Apprentice mistakes

[Theron]

This thread is for all of you who have a story to share about an apprentice (yourself or someone else) who made a mistake on a job that really made you look silly or cost you a lot of money. Please note - Safety mistakes are no laughing matter. Maybe next time we see our apprentice getting ready to do something that one of y'all have learned from we can save ourselves a headache.

I'll go first - When i was an apprentice i was in a customer's bathroom with my boss after we had just replaced something on a toilet. I was squatted down near a sink watching my boss finish up - we both stood up at the same time and i heard a crack and a pop come from behind me. My belt had caught on the corner of one of those cultured marble sinks/countertop one peice deal. It snapped off the whole corner. Fortunately we found a perfect match for the countertop for $150.00 and i got the priviledge of installing it on my day off.

[franklie]

I had just been assigned my journeyman and it was my first day on the job. We were plumbing a new development. there was a problem beneath the slab in the wasteline that went to the street. My journeyman asked me to break through the slab and find the pipe. with all of the enthusiasm and energy that only a teenager can have I broke through the concrete and the wasteline :eek: with a sledge hammer and cold chisel... I got my journeyman showed him what I had done :o and he showed me how to repair ABS pipe.

[Australian Plumber Josh]

mistakes made by "someone i know" as an apprentice.
Dont get me started.

Installing a control valve in a cold water feed to a house.First time brazing only the downsream side.Result - flood.
Second time installing valve backward.Result -no water.

Connecting toilet suites to the hot supply in the adjacent duct.Warm in winter!

Changing the blades of a 9" grinder with it still plugged in to power.Hold betwwen feet,squueze trigger while trying to undo blade.I guess thats why new grinders have dual action switches.

Lay PVC storm drain in trench.Next day, after overnight rain, go to cut branch into drain underwater. Saw through pipe AND plastic electrical conduit
which was illegally and unknown to me installed right on top of it after i left the previous night. Yes, there were sparks.

Using step ladders to temporarily prop suspended drainage.Pipe between top and second rung.Hard to remove ladder when several lengths joined together.

Drop spanner in newly installed toilet suites/basins.Crack - $$$

Drop back plate of 8" copper tube expander in top of 15 storey riser.Yes I (I mean he!) had to cut out the bottom of the riser to retreive it.

Unable to work out that Accetylene fittings are left hand threads. Boss this wont come undone!?

Once "he" went to the wrong address for a small job.Who coincidentally needed a plumber for the same problem.Job done, payment received, client happy. Return to workshop to find boss angry that job wasnt done. One very confused apprentice. At least the boss laughed about it later.

Taking the beloved , definitely not pedigree but very lovable dog to work.
Dog owner client opens door, greets plumber and dog.Dog enters house, eats the cat food in bowl in kitchen, jumps in the swimming pool for a few laps, then gets out and decides to "get acquainted" with the clients dog.Luckily the apprentices dog had personality and client thought it was funny.

Losing control of fully extended 3 peice extension ladder.Luckily it landed against a tree.

I should stop now.
Note:Names and details changed to protect the guilty.

[oldslowchevy]

ok i am new at this (been doing it month now)i was told to go to the truck and get 20' of 3/4 cpvc i misunder stood but was sure i heard it right so i didn't question it. i walked to the truck witch is parked 2 blocks away and came back with 20 pieces of 3/4 pvc(that gets heavy pretty fast) when i get back everyone is laughing there but off at me but i learned what the differnce beteewn pvc and cpvc pretty quick but at 33 years old i should have looked at what we were doing and should have know that we didn't need 400 feet of pipe to go 15 feet oh well live and learn,and so far that has been my biggest mistake next to not knowing that cpvc uses a diffenrt glue the pvc but other then that so far so good

[AZPlumber]

This was the result of letting a new-hire apprentice install a residential boiler on his own after he swore he'd done "many boilers and manifolds";

http://www.pbase.com/gargoyle13/image/40531931/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/gargoyle13/image/40532390/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/gargoyle13/image/40532517/large.jpg

I'm sorry for the disturbing images.

[Bob D.]

Oh my God, I almost threw up when I looked at those pics!!!:eek:

The person who let this so-called 'apprentice' work on his own and perform work which has the potential to threaten peoples lives in a number of ways should have their license taken away, burned, with no possibility of being renewed. That is if they even have a license.

[papadan]

This was the result of letting a new-hire apprentice install a residential boiler on his own after he swore he'd done "many boilers and manifolds";

http://www.pbase.com/gargoyle13/image/40531931/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/gargoyle13/image/40532390/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/gargoyle13/image/40532517/large.jpg

I'm sorry for the disturbing images.
This is a test, A test of the central stupidity system. Please lay down the solder and step away from the .....Uh.....yeah, that thing. Whatever it was. ROTFLMAO

[AZPlumber]

Oh my God, I almost threw up when I looked at those pics!!!:eek:

The person who let this so-called 'apprentice' work on his own and perform work which has the potential to threaten peoples lives in a number of ways should have their license taken away, burned, with no possibility of being renewed. That is if they even have a license.

Agreed absolutely. This is how I found the mess after the homeowner called my shop and asked me to take a look at it. She had this job done by a rather (obviously) shady contractor who left his apprentive to do the work after both had assured the homeowner they were "experts" at installing residential hydronics. She says the contractor left his helper to install this monstrosity without ever once coming back to check his work. She did'nt know a thing about it and thought everything was just fine, until they left, billed her.....and the heat came on but was un-controllable (too hot or too cold depending on t-stat setting) because the zone controls were also mis-wired to the T-stats and trans, the relay was'nt wired correctly either (which I just ended up eliminating) and the pump was installed backwards. Here's the kicker.....this contractor was recommended to her by a REALTOR! The homeowner says during the install, at one point she caught the guy standing there for an hour reading the instruction manual, lol, and when grilled he finally admitted it was only his first boiler install alone and his "boss" told him to do it.

The guy refused to deal with her or return phone calls and she did'nt have another 1500 or so she'd been quoted from others to re-install this. I agreed to wait for payment until she got her money back through the courts (which she did).

EDIT;
Oh, I'm sorry Bob, I did apologize though. I hope I did'nt totally ruin your breakfast lol.

[Theron]

This was on the hot outlet of my water heater when i bought my house. It was promptly replaced. It figures that a plumber would buy a house that needed $10,000 worth of plumbing work.

[tkholck]

the rough opening called for a 3/0 shower and it was framed 37" to allow for drwall. A 3/0 shower will not fit in a 3/0 opening no matter how much prying and cracked the stall.

Fortunately, this became a schooling in shower stall repair.

Lesson learned: when in doubt try to frame openings slightly bigger usually easier to work with than working with opening too small. This can be costly if framing window and door openings wrong and cut headers too small.

[Australian Plumber Josh]

I looked at those photos for 5 mins.
I know your plumbing is a little different, but that made no sense to me.

[Bob D.]

It makes no sense to anyone here with half a brain either Josh :)

[AZPlumber]

This was on the hot outlet of my water heater when i bought my house. It was promptly replaced. It figures that a plumber would buy a house that needed $10,000 worth of plumbing work.

Looks like you got some great flow out of that piece of work Theron, with it being completely kinked. Gotta love that "connection" too, whatever it is supposed to be, lol.

On another note, I HATE those copper flex lines. Go with the stainless braided variety or just hard pipe the damn thing.

[AZPlumber]

I looked at those photos for 5 mins.
I know your plumbing is a little different, but that made no sense to me.

If you're referring to my pics, it made no sense to me either, and neither to the muni inspector who looked at it before I re-installed the mess. But what was done basically is the boiler was plumbed backwards, and the "manifold" is non-existent lmao.

[Theron]

I think that connection on my heater had every type of metal you can get in a plumbing fitting - copper, brass, galvanized, black iron, electrical tape :)...

[ECS]

I've never installed a boiler because you never see them or need them down here in Alabama (or at least I haven't) so I couldn't say whether it was right or wrong, but I'm willing to take everyone's word for it. What I can say though is that it was awfully ugly work even if it was correct.

I was trying to set a one piece fiberglass tub in a new house once. I had pushed the bottom into the space too far (but only a little bit). I used the heel of my boot to tap the inside of the tub, just to bump it back out a little, and kicked a hole right through the tub.

[FINER9998]

AZ.. In what part of the country was that incredible boiler installation performed?

[oldslowchevy]

there is a line in a cartoon that says it all about that boiler install"which way does it go goerge which way does it go"and that all i have to say about that(forrest gump)

[dubldare]

I once had an apprentice convinced that the reason he was tripping breakers with a saw was because he had a kink in his extention cord.


When I was pretty green, I once set a chop-saw on the floor (with it's rear aimed toward a white, glazed tile wall) and then proceeded to cut a few lengths of unistrut. The saw was ~4' from the wall. I soon found out that sparks and glazed tile don't get along. The GC's foreman scolded me a bit, but my master wouldn't let me live it down. It turned out that a cabinet was being installed there anyways, so it didn't need replacing. After that, I did a lot of digging, lol.

[oldslowchevy]

i did it again today.went to install a water service sweated up a "950" back flow with a pressure relife valve i have done this a few times no problem ran the pipe up to the house no problem,connected the servive to the home with yet another pressure relife valve.dang it not a big deal to cut it out but still i hate when i do things like that oh well atleast it was pvc and cpvc from the back flow to the house so it only took 3 mins to fix.

[OnTheJob]

This was the result of letting a new-hire apprentice install a residential boiler on his own after he swore he'd done "many boilers and manifolds";




I'm sorry for the disturbing images.


Have you suggested to the homeowner that he might be able to sell that thing to the local art museum and make a bundle?

[Tyler S]

My first year as an apprentice I was working at hall where they had concerts,shows, conferences ex . We where doing a big expansion. That was over a year long project. I had the job of deleting the old A.C. rain water leaders, and running a bigger cast iron sections right over one of the old halls. They where still using the halls so we had limited time in a day that we could work loud. Well to make a long story short I forgot to put a cap on one of the old A.C. pipes and then I left to go to trade school. Well about two weeks later the Primier of Alberta's was eating lunch there and it happend to rain on his table.( Ralph Cline )Oops well I did get a call from my boss, and he just said be a little more careful next time.

[proplumb]

when i first started in the trade i was sent out alone after a month. my first call was a sewer back up in a house . i augared as far as i could and could not proceed past one point. i told the customer here line was collapsed and it had to be replaced. she brike up the basement floor and had athe pipes exposed, then i got an angry call. the line was fine i was hitting the flapper on her backwater valve( flood protection device mandatory in western canada) and her line was in great shape. 2 feet past the valve a clump of tree roots was cleared and all was running well again. dont sent new guys out alone or it waill cost you big!!!!

[BAPlumber]

There was a guy in the last company I worked for who went to make a repair on a Sloan valve on a urinal. This was in a WalMart with a McDonalds in it. He had a full blown gusher before he realized he didn't know how to shut it off. This sprayed water for probably 20 minutes. He had his jacket, shirt and paper towels stuffed under the door to try and get the water to go down the floor drain. Finally a WalMart customer came in with a screwdriver and shut off the water. After opening the door, all of the McDonald's and part of Walmart was flooded.

needless to say, our company didn't look very professional that day.

Brent

[fastplumber]

the other plumber told a helper to go catch an 8" core below in an office building. he didn't go to the right room. when the core driller went through the core fell 5' through the tee bar ceiling then 8' to beside a lady at her desk!!! she went home, it could have killed her.


fastplumber out.

[drtyhands]

The coring guy thought he was drilling 24'' of concrete instead of 13''.No one was down below to detour parking traffic or catch the core:confused: :confused: :confused:

That was a lucky day,no injuries or damage:o

[fastplumber]

i was clipping a 12' peace of 1/2" copper in a wall and it fell through the hole, i thought it fell into a lunch room, at lunch time. luckly it fell 2 floors down in a closet.

fastplumber out.

[drtyhands]

Flooded theater #3 in a twelve plex.3" water wide open at 80 lbs..Ever since then I've always wondered what it woul be like watching a movie in a rowboat.:)

[fastplumber]

one helpper was standing with his mouth open. a 3" mj clamp let go it was slopped the wrong way i grabbed it. but brian got a mouth full of brown water. boy did we laugh.:p (not brian)

[drtyhands]

Full house remodel for Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.I was the adrenaline junky punk the contractor told to break stucco down the outside of the house where a room we were not given access to was.

To this day 20 years later I will not forget the look on that man's face as he told me I had destroyed the gold leaf mural that his friend who painted it was not going to be on earth long enough to fix the damage.

[Buster]

I worked at a supply house in So Cal years back.On my way back home after work I saw a fella that would come in the shop from time to time.He was out side this house snaking a line,I stopped by shot the breeze with the guy he was just feeding this line in,well not ever doing this type a thing myself I go"just how much line are ya gonna feed in there? He replys "untill I find the stoppage!":confused: I'm going "I can see from here to the house and thats alota snake" Just then the home owner comes running out waving his hands screaming yelling crying ect...:mad: it came up the john and just whaled everything in the bathroom pedestal sink ect ect... I gotta go now:D

[rafterq]

LOL...you guys know how to make me feel better about myself!
Got a break from running cables and was a helper on the "Honey Dipper" for a day. Had to pump out a septic tank in Marin Co, CA.

60 ft of steep downhill grade between pump truck and septic tanks, so we used a trash pump to aid the truck. 15 minutes go by, then no flow. He runs up to check the truck, not full yet, "trash pump must be clogged", he hollers.

I shut down the pump and uncouple hose on discharge end, look up the hill at all that hose, wondering, "what the hell did I just do?" just as what felt like a water cannon hit me dead in the chest.

LOL...I had no change of clothes, but at least I hadn't had my mouth open at the moment of truth.

[Crappy days]

I and another plumber once told a rookie to climb in a septic and pull the plug to drain it. We both helped him in to his wast line :eek::eek::eek:. Then the septic truck pulled up . I will never forget the look on my brothers faces, my brother in the septic and the one helping me lower him in. It is amazing the pranks we have pulled on each other over the years.:D:D:D

[apf]

I was a frickin' journeyman when asked to replumb 200- or 300' of distribution pipe in a ceiling . The ware house was an assembly line type operation that made lease little bitty circuit boards . They would go station to station until complete . Everything was run in the drop ceilings . No-one would move for me , There was 100 plus employees in thier . Due to the nature of the equipment , water couldn't be off for more than an hour , It was a 24 hour operation .I was told to replumb in cpvc .Finally came the time to make my tie-ins [Water is off] , wait an hour for the glue to set , which I don't gaurantee a system after just one hour for solvent weld. My ex employeer had no problem with the system being bumped up quick .Well , it was tough / long frickin' day , everyone edgy about getting the water back on .The isolation valve was far from the work. WELL, I inadvertantly missed a glued joint and water was poruing out of the ceiling ...........what a fiasco . Got into a big deal with my boss and told him to stick it . There is enough reason alone for me to test most systems with air , even plastics

[All Clear Sewer]

I and another plumber once told a rookie to climb in a septic and pull the plug to drain it. We both helped him in to his wast line :eek::eek::eek:. Then the septic truck pulled up . I will never forget the look on my brothers faces, my brother in the septic and the one helping me lower him in. It is amazing the pranks we have pulled on each other over the years.:D:D:D
You are a bad bad man :D :D

[rafterq]

Matter o' fact, I could probably become a "senior member" of this board rather quickly, if I listed all the problems I've backed into since the early 90's.LOL

[westcoastplumber]

I WAS DOING A REMODEL, WE WERE IN DEMO, MYSELF AND MY HELPER, WE TORE OUT THE DRAINS UNDER THE HOUSE, BROKE OUT THE WYES THAT PICKED UP THE TOILETS, TOLD MY GUY BEFORE HE LEFT TO PULL THE TOILETS, THE WATER WAS OFF, BUT THERE WAS STILL 1 FLUSH LEFT IN THE TANK, HAD THE OTHER SUBS THERE THE NEXT A.M., MY GUY DIDN'T PULL THE TOILETS AND THEY WERE USED, ALL THE CRAP WENT UNDER THE HOUSE:eek: NOT NUMBER ONE, BUT THE HARD STUFF:eek: YOU COULD SMELL IT FROM OUTSIDE:eek: HE HAD TO GO UNDER AND CLEAN IT, FROM THAT DAY ON, HE LEARNED THERE IS REASON BEHIND EVERYTHING YOU DO ON THE JOB SITE;)

[drtyhands]

I never made any mistakes due to the fact there was always someone else I could blame:cool:

[JRM638fitter]

1. I was talking to my uncle who is a fitter with a sprinkler co. They where installing a system and when they installed there check valve on the Fire dept connection they had installed it the wrong way. Blasting water out of it into the street.
2. The first time I used and roll groover I could not get the pipe to stay on after about a hour I look at the paper work and big a day threader MUST BE ON REVERSE !!!
3. I was on a job with fire sprinkler installers, great group of guys with a new helper that was learning how to use a Ridgid 300 and how to make up fitting with it. Talking with him I looked down in his oil pot there had to me about 6 cast ell all spit for going to fare.
4. I was installing about 100 ft of new black pipe into a old system. So I cut in and add a union and a valve and started running my pipe from there. At the end of the job, I set up to do my pressure test and as fast as I add air it want down. Now its about 14 hours into a job alone and all I can think of is where the hell is this leak! So I pump it up with about 90 PSI and guess where me leak was? Anyone? The union that I never made up.

[westcoastplumber]

Rick

Check Your Private Messages

[wrongler]

1.) I was once on a job where we were roughing in twelve apartments a week with PVC DWV and Pex supply. At the time, all of the foreman were very busy blasting through the DWV so it was up to me and the other apprentice to install the one piece Lasco tubs. We would slap them in level them up and screw 'em down. I told the other helper to start drilling the holes for the faucets while I made them up. After I got a few faucets installed behind him, he came walking over to me with his head held low and said "I did something really dumb." I walked into the room where he was working and what did I see? Yes, he began the large hole where the 1/2" faucet was supposed to stub out. Our foreman was a little bit too steamed to talk to him for the rest of the day.

2.) At the same job, we had our apartments roughed in (DWV) and could not find out leak with soap on the air test. The foreman got pretty impatient and decided to fill 'er up with water. After we found the leak, my foreman stuck his hand up in the 4" tee to let the blow-up plug out and woosh, three stories of stacked water. The force of the water pushed his hand down and he began screaming "cut it, cut it!" While I ran off to grab a knife the other helper stood there staring at my foreman screaming. After I cut a hole in the blow-up plug and helped him pull his hand out, the othe helper said "dude, I thought he wanted me to cut his hand off, I didn't know what to do."

3.) I was not on the job at the time but my foreman and his helper at the time were a a large job setting the underground. At the same time, the steel was being set for the three story building. The helper's job was to get crushed stone and fill the trench with the Bobcat all day. On one of his runs, he backed into the steel almost sending the welder three stories down. The welder was quite unhappy to say the least.

4.) I was with another helper at the time and I was gluing a fitting onto the top of a wet stack. I had the other guy hold the stack up and shove it into the fitting because it was a bit too heavy to hold with one hand. While I was gluing the hub, all of a sudden I heard a scream and the stack dropped. Yes, he was looking up at what I was doing and glue dripped into his eye. I couldn't help but laugh after he ran off.

5.) I was plumbing watermains in on a very large job and was sweating the branches off the main into the apartments. I was working pretty fast because we had to get the work done on a very busy schedule. I was soldering above duct work and needless to say, molten solder likes to bounce off of cold tin and hit the plumber in the face. Ouch.

6.) On another large job, it was the job of a 34 year old helper who claimed to have been an electrician to fire caulk all of our pipes that penetrated walls. He came to my foreman and asked what he wanted to have done with the gray pipes. He proceeded to get yelled at. Those gray "pipes" belonged to the electricians and were not pipes at all, they were the feed to the breaker boxes.

7.) A helper at my place of employment came back after he wrecked the work truck. He had hit someone that was in his "front blind spot."

8.) I was working last summer during my time off from college with a few other college kids doing all of the sh*t work for a large job. We got a truck full of fiberglass showers that day and after we had them unloaded onto the 2nd floor, it was our job to slide them to the apartment where they were to be installed. The other helper what was working with me was a football player and was very good at pushing the showers around, he was not however, good at missing door openings. He blew a pretty good corner out of the front of one of the showers. The foreman was not very happy that day.

9.) As an energetic helper, I was at a job where we had to dig up a well line and fix a leak. We got close to the line and as the low man, I had to do the shovel work. I went at it like a madman and failed to see the pool line that ran across where we were working. Our ditch filled up with water pretty quick. Pool pro and a few fittings and in internal plug got the line fixed but I still felt like a moron. I think the new guys with shovels/sledge hammars have all had something like this happen.

10.) Having never used a hand threader before, I was told to thread some 1/2" gas pipe while my foreman went off to lay out where I was to install it. After a while of not being able to thread the pipe, he came back and yelled at me. I was trying to start the threads with the wrong side of the hand threader.

:)

[DuckButter]

Job in a chemical plant.
Running a potable water main, purified water & compressed air lines with 2", 1-1/2", 1-1/4" & 1" fittings.
Asked the new "experienced" apprentice to gather and clean a list of copper fittings, went off to work with a few other guys on laying out/setting up the hangers (unistrut/clips).
Came back a half hour later, he see's me coming and says "almost done!".
The entire pile of fittings had been cleaned on the outside of the hubs.

[DUNBAR]

I've made many mistakes in the beginning all the way up to today, but the good thing is I try not to repeat those same mistakes.

I make the most mistakes when I'm tired, or I just do not give my body the rest it needs to go farther but as you all know...you go when the money is there.

It feels good to wake up in horrendous pain after pulling a 16 hour day seeing the stack of checks laying on the desk for deposits.

It's truly better than anything in a form of pill, I swear. :D:p


When I was first transitioning into plumbing, I took classes for welding instruction and worked at a metal fab shop that built firetrucks from ground up. The shop boss was a SOB and he needed to be; being 1/64" off and bend that metal up 9 times and that just grew to a 1/8" quite easily.

He had to do his job but he made everyone a nervous wreck, including me. We used hydraulic shears, press, punchout equipment.

I broke a brand smacking new $1400 die bending a 4" piece of metal on a 14' die. They cut that die down and made two dies out of it; forgot to set the stops on it. :confused:

Sounded like an explosion when that chipped a small piece off the die. Everyone knew I was getting laid off after that event.

Shot me into the plumbing field as I knew I had good mechanical skills....just needed to be in the right enviornment.

[winslow]

1. hanging at the shop one friday after work when a "journeyman" called in and asked to have a bail of rags delivered (the job was accross the street). Brought the rags over to him to the bathroom. He was clearing a stoppage in a 4" main that ran under a multi unit complex. When I walked into the bathroom there was sh*t water all over the walls (of a bathroom in an office). He ran out of line so instead of adding another spool to his snake he pulled it back and put a blow bag into the line. The water shot out of the other toilets and the sinks. Created a terrible mess. For some reason the unit next door (a tuxedo rental place) had a floor drain located in the middle of their showroom. The tuxedos also got a bath.


2. Boss sent me out to a job to find a leak in a water line in a single story house. Part slab part post and pier. The "journeyman" sent out before me was thrown off the job. Apparently the boss (who originally went to the job) forgot to tell the plumber not to break the stained concrete slab because the house was listed as historical. He saw water coming out from under the slab in the living room so broke the floor in the middle of the living room to see if he could find the leaking line.

The worst part is after I ran some isolation tests I discovered the leak wasn't from that part of the house, it was a line going to some hose bibbs in the back yard. Just had to cap the line to them. The water he saw coming from under the slab was rain water seeping from under the slab. When asked how to repair the stained slab the owner told the mason to just patch with quickcrete and use shoe polish on it afterwards.

[winslow]

My favorite was when I was helping the boss fix a jammed sump pump. We pulled the lid, pulled out the pump and cleared off all the dental floss and tampon strings. He then plugged the sump back in to see if it was clear. The pump was clear but we both got a shower in the Sh*t that was still caked up un the impeller.