Have you ever broke customers furniture?

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Trailer Boy - Electrician.
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Reading an extract from KME's post on the "DYJHIW" thread..

"Half the time is spent moving furniture around (love the old MFI wardrobes that threaten to collapse if you breathe on them."

the MFI wardrobe situation reminded me of the various hazards when moving customers furniture...

I was once working in a bedroom with a four shelf bookcase approx 1m wide..

needed to get behind it and move the carpet beneathe it...

I took all of the books off the top shelf...

then decided I could pick the whole lot up and carry it with remaining books still on the lower three shelves..

I picked up the uint by the second shelf down..

only to find the second shelf had some of those flat-pack key-hole type stud locators which allow the shelf to lift away from the side pieces..

As the shelf came up it was evident that the end pieces only had dowels into the remaing shelf... no glue.... no screws... no nails,

Just dowels between shelves & the sides except for the key-hole fittings in the shelf I had just lifted off,

which was the main securing piece. :|

gravity & the books keep the key-hole locators in place..... :(

until you lift that shelf up:O

As I went to lift & move the one side piece just fell away!!!

shelves colapse... books all over the floor!! :_|

All because I didn't want to empty the shelf before I moved the bookcase!

Doh! X(

 
Dare i ask what the customers reaction was like SL?
Customer not in..

I was working alone.. been left the key to get in..

so just had to stack the books on the bed..

while I rebuilt the shelf unit..

but I did put a dab of PVA adhesive on the dowels

& tapped a couple of small panel pins in to hold it together enough for me to put the books back on!

I reckon the customer was not very good at flat-pack assembly..

and threw the little 'tube of adhesive' & bag of '28 small nails'

in the bin when they built it! :(

DIY BOB's!! Doh.... X( :_| :( X(

 
Seems to hit a nerve with us all then ????

Chasing a wall with my SDS. Occupied house; couple of cantankerous old dears.......

Asked them in the morning if they could move the china plates and tea service off the dining table, so we could move the table in order to chase wall.

So, yeah- they moved `em - about 4 feet laterally from the chase location.

I thought "Ok. Cover `em with a sheet, move dining table to a safe location (probably).

So, there we are, chiselling away, when a lump of compo detaches itself from the chase, and launches ballistically toward the window.

Good stuff this double glazing - bounced off without a mark, and landed gently on the pile of china plates. erm...............

So, we took the cracked plate, and put it further down the pile. Must have happened when they moved `em!!!!!

BUT........

Same job, the plasterer managed to leave a mark on the dishwasher control panel, and asked if anyone had anything to rub the mark off. Helpful as ever, I provided him with a small bottle of solvent (i.e. acetone) which worked very well. Actually, it worked a little too well, as the programme numbering written around the setting dial ALSO rubbed off.

Say nowt`s best!!

p.s. I did feel a little guilty at the time, but the same customer called me out on new years day, 8.00a.m. `cos his central heating wouldn`t work, and the plumber said it was electrical (without going to investigate). Eventually went there, resolved the (non-electrical) problem, and then he thought

 
No but i remember taking the wrong measurements and drilling though a clients bath for the water bond. :^O

years ago.........learnt i lesson from that incident i did :|

 
Have also drilled a kitchen wall for a recessed 47mm cooker control unit, come out into the lounge and "drilled the stereo":^O

Don`t think the `45`s were ever the same after that:(

Now there was an unhappy bunny, if ever I saw one. OOPS

 
It is always more funny when another trades person breaks somthing..

& you can just laff & think Im glad thats not me! :)

I was working in a kitchen refurb job..

doin loads of ceiling lights..

while I was there the tilers were also there working around between the worktops and wall units..

they came to go behind the hob and up to the the extractor unit.

they carfully placed a sheet over the hob..

then the one guy decided he needed a bit more hieght just to put the top couple of rows of tiles in

(some of those quite smallish tiles about 2&1/2 inch square).

So the guy kneels on the hob..

on the glass top halogen hob to be more precise!!! :| :|

within a very short time a loud crack was heard..

& the two tilers had some pretty heated discussion!!!!! :^O :^O:O

I think they lost quite a chunck of their profit for the work ! :^O

 
I was also working on a partial re-wire, CU upgrade

while at the same time a general odd-job man was puttin up shelves.

bits of painting etc..

Nice guy, made me a cup of coffee etc..

but I did feel sorry for him when he was drilling up a shelf bracket

on an internal wall...

then he says..

"I diddnt think these internal walls had a cavity?"

they diddnt!! :|

but worse, it was the adjoining wall to the next door in a row of terrace houses.

He drilled straight though into thier lounge!! :^O :^O

 
I know of someone hammer a 3 Mtrs earth rod in the ground for a bar/cafe

They were called back a few hours later as the guy needed to take his car out the communal garage, it nearly punctured the roof of a car parked below.

 
I was drilling through a wall into a bedroom and thought i had caught the skirting, but i had drilled and wired through a bed leg
Urrm ok I'll put my hands up I've done this one aswell :8}

 
Also (only 3 weeks ago) moved a fully loaded captains writing desk what looked like a very old and heavy writing desk, I shifted it on my own by lifting one end at a time.

It worked well untill one of the legs caught on the carpet & split from bottom to top.....................oh ****** (or words to that effect)...I'm gonna have to be honest & tell the customer what happened....it's gonna cost was what I was thinking if I'm honest.

Anyway I left the desk infront of the room door, customer (on the rotund side)comes charging in to see if I wanted a brew, doesnt see the leg splintered in half & pushed the desk .......creak snap spliter crash......the leg totally snaps dropping all the weight on the other leg snapping that aswell.

Yes I did the honourable thing & kept my gob shut.

He got it in the neck from his wife as it was from her side of the family who had a Naval background, the desk was antique & made from the wood taken off some old naval cutter sail ship that ran aground in Australia.

Ooops.

 
I went to do a quick job... :D

Check an outside light (for fault), there was glass top table immediately below the fitting. I decided there was no need to remove it.. :D

(the light was in the front doorway)

As I opened up the 16 piece outside light, it separated.. :eek:

Smash!!! goes the glass top table.. :(

The customer was OK, because she siad 'her husband hated that table' so I did him a favor..

B)

 
As an apprentice, working on the local Fire station housing..

Just 16.. :D

Stripping cable back with a knife... :eek:

Dropped it on the Solid wood polished table........ :( :_|

The meteor sized crater, staring at me below, sent me into panic mode, luckily for me there was a table mat on the table, so I moved it a few inches to cover up the offending crevice..B)

a few months later, there was meeting with me, the Sparky, The Foreman, the tenants and the Big boss from the City Engineers department..

I denied everything..

; \

(The Big boss, decided to send a French Polisher round..)

 
Keep this going guys.

I haven`t laughed so much in ages:^O:^O:^O

Can we have a new sub-section called "confession time" or similar???

:^O :^O] :) :^O :^O

slips & m107; Don`t you know its the chair thats supposed to be electric, not the bed. :^O

 

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