Well that didn’t go as planned.

[paulrbarnard]

I got cornered in to tiling the bathroom floor and got about half way through and noticed one of the boards was a bit bouncy. Looking at the screw pattern I saw they had missed a screw at the edge of the board so put one in. It resulted in a hissing noise that I thought was either a peed off snake or I had hit a pipe. I turned the water off just in case and the hissing continued so I was thinking more likely a snake. Then figured it might be the central heating. So I found a hose and drained the system. The hissing stopped, so either it was the heating or the snake had died. I then had to lift the floor boards (tongue and groove chipboard). That was a lot of fun…
Once uncovered it turned out to be the 28mm flow from the boiler.
Anyway I cut out the hole and rejoined the pipe. Heating is topped back up (didn’t forget to add the ferox) and all is running nicely.
I now have to re floor the bathroom before getting back on with the tiling. It’s a real mess under there with pipes cut in everywhere so it is going to need some additional supports for the boards.
First time I have ever spiked a pipe. But at least plumbing is a lot more fun than tiling.

 

[Adam W.]

My favourite jobs all rolled into one, you are so lucky.

 

[Bingy man]

a friend of mine phoned me recently and asked advice about a nail sticking up above the floorboard he asked should he pull it out or knock it back in -neither I told him turn the water off and gas and drain the heating . He said he didn’t have time to bother with all that and said he’d just bang it back in . Then some mad panic and his Mrs in the background screaming hysterically and him shouting he didn’t put the pipe there etc etc . When I got to his house it turns out he,d hammered the nail in hitting a pipe and then pulled the nail back out . Well I’ve hit a couple of pipes over the last 40 years and it’s really easy to do but at least you got it all done without any major damage..

 

[Alli]

I was helping a sparky mate pull some internet cable in. I gave him my brand spanking new drill bit that shot through the board and into a pipe below, we heard that angry snake that you referred to! In a panic we fired down to the basement - this was a commercial set up with 12 heating zones with bypasses etc and about 50 isolating valve, never so quick have they been turned off though at the time it felt like 3 hours!

After a big clear up he turned and said to me that was my fault, I said how do you reckon that, you drilled the hole, yes he said, but if he had used his drill bit they are so blunt it wouldn't have gone through the pipe!!!!

 

[Ozi]

My friends Dad tried to put up a parrot cage. First hole went through a water pipe, second hit wiring, he got so angry he through the drill and broke the glass in the patio door. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving gent.

 

[baldkev]

at least you are able to drain the system, fix it, abd refill etc... thats good going

When i was an apprentice i drilled a neat 8mm hole into a pine floorboard for a bolt on the bottom of cupboard door to go into.... ( the slave on a pair ) ..... now, if i had just drilled in far enough for the bolt to go halfway, id have been lucky, however I went through and hit a pipe right under the board
About a month later i went on holiday for a week, came back and had to put skirting in a bathroom that had just been boarded and skimmed. As luck would have it, all my screws were set at the exact same height that the cold feed was at, going horizontally through the studwork. I scored direct hits with every screw

The most lively one ive had was in a flat in dartmouth, i set my circular saw to about 3mm deeper than the 20mm pine floorboards..... about halfway through my cut, there was a huge bang, flash and the saw jumped out my hands...... i had found the power feed for the flat above, but worst yet, it was straight from a submain, so about 1/6th of dartmouth was without power for a few hours.


On my current project, i had a groundworks company in to do some sere work, the digger driver found a mains cable about 2m down he wasnt best pleased because it was the 3rd job in a row that he'd hit gold

 

[Yojevol]

A mate of mine moved into a new build house in the summer. Come the autumn the CH is turned on for the(ir) first time. After 20mins or so, a big BANG from upstairs. Hot water cascading down. Fortunately it seemed to be coming from a room not yet carpeted. So, prize the skirtings off, lift the floorboards to reveal that the plumber had not notched in a CH pipe properly. the electrician didn't have enough cable to route it around the walls so he cut the corner and laid it over the CH pipe then the floor layer didn't spot the problem (or maybe he did but didn't do anything about it - would have cost time) and made sure there was really good contact between the pipe and the cable by banging in a nail just beside them.
You can complete the story yourselves.
That's workmanship for you
Brian

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Someone left a heating system leaking in a flat above the one my b.i.l. was working in. Everyone went away for a long weekend and the water went down through seven or eight floors. £4,500,000 of insurance claims.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Went through the cold water pipe to the sink tap when gibbing the wall in the remodelled bathroom recently. Especially annoying since I built the wall and installed the piping so I knew it was there of course. It was a measurement error. Yes, always measure, mark and then check but omitted the check bit and paid the price for being careless.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My daughter's partner has been working on a house for four months and have just finished the job. He's shown me photos of the ground floor ............ with the bottom 18" of plaster everywhere wet. The plumbers (whom they use regularly but I suspect not for much longer) used push fit plastic under solid concrete floors, and the fittings have sprung. It wasn't the builders' fault and they're hoping the plumber's insurance company will get another firm in to do the job - they can't afford to put other work months behind.
My first though was why have they joints under solid floors, but I'm no plumber.

 

[pe2dave]

An alternative to lifting complete mdf panels, Trend jig routes a circle, a plastic insert takes up the space, easy access without having to redo the tiling?

 

[HappyHacker]

I was working on a house and the plumber was asked to drill a 4" hole through an external wall for an extractor. He checked with me if there were any cables in the area and I told him if there were they had been disconnected. He started drilling and hit both the hot and cold water pipes buried in the plaster. Despite having fitted a new stopcock the week before in his panic he could not remember where it was. It did prove the RCD I had just fitted worked when water went into most of the kitchen sockets.

Recently I was using a mini digger to excavate a trench for a foul sewer. Knowing roughly where the gas pipe ran we were excavating that bit carefully by hand. I cleared a bit we had checked with the digger and caught the gas pipe with the tooth on the bucket at the end of the run. The gas people were most understanding and said the pipe was not deep enough at 5"

I was chasing a wall out with a device like an angle grinder with two disks. I had checked for cables marked where they were under the plaster and then ran the chaser straight through them. That also checked the operation of the RCD I had fitted.

 

[Spectric]

You can get detectors you know, not always 100% but for pipes, cables and conduit they can save the day.

 

[paulrbarnard]

An alternative to lifting complete mdf panels, Trend jig routes a circle, a plastic insert takes up the space, easy access without having to redo the tiling?

That looks very useful. I will certainly be getting one of those next time I need to go through a floor.
I’m actually pleased I took the floor up though in this case. It is a nightmare under there and certainly would benefit from some additional bracing.

 

[paulrbarnard]

You can get detectors you know, not always 100% but for pipes, cables and conduit they can save the day.

Yes I have one it was in the shed and I was upstairs in the house .
In my defence it turns out the bathroom sits above a corner in the brick walls of the lower story. The joists run in opposite directions on the left and right sides of the bathroom. That threw me when looking at the positions of the screws. I though I was screwing into a joist running length ways, parallel to any sensible pipe run…
Live and learn. 45 years of putting screws in walls, floors and ceilings and only one cable and one pipe to date. I’m reasonably happy with that record.

 

[TheUnicorn]

a friend of mine phoned me recently and asked advice about a nail sticking up above the floorboard he asked should he pull it out or knock it back in -neither I told him turn the water off and gas and drain the heating . He said he didn’t have time to bother with all that and said he’d just bang it back in . Then some mad panic and his Mrs in the background screaming hysterically and him shouting he didn’t put the pipe there etc etc . When I got to his house it turns out he,d hammered the nail in hitting a pipe and then pulled the nail back out . Well I’ve hit a couple of pipes over the last 40 years and it’s really easy to do but at least you got it all done without any major damage..

Bit confused by that one, If there was a nail sticking out, surely there must be space for it to go back home?

 

[XTiffy]

I had the misfortune of having to correct a cowboy electrician's work, in a new build. That is cut numerous access holes in newly laid chipboard floors for proper electricians to put it right.. I used the trend jig (mentioned previously) very succesfully, plus the smaller circular metal plates that are rebated in where a small access was ok. I then had to repeat the exercise for similar c**p work by the plumber, this included lifting a section of a tiled kitchen floor to get at leaking sewr pipe connection.. These so called tradesmen were employed by the NHBC registered builder (forced on us by the bank).

 

[paulrbarnard]

My daughter's partner has been working on a house for four months and have just finished the job. He's shown me photos of the ground floor ............ with the bottom 18" of plaster everywhere wet. The plumbers (whom they use regularly but I suspect not for much longer) used push fit plastic under solid concrete floors, and the fittings have sprung. It wasn't the builders' fault and they're hoping the plumber's insurance company will get another firm in to do the job - they can't afford to put other work months behind.
My first though was why have they joints under solid floors, but I'm no plumber.

Push fit rely on the water pressure pushing back on the seal to seal properly. If the system wasn’t pressurised before the concrete went in the fittings would likely not have had the ‘movement’ needed to let the seal fully engage. I made the mistake once when using a push fit connector of jaunt the pipe a few mm too long. It wedged in nicely between the joists but the dammed thing wouldn’t seal. After way too long fiddling with it I bit the bullet and removed it and shortened the pipe by the required 5mm and it sealed instantly. Fortunately no concrete involved and I tested at pressure before fixing the boards back down.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I had the misfortune of having to correct a cowboy electrician's work, in a new build. That is cut numerous access holes in newly laid chipboard floors for proper electricians to put it right.. I used the trend jig (mentioned previously) very succesfully, plus the smaller circular metal plates that are rebated in where a small access was ok. I then had to repeat the exercise for similar c**p work by the plumber, this included lifting a section of a tiled kitchen floor to get at leaking sewr pipe connection.. These so called tradesmen were employed by the NHBC registered builder (forced on us by the bank).

I actually hate getting in ‘professionals’ for work. I have had very few jobs done that I don’t look at and say I could have done that better. I do have a few people that I trust enough to use again even if it means I finish up doing a bit of fettling after they finish. I’m getting too old for the heavy stuff now. This dammed bathroom floor would have taken me a day (ignoring setting times) a few years ago but I’m four days in and still not finished. I admit the plumbing and re-flooring added a chunk to it.

 

[Adam W.]

In the building trade "Professional" just means that they cost you money, not that they do better work.