# Work at the wrong house...



## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Ever do work at the wrong house? Yep... It happened to me today.

Got the "the house". During the previous telephone discussion with the homeowner we arranged for the back door to be left unlocked because he would be at work. This is quite a normal arrangement in my area. The back door was locked, but there was a key laying on the window sill right next to the door. It opened the door, so I just assumed that one of the other of us was confused about the arrangement on getting in the house. 

I proceeded to the kitchen. The service call was to protect the kitchen counter receptacles in this older home with GFCI's. I was working in the house for almost 1/2 an hour when a quite groggy homeowner came down the stairs from the bedroom, presumably. He said, "Can I help you?". I replied that I'm almost done, and since he's there I'll go ahead and make up the bill in a few minutes. He told me that since he just rents there, I'd have to send it to the landlord. He went on to say that he wished that the landlord would have let him know that someone was going to be in to do some work, and he apologized for the dirty dishes in the sink. I was getting a very weird feeling by now.

I went outside to recheck the address on the front of the house... I got two numbers reversed. I was at 263 and I was supposed to be at 236. DUH! Well, at least I didn't get shot or hit with a baseball bat. All I lost on this one was a few GFCI receptacles and a little time. I never did tell this tennant that I was at the wrong house. I just went with the flow, since he assumed that the landlord sent me. I finished, packed up, and went down the street to the right house and did the work. That back door was unlocked there... no surprise.

Any of you guys ever do such a stupid thing? This was a first for me.


----------



## Kevin (Apr 26, 2005)

Ha! Great story!

Send the landlord a bill with a good-hearted letter explaining your mistake, who knows, maybe he'll send you the money?!

I've measure the wrong house a few times, but never actually performed the work. Whew!


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

I've never done this but have heard quite a few stories of roofing subcontractors tearing off the wrong roof.


----------



## plumguy (May 29, 2005)

I worked for a company that did a lot of complete bath remodels and one morning the demo crew went into the wrong house, getting in was similar to the way you got in. Well they did their job... removed fixtures and started smashing tiles,etc.. 

In the end the homeowners got a new bathroom and a nice dinner. We did the other bath a few houses down and both customers were pleased!! I left the co. shortly thereafter but I do believe they ended up getting another bath on the same street fom the way they handled the mistake and the quality of both baths overall!!

It is not a very good feeling! You are lucky!


----------



## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Grumpy said:


> I've never done this but have heard quite a few stories of roofing subcontractors tearing off the wrong roof.


Putting in a few free GFCI's is pretty easy to swallow. Putting on a roof or remodeling a bathroom for free would drive me to drinking, I think.


----------



## Floorwizard (Sep 24, 2003)

I was set up to measure a house and take samples of flooring for State Farm. I found the house address and the numbers matched up.
State Farm told me that There was tile in the entry, lam floor in the kitchen, and carpet everywhere else except the bathrooms which had Vinyl.
I knocked on the door and waited......
I knocked again.....
I am used to nobody being there, but there was no lockbox from the restoration company.
I opened the door (it was unlocked) and yelled into the home.
I looked down and sure enough there was lam floor in the kitchen, but the lam was in the entry too, instead of tile.
I have to cut into the flooring to take samples, and I also have to take pictures.
The restoration company told me there were samples in the garage, so I didn't have to cut into anything.
The funny thing was, that I saw no damage from water. There were no drying fans going, but the address on the front of the house was a match.
So I started taking pictures of the bathroom with toilet paper on the tub, and the living room with clothes all over the place, the kitchen with a little bit of spare change and some cash hangin around.
When I was done, I started making my way to the garage to grab the floor samples although I could not see where any of the flooring had been cut.
wait a minute.....

There is NO GARAGE!

O.K. now I really need to investigate.
So I walked over to the street and sure enough it turns out that off this street are Cul-de-sacs each with a different name, but the house numbers are repeats.
So sure enough I go to the next Cul-de-sac and enter the real house I was supposed to be in.
Fans going on everywhere, flooring completely tore up, and what do you know...there is a GARAGE! with samples in it even.

After measuring I drove past the wrong house, and there was a car in the driveway.
Apparently I missed em by a few minutes.

I still have pics...
I will share...


----------



## Floorwizard (Sep 24, 2003)

oops....it happens...


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Flor you posted that story before and once again I still laughed at it.


----------



## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Flor.. have you considered that you might have an undiagnosed fettish? An uncontrollable urge to enter unlocked homes and take pictures of the flooring? It's possible...

When I went to college in Columbus, Ohio, there was a guy that would enter homes while women were sleeping and suck on their toes. They called him the "toe sucking bandit". I'm not sure what catchy name we could dream up for you.


----------



## Floorwizard (Sep 24, 2003)

> the "toe sucking bandit".


Just find the guy with the worst breath....


----------



## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

kevin k said:


> Ha! Great story!
> 
> Send the landlord a bill


I definetly would NOT establish a paper trail that connects you to the house - it might have "issues" that you don't want to be part of remedying.


----------



## Joe Carola (Jun 15, 2004)

Grumpy said:


> I've never done this but have heard quite a few stories of roofing subcontractors tearing off the wrong roof.


Grumpy,

Same here with the roofers. I met one roofer where the GC gave the roofer the wrong address and the roofer put the roof on the wrong house. Believe it or not the owner of the house actually split it with the GC because he needed a new roof anyway. So the roofer got paid to do two roofs, that one and the right house. 

Joe Carola


----------



## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

There you go grumpy. Just tie into an old roof and hope for the best! Why bother advertising?


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Teetorbilt said:


> There you go grumpy. Just tie into an old roof and hope for the best! Why bother advertising?


That's a gamble that can go either way... when work gets slow just send the guys out to a random house and cross my fingers?


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Joe Carola said:


> Grumpy,
> 
> Same here with the roofers. I met one roofer where the GC gave the roofer the wrong address and the roofer put the roof on the wrong house. Believe it or not the owner of the house actually split it with the GC because he needed a new roof anyway. So the roofer got paid to do two roofs, that one and the right house.
> 
> Joe Carola


This is exactly the reason I try to show up at all my job sites.


----------



## Neil_K (Dec 11, 2004)

Alright, a little off topic, but it was work none-the-less:

We went to NC Outer Banks and rented a bohemoth house for about 16 people. Had the picture in-hand while the spouses went to the rental place to check in and get keys. The rest of the clan was to arrive later. Leave it to my kids to find an open door. We proceeded to unload (actually just me, my disabled father-in-law supervised) two carloads carrying suitcases up 2-3 flights of stairs.  Then, we stocked the fridge with 3 cases of beer, a couple cases of bottled water and enough food to feed a small army. Mind you, the kitchen is on the top floor.

After unloading and the spouses showed up, I finally cracked open a cold one and threw my feet up. Kids in the pool, relaxing.

Not 30 minutes later, a caravan pulls up. We greeted them thinking they were the rest of the group. A bunch of strangers with strange looks got out. After two minutes of talking and my wife (yeah, we're still together) checking the agreement, we realized we were in the wrong house! Ours was next door and about $500/week cheaper. 

Fortunately, its easier carrying a bunch of stuff down stairs than up.


----------



## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

Grumpy, funny that I never thought of that, just go out and try doors and demo a kitchen. What can they do? Sue you?

Neil, I've done the same thing in many places but always got the address correct. Good story.


----------



## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

PipeGuy said:


> I definetly would NOT establish a paper trail that connects you to the house - it might have "issues" that you don't want to be part of remedying.


Exactly my feeling, which is why "I was never there". :cheesygri

There's a saying in the electrical trade (and maybe others). "The last person that touched it, owns it."


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

mdshunk said:


> There's a saying in the electrical trade (and maybe others). "The last person that touched it, owns it."


 I think that goes for all trades. Infact roofing has two sayings, that one and "It's always the roofer's fault."

I remember once I went to inspect a roof leak. I spent an hour looking for the leak in the attic. I cold find no wet spots or water stains. Turns out the water came through a crack in the of the basement foundation.


----------



## ppmc (Jul 7, 2005)

I was moving furniture for atlas van lines years back and the homeowner was supposed to meet us there at 8 a:m.We figured w2e would get a jump start and unload the truck just to fill the driveway ,at 8 a:m the homeowner pulled in the NEXT DOOR DRIVEWAY and sais hey guys what are you doing?Anyway we got the stuff where it belongs just in time before the owner of the home came home.


----------



## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

OKay, I have a story but it is the opposite.

I hired a company to redo some gutters on my house. I redid some landscaping and hardscaping and need to remove a couple of down spouts. Because what I wanted to do needed some explaining I made it clear that I would be there to talk to the installers and show them exactly what needed to be done. 

We made the appointment for Friday. On Wed that week I just luckily happened to stop home at lunch, to find the gutter guys there working. I was a bit pissed that they just decided to show up 2 days early and never even call me. 

They had my old gutters ripped off the house and mangled in the driveway. So when I approaced them I asked them who they were and why they were tearing my house apart. I just played dumb and as the looks of terror came over their faces. They showed me their paperwork and asked if I was who I was, which I denied and said I think you have the wrong house.

I went inside and let them talk among themselves and finally came back and let them off the hook.


----------



## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Mike Finley said:


> I went inside and let them talk among themselves and finally came back and let them off the hook.


Jeeze, Mike. You have a mean streak in you, huh? :cheesygri


----------



## plumguy (May 29, 2005)

That is right up my my alley!!! :cheesygri  :cheesygri


----------



## CGofMP (Feb 17, 2005)

> I was working in the house for almost 1/2 an hour when a quite groggy homeowner came down the stairs from the bedroom, presumably. He said, "Can I help you?".


I'm not stupid enough to leave keys lying around, and we lock up pretty tight at night, but had this been in my home, the 'homeowner' would have had you either palms on the counter or proned out palms up .... I'm 1/2 joking, but it would not have been a casual conversation tool belt or not.

There are places in the south where you probably would be about 3/4 of the way through a hog's intestines by this point...


----------

