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… although I do like a good cheese Danish or a well executed Swedish massage.
I was going to post this last week while I was nailing baseboard molding back in place after re finishing two hardwood floors in my house. But I’m glad I waited. Even though I marked the baseboards, I swear that some of them shrank, some grew in length and some are just MIA. Finally got it all on a looking good when a couple of DAYS later my 7yr. old points out a small water spot in the finished basement ceiling tile. “That wasn’t there before dad.” Sure enough a hot water supply is just seeping a little water. “Good eyes honey” and of course… start blaming the wife,although she’s not in the plumbing trade. Hmmm, do a little measuring and I’m thinking it’s not a coincidence that the supply pipe is the same distance as a 10 penny finishing nail on the other side of the wall. Rip open the wall (under a vanity and sure enough – that #&*!#@! nail JUST pierced that pipe. Hit a knot in the stud, glanced off and with my countersinking poked a hole in the copper.
Could be worse – a 220 line or a waste pipe. I’ll be sweating pipe tonight. Any other noteworthy bone head moves worth mentioning?
Will
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DW bought a new computer last week, and wanted me to run a new outlet & phone line to set it away from the other. I figure, sure, I have the materials at hand, our panel can handle a new run, the location's fairly accessible, no problem.
I laid out the location for the new outlet, and asked her to make sure that was about where she wanted it, before I made the hole. She agreed, and I started the hole. Problem. For some dumb@ss reason, I didn't think to grab my stud finder before making the hole. I think maybe Zircon should hire me, because sure enough, I found the stud.
Then I ran into the problem that the wall there is only a bit more than 1 1/2" thick. The "stud" is really just a furring strip on top of concrete block, so I had to scramble out anyway and buy a different box to fit. Arrgh...
*Ouch...That hurts.We had this severaltimes, where someone would shoot a nail into a a copper water line. Funny thing is, it would take a few months of the homeowner living in the house to realize the problem of a leak. The nail into the copper must make a good enough seal to keep the leak at bay until the lines get into heavy use.To solve the problem, the builder began to spray paint blue lines on the floor where a waterline was located. After the drywallers were finished, he would extend the lines onto the drywall about a foot. We've only hit one since he started doing this, as he forgot to mark both sides of the wall.Now, when nailing in baseboard, I joke and say "Go Blue!"Eric
*In the late seventies I worked for one of those trailer outfits where you build the thing in a warehouse and then they're shipped out. I trimmed one and it went to the North Slope for the oil fields with three finish nails stuck in a copper pipe. My boss had to fly all the way up there to fix it.......and I was out of a job.
*I was working on an assisted living complex in Seattle one time, setting base cabinets on a Friday.The sink set went on a pony wall separating the living room and kitchen (later to be topped as a breakfast bar), using plastic flex water supply line.When the plummers ran the flex, they ran the stuff just below the countertop line...except one stud...seems a knot was in the way, and they ran the line about three inches higher than the others, and when the screw went through the back of the cabinet...you guessed it, through the plastic line also. We did'nt notice the problem until Monday, you could have swam across the apartment, and the downstairs one was no better. Hardest part was figuring where the water was comming from.
*While doing the finish work & installing the cabinets on a house the homeowners father kinda hung out with me for a week - really nice & easy goin guy.I was installing an upper cabinet next to a pantry -screwing from inside the pantry into the edge of the face frame of the upper cab. "Dad" was telling a joke, I mismeasured, & with Pops watching every step I proceded to drill a hole right through the finish end of the pantry, missing my spot by 1"- Dad didn't bat an eye, just said "That's what they make putty for, right? Better take care of that before my son sees it!"so I didgb
*It wasn't finish carpentry, but along the same lines, I was nailing off a subfloor, and hit a copper pipe. The plumber had run the heat pipes across the top of the joists (special circumstance) and I had carefully drawn on the subfloor the outline of the pipes...then proceeded to place a nail right between the lines. The plumber told me that in general, "it's not a good idea to attach the subfloor directly to the plumbing."
*My plumber puts more steel plates in projects than I have ever seen, and his rule of thumb is any pipe which is within 1" of the outside of the plate/stud gets a plate.Stupid Contractor Tricks? Too may to tell, but the greatest hits would be: (1) Stupid Rough Outs, with pipes too low, too high etc; (2) Not accounting for enough circuits in a recent Kitchen remodel.
*UK, in the 1970s -- start of metrification.An engineering company was contracted to build a footbridge over the main Dover-London motorway. They build the access ramps and fabricated the centre span in one piece. The motorway was closed for 8 hours, with diversions, police, etc. while the span was transported to site. They craned it into position and it was 100mm (4") too short.Ooops!
*Not a construction error, but a english-metric conversion error similar to Ian'sThis is from memory so the details may be a bit off.Air Canada flight, new Boeing 767, with fuel gauges in metric. Errors in math coverting between pounds, kilo's, basically the pilot, co-pilot and the person fueling the plane didn't do the conversion correctly. The plane took off with about half of the fuel necessary to make the trip.Plane runs out of fuel and becomes the worlds largest glider. Pilot or co-pilot remembers that their is an abandoned military airfield in the area but it doesn't show on their maps. They find the old airport and are able to land the plane safely.Whoops
*b WBA At Your ServiceI have a friend who is quite experienced at making major repairs to his PC's at home. He had a machine that needed a new processor, so he purchased a brand new Pentium P3 to install on his existing motherboard. At the instant he plugged the new chip into the board, the family cat decided to rip through the room and jump onto him. The resulting static charge fried the chip, dead as a doornail. The cat is down to eight lives.
*Most likely they noticed the fuel consumption being higher than expected and caught the error before the tanks were dry. Big commercial jets glide only slightly better than do bricks, so a true dead stick landing isn't in the cards.-- J.S.
*John,Nope true dead stick, I'll try to find somemore particlars. Scott
*Another metrification error from the '70s at Dungeness A nuclear power station.On a safety inspection of the station it was realised that if ever the blades fractured in one of the main turbines, the explosion would take out the control panel for the seawater pumps that cooled the reactor.They decided to build a 3' diameter pipe line a mile and a half long to a fresh-water lake and build a back-up pumping station by the lake. The ground there is shingle, with the water table just 2' below the surface so they drove sheet piling and excavated 10' down inside the piling walls with a grab.It was decided that it would be easier to pour the concrete base, 3' thick, through the water with a 'Tremmie', which is a steel pipe, 12" diameter, with a funnel on top, suspended from a crane. A foam-rubber ball is stuffed in the top of the pipe and concrete poured on top, the weight of the concrete pushes the ball down the tube, driving out the water.As you can imagine, it is important that the end of the pipe stays about 2' below the surface of the concrete, so the pipe is graduated and an engineer with a dumpy level watches the graduations, signalling to the crane to raise the pipe as the concrete is poured to keep it 2' below the concrete surface. That's the theory, unfortunately the engineer stuffed up the conversion and they poured 100 cubic metres of concrete through 3' of water!Whenever I make a stuff-up, I remember these two and mine seem real insignificant.
*I knew a guy who once drilled a hole into a 220 line and a hot water pipe simultaneously or maybe the jolt from the 220 threw the drill into the pipe. This was in the new kitchen where he had just installed and finished a birch floor. I think he installed the pipe, too. Ruined a good drill bit. Among other things. This was the same guy whose partner was heard saying, loudly, by the customer arriving home unexpectedly, "There, that's good enough for this f'ing job!"Ron
*John,Here it is it happened on July 23, 1983. Total dead stick landing on a ex RAF airforce base in Gimli, Manitoba. Below you will find (hopefully) an attachment with more info. Its in a word format
*I hate to admit it, but...Redoing the bathroom and while there is an access panel to the shower/tub pipes, there are no shut off valves. So, to make life easier to live while working I thought I'd be smart and put some valves in line. Got a couple of these things that have nuts that go on each end of cut pipe followed by a soldered sleeve with a flange. The nuts then slip over the flange and screw into the valve housing, pulling the whole unit together. Seems nifty. In my haste to get the water back on I put one of the nuts on upside down, threads facing away from the valve. This calls for another rush hour trip to the HD. Damn...
*Wow.
*Yesterday, while installing 1x material on the beams in a coffered ceiling, I saw a 2" pvc pipe in the path. Knew it was there, had been there since Christmas, at least.BAM.Right dead-bang dead-on-balls in the center.Took the board off, we had it fixed before lunch, put the board back up and now it's good as new, more-or-less.Shi - uh, stuff happens.
*Kind of funny . . .I am a hobyist woodworker and I usually hang out at FWW.I make furniture- late Georgian stuff (ball and claw feet, carving, standard joinery). My stuff isn't perfect, but I am usually within about 1/16th of where I am supposed to be and I like doing this work.However, I could not frame anything square if my life depended on it-I do a really terrible job.If you held a gun to my head and asked me to toe-nail something you'd best have a round in the chamber.It's not clear to me how you can do one but not the other, but they really are two different beasts.I wonder why.Frank
*There I was working in my bath/laundry room cutting apart concrete/brick and plaster for an extension into the ajacent cellar. Didn't calculate correctly for where the water pipes were for the tub. Man, I'll tell you those stone cutting disks on an angle grinder will go through copper like a hot knife thru butter. That water came springing up and hit me in the kisser and I looked like one of those cartoon characters getting the fire hose in the face. Water everywhere, and a blinded crazy person with a whirring angle grinder in the bath. I can laugh now.
*I think Bill gets the award for funiest mental picture!
*1990, Just started w/ a new company.(New guy syndrome) 20'x20' 2 story timberframe addition, working w/ 1 other guy, 1st flr.goes great,lovin' life.Start 2nd flr walls, badly faded prints,(should have checked or got a better set L&L).Layed out, cut & set timbers on one wall that was to have 4 windows yay high x 36"wide all in a row.Framed all walls, roof, come time to set windows in afore-mentioned wall & DOH!!! WHADDEA MEAN THEY'RE 6"TOO WIDE ?WHADDEA MEAN THE PRINTS SPEC 3'6"Boy did that suc#.
*Once oupn a time--I was making up the main panel in a 4000SF house, which was two stories over a garage. Plumber was on top floor in the kids bathroom, over the kitchen, making a cutout for the wash basin. He was using sawzall with long blade (12"); I think he was in too big a hurry to change the blade. There were a few other guys at work on this & that.All of a sudden I hear one guy shouting. Then several, shouting "TURN OFF THE WATER!" I'm standing right next to the main shutoff valve, so's I grab the wheel and start spinning as fast as I can. Got the valve closed in about 10 seconds. I run up to the kitchen and there's a waterfall coming out of every can light in the kitchen! And there are a LOT of can lights...Guys are putting empty buckets underneath to catch the flow.A couple of us get up on the island and pull the trimrings off and cans out; somebody else gets the shop vac and starts vacuuming water out of the kitchen ceiling. It was really incredible; everyone just fell to, like we'd had damage control drill for it.Turns out the saw blade had caught the stubout of the cold water line under the sink, and on the return stroke, had pulled a cold-soldered joint apart in the wall. The plumber said that it took him a minute to register that he was soaked from the waist down and then sound the alarm.We got the water up with the vac and sponges, and then used the vac as a blower to circulate air in the space. The owner-builder was wringing his hands--he was already over budget and behind schedule, and the thought of having the kitchen ceiling re-taped, textured, and painted was eating him up. It was a warm day, and I tried to reassure him that he probably wouldn't lose the joints.It turned out OK. Joints held fine. Not even any water marks on the ceiling.But I wish I had a video of the 8 columns of water flowing out of the ceiling!
*When I moved into my new old house I found many poorly done electrical DIY things and set about fixing them. One of these repairs was so far from the panel that I found a rec. on the circuit I wished to turn off, pluged an extension cord into it and walked it to the panel. Into it I plugged a light and began turning off breakers until the light went off. At that point, I pulled the cord back to the outlet and unpluded in, used my meter to be sure the circuit was dead and then went back to the panel and turned everything else back on. Then returned to the point of work and grabbed the wire. BANG. Seems that the previous owner had somehow tied two circuits together that were fed from the same line. Both breakers had to be off at the same time to kill the juice. When my indicator light went out, I had just turned off the 2nd breaker. After testing, I turned on all of the other breakers which of course included the 1st of the 2 that had been tied together. Electrical work is not a hobby.
*Working on a remodel and cellulose insulation was being blown in through 1" holes in the exterior walls. Homeowner seemed excited when cellulose was piling-up in her living room. It turned out that the insulator had drilled into the recessed wall pocket of the doorbell. Moments earlier the insulator mentioned that it was taking a long time to fill the wall cavity.
*Another water story, this happened to the owners of the 1880's bed and breakfast I've been working on recently. A braided water line broke on an old tub, on the second floor of the b&b with renters asleep. Downstairs, after some time had passed, a sleepy customer turned on what she thought was a light switch, only to be completely showered by a fountain twirling from the ceiling fan--the fixture where all the water was pouring down through.Brand new hardwood floors. They look like an accordion. Ceiling may be a total loss. Not sure if those customers will be back too soon.MD (a Finnish carpenter)
*Trimming windows. My sheetrock extends out past my extension jambs on my windows how do I trim these windows out so they look nice?
*Another non-baseboard story. One day I was putting a new underground electrical line to a fishing cabin. Someone was in there and needed some lights, so after I had disconnected the old lines from the pole, I ran a temporary 100' extension to the cabin panel. It turned out, the old direct burial cables had lost their insulation and were practically bare in the ground. The whole length of my 12 gauge extension cord burnt instantly like a giant fusable link. A few days ago, as I was wiring a switch in a restaurant and my partner was putting some finishing touches on some wain-scotting on the other side of the wall. I don't know what took him to use 2.5" nails in his Senco but he practically pinned my fingers in the box...fv
*ViVi, you're gonna have to do like I did on a job not too long ago, you get that table saw out and take some thickness out of the back of your trims where it overlaps the drywall. It's easier and cleaner than having to build up your casings.fv
*When something gets screwed up now.....I love saying to Dad....."BOY am I gald YOU did that, I never woulda heard the end of it!" Revenge for all the times I got chewed out while working for him as a kid. Then I tell him he probably wasn't using the tool as it was meant... Or say, "hey....those tools cost money, ya know".....and quickly leave the room! Jeff
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... although I do like a good cheese Danish or a well executed Swedish massage.
I was going to post this last week while I was nailing baseboard molding back in place after re finishing two hardwood floors in my house. But I'm glad I waited. Even though I marked the baseboards, I swear that some of them shrank, some grew in length and some are just MIA. Finally got it all on a looking good when a couple of DAYS later my 7yr. old points out a small water spot in the finished basement ceiling tile. "That wasn't there before dad." Sure enough a hot water supply is just seeping a little water. "Good eyes honey" and of course... start blaming the wife,although she's not in the plumbing trade. Hmmm, do a little measuring and I'm thinking it's not a coincidence that the supply pipe is the same distance as a 10 penny finishing nail on the other side of the wall. Rip open the wall (under a vanity and sure enough - that #&*!#@! nail JUST pierced that pipe. Hit a knot in the stud, glanced off and with my countersinking poked a hole in the copper.
Could be worse - a 220 line or a waste pipe. I'll be sweating pipe tonight. Any other noteworthy bone head moves worth mentioning?
Will