Stinky Service call

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petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Apprentice was in the basement below the bathroom. Tenant flushed. NO sewer pipe under throne. Apprentice got drenched in STUFF. Had to go home and shower.

I heard a story like that once. Guy installed a toilet in a closet on the first floor and just let it flush into the basement where it eventually got pumped out by a sump pump.
 

Bill Ruffner

Member
Location
Plainfield, IL
I use to do a lot of residential track homes with basements and partial crawl spaces. Local code required EMT conduit. Way too many times I would be stuck roughing the crawl space, crawling along in the semi dark and either my hand, knee or conduit bender head would find a big pile of S*** from one of the previous trades.

Also, where we're at, we have sump pump pits in the basement. Everyone of the trades seem to use them to take a leak in. One day I was roughing the basement and inadvertently placed a leg of my ladder on the pit cover. When I climbed up the ladder, the weight caused the cover to give and one of my legs fell all the way into the sump pit, which was filled with piss that went above my knee. Do you think my foreman would take pity on me and let me go change? Heck no. I squished around in a piss soaked boot all day.
 

arits74

Senior Member
Location
dixie arkansas
Occupation
working owner electrician
a, plumber friend of mine said he went on a service call and pulled the toilet up,set it in the hall on some cardboard,went to the truck after a new wax ring,came back in and the very over weight lady that lived there was sitting on the toilet in the hall doing number 2.i advised him that i would have gathered up my tools and left and he said yeah but then i would not have got paid,LOL
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
a, plumber friend of mine said he went on a service call and pulled the toilet up,set it in the hall on some cardboard,went to the truck after a new wax ring,came back in and the very over weight lady that lived there was sitting on the toilet in the hall doing number 2.i advised him that i would have gathered up my tools and left and he said yeah but then i would not have got paid,LOL

That customer sounds like a future Darwin Award nominee!
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
I don't think I can top a lot these, but I once had to go out and check an aerater pump in a sewage treatment pond, the city provided a leaky boat that you had to duct tape the bow before you put it in, and to prevent sinking while using a shovel as a paddle! Another one was at a real old lawyers house where cat feces was in the bath tub, and the cats were on the table eating out of same dinner plates the people were eating out of at the same time.
 

sameguy

Senior Member
Location
New York
Occupation
Master Elec./JW retired
worked at the gate of a rendering plant in TX. about as far as I would go in the place.
worked in a scat plant in the big tanks that had been "cleaned" turds dropping on you as you drilled over head.
worked in roach,rat, infested housing; did a code upgrade on a 4 unit house that had mental people in it, crap was every place.
worked in a kennel, crap,fleas
worked in a chem plant(drug) and when you burped you could smell the plant, skin smelled for 2 days even after bathing.(ever see purple ice?) it's from some chem in the tanks.
 

arits74

Senior Member
Location
dixie arkansas
Occupation
working owner electrician
the master electrician i worked under when i was an apprentice worked on a remodel of a rendering plant, i think thats what its called,anyway he said the guys that worked for the plant would sit on the animal carcasses and eat their lunch,he said the last day of the job that they took a cutting torch and cut the lid off the job box,got their tools out for the last time and just left the box there
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
...
Also, where we're at, we have sump pump pits in the basement. Everyone of the trades seem to use them to take a leak in. One day I was roughing the basement and inadvertently placed a leg of my ladder on the pit cover. When I climbed up the ladder, the weight caused the cover to give and one of my legs fell all the way into the sump pit, which was filled with piss that went above my knee. Do you think my foreman would take pity on me and let me go change? Heck no. I squished around in a piss soaked boot all day.

You should have followed him closely as much as possible that day so he could enjoy the smell also.

the master electrician i worked under when i was an apprentice worked on a remodel of a rendering plant, i think thats what its called,anyway he said the guys that worked for the plant would sit on the animal carcasses and eat their lunch,he said the last day of the job that they took a cutting torch and cut the lid off the job box,got their tools out for the last time and just left the box there

Why? If because of the smell, all the tools inside should smell too, should have left everything.
 

Teaspoon

Senior Member
Location
Camden,Tn.
You should have followed him closely as much as possible that day so he could enjoy the smell also.



Why? If because of the smell, all the tools inside should smell too, should have left everything.

I am not going to try to top these stinky jobs.
Have been on some pretty bad ones myself. Dogs Cats Goats in the house,
I just wonder how these people can stand to live in these conditions.
We should charge 100% more to do these stinky jobs!
 

rwolff

Member
Location
Long island, NY
hOSPITALS

hOSPITALS

I had to run cables for a camera to watch the morgue freezer door in a hospital. I don?t know if they were watching to see who broke in or out of it.

The choice was 300 ft through the laundry or 500 around it. After seeing how much was stuck to the walls(sheets,blankets ,pillow cases) and what was sticking it there, we ran the 500ft. We never went in far enough to see any details or the smell.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I don?t know if they were watching to see who broke in or out of it.
"Why there are walls around cemetaries,
"Is a puzzle to many, no doubt.
"Those on the outside don't want to get in,
"And those inside sure can't get out!"
 

rgiraldo

Member
Location
FL
I work in lovely tropical Florida, I was in warehouse running conduit and I had to lay on some pallets. I saw a big spider and I hit it with my side cutters, when a bunch of baby spiders came out and got all over me. Let me tell you I hate spiders. And I hate running and rolling like a little girl.
 

Split Bolt

Senior Member
It wasn't me, luckily, but a guy I used to work with was on a job that involved a little digging in the back yard. He dug right into a plastic bag containing a dead cat that the homeowners had buried in the back yard! He had to throw his new boots in the trash because he couldn't get the smell out!
 

e57

Senior Member
Many years ago - and one of my first posts on forums like this - I had to do a correction list for a few flea bag - flop house - hotels. One of them had all of the panels in "trash rooms" on each floor.... (Yes that was part of the corrections) Found some burned wiring and went looking for the breaker. (which often included using a push broom to rid the work space of used condoms, hypo's and other bio hazards) The breaker which had failed got me curious since it had a layer of roach bodies everywhere in it - opened the case of the breaker and it was FILLED with roach bodies so tight that it could physically not operate - the mass of dead roaches held the contacts closed.

Otherwise much of the work in these buildings had various layers and degrees of funk, grime, odors, angry tenants, and psychosis.
 

e57

Senior Member
It wasn't me, luckily, but a guy I used to work with was on a job that involved a little digging in the back yard. He dug right into a plastic bag containing a dead cat that the homeowners had buried in the back yard! He had to throw his new boots in the trash because he couldn't get the smell out!
Thats why I buried mine in a burlap sack.... Poor cat got run over by a tracked vehicle doing paving work up the street. Hard day here at home, explaining death to a 2 1/2 YO. What was worse is he got out on my watch, and the woman who found him took him to the neighborhood cat lady who got freaked - and called me at work in a crying heap. Harder to console her than my daughter.

I think if I had someone digging in my yard I would warn them....
 
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