I have enjoyed the concussion thread enough to start a separate one. What is the stupidest thing one of your installers (or you) have ever done on a job. I've got many but my favorite is the tale of s--tbreak (see "American Pie").

I sent two installers out to do a 3 receiver satellite install with attic and crawl work. They came back, unloaded the van and went home. I soon got a call from the homeowner who asked why the guys did not put back her multiple hundred pound armoire... she couldn't move it and her husband had just had back surgery. I apologized, moaned (realizing that I'd have to pay these twits to go back and do it right) and said I'd get them out tomorrow to fix it. Five minutes later I got another call saying the one downstairs had not been done either. I again apologized and told her this was not the norm. Ten minutes later... there she was again... here was the dialogue
"OK... I don't even know how to say this but one of your installers did his business in my master suite toilet and used about half a roll to clean up. It won't flush down... the water is about a half an inch from the top (carpeted floor by the way) and I don't have a plunger nor do I even want to plunge this... do I have to wait till tomorrow?

I said no... she lived 45 minutes away and I promised to be there within an hour with a brand new plunger. I tried to call dips--t installer but got only voice mail. It was f----g disgusting but this guy lived with th nickname s--tbreak for the rest of his tenure with us. I'm still amazed by the utter stupidity and lack of concern displayed.

Why did they leave the armoires out? Did they leave quickly out of embarassment? What did you say to them when you got ahold of them? I guess I'm just amazed at the story.

It's kind of funny that this was brought up. It seems more and more of the large homes we work on have some pretty weak toilets. I had what was probably a world record seven flusher at a clients home recently and I don't use much paper.

We had a guy( ok he's still here ) who was terminating a power cable for a nice expensive projector, now you would think if you terminate both ends of the wire you would do it the same way on both ends right? well he obviously didn't because when he plugged the projector in all we heard was a loud pop which just about sent him off the top of the ladder, and silence. I was sitting on the floor about 20' away programming the customers remote and when i heard the sound i knew i was screwed. He was new so i tried not to kill him or make him feel to bad (SH*& Happens) but the owner of the company almost had a heart attack while flipping out about this. Luckily the manufacturer was able to fix the unit in about a day and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg but the new guy still has the name sparky (1.5 yrs) and counting.
P.S. We do still check his electrical connections just to give him hell

Mitchell,

I was almost too dumbfounded to do much other than spread the word that this could not happen and thoroughly embarass him. It gets funnier... one installer was in the attic yelling for his cohort while the guy had decided to take his break... he's up there in a 120 degree sweatbox wondering why the f--k the guy isn't there. He comes out of the attic hole (master bath closet) removes his mask an inhales (mouth open due to yelling) the foul smelling air... said he almost puked. This was toward the beginning of the install so god only knows why the armoires were left out... same reason expensive tools get left behind etc... just stupid carelessness.

My own stupidest move was installing a Bose system (audio gods got me for that one) and walking along rafters to get out of an attic after drilling the outside walls with a close quarter drill. I wrapped the extension cord around my foot and didn't quite make the next rafter. My partner was in the room below which just happened to be about the whitest room I've ever seen. I came through the ceiling up to my armpits and covered EVERYTHING with rockwool insulation (including him). Amazingly enough the lady of the house was only concerned with my safety... she didn't even give me the hellfire and brimstone chibing that she should have... heck she even made me sit down and have some cookies to "calm down"... what an angel of a client... I'm sure most of us could name one or two that this kind of thing could have really spelled disaster.

Keep the stories coming... I know theres some real humor out there

oh, another one.

Most of the really stupid ones come from my car stereo days. As anyone from the 80s knows... coke and stereo installation kind of went together (its easy to pull an all nighter with a little help). One particular guy had been through re-hab three times and seemed to be on the right track but started showing up late and rushing through things. One day he finished a brand new Cabriolet and parked it outside then grabbed his next car. All of the sudden a thunderous crunch came echoing through the building... installer had parked the car just a little too close to the train tracks and that brand new convertible got drug a few hundred yards before tumbling into a ditch...expensive day for the car stereo company!

"I've never seen that before." "That's funny -- I wonder why that doesn't happen more often."

That's what the electrician and cabinetmaker were saying after I spent fifteen minutes scurrying around under, around and through a house like a f&*king lizard that's just seen a crowd in the Arizona heat of July 4!

But it was the Los Angeles area, and sort of a dull day, until

I was drilling down through the corner of a built-in hutch to run a speaker wire down and over to the components. Damn, the floor was thick! The drill just kept drilling, and drilling, and drilling...then after about six inches of travel, it dropped about two inches and grabbed again. I pulled it out to look at it and swear a bit. I thought I heard a sound. I looked at the bit, and it was just the teeniest bit wet. The sound? Muffled, but rushing, water.

Well, I had been under that house two or three times, and it always took about two minutes to get to the spot under that cabinet. This time I discovered the value of motivation, and I was there in about fifteen seconds! Sure enough, the drill bit had grazed and opened a water pipe. Copper. Two inch.

About ten inches below the wall that I was drilling into, there was a concrete foundation wall, and 2 x 6s supported the floor. Someone had filled in the space between the studs holding up the floor with 2x10 pieces, and I had been drilling down through the cabinet, the floor, the subfloor, the 2 x 10...until I hit the 3" diameter hole that the main water feed went through.

Ok, I came out, and guess what? The other contractors had been six weeks on the job and nobody knew where the water shutoff was.

That's all the drama, really -- I turned off the water, located a plumbing company, got them out there ASAP, they fixed it, I paid, I told the client, and I ended up just barely not losing any money because of this.

Milwaukee Drill Extreme Hair Makeover

The comment about coke and stereo reminded me of the guy...he was so proud of his machomuscular Milwaukee 1/2" chuck geared drill. He also liked his two-foot long hair. And his six foot long drill bit.

The final factor in this story is that when the drill is at speed and you let go of the switch, it drifts to a stop for about fifteen seconds. Ready?

He's holding the drill up, because he is only 5'8" and the bit is six feet, and he's drilling down through the floor. To get leverage for pushing down, he moves close to the drill bit. Someone calls him and he turns his head. He feels his hair get caught...lets go of the switch...and has the time to turn and watch his hair be drawn slowly and (let's choose a good word here) IN EX OR ABLY around the drill bit... until a good six square inches of his scalp has no hair on it at all. But it was pulled firmly and slowly ! ! !

Geez, where to start....

One that comes to mind was a basement retrofit 1-room theater back in '94. We attached 5 KEF speakers on Omnimounts to the ceiling (installers had little contact with sales at the time), and a Runco 750. Strong joists, everything held solid, no problem. All that made it awkward was the sprayed textured ceiling surface.

That night we get a call that the room was cold. No heat. There was nothing I could think of that would have caused it, even standing in the room the next day. Then I touched the Runco mount and got a shock. Got out the meter, and sure enough, it was live with 120V.

After about an hour, we discovered that the textured ceiling had electrical radiant heat embedded in it. A 14 gauge solid-core wire was surface-tacked to the drywall and ran back & forth every inch all the way across the ceiling, which was then sprayed over with the popcorn texture. We had put a total of 6 lags through it. Since the heat wasn't on when we drilled, no telltale shock. Took a whole day to repair it all.

Lesson learned... assume nothing ever.

Doug @ HomeWorks

This message was edited by deb1919 on 05/04/04 07:34.

I have got 2... First was a not by me but the guy that was working with me. He was up in the attic when he started to "feel sick". Unfortunately he was really far away from the entrace to the attic and kinda supporting himslef across two beams when the "sick" started to erupt. He proceeded to upchuck all his breakfast and some of his last night dinner into the insulation right by the chimney. Number 2 was by yours truly... One of my first houses ever retro'd I was a little overzealous when using the hammer drill to run a wire from outside the master bedroom to the rack. In my haste I forgot to completely check the inside to see what I was drilling into. As the drill went in I hit the pocketdoor but I didn't realize it yet. I ran the wire thru the new hole and proceeded on. Later when I tried to close the pocketdoor for some reason it would not close. I had run the wire right through the last 3/4" of the pannel.

Got a call from my client the day after installing 4 ceiling speakers in his small condo (and a center). "Everything sounds great" he said, "But the left rear speaker, well, it smells like s**t." I went over later that day and I had to agree. It smelled like s**t.

It was a little dark in his room, and I had a new toy the day I did the installation. The 10 1/2 inch hole saw from Labor Saving Devices. I should have seen that I'd cut through the lower side of his drain pipe running from the master bathroom upstairs. Duh, I should have used my flashlight to make an inspection before installing the speaker. Idiot Dan I am I am.

Returned the speaker to the manufacturer for a replacement. Nature of failure: Smells like s**t.

Are you sure you haven't hired my former installer?

That is one of the tools I'll never buy. While it may seem like a good idea, in the real world, it's not something I would use. And you just told a story that has shown why others should also stay away from it.

If you have no idea of what's behind the sheetrock, you certainly don't want to be using a tool that can, and will obviously, do serious damage.

I realize that using a sheetrock saw is messy. But it won't do anywhere near the damage that this particular tool will do.

If I were you, I'd toss that thing, and chalk it up to a learning experience. Bad one at that.

This actually happened to another trade on the site. He was using a nailgun (what else?) to nail floorboards down and put one through his foot. Buddies sawzall the floor around his foot and take him to ER, where the ER nurse takes one look and says, "for God's sake, why didn't you stop hammering".

Nope rhm, haven't hired your previous installer, but I'm accepting applications. I believe there's a job for everybody, and the bathroom's getting pretty dirty at my shop.

I only use that fancy hole saw in single story houses now, and only after being in the attic. I can feel what I'm cutting with my trusty old drywall saw. Something like driving a BMW vs a '76 Cadillac.