Those we have plumbed with....

[solo]

Hot on the heels of our personal plumbing disasters, who is the worst numpty you have worked alongside. My first candidate is a bloke who would put his spirit level in the bottom of a bath to level it up. He also used to discard the black rubber seals found in waste compression fittings. Class. He's probably a gaffer somewhere now.

 

[nickso]

arent they all.

i have a personal dislike for the bloke who used to silicon seal everything....whether it was leaking or not...pump valves, 1/4 turns, filling loops, washing machine hoses....the lot.

im not normally violent but several times i could have hunted him down and siliconed his eyes shut

 

[BoxBasher]

Carried out an inspection on a site where the water pipe was laid with a "fall" of 1 in 4 to get the water from the main into the house.

 

[kevplumb]

worked on a new build "village" once

site agent was one of the don't ask questions just do it types

spent 3 weeks fitting external meter boxes for the gas

every time i saw him i was smiling

the nearest gas main was 5 miles down the road

which i knew but i was only following orders

 

[mnb]

Many years ago i was a chancer on building tracts in th USA. I claimed to be a plumber and entered the lions den at 7.30 am with a learning curve of pure vertical. Blagging all the way i set fire to my first structure caused many leaks at my next two frameings and was then called to have a word with the foreman. My saving grace was that i had worked like a demon - i had to, we had no money - so i was given a chance but carefully kept away from gas.
As a matter of interest, the superintendent used to station himself in a vantage point and observe proceedings thro binoculars.

 

[Nige F]

so called "heating engineer" who used this as an excuse not to do any bogs, urinals etc. and the bosses let the little **** get away with it

 

[petetheleak]

Know what you mean I also work alongside "a heating engineer" only 2 of us every time a blocked urinal or pan comes up get to job then says "got to go to a boiler breakdown ". Am gonny go for a hearing test cause a never hear his phone going . Oh and disappears for hours with van then comes back with sauce stains on his shirt .

 

[HarrogateGas]

Im haeting engineer and refuse to touch waste. not because i dont know how too but if i can make enough money not having too, i aint sticking my hands down other peoples toilets. not my idea of a fun days work.

 

[fitz1]

straight swap bathrooms. 350 quid for half a day. bring em on.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Imagine the scene.
I was 19 at the time working with a labourer who was hard of hearing.
Cast Iron bath in one piece and I am walking backwards down the stairs to get it into the horizontal position. I realised by then that the bath was out of skew and shouted to old Ernie to 'shove it that way' gesticulating to my right with my head because I had hold of the bath.
After a 'Eh what' and me repeating it, then taking one hand off to point in the right direction he pushed the bath towards me which then chased me down the stairs!
My little chubby legs never moved so fast. I miraculously escaped, physically unhurt although somewhat mentally traumatised.

 

[ChrisR]

I employed a "lad" once. 21 he was, thought he could do everything. Had to show him how to drill a wall, without moving the whole machine in a circle, making conical holes.
A few days later he had to screw a run of pipe clips to wooden verticals in a loft.
I heard the SDS going and wondered WTF... So up I go.
"I've got the plugs in", he says.

 

[ChrisR]

Then there was George. Degree in Mech Eng.
Father's a true master chippie, but also organises refurbs. I was the plumber.
He asked me what the old lead pipe half buried in the wall was. Dunno, I said, could even be old gas lighting. Next day he put a screwdriver through it to find out if it was dead. It was a water main. Ruined his dad's beautifully laid solid oak floor.

After the floor was relaid, George put the quadrant round the edge. Used his dad's air-nailer with the very long pins it already had in it.
Bit later, the boiler stopped, low pressure. So he opened the filling loop, and left it open, and went home, proud to have "fixed the heating".

Those pins go straight through copper pipes.
The floor...

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

I was showing my apprentice at the time some pipework and tanks that we had to replace in a loft, and gave him the small task of removing the tanks.

It was a loft...it had dingy light in places and lots of weird and wonderful things you find in lofts.

Anyway, off I goes to the van for a few fittings etc. Upon my return, the loft light is off and upon poking my head up to see what the hell was going on up there, their he is...my appretice. In place of his eyes, he had superglued, yes superglued 2 ping pong balls (he must have found in this loft) to his eyelids and was shining a torch into his face.

Admittidly, I found it hilarious and so did he. That was until:

1. He realised these ping pong balls were stuck with some mighty good glue and they would not pull off.

2. He was now blind, as the balls prevented his eyelids opening.

After having to get him out the loft, and march him past my customers with a rag over his face (told then he got something in his eyes which was kinda true), I managed to remove them in the van with some fairy liquid.

Oh, I now have proper LDF

David

 

[wizbongre]

Then there was George. Degree in Mech Eng.
Father's a true master chippie, but also organises refurbs. I was the plumber.
He asked me what the old lead pipe half buried in the wall was. Dunno, I said, could even be old gas lighting. Next day he put a screwdriver through it to find out if it was dead. It was a water main. Ruined his dad's beautifully laid solid oak floor.

After the floor was relaid, George put the quadrant round the edge. Used his dad's air-nailer with the very long pins it already had in it.
Bit later, the boiler stopped, low pressure. So he opened the filling loop, and left it open, and went home, proud to have "fixed the heating".

Those pins go straight through copper pipes.
The floor...

lmfao I've got tears rolling down my face - comedy genius...

 

[solo]

at the ping pong balls