Oh my god! Did he try sueing you?

I should have taken my customer to court... but well what the hell...

I accidentally hooked up a volume control backwards - it still passed audio, so I didn't catch my error... the amplifier just about burned down a 3.5 mill house.

Risky Business!

Oh I don't know....having a customer and his wife asking me how to once again show them how to use their camera dvr and pulling it up only to see him having sex with another woman. Way to go champ!

Living and working in vegas....nothing shocks me anymore.

I *thought* I had a story or two until I read Mr. Stanley's tales of woe.

I've got nothing.... I'll just move along, nothing to tell here.

Mr. Stanley, I am curious how much your Contractors Liability Insurance is costing you. It must be staggering with the amount of damage that you have seen or done.

My understanding of insurance law is that if you are subcontracting for a big firm and you damage any portion of the project, that the big firms' insurance will pick up the bill, but they will go after your insurance company or you for the damages.

Mot to mention that it would appear that you "capped" out the max allowable damage if you carried the standard $1-2 million dollar policy that most large firms require their subs to carry.

Maybe for you. I always double and triple check all of my connections.

i was being "difficult".


I would have been "difficult" too. If I cannot see the other side, my drill bit won't see the other side either.


Please do, because I will not drill until I can see whats on the other side. At this point, I would suggest that I can cut in a single or double gang remodel ring and blank plate because I want to see what is on the other side. No exceptions.



But at this point, I still want to see what is on the other side.


I would bet on that.


Mr. Stanley the statement should be, Did you learn from this?

Yeah, It was INSIDE a closet!!! And I told him I'd put in a retro mud-ring & blank cover plate, for the time being until I could get a professional drywall painter in there who was working a few floors up on a couple Penthouses. The home owner went nuts, insisting it was "wide open".


Yeah 4 things:

1. Never assume the homeowner knows what the hell he is talking about.

2. Document conversations when you have that funny feeling. And fax,or email those comments back to the homeowner, and build a file. Keep notes...I know it's a PIA, but if there is ever any litigation it can really help.

3. If in doubt, cut it out.

4. Cover your ass in your contract... Customise your contract's verbage for what we do... because most lawyers just produce cookie cutter contracts that don't cover things in detail.

In my contract: "Due to unforeseen obstacles such as plumbing, high & low voltage wiring, steel beams or structural stacked studs etc. hidden behind walls, in ceilings and floors, we will need to occasionally make observation holes (to be patched and painted at owner's expense). We will try to keep these to an absolute minimum, however they are common practice in the re-tro wiring trades to insure the safey of our installers and to prevent uneccesary accidents or damages to the property" and to increase the installation efficiencies of the job.
That is not word for word, as I don't have my contract in front of me, but you get the idea.

My insurance never went up, and B&O's insurance company didn't go after mine either which is very unusual. I believe B&O went after the homeowner for a deductable, or something like that.

I didn't go to their party either!

I have to ask what kind of pipefitter would use PVC pipe for a fire sprinkler line? Around here you would never get away with that. I am not saying Stanley is completely innocent for drilling without being sure, but all fire lines around here have to be black iron.

It just goes to show you to go with your gut instinct.

I'm sure there is a good reason... but this was that Orange Plastic stuff they use aound here in fire systems --- maybe it's fire resistant and cheap?! Surprised me a little!

I've been there many times. Its just not worth it to prove the home owner wrong. I do have a question, though. What were you expecting to drill through? In a high rise, its all metal and concrete. Anything you would have to drill through in a ceiling like that is structural, HVAC, plumbing or mechanical.

This did have a lot of open space in most areas (after reviewing some digital pics).
the actual drywall ceiling was dropped down from the actual concrete struced portion, not attached directly to it.

here's the dal on plastic sprinkler line.

when heated it splits to douse the flames, it does not just burst.

plastic is ok for lateral movement but stell must be used for risers or laterals between different units

I didn't know that -- that's really cool.

Another thing about it is that it is usually placed before the insulation, so if you are wandering around in an attic you can put downwards pressure on it.

I was working with a Lexicon remote at one client's house when he told me that all of the flooring in the house had needed replacement after another installer accidentally put some vertical pressure on a 1" sprinkler pipe in the attic of his two-story. This was the same day the client left town for a month. That vertical pressure caused a minor split and water dripped for a month.

When drilled into it squirst out a lot of water.