# Crazy goof ups you've seen



## Splinter (Apr 5, 2005)

When I was in my early 20's, I worked for a house painter. Every two years or so, he'd take a fall, and they were always preceded by the funniest comments. 

First time, powerwashing a cedar shake roof, I say to him, "Dont let go of that vent pipe, bleach makes the cedar roof slippery". He replies with the lyrics from a Culture Club song, " I'll tumble for ya, I'll tumble for YAAAAAAAAAHH!!!" He slid 30 feet down to the concrete patio. 

Next time, He's at the top of a 28' extention ladder leaning against columns on the front of a house. He says, " Hey Allie, y'know there's only 5 finishing nails holding this column in place?" A few seconds later, painter boss is on the ground along with the column, ladder and twisted ankle. arty:


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## nmidsinr (Jan 12, 2008)

> You've got to explane those pics.


Sure. The first picture is of a poured concrete floor which appears to have been mistakenly formed in a shape that was intended to simply point out a drawing revision, not the shape of an opening in the concrete floor. The second picture is of a home which was apparently built upside down. Perhaps the builder was illiterate and had the drawings upside down? I dunno for sure, I just found them on the net a few years back and saved them just for topics like this.


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## leakygoose (Dec 14, 2007)

1980 something ,during Michigan's last recession . I was subbing carpentry work for an insurance repair company . Anyways these morons sent me out to to take off the paneling in a basement so the masons could coat the block wall with Dike. I show up and these guys have the whole front of the house dug up down to the footing,going to rewater proof the outside .I go into the house and the basement floor has about a 1/2 inch of water and the mason shows me were its leaking. On my way to the truck for tools I run into the homeowner and we take up a conversion .He tells me they bought the house from the bank two months ago and it was a foreclosure and sat empty for a year and half . The lights start going off as I look at the house.At this point I go back to the basement and see it has a crawl space under the Landry room and another at the opposite side under the family room . My buddy the mason gives me a boost Thur the access and ,you guessed it the outside spigots had frozen and water was just finding its level. Back outside I ask Mr HO if he had been using the spigots .No but my son-in-law comes over twice a week and washes their cars. Well this was a nice old guy and the front of his house looked like the entrance to a mind shaft, so I explained the situation with him and took care of the problem that evening. The masons finished the big dig, company got payed for fixing the leak and I made some extra cash .


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## oldfrt (Oct 10, 2007)

While I was building my house,I'd drop in on the neighbor who was having a house built on an adjacent lot that I sold him.Kinda trying to be neighborly and all.
On one of his visits to my house he saw me installing a Cenrtal vac system and decided he could save some money and and install his own system also.
So before the sheet rockers got there,he ran to HD and got all the plumbing so he could get it done over the weekend when no one was there.
A few days later I stopped in to see how the progress on his project was going ,and couldn't believe what I saw.
All along a bearing wall on the first floor in the center of the house,he had drilled 2 1/2" holes through every stud to get from room to room.
This was the wall where the second floor joists intersected.


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## pm_sup (Feb 19, 2007)

Used to drive by a small project on the way to work every day.
A little slow but seemed to be moving along. They just finished the top of the 3 level parkade and were coming out of the hole, and it stopped.

Everything stopped. Weird.

Talked to my aunt a number of months later. (she's a gossip and lived directly next door, talked to the workers etc.) She told me that the elevation of the top floor of the parkade was 1 - 2 feet too high, thus the remainder of the building was going to be too high.

I don't know what they did to resolve this, but the project sat for many many months like this not moving.
Whoops


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## ksensen (Apr 30, 2006)

Couple years back an Amish crew remodeled a house close to my kids bus stop. I sat and watched a couple of Amish teenagers hang vinyl siding in the middle of January- just nailing the crap out of it.- Thought there might be some problems come summer- sure enough first warm day in june the siding warped so bad some pieces came completely off. There rest looked like the entire house had been baked in a oven.- Of course it all came off and had to be redone.


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## PacNWStructures (Oct 1, 2007)

I was framing some townhouses about 3 years ago and took lunch one day. I sat down on some lumber and was watching the crew next door working on the second floor, nailing off the plywood of the exterior walls that were laying down. The guy was nailing off the plywood while walking backwards on the wall (I've done it many times but always watch it when I get to the edge of the building) and walked straight off the deck/wall backwards (no handrails of course) and kind of kept flipping backwards until he landed right on his head! Man that looked painful! He was okay but took the next week off. Also on the same job (I didn't see this happen in real time but saw him minutes after) he was patching plywood on the exterior of the building from an extension ladder on soft ground when the ladder started sliding on the building and went like a hand on a clock until it/he hit the ground. ONE MORE by the same guy.....he was nailing off the roof with a rope/harness on when he slipped/tripped on something and went sliding down the roof. Now, everyone knows not to have enough slack on your rope so you don't actually leave the roof, except this guy. He went sliding off the roof and went about half way from facia to dirt when it caught him. Me and another guy had to help him down by going on the second floor and had to swing him from side to side and finally got him in a window. I still laugh about that guy and his poor boss that kept him on the crew....


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## Relic (Jan 31, 2007)

i once worked on for a guy building fancy staircases. we built two $ 20,000 sets simultaneously, reclaimed cherry stringers, cherry treads, open risers, curving in a quarter circle... they both had to get re-built...you had to duck to avoid hitting the bulkhead. can you say ****?


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## heavyduty73 (Jan 23, 2008)

nmidsinr said:


> Here's some photos that I'd like to share. Like they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words!


we do this a lot incommercial building we core drill a series of holes to get a larger hole to run etv track though also seen duct work run though this type of holes.


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## oldrivers (May 6, 2007)

Ive seen a few times where a special order window or door from europe in the 20,000 plus range come to the job and not fit right Out comes the saw to make it fit or else in the dumpster . One time i was working on a townhouse project were windows came in for two full town house units like 32 units the windows werent right so they tossed them right from the truck into the dumpsters two full dumpsters with brand new windows still in the boxes. Then there was the time i was on an apartment project they didnt have the windows in yet and it rained, the bottom 1/4 inch of drywall got slightly wet over 500 5/8 4x12s cut in half tossed in the dumpsters.


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## Bing (Aug 16, 2014)

I got a job working for a residential contractor when i was just out of high school. The contractor was a "do as I say regardless of how stupid it may seem or you're fired" type of guy. We were decking a roof and the wind picked up. As you all know, plywood sheets and widn don't mix. But the dictator insisted that we deck the roof anyway. Being 18, I did as I was told. Anyhow, I'm carrying this big, ackward sheet of plywood. A big gust takes the sheet. Instinctively, I let go of it. The sheet sores about 20 feet off a two story house. It lands corner first into the dictators very nice F-250 windshield. He blamed me for his windshield and even threatened to take it out of my paycheck. Karma...


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## Bing (Aug 16, 2014)

I got a job working for a residential contractor when i was just out of high school. The contractor was a "do as I say regardless of how stupid it may seem or you're fired" type of guy. We were decking a roof and the wind picked up. As you all know, plywood sheets and wind don't mix. But the dictator insisted that we deck the roof anyway. Being 18, I did as I was told. Anyhow, I'm carrying this big, ackward sheet of plywood. A big gust takes the sheet. Instinctively, I let go of it. The sheet sores about 20 feet off a two story house. It lands corner first into the dictators very nice F-250 windshield.:thumbup: He blamed me for his windshield and even threatened to take it out of my paycheck. Karma...


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## jay1320 (Aug 12, 2013)

A while back, I was a gutter installer. We had the work order with the address on it so we arrive at the house and knock on the door out of courtesy. No one answers so we start on the normal routine of tearing off the gutters and installing new ones. We left the job a few hours later and didn't find out for about a week that the office had the wrong address on the work order. Lucky SOB's got brand new free gutters....

The other one that comes to mind is when a new employee had started with us, I usually give the safety run down on tools they haven't used before. This often includes "Don't put your fingers anywhere you wouldn't put your d1ck." Weeks down the road, I'm at a different site, but I hear he's done a decent number on his hand with an angle grinder. It turns out he'd taken the guard off to accommodate a 7" disc on a 4.5" grinder. Upon his return, I can't hold back "Seems like an awful place to be putting your d1ck."


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## GO Remodeling (Apr 5, 2005)

I was a carpenter apprentice years ago. We were framing a house beginning in late Fall. The GC was the homeowner.

The homeowner makes a mistake and the basement gets a 9 1/2 ceiling. He also pisses off the electric company so they aren't showing up. We get a bunch of rain and the basement fills 1/2 way with water then freezes. Took until late April to get the ice melted.


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## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

My first job I worked on a roofing and siding crew. We were doing a small epdm job, for some reason the boss wanted us to pick up the whole membrane after rolling the glue on it. We only had three guys, so one corner wasn't held. It was a windy day. The wind picked up and filled the sheet like a sail, then the sheet collapsed on it self and got glued together. Boss looked like he was gonna cry.


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

Many moons ago,a woman acting as GC on high end summer home build was nearing completion. She was a pistol who earned various nick names FUHRER was one of the nicer ones. A Monday a bunch of trades were working on punch list a few days before move in. The porta potty was gone and her instructions were to use the powder room on first floor. A lot of guys were using it in rapid secession. All of a sudden,someone yells out,where the heck is all the water coming from ? Turns out,plumber ran HOT water to toilet,all the rapid use melts wax ring,water flood powder room and part of hall. Buckles the brand new 1" x 6" S.Y. P. select flooring. Had to tear it all out. At least she went with tile in powder room second time around.:laughing:


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Basement poured and covered, with some lights set up in it. Lots of rain, and the builder left the lights on over the weekend. Lights attract bugs, bugs attract frogs. When the builder returned, he had a basement full of bugs and frogs:laughing:


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## muskoka guy (Nov 16, 2013)

We were framing fairly small houses in a subdivision years ago. This owner had bought four houses and was around all the time checking on our work and being a pest. One Friday afternoon we had the outside walls framed and sheeted lying on the subfloor. Not wanting to have them standing all weekend we left them on the subfloor. When we returned on Monday morning, we notice in huge spray paint writing on the walls, "This is wrong, should be 5/8 T and G. " The idiot thought the walls were the subfloor. We stood up the walls and the dumbass had to look at the upside down writing on the wall until the brickies bricked the house later. He never came around to bug us again.


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## Metro M & L (Jun 3, 2009)

muskoka guy said:


> We were framing fairly small houses in a subdivision years ago. This owner had bought four houses and was around all the time checking on our work and being a pest. One Friday afternoon we had the outside walls framed and sheeted lying on the subfloor. Not wanting to have them standing all weekend we left them on the subfloor. When we returned on Monday morning, we notice in huge spray paint writing on the walls, "This is wrong, should be 5/8 T and G. " The idiot thought the walls were the subfloor. We stood up the walls and the dumbass had to look at the upside down writing on the wall until the brickies bricked the house later. He never came around to bug us again.


How is it possible for someone to be that idiotic?


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## jay1320 (Aug 12, 2013)

I was thinking the exact same thing. That guy has no business being in the construction industry.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Metro M & L said:


> How is it possible for someone to be that idiotic?


People don't know that they don't know. I knew a guy who drained his oil and added the fresh oil to the tranny, then drove it.


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## Youngin' (Sep 16, 2012)

I remember a homeowner that didn't like how the rockers cut and tapered all their joints in the drywall and thought it was hack work. He took black spray paint and wrote "This is bullsh*t" on every single joint. Boss made him paint all of it over with kilz.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

Redoing a powder room, I relocated a sink to the side wall. The client insisted the plumbing work be done by a particular master plumber. Fine, but she kept using the full description "their master plumber...our "master plumber"..80 years in business...."master plumber".....all this to move supplies and drain about 2', but ok. So I stopped and waited for the master plumber to come and do his thing.

When I returned, the entire drain line was trapped to the stack, about 6' worth)...like running a vent line, and it would have had water sitting in the sink bowl. It was funny explaining to the client because she thought I couldn't possibly be right because I wasn't the "master plumber". I had to explain how gravity works and water runs downhill. In the end, after they fixed it, they explained to the client that they sent a "finish plumber" and not the "rough-in plumber". They even told her that she should have specified "rough-in" plumber.


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## jlsconstruction (Apr 26, 2011)

MarkJames said:


> Redoing a powder room, I relocated a sink to the side wall. The client insisted the plumbing work be done by a particular master plumber. Fine, but she kept using the full description "their master plumber...our "master plumber"..80 years in business...."master plumber".....all this to move supplies and drain about 2', but ok. So I stopped and waited for the master plumber to come and do his thing. When I returned, the entire drain line was trapped to the stack, about 6' worth)...like running a vent line, and it would have had water sitting in the sink bowl. It was funny explaining to the client because she thought I couldn't possibly be right because I wasn't the "master plumber". I had to explain how gravity works and water runs downhill. In the end, after they fixed it, they explained to the client that they sent a "finish plumber" and not the "rough-in plumber". They even told her that she should have specified "rough-in" plumber.


I would think a finish plumber would know how to rough in


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

jlsconstruction said:


> I would think a finish plumber would know how to rough in


Of course!! Total bull**it. BTW, is there even such a thing as "finish plumber"?


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## jlsconstruction (Apr 26, 2011)

MarkJames said:


> Of course!! Total bull**it. BTW, is there even such a thing as "finish plumber"?



Maybe in a bigger company, I would call them a fixture setter or something along those lines.


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## totes (Oct 17, 2013)

In Finland....


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

totes said:


> In Finland....


Took me a minute. :laughing:


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## Morning Wood (Jan 12, 2008)

I know a few structural weakening plumbers.


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## jlsconstruction (Apr 26, 2011)

Morning Wood said:


> I know a few structural weakening plumbers.



All of them


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## Morning Wood (Jan 12, 2008)

jlsconstruction said:


> All of them


. 
Yeah. I think it's safe to lump them all into the same category. Most electricians too, although they have to try harder because their holes are usually smaller.


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## duburban (Apr 10, 2008)

finish plumber...


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## RandyB1986 (Jan 2, 2009)

I have seen some messes.

1. Roofing contractor had crew show up on house and get started tearing off....contractor shows up and they are tearing off the wrong house.

2. Gutter guy tore off and hung gutters on wrong house. Correct address...just he was on a court and it was a drive.

3. Framers didnt install rafter ties, roofers loaded house and front and back walls pushed out.

4. Building apartments and decking was loaded on roof with crane in full bunks with 2x6 bracing holding it level. Framer was walking sheet across roof and wind caught him, knocked him down and he started sliding down roof, he grabbed the brace holding plywood stack, brace pulls out and he continues off building with 50 sheets of OSB. He was hurt pretty bad.

5. Amish guys were building a hotel...they used a Extending Forklift to load rafters on building. We were watching them and all the sudden the lift tips....misses daycare next door by feet. The Amish guys didn't know what to think....they had never run a lift.

6. Homeowner built his own garage without permit. Then his septic quit working. He had built his garage on his finger system. Said he wondered where the pipe and gravel came from when he dug footers...lol.


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