Pro athletes can be the worst... They expect us to GIVE it to them!
One of my WORSTt all time customers (and I apologise but I think I told this story a long time ago)- but since you asked... My worst customer and bad timing too!
This Gay guy & his "Partner" just bought this 1.6 million condo in a new building downtown in a beautiful new building full of all these little techno dot-com phonies... and rich pukes, in the trendy part of town... Totally fru-fru.
I was sub contracting for Bang & Olufsen - doing all of their retro work. So, I go and visit this couple... The place was on the 7th floor, and the "boys" apparently had a lot of money, and had totally furnished and decorated the place with rare antique Japanese stuff everywhere - and each area had these very valuable asian rugs and huge wall hangings and all that junk.
They decided of course, (after moving in), to have me do a multi (8) room Bang & Olufsen system. Zero wires were to show, and no holes for fishing etc were to be cut except if absolutely necessary. It was a very daunting task... as the only way to fish around the condo & it was large, was to pop down recessed lights and crap like that, however i could cut small openings here and there that would be patched... but only with prior approval from one of the "guys"... A lot of the interior walls were painted by some Japanese artist... and there were a bunch of those old multiple - panel japanese things... bla bla bla. It was an Architectural Digest kind of place...
I was doing O.K., but reached a dead end trying to go from one bedroom across a really wide hallway to another bedroom, without cutting an "observation hole"... I called one of the owners, and he was there in 10 minutes lecturing me on the fact that I could without any problem, use my 6 foot flexi bit and extension and get across the hall ceiling. I commented that I wasn't comfortable doing that and I would pay for the patching & repainting... The owner threw a hissy fit and demanded I follow his instructions, as he "watched them build the place & recalls that area was totally empty and wide open, and i was being "difficult".
I was getting pissed as time was ticking away, and this guy was making me sick... so I pointedly asked him ..."Are you SURE there is nothing up there I'll hit"? He went off and said hell there is nothing up there are you deaf? I'll go to my office and bring back my construction photos!!!
At that point I felt he might actually know what he was talking about, and said well, O.K.
We both then proceeded rolling up rugs in the area (so they wouldn't get drywall dusted), and then covered everything within possible range of sheet rock dust with new plastic tarps...
He spun on his heels and left for his office, and calling out over his shoulder... Please hurry we are having our house warming party (Gala), in a couple days... Also call me if you have any questions, call me but please don't leave any messes - Oh, and you're invited hee, hee!!!
I go into the Guest room with my flexibit and begin slowly drilling through the drywall.. very slowly... there was plywood backing on the the other side of the drywall so I increased the drill speed, and noticed the bit had traveled about an inch and a half which concerned me a little... Just as I was letting go of the drill trigger, there was this explosion of drywall and water and I was knocked off my ladder onto my back on the floor. I looked up in shock and horror as a high powered stream of water was shooting out of an ever increasing drywall hole, with such force that it was literally washing a hole through the opposite wall in the room 16 feet away. I was sitting up on the floor, in ever deepening water and liquified sheetrock and insualtion when there was a HUGE KA-WHAMMM!!! and all of the sheetrock in that wall joist space blew out all over me, with a Mt.St. Helen sized Geyser of high pressure water, again knocking me down.
Furnishings in the room were now bobbing in about a foot of water, and the water was flowing out the doorway into the hallway and adjoining rooms of the Condo.
The Entire Condo buildings Fire-Alarm system went off, prompting everybody to evacuate the building.
There were a bunch of construction guys who came running into the unit in disbelief (they were working on the new Penthouses a few floors up) and they were freaking out trying to find a way to shut off the water in the building, but they coiuldn't as this was a 4 inch main fire-feed that only the fire department could shut off.
A couple of the guys actually got into a pushing-yelling match arguing about whther they could shut off the water with me staring at them with a deer in the headlights stare.
Now the condo was rapidly filling up, all the furnishings were getting trashed, and water was still roaring out of the wall and now washing out of the front door and into the the main hallway.
I looked out the window only to see the police department closing off busy first avenue in downtown Seattle, so that the hook and ladder and fire trucks could get through.
It just kept getting uglier and uglier... totally surreal.
When the fire department got the water shut off, (15 minutes later) we saw that my little drill bit hit the main fire sprinkler feed pipe (4 inch high pressure PVC).
...If my bit had "walked around" that pipe either direction it would have hit a massive bundle of high voltage cables feeding the building.
The contractor, fire marshall, (crying gay couple), building contractor, a couple of cops and a few other assorted guys were there all giving me a bunch of crap, when my cell phone rings with my ex wife bitching me out for being a few days late with her alimony!
The Gay guy who told me "absolutely nothing was there" flatly lied when I reminded him of our conversation.
7 units were damaged, people had to move out for 6 to 8 months... Not a good time.
Ali...I hope you learn from this!
Last edited by Mr. Stanley on November 9, 2006 01:30.