[pzmember]

id like to hear some good stories about dealing with maintanence guys.
i went to a call at an apartment complex about a dip tube in a water heater. i got the tube changed out and installed unions so the next time the mg dosen't have to spin the nipple into valve so far he breaks it, which is what he did. so i go on to the next one and about three hours later he calls and tells me he is not getting hot water. i go back and check everything out and its fine. i ask if he can get into apts to check for a running faucet. and he tells me there is no way no one is here. that was my point we all know when water is off tenents have a habit of leaving faucets on so they know when the water is on and usually the leave and forget about that faucet. finally after almost begging he lets me in the rooms. well it wasn't a faucet it was a toilet running that had hot water hooked up to it which he had repiped himself god bless those shark fittings, yeah putting pipe together dosen't make you a plumber does it.

 

[ILPlumber]

First:

Maintenence shut down a cooling water system so I could cut tees in. Got the job done and gave the solvent cement ample time to set. They came in the next morning to restart the cooling towers as a shift was beginning at 3 pm. There where 3 centrifugal pumps. One to the tower, one to the factory, and one standby. The maintenence guy didn't know what the hell he was doing and opened the outlet butterfly valves fully. THEN kicked on the pumps. The slug of water racing through the main blew an 8" 90 off the end of the line about 500' away. He didn't know what had happened until the pump pumped the 200 gallon tank dry onto the factory floor:laughing:. That was an expensive repair.

Second:

Maintence shut down a rooftop unit heating a clean room. Turned it back on but, didn't reset the gas valve. It had outside air make-up. Ran all night on christmas eve pumping outside air into the clean room. It was about 3 degrees outside. They finally figured out there was a problem and reset the gas valve. Warmed her back up to 65 degrees on christmas day. Of course that's when the flood happened. ALL the sprinkler mains and water lines broke in that room. MAJOR damage to the robots inside. Myself and two other plumbing contractors worked side by side on christmas day and night. We had all the new piping in by the evening of the 26th. That was a good christmas$$$

I got a ton. Those are the two highlights. Maintenence guys are great for our trade:yes:

 

[Proud Plumber]

I really do not hat a good maint guy story but..... is it just me, or has anyone else ever noticed that ALL maintenance guys ALWAYS have a pocket protector with 4 times the recommended safe amount of screw drivers and thermometers in them.

 

[uaplumber]

Cut off an 8" 90 from an empty water main then ran 80 feet of 8" Blue Brute to a valve and cap. The maintenance man was to have a thrust block poured that afternoon. I get a call at 4pm from a panicked MM. The 10' deep x 20' wide by 100' long trench was overflowing!:laughing:.
Turns out the MM decided to check my workmanship under service pressure, before pouring a thrust block, against all advice from me (in writing).
The supply valve for this line was 2 miles away, he drove there and opened the line. He gave no thought whatsoever to opening it slowly, just let er rip.:laughing:. By the time he got to the jobsite the trench was spilling its banks.:laughing:
He begged me to come fix it before his boss showed up.
I reminded him of the written orders for a thrust block and that I had offered to be there for the opening of the supply valve. Did I mention that he had not informed the town that he was turning on that valve?

The owner called me about 20 mins later and tried to ream me. I told him to check his fax machine. I had already faxed a copy of the orders that his MM had signed.:laughing: He asked if we could fix it and told me the water was STILL ON!:laughing:

I had him send his MM back to the valve, shut it in, call a vacuum truck to empty the trench then call me.

The next day he calls me and I go there for the laugh.:laughing: The new valve on the end of the line was blown off and moved about 15 feet (very heavy valve by the way) the plug from the valve was missing (found in trees 30' away). All the lengths of pipe had shifted, you could see then depth lines I had marked on each.

The owner asked me what it would cost to repair the issue. The number I came up with may have been a tad bit high:whistling2:. You should have seen the look on his face:laughing:. I explained to him that because his MM had failed to follow directions, that he had signed as understanding, that I would now not feel comfortable re installing his line unless we dug up a further 80 feet of his existing line and checked to be sure that it had not moved.:laughing:
Well the owner must not have liked my price because he told me he would think about it and never called back.

I saw his MM a few weeks later. He was unemployed. Turns out the owner had his MM reinstall only what had come apart in the trench. Nothing else. They poured a block this time. They got the town to turn on the water this time but golly, almost every joint leaked:laughing:. No thought to lubrication of the gaskets, just stab and run.:laughing: So they got some new gaskets from the supplier:no:, pulled everything apart and re did it with new gaskets and tons of lube. After the new block had set they had the water turned on again and patted themselves on the back.:laughing: 2 days later someone notices the water coming out of the ground.:laughing: The line had seperated 20 feet back from where they had repaired. No ideas how they fixed it. The MM was fired then.:laughing:
They poured the thrust block again

 

[Plumberman]

One story sticks out but I have plenty.....

MM at a hospital was working on a toilet. I walked by and reminded him he had to shut the water off BEFORE he attempted to remove the top of the flushometer. He looked at me and said he HAD shut the water off. I said ok and went on down the hall to work on a p-tac unit. Bout 5 mins later I needed something out of the truck, so I walked back down the hall. As soon as I rounded the corner I heard a loud pop and heard water hitting the floor. As I am making my way down the hall I can see water pouring out of the bathroom. I stuck my head in and this poor dude had his hands trying to cover the flushometer to stop the water. I jumped in and tried to shut the stop off. It was froze up, wouldn't budge. The MM was in tears and he kept saying he was going to get fire. I told him probably so and he needed to sit on top of the valve to somewhat contain the water while I went in the CS to shut the valve off. When I went to run out the bathroom he had perched himself on top of the flushometer:laughing: I found the valves and shut it down. It flooded a whole wing of rooms about 12 or so. They put him on paid leave for awhile, I think he still works there. It was classic!

 

[uaplumber]

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[Bill]

I really do not hat a good maint guy story but..... is it just me, or has anyone else ever noticed that ALL maintenance guys ALWAYS have a pocket protector with 4 times the recommended safe amount of screw drivers and thermometers in them.

Code 21A paragraph 3 subchapter 8
"No pocket protector shall protect more than 2 ball point pens, 1 pencil (Sharpened) and 1 sharpie. Unless pencil is unsharpened, then it may contain 3 ball point pens, 1 unsharpened pencil and 1 sharpie" Ball point pens shall have a slip on protector, pencil must have adequit eraser for correcting mistakes, and the sharpie must be a fine point. If a bold point sharpie must be carried, the carrier must have a broad tip sharpie permit from the county along with proper ID such as but not limited to a valid drivers license. Pocket protectors may not protect screw drivers and or thermometers. These items must be carried in an approved carrying device such as a metal locked box to prevent un authorized use".

 

[Protech]

About 6 years ago was remodeling some units in the grovsner hotel in Disney on the 7th floor. I was running the jack hammer on the 7th floor while my older brother was hanging sch. 40 in the ceiling of the 6th floor (5 star restaurant) on a 14ft ladder. He notices a stream of water coming down from a 1 ¼” hot copper line about feet away. The line had been repaired with a bronze Mueller compression coupling. There was about a 10ft horizontal run unsupported, a 90 going up and then said coupling. No thrust blocking or bracing of any kind. The line was leaking from the top joint. The coupling had slipped down and was only seated in about 1/8 of an inch(why it had not blown off already will forever be a mystery). Apparently the vibration from the jackhammer traveling thru the structure was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
We contacted the engineer and maintenance staff and told them we needed to shut down NOW!! They informed us that we were to be out of there in 30 minutes as the patrons were already lined up outside and the restaurant was scheduled to open at that time. The band, Steinway piano and all, were warming up already. :blink: We explained that that’s not going to happen and that they need to shut’er down NOW or they’re going to have a whopper of a flood. They engineer comes out and tells us there is not enough time for that and the kitchen is preparing food currently and that is just not an option(in an engineer’s condescending tone). As we are having this conversation I catch a maintenance guy climbing up a ladder under the leak. My bro goes down stairs to get is camera while this is unfolding. I tell the maintenance monkey to get the hell of that ladder and don’t touch anything. In spanglish, he tells me he knows what he’s doing. As we are talking my brother walks out of the elevator and starts snapping pictures of the engineer and monkeys. Just in time, because at this point captain amazing on the ladder ignores me and grabs the line. As soon as he does there is an explosion of hot water. Within seconds the 6th floor is flooded. Between the pony pumps below and the head pressure above, both ends were really putting out. After doing some crazy ninja **** with my polycutters, zip ties and near by fire hose, I diverted the flow down a 6th floor drain and a 7th floor toilet flange(one we just roughed in) long enough for engineering to get the pumps and valves off.
When I went back down to ground level I learned that every floor below had flooded as well. Think water fall in the elevator door way. I was lightly burned from wrestling the hoses onto both ends of the live hot line. Luckily, most of the heat was lost from the boilers when the coupling went. After filling out incident reports for our records we were informed by the building owner that we would sued for anything that our GLI didn’t cover. My brother informed him that would not be the case, and showed him the neat little slide show of his maintenance guy on the ladder and me saving the day afterwards as well as the multiple signed accounts from third parties. The only picture Mike didn’t get was the look on his face, priceless.:laughing:

 

[service guy]

uaplumber, you rock!:notworthy: I love this story, especially how you covered your ass perfectly and in the end YOU THE MASTER PLUMBER WERE RIGHT, while the stupid cheap owner and his mm were WRONG!:thumbsup:


I love how you handled the situation...:laughing:

The owner asked me what it would cost to repair the issue. The number I came up with may have been a tad bit high:whistling2:. You should have seen the look on his face:laughing:. I explained to him that because his MM had failed to follow directions, that he had signed as understanding, that I would now not feel comfortable re installing his line unless we dug up a further 80 feet of his existing line and checked to be sure that it had not moved.:laughing:
Well the owner must not have liked my price because he told me he would think about it and never called back.


.... The line had seperated 20 feet back from where they had repaired. No ideas how they fixed it. The MM was fired then.:laughing:
They poured the thrust block again

 

[service guy]

Same for protech:notworthy:, I liked how you guys took pictures...its a shame that they were going to try and sue you even after warning them...just awful.:no:

 

[GrumpyPlumber]

Protech, THAT was a good story..Ninja plumber for sure.

I hate the fact that the owner turned on you like that, despite the warnings you'd given before hand...what a d-ck.

 

[Protech]

:shuriken: huh?