Stinky Service call

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chris1971 said:
I went to a 500 sq. ft. apt. the other day to replace a bad circuit breaker. The apt. had 10 adult cats in the unit. Holy cat urine smell. Has anyone else done a job or service call where the working conditions were horrible?
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I would have said thanks but no thanks.

The real question is how did the circuit breaker "go bad" and who determined that?
 
Worked a couple of jobs in an IAMS dog food plant. Facility itself was clean as could be, FDA regulated. But the smell was terrible, the air was grimy, temperatures over 100 in many areas. Would take 2-3 days away to get smell out of my nose. Had to totally shampoo seats & carpet in my truck.

Have done countless jobs in homes reeking of cigarette smoke, beer, garbage, spoiling food in old cans, pets' poop & urine. Anything from 1 of the above to all the above.

Did some work for a relative. His house was somewhere in the "most of these" category. His daughter yelled at the other kids not to mess up again after she had cleaned the house up. Didn't want to "live in a dirty house again". I shuddered to think what it was before.
 
LarryFine said:
That's not so gross. :roll:

Now, that's gross! :cool:
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We did a complete rewire in Richmond a few months back where the owner had so many pets in the house,,,,,,,,

IT KILLLED HIM!!!. He died from ammonia poisoning in his sleep. The house had been stripped down to bare studs for over a year and it still stunk.
 
ptonsparky said:
House full of cats where they were "marking" one of the receptacles. Eventually enough current would flow to trip the 15 amp circ breaker. Saw no dead cats.
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I had that, in an older house. You know, the kind originally wired in K&T, with BX and NM additions over the years, and a fairly recent breaker-panel upgrade. At least there were no fuses to deal with.

There was an intermittent short in an added circuit feeding various added first-floor receptacles. I used a 100w bulb in a rubber socket in series with the circuit at the breaker as a troubleshooting aid.

With everything unplugged, the bulb would continuously vary in brightness, sometimes full-on, sometimes completely off, usually in between. I narrowed it down to a receptacle in a Wiremold box.

With the box cover off, I could see a varying arc inside the receptacle, with the smell of burnt cat urine wafting out of it. A new box and receptacle later, everything worked (and smelled) as it should.
 
mcclary's electrical said:
The house had been stripped down to bare studs for over a year and it still stunk.
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kilz.jpg


"This is a job . . . for Kilz!"​
 
the only job i ever walked on on

the only job i ever walked on on

Mid July 95 degrees, the Boston Hide co.
Cow pelts , I never seen so many flies in my life.
you couldn't breath with out inhaling them.
there was some kind of slime on EVERYTHING.
We left after 20 minute and the truck still stunk for a week.
 
I went to a house one day and opened the attic acess up.A nest of hen eggs hit me in the face.Then I looked in the other room and the fish tank had a big ole giant gold fish swimming in a stagnit green water.After shewing the chickens and pot bellied pigs out we were able to repair the wiring.I told my boss you'll never get paid for that service call.But, the poor little old lady made a special trip to our shop to pay him.

Another episode was for two old men that were mentally not all there.The tub was full of etc..The panel was located above the non-functional tub unit.He informed me that they had another bath with a shower that they used.There was a water leak in the kitchen and the cabinet's were lying on the floor all rotted .Honestly my son and I both had to go outside and throw up.The above mentioned is mildly stated to how unsanitary those people lived.
 
I'm on here primarily because I'm not only a licensed electrician, but moreover a "electrically related" person. In reality, I'm a 3rd gen. plumber by trade.
My top 3....

1. Clogged mortuary sink in a funeral home
2. Clogged trough drain in a grocery store deli, full of sour milk/lunch meat scraps.
3. Rental house, toilet clogged, tenants started using the bath tub as a toilet.
 
mtfallsmikey said:
I'm on here primarily because I'm not only a licensed electrician, but moreover a "electrically related" person. In reality, I'm a 3rd gen. plumber by trade.
My top 3....

1. Clogged mortuary sink in a funeral home
2. Clogged trough drain in a grocery store deli, full of sour milk/lunch meat scraps.
3. Rental house, toilet clogged, tenants started using the bath tub as a toilet.
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I work in Doo-Doo but "Clogged mortuary sink in a funeral home" is worse!

I have ran in to 3 fetuses clogging pumps up over the years.......It is sad and puke worthy.
 
hockeyoligist2 said:
Very true. People ask me all the time how can I stand to work at sewer plants. I just tell them, "You get used to the smell, but it's kinda hard to get used to the taste".
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Ugh, thanks, I just had some sort of "taste memory", used to do a lot of WWTP work, hated the smell but not the worst. Chemical plant in IA, they were using some sort of maggot or something to organically breaker down some materials, in a huge tank, by huge I mean a couple hundred foot diamater and 40 feet high or so. Got a whiff of that and lost it.
 
zog said:
Ugh, thanks, I just had some sort of "taste memory", used to do a lot of WWTP work, hated the smell but not the worst. Chemical plant in IA, they were using some sort of maggot or something to organically breaker down some materials, in a huge tank, by huge I mean a couple hundred foot diamater and 40 feet high or so. Got a whiff of that and lost it.
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When I say taste, it is literal.. Someone working with you snaps off a rubber glove, splash in the mouth.... A part or wrench falls, the splash seems to zero in on the mouth!

I'm just glad I have had all my shots.....
 
I agree with Stevenje. I took a call once at a marine sales store. They wanted me to move all of their old outboard motors to work on the panel. I said absolutely not. My boss backed me up.
 
pgordon said:
Installing a FA system a while back for wellesley housing . We went to move
the bed of an elderly lady, and under the bed was a double ended sex toy !
This thing had to be 2 feet long and 2'' in dia. GROSS !
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Customer said, "I've been looking for that!"
 
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.
 
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