Another stupid trainee!!

[Guest prsalmon]

Many moons ago a good friend of mine asked me if he could come out to work with me as he was ega to be in our trade. He had experience in fitting satellite tv so i thought id give him a chance. He wanted to install a camera on his parents house, a detatched bunglow. They didnt want an additional monitor so i told them i could modulate the signal onto a spare channel on there own tv and vcr. No problems there. I got up on to the roof, which was completely flat (bonus!!), to fix the camera to the chimney breast and told my friend (you know who you are!!) to drill the hole for the coax, so it could be run up the side of the house.

Without looking what was on the other side of the wall he proceded to drill a hole, with my SDS drill with a long drill bit, directly behind the tv. No cables on show.

When i heard him drilling, something told me to walk over to above where he was drilling, just to check if he was coming out in the right place. Halfway across the roof i heard the noise of the drill bit change from masonry to what sounded like plastic. I sped up my walk to get to the edge of the roof, just as i got to the edge of the roof the sound changed to metal!!

I peered over the edge of the house only to see the GAS meter mounted on the very spot my friend was drilling through. If i ran to the ladder and got down it would be to late, if i jumped off the roof id probably break something and then roll down the hill next to his house, what should i do??

Like my 5 year old daughter does when she doesnt get her way, i started to jump up and down stamping my feet and shouting stop STOP STOP.

He didnt hear me. Straight thru the back of the gas meter and out the front.

I ran like hell but it didnt explode.

His mother greeted me at the front door with"whats all the noise up there!!"

I grabbed hold of him and said dont touch that drill.

We walked outside to the meter to find the gushing sound of gas and the noise of the lung inside it struggling to inflate and deflate itself. We promptly turned off the supply and then i left him to explain to his parents what had happened.

Lucky enough british gas were due to come to upgrade the meter to a modern version so they hurried them up!!

If your a trainee reading this let that be a lesson to you. Always look on the other side of the wall if you can.

[paul fae kings]

nice one!!

[Guest Adrian]

Man I thought hitting a central heating pipe was bad!!

[paul fae kings]

I cant say too much right enough,many moons ago,i put a 1.5 clip through a gas pipe.It was running inside a cavity of a cupboard but was pressed right up against the ply.Tidying up my nice outside light installation,2 mins from completion,I thought "mm a couple of clips in there would finish it off perfectly"

Five seconds later SSSSSSSSSSSSS

NIGHTMARE!!!

[gooner31]

hi all

i went to a job last year to sort out a problem with the system. whilst i was doing this the customer said that since the alarm had been installed about 3 weeks before they could smell gas but on looking to find the gas leak nothing was found. after about 20 mins i too could smell gas and it was a strong smell i went out to my car to have a fag and the smell of gas was over powering so i didnt light my fag i went over to the gas bos on the wall and it stank so i lifted the cover off and guess wot i heard sssssssssssssss and on closer inspection i saw wrapped round the gas pipe masking tape so i turned the gas off at the handle and told the customer wot the installer had done was drilled through the wall so he could take a phone line from the bt box outside on the wall had knicked the gas pipe and just taped it up thinking that would sort the problem. i asked you are some people just stupid or dumb. but i did laugh about it when i left to go to my next job.

pete B)