What not to do at a client's house....

[Benchwayze]

Hmmm! Now I knew there was a copper gas pipe behind the woodwork, where a nail needed to go. So I know I won't hit it will I? :roll:

'Errrm, excuse me Missus. Could you ring the gas-board please?' (Pre mobile phone days I should add.)
Fortunately the householder saw the 'funny' side of it, and went halves on the bill for the call out!

 

[Benchwayze]

Why pick something totally unsuitable for walking on..... to be walked on?

I blame the designers! Maybe they think we can hover...

 

[promhandicam]

I'm also frankly amazed at people's desire to have floor coverings which are so staggeringly impractical, I hate working round cream carpets or expensive tile/wooden floors, you're on edge the whole time. Why pick something totally unsuitable for walking on..... to be walked on?

And why do they decide to have the new carpet fitted before you are asked in install a new fitted unit? :roll:

 

[slpower01]

Thank god none of the below were me but a few things I've witnessed.

#1 Working on a place whilst the client was on holiday for a month, plumber decides to leave a nice message on the hall wall in yellow spray paint pre plaster stage "Don't touch my tools you Cu%^£ or ill stab you" ... obviously joking about the stabbing part but the client decided to come home a week early and still at pre plaster stage. This women was your average 5 times a week church goer.

#2 Ex boss who thought he was god's gift to the building trade (no experience at all) we had just finished fitting a kitchen in Dublin that was worth around €60,000 all hand made painted oak with lovely marble counter tops. It really looked amazing. The boss couldn't be bothered to splash out on a plumber as it was just to attach up a sink in a centre island. He did the job pretty well, but didn't think about leaving the plumbers glue stood upright so it dripped all down the edge of the island as it rolled along and onto the wooden floor. The kitchen maker was from Belfast so had to drive down to Dublin and try a re spray on the cabinet and wooden floor had to be refitted.

#3 Was doing work with another apprentice at the time, we had an attic to convert in the middle of summer so first job was to fit a velux window and get some air flowing. He set up a makeshift bench to aid in fitting the window. I turned around to pickup the window and pass it to him and as I turned back around he done a backflip off the bench and went head first through the joists and plasterboard below stopping his fall by his legs gripping the joists.

 

[Ollie78]

A guy I was working with got a tiny little bit of paint on the 3 metre high velour curtains covering a huge bay window.
Trying to quickly rectify the problem he attempted to clean it off with gorilla wipes before it dried on. Big mistake, the wipes totally bleached the dark curtains leaving a very obvious mark and resulting in a £7000 claim for total replacement of the lot.

Also another guy fell right through the ceiling of the loft into the bedroom.

Ollie

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

As an apprentice in the early eighties I was sent to a flat in Mayfair of a famous actress to do some minor repairs to her piano. I had been very careful, putting sheets and blankets everywhere to protect the deep pile white carpet. I made up a stain in a plastic cup and when I finished using it , to be extra safe I put it on the balcony out of the way. While waiting for the polish to harden I started having a nose around the flat, there were photos of other famous actors and royalty all over the place. I was just about to return to the drawing room when I looked down the corridor to see perfect impressions in the carpet of my size 10 Doc Martins showing exactly how nosy I had been. In a panic I retraced my steps and working backwards I brushed out the marks using a sweeping action with my boot, I had just finished when the door opened and in walked the actress, that was a close call :wink: She had only popped back to pick something up. I finished the job packed up my kit, tidied up and went back into the room to have a final inspection and was pleased everything was as it should be, I was about to leave when I remembered the cup of stain on the balcony, I reached out to pick it up and knocked it over, it ran all over the balcony and poured down onto the balcony below. 5Lt of meths later I had got enough of the stain out for it not to be noticed. As for the balcony below, they probably thought they had had a very unwell pigeon leave them an unpleasant mess

 

[dm65]

I once emptied a company full of employees as the under powered drill I was using to go through the concrete floor burnt out and triggered the fire alarm which automatically summoned the fire brigade and forced a building evac !

30 employees x 1 hours down time = £unknown

oh, and still the rest of the hole to drill ....

 

[Graham Orm]

An apprentice working for a roofer friend of mine put his foot through the ceiling of a ground floor extension bathroom they were re-roofing. (Flat roof). His foot landed on the bathroom cabinet, which came off the wall and smashed the toilet cistern. This then flooded the ground floor as the client was out and they had no access.
The following day the same lad reversed the van into the pitch boiler and knocked it all over the lawn on the same job.

I had a guy working for me who dutifully moved some thick expensive curtains while he did a repair on a window. He hung the curtains over the wall lights at either side of the window.... the client came in the room and turned the lights on, burning the curtains. We had to pay of course!

 

[GazPal]

A friend of mine was working in Central Croydon on new road construction where he was told to break out some cobblestones and excavate for bollards at the front of a new complex being built. His first (And only) hole seemed to be going well until he somehow managed to break through the reinforced roof of an underground car park, through which the trigger locked pneumatic drill plunged bungee fashion and pepper-potted two parked cars below with several holes each :shock: before it stopped bouncing when the hose connector luckily broke.

Cost of damage unknown, but I can imagine the looks of shock and horror on everyone's faces were priceless.