Heating Help

Eager apprentice....

While working as a summer helper (under 18, not legally an apprentice according to the state) I was sure to work all extra time handed my way.

One Friday at quitting time I heard a call on the radio from the shop that there was a delivery for a rough-in plumbing job pulled and would have to be picked up first thing Monday morning.  I being the go getter volunteered to drive the delivery van and material to the job as this would be another couple hours on the check and make some old plumber a little more tolerant of my wet ears.

Not three blocks from the shop I turned left through the busiest intersection in town only to have realized I had not properly closed the side doors of the cargo van.  Right dead smack in the middle of the intersection during rush hour I had just scattered a whole house worth of PVC fittings....I will never forget the panic!!

Green journeyman

My luck with work trucks didn't stop there...

One bitter cold morning on the way into the job site I had need for fuel and a general contractor with an even greater need for heat.  As I stood talking with the gc in one hand and thankful to be done freezing my butt off and a filled tank I simply got into the truck and proceeded to crank the heat and drive away.

Much to my surprise as I noticed the guy in the next lane frantically trying for my attention I then realized I had not removed the pump hose from the truck and now had a rather peculiar (side) truck ornament more aptly left at the fill station attached to the gas pump. 

Lost tools

Early in my career , as a plumbers helper in NYC we finished working for the day and I was bringing tools and extra materials back to truck. I threw some stuff in the truck and Tony and myself started to drive away. About 1/2 block I realized I left his tools on the curb.

Now driving in Manhattan is interesting because each street is a maze of alternating one way streets, so I had to go two streets down, and over to get back to where we were. By the time we were back in front of building tools were gone. I felt bad, but told Tony I'd replace all his tools, of course not uncommon for a plumber to have tools decades old, that is father gave him. It was a silent ride back to shop.

Any way my boss was cool, told Tony to go buy whatever he needs to replace tools.

Gas van

Years ago, the company I worked for replaced it's pumps and relocated them a bit. I filled up with what I thought was gas (new pumps weren't marked yet) only to find out very quickly that it was diesel. Talk about a smoke screen. Didn't make it a mile before the power dropped off to nothing and I had to be towed in. 

Lost boiler....

What seems like a hundred years or so ago, I was helping my hydronic mentor (Wayne Anders) with my first hydronic installation. Wayne arranged for the boiler and base board and other major components from Weldon Kite and Co. I volunteered to go down in my dads old beater truck with the utility body on it to pick up the components.

I arrived at Kites right at closing time, and got everything aboard. I was driving back to the job site down town, and decided to stop in a gravel parking lot before getting on the highway to make sure the load was safe. As I was trying to get back up to the entrance ramp speed, my wheels spun in the gravel until I hit the asphalt, and the truck took off with a hard lurch..

When I got to the job site, I was backing in to the job, and Wayne was guiding me in, and when I got out, he said "Where's the boiler?" I laughed, thinking he was joking, and as I walked around the back of the truck, I noticed the tail gate was missing, along with the 600 pound boiler. The blood drained out of my body...

Feeling about as high as the soles of my shoes, I drove all the way back to the Kite Co and didn't find the boiler. I saw a car at the Kite building, and went and knocked on the door, and the guy who answered, said "Yeah, some tow truck driver just called in and said he'd found a boiler sitting on the ground near the highway with our name and number on it..."

We called the guy up, and went over to his house, and thanked him for finding the boiler, which was on the back of his tow truck. Wayne asked him if we owed him anything, and I chimed in and said, "Do ya like whiskey?" Thinking I could get by with around a $20 bill for his finding the boiler, and he said "Nope, don't drink". We bartered back and forth and I eventually coughed up $50 for his efforts. He walked over, and picked up the boiler off of the back of his truck and put it in the back of my truck. Did I mention he weighed around 300 pounds, and that his nick name was "Tiny"? It was worth the $50 to see him pluck the boiler off his truck and put it on mine.

Wayne STILL reminds me to this day of that episode every time I see him...

ME

killed a goat

A radiant tube installation, slab on grade. Rural property, plenty of livestock roaming around the jobsite, an especially curious goat had been by my side all day. No homeowner in sight.

Wrapping up I decided to mount the test manifold on a short concrete foundation wall. I got a piece of unistrut and my Hilti 27 cal. anchor gun.

I held the strut up high, near the top of the stem wall. I squeeze the trigger and the goat that was right in front of me drops over! Dead?

Best I could tell the anchor pin ricocheted off the top of the wall hitting the goat.

I'm looking around trying to decide what to do. Bury it, put it in the truck, leave a note??

A loud voice comes out of the distant shady spot, with an un-mistakable Missouri twang...

"Don't worry about it, he's a fainter"

Say what? The farmer comes sauntering over, a couple other old goats behind him. He's holding a galvanized feed bucket, he stoops and picks up a stick. Then he starts beating on the pail and the rest of the goats drop over, toes up!

Turns out it is a breed of goat that faints when they are startled! In a minute or so they all stagger to their feet and herd back around the feed bucket.

It's a protective mechanism, he tells me.

I'll keep it in mind I tell him, just glad it wasn't his horse :)

hr

PVC in the Street

I have a similar story, aggravated that no one would let me out into downtown traffic, I finally gunned the gas to get onto the main road, an old toilet I had just removed slid to the back of my old truck, hit the door that would open sometimes, and flew out into the busiest street in Lowell, breaking into thousands of pieces. The loud crash caused many people to come out into the street, many of them looking up toward the high buildings, thinking someone had thrown it off a roof. Unfortunately the seat was still attached to a large piece of porcelain,and was propped up at a 45 degree angle so everyone knew it was a toilet. I remember and old heavy guy smoking a cigar couldn't stop laughing even though he had to drive right by me.

Thanks, Bob Gagnon

Just plain stupid.......................................

Wasn['t an apprentice either.......was cleaning up a pvc roughing job and had my hands full at the top of the stairs.....to save a trip, I let a piece of 3" pvc slide down the new wood stairs (this was new construction).  As soon as I let it go, I knew it was a terrible mistake: the first ten steps were a breeze, but the last three steps took huge gouges out of the treads...JERK!!!!!!!!   Luckily, I called in a stairbuilder who took them out and replaced them the next day.....for just $100 bucks too.   Mad Dog

YEE HAW!!! Wild stair ride...

Matt, your story reminds me of one of the first jobs I did with my former partner. It was to replace a 120 gallon stone lined storage tank on a solar system. Now, if you've never had the opportunity to wrestle with one of these tanks, consider yourself lucky. Most companies exclude removal from their contract because they are SO HEAVY. Due to a lack of space, that was not an option.

I had the brilliant idea of borrowing one of my local warehouses power dolly to move the old one out, and the new (non stone) one in. My partner was supposed to show up to help me. I got the tank drained, and on the dolly, and still no partner, so I decided to use the dolly and get the tank out of the basement by myself. This was the rotating knuckle type of stair crawler, as opposed to the trombone style. There was a berber carpet on the stairs. I engaged the crawler with the tank onboard into the stairs, and much to my surprise, it was going quite well. About half way up the steps, the bull nose of the stair I was powering up SNAPPED OFF, and then the fun began. The dolly, the tank and myself FLEW back down the stairs, until we hit the bottom of course, with me attempting to control the whole mess. When it hit, it went upright, and kind of whip lashed me onto the top of the tank, nearly impaling myself on a nipple. It hit so hard I think it shook the whole house. It sheared off the bull nose of every step from the middle to the bottom step, and rolled/peeled the berber carpet (new by the way) into a tangled mess. The homeowner came running to the top of the stairs to see if I was OK. I was extremely emberrassed, but still intact.

Shortly thereafter, my new boss/partner showed up...

I am sure we didn't make any money on that job, because we decided not to run it through the insurance company, and paid for the repairs out of the companies pocket.

The only good thing to come out of it, was the fact that my partner was late showing up, because, had he been on time, he would have on the bottom and would probably have been crushed beneath the tank and dolly, and that would NOT have been a good scenario.

Lessons learned,

1. Don't attempt to do with one man what should be done with two, or three.
2. NEVER trust one of those knuckle dragging dollies.
3. NEVER allow ANYONE to get themselves into a compromised situation where they could get trapped or hurt.

Expensive lesson to be sure, but the only thing that got hurt was my pride, and it only got severely bruised, fortunately.

Work carefully out there...

ME