Author Topic: The latest boo-boo of mine  (Read 12348 times)

Offline PeterE

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The latest boo-boo of mine
« on: October 08, 2012, 05:19:52 PM »
Aside from work and hobby activities I am re-decorating/renovating our guest toilet. All went weel with changing from chip-board-covererd walls to plaster board (much more suitable for tiling). when attaching the last bit using plaster board screws my wife said - " it looks like it drips from the pipe to the basin?!?!?

A quick check behind the scene (plaster board) immediately made reailty true - a cascade of water from the hot water line came out as I un-screwed the last of the screws. A dash to the main water shut-off saved too much damage and after mopping up I found that I had been quick enough.

I had pierced the copper pipe truly in center with one of the screws. With water turned off I made a "bandage" using some bicycle hose mend and a hose clamp. Unfortunately it is not pressure tight so the whole weekend we were out of running water and had to go to my sons to get some in buckets and a barrel.

Now monday I got teh problem fixed thank god.

All is now well and my after thought is to always ,always, always mark the position of pipes and cabling BEFORE covering the walls  :bang:

BR

/Peter
Always at the edge of my abilities, too often beyond ;-)

Offline John Rudd

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2012, 05:30:33 PM »
Been there too myself...Not only with water but the ziggy stuff as well...

First off...I was drilling into the wall to fix up some battens for a false ceiling in the kitchen (very old house...trying to lower the height of the ceiling) when I drilled through a lead water pipe.......

Second time. .... I drilled through a 2.5mm cable in the wall attempting to fix the iron holder (clothes ) to the wall....the ensuing bang as I caught the live and neutral cores blew the end off the drill bit!!!......
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Offline dsquire

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2012, 08:43:11 PM »
Been there too myself...Not only with water but the ziggy stuff as well...

First off...I was drilling into the wall to fix up some battens for a false ceiling in the kitchen (very old house...trying to lower the height of the ceiling) when I drilled through a lead water pipe.......

Second time. .... I drilled through a 2.5mm cable in the wall attempting to fix the iron holder (clothes ) to the wall....the ensuing bang as I caught the live and neutral cores blew the end off the drill bit!!!......

John

Stuff like that gets your attention real quick.  :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cheers  :beer:

Don


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'til your good is better,
and your better best

Offline RotarySMP

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2012, 09:43:14 AM »
I feel for you. I was once doing night shift, installing some minor modification in a Canadair Regional Jet. At about 2:30 am, I drilled through a panel without a depth stop, and into a power feeder cable behind. Big sparks, dark plane, and a rather angry avionics colleague to the rescue :)
Best regards, Meilleures salutations, Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Cu salutari
Mark
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Offline andyf

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2012, 11:23:52 AM »
It could have been worse, Peter.

50 years back, at age 15 and living with his parents, a pal of mine did something similar. They had sold the house, so at the last minute he removed certain magazines and books from his  hiding place under a loose floorboard in his upstairs bedroom. When replaced, the board wobbled a bit, so he nailed it down, and the family moved out.

A day or so later, the new owners arrived, to find the dining room flooded, with its ceiling completely collapsed.

Luckily, his father owned a building firm.

Andy

Sale, Cheshire
I've cut the end off it twice, but it's still too short

Offline hopefuldave

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2012, 05:54:20 PM »
Came home years ago to find my dad apparently stuck to the lounge radiator...

 Not the handiest of fellas, that skipped a generation, a few weeks previously he'd trapped the Hoover mains cable in a door so repaired it with a chocolate-block connector. Comes (20th) wedding anniversary and he spruces up the lounge with its brand new carpet (still shedding fluff) ready for a party and while hoovering flicks the cable around a chair - cable parts from choccy-block and apparently describes a beautiful arc across the room until the 240V live conductor meets the heating pipe to the radiator, blowing a neat 1/4" hole through the copper pipe and blowing the house fuse... He'd been stuck there with his finger stopping the hole for an hour by the time we got back!

Mind you, I'm the guy that dropped a hammer on his own head from two floors up, and slammed his head in a van door 3 times in one day!

(Ow!, that hurt!
How did I manage to do that? - Ow!
Goes home - tells wife "head hurts a bit"
- "why?"
- "slammed it in the van door"
-"how'd you manage that?"
-"leant on the armrest like this - Ow!"

Dave H. (the other one)
Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men.

Offline dsquire

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2012, 06:33:03 PM »
Came home years ago to find my dad apparently stuck to the lounge radiator...

 Not the handiest of fellas, that skipped a generation, a few weeks previously he'd trapped the Hoover mains cable in a door so repaired it with a chocolate-block connector. Comes (20th) wedding anniversary and he spruces up the lounge with its brand new carpet (still shedding fluff) ready for a party and while hoovering flicks the cable around a chair - cable parts from choccy-block and apparently describes a beautiful arc across the room until the 240V live conductor meets the heating pipe to the radiator, blowing a neat 1/4" hole through the copper pipe and blowing the house fuse... He'd been stuck there with his finger stopping the hole for an hour by the time we got back!

Mind you, I'm the guy that dropped a hammer on his own head from two floors up, and slammed his head in a van door 3 times in one day!

Dave

How does one manage to do this? This should be interesting.

Cheers  :beer:

Don

Quote
(Ow!, that hurt!
How did I manage to do that? - Ow!
Goes home - tells wife "head hurts a bit"
- "why?"
- "slammed it in the van door"
-"how'd you manage that?"
-"leant on the armrest like this - Ow!"

Dave H. (the other one)
Good, better, best.
Never let it rest,
'til your good is better,
and your better best

Offline hopefuldave

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2012, 08:15:55 PM »
Think cracking a whip, when the whip's 20 feet of mains cable with a bodged choccy-block in the middle!

Re the van door, I am *NOT* doing it again....

Dave H. (the other one)
Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men.

Offline PeterE

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2012, 12:52:07 PM »
From your replies I understand that I am not alone in making accidental un-planned c**k-ups resulting in yet more activities to correct them (and sometime to a more or less significant cost). This time it was fairly cheap though  :thumbup:

So let´s hope it goes a long time before anything like this happens to any of us again.

BR

/Peter

Always at the edge of my abilities, too often beyond ;-)

Offline Fergus OMore

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2012, 04:51:51 AM »
Really it is  Flanders and Swann- 'The gas man commeth'

Google it- turn up the sound-- and enjoy.

Offline PeterE

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2012, 05:20:40 PM »
Oh yes!  :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

/Peter
Always at the edge of my abilities, too often beyond ;-)

Offline Kjelle

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2012, 01:07:46 AM »
Now, I don't have anything like you guys have reveald in my own cupboard, but yesterday something happened at work (a big mall)... They are remodeling a shop, so it's just a shell.

These 2 "sparks" (electricians, not the other kind) are using lifts to check and prepare for wireing the new layout, and they are working up in the roof area, where there are venting and sprinkler pipes (see where this is going...?) and in a moments lack of concentration one of them hit a sprinkler head... Yes the fire alarm got off, yes the system emtied it self in the shop (according to my sources 8 cubic meters of water!)... Mayhem!
It took 3 wet and dry hoovers, 2 cleaning machines and about 6 people to handle that water. also, a bit of panic ensued due to the fire alarm, and a lot of complaints of cold air due to smoke hatches opening...

Kjelle

Offline NormanV

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2012, 01:47:00 PM »
My worst cock up cost a lot of money, (fortunately for me not mine). I used to work as an ovenman in a cereal factory cooking Shredded Wheat. My attention was taken by a rather attractive young lady, who later became my wife, and when I turned back to the oven I saw that the product had jammed on the conveyor. Before I could unjam it it caught fire! As a consequence the factory had to be evacuated because of the smoke. The conveyor had to be stopped and the contents of the 50 metre long oven had to raked out and dumped.
The factory was shut down for about two hours and the Shredded Wheat line for much longer. Somehow the management never realised that I hadn't been paying attention and I kept my job.
It was one of those things that happened occasionally even when you were concentrating but normally we were able to clear the oven without stopping it.

Offline Raggle

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2012, 04:38:53 PM »
So she married you for your cooking skills?

Ray
still turning handles  -  usually the wrong way

Offline hopefuldave

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #14 on: December 17, 2012, 09:06:14 AM »

Mind you, I'm the guy that dropped a hammer on his own head from two floors up,

Dave

How does one manage to do this? This should be interesting.

---------

Easy...

Working up by the gutter, tacking a phone cable to the facia board, and my pager (for it was that long ago) went off - hung the hammer on the top rung and shimmied down to call in to work, came back and thought "I'll just move the ladder along a bit" - pulled ladder away from the wall, slipped and looked where I was treading just as the hammer came gracefully spinning down from 20 feet up....

Dave H. (the other one)


Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men.

Offline krv3000

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Re: The latest boo-boo of mine
« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2012, 03:26:59 PM »
well this hapend last week a frend of mine had just moved  to a new hawse in the bath room he was puting up a sope dish in the shawher when he drilld in to the pipe that fed the shawher so he removed the tilel to xpose the pipe mmm haw to fix this well he drilld the hole a bit biger and put a pop rivet in  :loco: you mite think no as the pop rivet he use has a seeld end ie the hole don't go all the way thruw he put sum seler on the rivet then juts rivetit up and it ant leekd yet