Just recently I've been hired as a Pre-Apprentice for local 601 (5 Months) however I have been hired through the company and not through the union. they had promised me entry into the union after 90 days but it's been longer than 90 days. The company manager has blown off my emails asking for any updates or information on when I will be indentured and I am running my own service calls with a van provided by the company. I have no EPA certification and only experience in automotive and residential HVAC. I want to learn and receive a formal education but I am having doubts that the company will provide them and that they are using me for cheap labor. what should I do? Are they Abiding by the law? Is there any reason to believe I will become an apprentice or should I start looking for a job? and should I talk to the union hall?

so far I've been troubleshooting small condensing units at gas stations and brazing work for installing cases and walk-in coolers and stuff. I've fixed some rooftop HVAC units and done a variety of electrical troubleshooting. and I've done it all for 16.50 an hour. they are really short-staffed and I've been reducing the workload but I am not getting paid accordingly... if you have any answers or advice I could really use some I can barely afford to live but it's what I want to do.

Here's a tale from your friendly neighborhood gutter slut. I was going to post this in malicious compliance but theres a little more to it than that and I thought y'all would appreciate it more. Sorry if this is kind of a long one.

I'm a gutter foreman with a respected local siding and window company. I got a job last week for $6k worth of gutters. This is high bidding stuff. On paper this job looked gravy. 150ft K-style (aluminum), 2x3 downspouts (the small ones), and helmet on a house in town, low 2-story.

The hangup was the homeowner. I was warned by the salesman that this guy was picky. I assured him we would do it by the books, 2.5ft in between every bracket, all 9 yards. I had no idea what I was in for. This man was 90 years old and still climbing ladders. He was nearly deaf. He was a retired tradesman and shop teacher. He built this house himself. The house ran on fuses. He had been around the block several hundred thousand times. And he demanded perfection.

First things first we had to save some old gutter for him to reuse. Easy enough except he'd hung it with spikes (7-9" nails they used to use, rather than these new-fangled screws). But we managed that, level 1 passed.

Then we replaced that section of gutter. He wanted it not to drop below the fascia. Sure thing. Level 2 complete. Except then he gets up the ladder with a 3ft level and checks our work. Whaddya know, he doesn't like how level it is!

"Get rid of the water!" He says. "Don't let it sit in there!"

I tried explaining that we had in fact pitched it properly, using torpedo levels.

"I just can't accept that you use those little things to pitch it. You should use a longer level. I don't want it level. Get rid of the water!"

I tried explaining to him that we pitch in between every bracket. I tried explaining to him that a 3ft level doesn't actually work for a number of reasons. I tried explaining that he can have it more level and look better, or more pitched and probably drop below the fascia.

"I don't care, just get rid of the water!"

Ok, cue the MC and we run that fucker hard. Sure enough it dips below the fascia. He has nothing more to say at this point.

Until we start installing the first downspout. He spent a solid 20 minutes bickering with me about how low the down should drop, and where and how I screwed in the straps. I'm talking about fractions of an inch here. Fractions!

Now most people do not give a shit about gutters. I mean when was the last time you actually looked at gutters? Usually I hang it, homeowner takes one look and says, "looks good!" So this was out of the ordinary.

So we continued, with occasional interruptions. We had to repitch more than one gutter to suit his liking. Then near the end of the day he brings us over to the other downspouts and berates us,

"Why are these downspouts not exactly where the old ones were? Why would you do that? I can't believe you wouldn't even measure!"

I tried explaining that we did measure, and we try to make them all uniform, unlike the old ones, and that he would end up having exposed screw holes (which we sealed) from the old straps no matter what. He wasn't hearing it. Also, as we was hard of hearing all these conversations were held at high volume. So we had to completely redo 2 gutters, since the outlets were cut in the wrong spots. He then went so far as to "help" us hang new downspouts so that they ended up where he wanted them.

"I can't believe I have to do this!" He says. Yeah, neither can I.

Then at one point we blew a fuse. I replaced it. Blew that one. Then when I ask him he says it's because we needed to use a specific brand for that fuse.

"Didn't they teach you that in shop class?" He says. Like I don't know what a fuse is.

Finally, after all is said and done I had a frank conversation with him.

He says, "I don't think they train you kids well enough." I agreed. "And they don't pay you enough." I agreed, and told him I was working 2 jobs, and my pregnant wife has 3 jobs.

"That's awful!"

I said the first curse word I'd used all day in his presence, "It's a fucking nightmare."

There was a pause and something clicked in his head, and he actually started tearing up. We talked some more about the state of the world and shook hands in a kind of solidarity.

When the job was finally finished, he bought us donuts and gave us a $25 tip each.

A story of frustration and redemption!

So some context here, so this doesn't get overly confusing and leaving people going "Wait what?" At one point in my life, my father opened a very specialized contract installation company. Toilet partition installation to be specific. In my spare time, when not in college, or working, I would assist him with everything from sales, to working on site, to anything in between. On paper, I was a partner in the business, but more accurately I was mostly just a jack of all trades.

As part of the job, I had to become well versed in the various ADA regulations as they applied to what we were doing. You might be surprised to find out that there's a whole host of laws that apply to everything from type of partition material, right down to how the doors swing.

So on to the story.

One job we ended up winning the bid on, was to completely rebuild (we call it a "new install") all four bathrooms and one changing room for a Veteran's lodge/meeting place. The owner had recently purchased an old gymnasium and had converted it to this half offices, half auditorium type structure. We headed in, took the measurements, then figured out what sizes of panels and doors we would need; as well as where to put the various grab bars, and second sink for wheelchair access.

The job was going fine, right up to the point we started to install the panels for the last bathroom, having already finished the changing room and other restrooms. We'd gotten the first panel drilled and the brackets hung, when the building owner popped in to take a look at the progress. Now, if you haven't ever used a public restroom in the US, let me explain a curious detail for you. At the bottom of every panel, and door, there's a roughly 18 to 24 (depending on standard at the time) gap. That gap is something that ADA requires, and failure to put it in place can get the installer, as well as the general contractor, and the owner, in some serious hot water. (I'll explain after this why it exists). So, here we were, doing the installation perfect to code; when this guy starts off on this rant that we're quote "doing it wrong." We stopped all work and I asked him what he meant. Dude just went off on us over how every partition and door had this gap on the bottom of it, and he didn't want that.

I remember my Dad saying to him "You mean you want the doors all the way on the floor?" The guy got pretty hostile about it, before saying that's what he meant. Dad and I tried to explain that the law said we had to do this with public restrooms; but the guy wasn't having any of it. He started yelling, going on about this, and that, and how he didn't care if the "Cripples" (his word) wanted something special, he'd hired us to do a job, and he wanted it done his way. Dad just turned to the crew, told everyone to pack up their tools, and informed the client that if he wanted us to do that; we'd need a signed letter from his lawyer saying to construct it to those standards. With that, we left.

The lawyer thing was actually pretty smart, in that I think my Dad knew that the first moment this guy ran the idea by a lawyer; the lawyer would go "wait, no, you can't do that". We were off the job two days when the guy's assistant or wife (maybe both) called and asked if we could just finish the job. It took another two hours to complete, and the invoice for work and labor was sent off.

We didn't hear from the guy until almost two weeks later, just days before the "you must pay by this date, or suffer fines and face a lawsuit" date came. His response wasn't to pay us, but to sue. His suit claimed we weren't licensed contractors, and had misrepresented ourselves to him, as well as failing to do the job properly and forcing him to have to contract with another company to get it done right. All told, he was suing for enough to try to bankrupt my father's company. Dad grabbed a lawyer, and the lawyer responded with a suit of his own for unpaid contract work.

I forget how long it took, but eventually the case went before a judge. The owner presented his case, showing images of the partitions now lowered all the way to the ground, as were the doors. The partition only came up just about shoulder height if you were sitting on the toilet. Same with the doors. What's more, the doors didn't really work, and would often get stuck on the tile floor. He even submitted statements from the second company, as well as quotes for cost of 'repair', labor, and so on. When it came our turn, our lawyer presented our own evidence, showing how we had performed our work, and then ended with a copy of the relevant ADA laws regarding partitions, and how this plaintiff was in direct violation of said laws, as well as how the contractor was also in violation. The question of licensing did come up, but thanks to the laws in our state, installers were not required to be licensed, as they aren't considered contractors.

The judge sided in our favor, and at the request of our lawyer, also sent a transcript of the trial to the ADA for review. I don't know what came of that, though I know the building went up for sale before the end of the year, while the veteran's group opted to keep their old property and location. The contractor that "fixed" things for him, went out of business not long after court.

We would use this case as a learning experience, and took some serious steps to prevent that kind of thing from happening again. In particular, we started giving all clients a copy of the ADA laws and regulations, with the relevant laws highlited; so customers couldn't come back and say "you're doing it wrong."

To the average person reading this, let me offer some advice. If the contractor tells you that there are laws preventing them from doing something you want... take their word for it. It may save you in the long run.

NOTE: Before I forget, you ever wonder why partitions and bathroom doors don't reach the ground? It's down to ADA laws and regulations. The ADA dictates several things about public restrooms, but the most important is that all partitions and doors must be raised 12 to 18 inches off the floor, as well as doors must 'swing neutral'. Meaning that they don't completely open on their own, but also don't completely close. The reason the law exists, is for safety. If a person suffers a medical event in a bathroom stall, emergency responders can simply slip under the door or partition to administer aid. This is more expedient than trying to get the door open. Furthermore, in the event someone is in a regular stall and suffers a seizure, or some medical event that incapacitates them, then responders can simply grab the person by the ankles and pull them out from under the door.

Link

First Post, Think this is the right spot, Suggestions are appreciated, Thanks.

Transformation Part 1

Here’s a story of, oil, riches and the tedium of wrapping up billion dollar projects. First thing you should keep in mind in oilfield is avoid the first 10% of a project and the last 10%. This is where the major fuckups are made and then dragged from the closet John Carpenters Vampires style, kicking, screaming and on fire. Second never ask for a layoff. Third … The Grass is always greener on the next site preferably Greenfield. ( A greenfield site is brand new construction, has yet to be commissioned, not yet violated by operators.)

In the beginning there was the most gravy of contracts (Henceforth referred to as Project Alpha), Money was made and spent hand over fist by all. Alpha was partially government funded. I was there a year and a half, and spent the last couple months winding down the site.

It was pretty good gig, scratch that, damn good gig. I at the time was just a lowly blue hat, bottom of the totem pole, first rodeo. Somewhere along the line my original crew was gutted in a mid project layoff and some dipshit’s on highs bid to make a “super” crew, the best of the best of the best, JTF2, Seal Team 6, Captain America, except they left all the grey matter still on the table after assembly. Basically anyone who never spoke up if there was a problem or kept better ideas to themselves, the brainwashed, the braindead. Leaving me in a crew of 3 including myself. Left to our own devices, no one to report to, nothing expected, the forgotten. This was our first industrial site so knowing no better we just kept on with what we had originally been tasked with, put a decent day in, avoided safety meetings, filed zero paperwork, and generally accomplished more in a day than the old crew of 8. Lies? Not a chance, it eventually became knowledge to me that this company expected; once all safety requirements were met, 2 hours of actual work to be accomplished in a 10 hour day, cut the bullshit out and we were now 4 to 5 times more efficient. The days flew by for about a week, good times, until the great eye of Sauron turned upon us, some took notice of a misfit crew that held a morning brief, never in the same spot, no lead hand, no foreman, and generally didn’t hang around too long.

Following day enter El Capitan (General Foreman: GF), I’m taking my turn rattling off the days bulletin as fast as I can in my best auctioneers voice, when I get a hearty “MORNING GENTLEMEN” from over my shoulder. Fuck. Boys we’d been had.

“Mind if I join your morning brief?”

“Sure Thing El Capitan”

These are the people that know exactly what is going on in their area or should. Slow it down, read the bulletin like there are those present who care. Stretch it out. Pull out the crumpled drawings we’ve been working off of over the last week and hand them out.

GF: “Stop by my office after you task your guys” Looks at my nametag on my hard hat “Sparky_Fig”

Damn he’s got my name now, should’ve scraped that thing off long ago.

“Wheres That?”

“West side Foremans trailer”

Little did I know there’s over 50 supervision trailers on the west side, narrow it down to trade specific, there’s still about 6. Wander trailer to trailer, asking for El Capitan. Each door leads to another world.

In one trailer the maw to hell is open, full grown men are bellowing at each other, office supplies are reaching terminal velocity; someone desperately fills the coffee machine (packs are ripped open with teeth in the same manner a medic opens quickclot), a blood ritual to appease the gods. I think someone didn’t refill the copier, I’m berated for interrupting and stealing the hole punch. He’s not here.

Another door, the stairs leading up to it reverberate with the roar of laughter, company computers are tapped into parts of the interweb where none should ever go. The coffee machine gurgles forth a thick nectar of caffeinated ecstasy, all mugs are full, their owners sated. I’m berated for interrupting this important use of company time and whoever the fuck you’re looking for, He’s not here.

Another door, ghost town, I’m berated by a non-standard company issued rodent for leaving the coffee machine on and the fridge door closed. He’s not here

To Be Continued...

F.I.G. = Fucking Instrument Guy

Hard Hat AKA: Lid, Brain Bucket, Turtle Fucker.

About to take my evaluation test for the pipefitters union here in Hawaii but torn between which trade to choose.

Hello All,

I'm a Municipal Engineer specializing in sewer work (point repairs, lining, etc.) I laid pipe for awhile while getting my degree, and I've been around the smell of money for awhile. We do a lot of construction administration and I've worked and inspected on multiple jobs involving that beautiful green pipe. One thing I've never known, and just have always forgot to ask, is how much does SDR 35 cost? I've been on the end of paying per linear foot, but that's based off of a Contractor's estimate of how much labor, material, and equipment will cost. I've never found a good source of the expense. Obviously it depends on the diameter and the supplier, but I was curious if anybody out there is either a pipe- layer/laborer/foreman of one of these crews that could let me know.

​

Thanks,

Reptilian_Brains

(my response)

Originally posted here.

This is a stupid story, but in my own defense it took place long ago. Really long ago. But if you’re looking for a story about how common sense isn’t really common, you’ve found one.

I’ve been working in roofing for most of my life. I started back in the 90s when I was young and stupid and needed a job that would pay well (and scare some sense into me), and ended up sticking with it. I do most of my work on the administrative side now since my knees can’t quite handle spending that much time up on the roofs, but I’m still in the industry close to thirty years later.

In the case of this particular story, I was roughly nine months into the job and I was convinced I knew absolutely everything there was to know about roofing. It was mid-august in the pacific northwest, and we were on a residential job.

It was supposed to be a simple on/off on an older 9/12, but as always, it was one of those jobs that just kept growing as we tore into it. Half the decking was bad. The eaves were a nightmare. The wrong shingles were sent to the jobsite. Two guys were fired for showing up drunk. And I was the young stupid guy who tried to grab all of the overtime.

On what was supposed to have been the last day of the job, we discovered that one of the sections finished off by a sub we’d brought in wasn’t quite right. The deck on that side was warped and, instead of pulling it up and throwing down more plywood (the smart answer) the sub working that side of the roof decided to just run with it and hope it’d work. The foreman took one look at it, and told us to earn some overtime.

Instead of letting a three day project turn into a four day project, the guys and I on the job decided to power through and finish things that evening. Which was a fine idea, except for the fact that the foreman was so worked up about the sub screwing things up that he was stopping us every fifteen minutes to tell us what kind of pike he’d be mounting the man’s head on as soon as he found him.

Eventually, us guys up on the ropes got sick of the foreman’s kvetching and I made my mistake:

I told the foreman to grab the truck and go fire the sub.

In my head, I was certain that the foreman would go find a phone (this was in the early nineties, remember; cellphones weren’t exactly ubiquitous), deliver the news, and get back to the site with the truck so we could pack up and get out whenever it was that we were finished, preferably before sunset. I was also fairly certain, in my naivety, that absolutely nothing would go wrong that would require someone on the ground to help us guys up on the roof.

About an hour or so goes by, fairly standard work. We’re all up on the roof, nailing the last of the shingles, when we hear a thunk from the other side of the roof where our ladders are. One of the other guys scrambles over the top, yells something at somebody, comes back over, and asks:

“Did you leave your wallet in the work truck too?”

The rest of us come up over the top to see that a group of kids had pulled the ladders down. They wanted a hundred dollars to run them back up and the wouldn’t budge on it. We’d all driven our personal vehicles to the job site but, as things usually went, ended up dumping our wallets and cigarettes and such in the work truck since it was parked closest to the site and having stuff you can’t afford to drop in your pocket is an easy way to screw up your week.

Which was a great idea, except for when the foreman drives away in the truck on a personal crusade and a bunch of kids steal your ladders.

You might be wondering at this moment how long it could possibly take to fire someone and get back to a job site. It was the 1990s, not the 1890s; tracking someone down couldn’t be that hard. There was no way we’d be stuck on that roof for more than, say, an hour, right?

Nope.

Four hours later, the foreman returned to the job site. Because he left his wallet in one of the tool boxes down on the ground.

Don’t leave your wallet in the work truck. And carry a cellphone.

WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Fjjj9U0Ps&t=8s

Originally posted here.

As we all know, hurricane Matthew cut its fair swath through Florida and the coastal states, and every time there’s a big storm contractors end up working overtime. In most cases roofers and laborers catch the majority of the work, but there are plenty of situations where electricians play their role. Most contractors will jump at the chance to work in a few extra jobs, especially when they’ve had a slow season, but there are some jobs that just aren’t worth it.

This is one of those jobs.

As a bit of background, I’ve been working in an electrician in the Belle Glade area for near to three years. Prior to that I worked for an electrical business back in New Hampshire that contracted out maintenance services for various commercial sites, and I haven’t quite gotten use to what I’ll call the “idiosyncrasies” of residential work. I made the move to Florida for the sake of my family and I don’t regret it one bit, but this story highlights the growing pains I’ve experienced as I’ve found my footing in this particular job sector.

One morning, roughly a week after Matthew had blown itself out, I received a call from a friend of mine who ran a waterproofing business. For those not familiar with the niche, most of the work is split between preventative maintenance to prevent leaks and some rather in-depth mold removal and structural sealing to make houses more habitable. In wet and humid places like Florida it’s a profitable business and I’ve had the pleasure of subcontracting with my friend multiple times when the situation warranted electrical work.

In this situation, though, it wasn’t a sub-contracting job. It was a referral. This client owned a home south-east of Belle Glade that had suffered not only wind and water damage from the storm itself, but also had issues with flash flooding due to an unfortunate lay of the land. In most circumstances this would have been something that my friend could have taken care of, but in this particular instance there was a confounding factor that made him pass on the job:

The house had a basement.

In Florida, a house with a basement is about as practical as a submarine with a screen door. They leak, they sink, they grow mold overnight, and they smell terrible. Most houses in Florida don’t have basements because maintaining one is almost impossible. Despite that, there’s been a trend in recent years of new-money families building McMansions that have, you guessed it, massive horrendous basements. These houses are typically “designed” by the owners and have all kinds of issues with their construction due to unreasonable deadlines. They only exist because the customers are rich enough to make it worthwhile.

I should have said no. I should have said that any house too damaged for a waterproofing business is a house too damaged for electrical work, but my friend had been convincing. He passed on the job, apparently, because he didn’t have the kinds of pumps needed to drain the basement and do the work. The client had understood, and had asked for a referral for both a commercially-oriented outfit who could handle that kind of a job and for an electrician who could repair the wiring in the basement after it had been drained. My friend, knowing my history of commercial electrical work back in New Hampshire, figured I’d be their best bet. He even told them to expect my hourly rate to be high, as I was a “specialist.” They said they’d pay any expense. I was naive. I took the job.

My friend put me in contact with the client, and the client and I worked out the details and scheduled an inspection. They confirmed that the basement would be, if not entirely dry, at least transversable without waders, and that I’d be able to work down there without much of an issue. The issue, as they described it, was that the main electrical panel was located inside of the bathroom in the basement and, in addition to re-running some wire that was damaged in the flooding, the main electrical panel would have to be relocated in order to bring things up to code. It wasn’t a small job, but over the phone it sounded like it fell well within my area of expertise.

I knew something was wrong when I showed up the next monday for the inspection, as scheduled, and passed a medium-duty service truck in the driveway that looked like it belonged to a construction company. When I arrived at the house, no one was home. Not a soul. I rang the doorbell three times, waited near to fifteen minutes, knocked on the garage; no one. My first call went to voicemail, but they picked up on the second.

In much less polite terms than my initial conversation, the client explained that no, of course they weren’t there. It was flooded. They were at work, their children were at a hotel, and I should have apparently anticipated all of this and not bothered them. It took me about ten minutes to make them understand that I couldn’t, you know, enter their house, without some way to, you know, enter their house. They eventually gave me the door code ending the call with instructions to “do my thing and get them the numbers.”

Despite my instinctive reaction to drop the contract and bill them for wasting my time, I dutifully entered the door code and made it roughly thirty feet into the house (mind you, they never told me where the basement was or how to get into it) before the smell hit me. Stagnant water.

It took me ten minutes to find the door to the basement (it was on the far side of the house for whatever reason). I found it by following my nose, which was a huge warning sign in retrospect. Hadn’t they drained the basement already? Wasn’t that the truck I’d passed in the driveway, just finishing up? Nope. Just opening the door to the basement told me what I needed to know. The basement was still flooded, it wasn’t just storm damage, and I was in over my head.

The water in the basement was more than ankle deep, and smelled like it had been pooling there for at least two week. I was lucky enough (read: lazy enough) to still have my hunting waders in my truck, and I avoided soaking my shoes. Once again, the basement didn’t look like it had been damaged by the storm; there weren’t any broken windows or signs that the water came in through a leak. Instead, it looked and smelled like it had come up through a drain. Not my job, thankfully.

After about five minutes of exploring, I found the “electrical panel” in the “bathroom” that wasn’t “up to code.” Like a medusa of corroded wire twisted and taped together at every opportunity, it lurked behind a hot water heater in the back of the basement. A foot off the ground. Next to the (clogged) drainage grate for the water heater. With dangling wires inches above from the water that I was wading in.

It took me five minutes to find that panel, and roughly fifteen minutes to slowly ease my way out of the death trap they’d sent me into. Sprinting up the stairs, going out the front door, finding the exterior cut-off and shutting the whole house down took maybe two.

I declined the job.

Referrals can be great, especially when you’re new to an area and you’re trying to get started. But sometimes you’re better off trusting your gut and saying no. And, as a rule, try to avoid wiring houses after hurricanes.

Hello,

My name is Eric and I’m a San Diego based mechanical engineer creating a product to hopefully make electricians’ lives better/safer.

I don’t know too much about the electrician trade, so I was hoping to survey a few electricians, in a 5-10 min conversational survey.

Not trying to sell anything, just want to make sure I’m creating something that electricians will actually find useful, and make sure I don’t spend the next few months in developing something that electricians don’t actually need :)

Can I ask for your help in finding electricians to talk to (over phone)? Any advice / referrals would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Eric

(Note: I know doing an online written survey would be alot easier, trying to start with conversational / phone interviews as it helps alot more to figure out exact pain points for electricians that I might not yet realize).

I worked as a tech & wh manager for 3 years before our dispatcher quit and I was promoted to his job. Why? Because I had the knowledge of our customer base, knew how to tell apart an Ice machine from a Reach In Cooler from an AC and could delegate which calls would go to which tech. Being the youngest person on my crew, I was also looked at as if i didn't know anything, which didn't work out for some customers or techs who thought they could put one over on me. Fast forward to today. I lost 2 of my main refrigeration techs at the same time due to their inability to handle the owner and his policies for work. We now have 4 technicians left. (2 refrigeration techs, one installer, and one maintenance guy.) I now have the job to break the news to my boss, and tell all of our contract customers who are on priority status, that their service calls are being pushed back and are on a Will-Call status. Fuck me, right? I wish they would find a different dispatcher so I could go alleviate some of this backed up work but they can't find anyone who does my job as well as I do it. I dunno, maybe I'm bitching too much. But it feels like my company is going sideways and not forward. In my 4 years here I have seen at least 35 techs come and go.

My life story TLDR: I was a service tech for a lower-than-above-board company. They taught me everything I knew. Went to a legit company, turns out I only know enough technical stuff to be a helper, as I didn't know shit about installs. Been trying to work my way up since.

So this company has two branches, one in City A (main office, big city, where I work) and one in City B (the sticks). They know I've been vieing for an installer position for a while, so they say, "hey, we just lost our technician in City B. If you wanna go, we'll make you the lead tech." so I said hell Yes. They had me living in the office, but after about a month starting there, we started talking about new making the move permanently. My understanding was that I'd go there, do one major duct job, then be back on installs. Nope! It was almost entirely new construction. I know ductwork well enough to do the project, but not well enough to be FAST. The first week I was there, they gave me my helper: the owner's 15 year old son who's never done ductwork or AC work in his life, can't tell dikes apart from tin snips, and starts every sentence with, "you know what's funny?" I left every job mentally exhausted.

But I'm working and trying to learn. So we get this new construction and the boss says he wants the ductwork done in one day. It took a day and a half, but overall, he was happy. Until he went to inspect it.

For those unfamiliar with ductwork, metal-to-metal joints are supposed to be bound with mastic tape, and metal-to-insulation or insulation-to-insulation joints are supposed to be bound with foil tape. After taping, you MUST squeegee the tape down, or it'll never stick to anything.

So on the second day of the job, I'm running flex lines, and helper is behind me, taping it up. I'm asking him intermittently, "are you squeegeeing everything?" and he says yes. As I get the last branch line tied down, the boss calls and asks how the job's coming along. I tell him Helper is just finishing up taping, we'll be done in like ten minutes. Boss then tells me that he expects me back in 45.

So I have helper cleaning up while I do my notes and we get the fuck outta dodge. That was around 2pm.

So around 3:30, boss calls me back to the job site. He shows me where some of the spots that needed tape were not squeegeed, some of the spots were arranged such that it would be literally impossible to have been squeegeed (as in the tape wasn't even stuck down), and he left a SHIT TON of trash, and even some new company equipment. The boss said that if it wasn't perfect when he came back the next morning, I could pretty much just not come back. This was Friday at 4pm...

So 8:30, I finally roll outta there. The text the next morning says, "Brother, why didn't you it this way the first time?"

That Monday was a lot of developments. In the morning, my boss said that I'd be staying in City B in a trainee position. Then they said I'd have to go back to City A for a week or so because someone's dad in City B has heart trouble. Then I call the owner, only to discover that the move back to City A is permanent, and I have to pack three car loads worth of my shit into one (I was planning on moving there, remember), and get out that night.

So now I'm back in City A and the status quo is restored, but I can't help but feel like I'm getting dicked both around and over. My trade friends and my girlfriend tell me I need to start looking for a new job. I'm so frustrated and confused right now. They gave me a 15-year-old unfireable helper with literally zero experience and expected me to finish a job AND teach him in the amount of time it would take to finish a job with an experienced helper. And then he lied to me and put my job at risk.

Greetings from /r/HVAC!

My mechanic (whom we'll call J) and I were tasked with changing an accumulator. Simple enough, right? Plus, I'm a helper trying to prove my way to being a mechanic, and he told me he'd let me handle it all by myself, so I was pretty excited.

... Until we got started that is. I realized something was up when 1: it's been 15 minutes and the homeowner still hasn't left the condenser and 2: J hasn't let me touch a damn thing in the work area.

Figured out pretty soon after that the homeowner wasn't gonna leave, and this made me pissed at him, because I also realized that J was doing all the work because he didn't want me to commit the offense of fucking up in front of the homeowner.

For those not in the know, it's difficult to use copper cutters to get an accumulator out, as there's not really a whole lot of room to put fittings AND more pipe AND the new accumulator back in the unit. As such, the preferred method (at least where I work) is to sweat it out with the brazing torch. The inherent problem here is that A: the accumulator, unsurprisingly, gets very very hot, making it challenging to actually pull it out of the unit, and B: accumulators produce phosphene gas when sweated, meaning you have to hold your breath and work fast.

So, the homeowner and myself watching, J pulls the accumulator out of the unit with some channel locks while making an incredibly uncomfortable-looking face. He holds it up and says, "don't touch this; it's hot" and tosses it off the platform. The homeowner walks over to the accumulator and starts bending down, so I raise my voice slightly and speak slower than normal, as if you were speaking to an over-curious child, "DON'T TOUCH THAT; IT'S HOT."

He recoiled from the accumulator ever so slightly (his face suggested that he'd caught a whiff of the phosphene gas). After a few moments, he stood up and started gently pushing the accumulator along the ground with his foot. I went back to the van and grabbed another set of pliers and took it away.

On top of that, the man WOULD NOT stop asking us what we were doing, and then scoffing as if it was a step we ought to skip. You know, as if he knew enough that he didn't need to ask, but was asking anyways.

HO: What're you doing now?

ME: I'm vacuuming down the system.

HO: Why?

ME: Because you only want refrigerant in the line set. Even a little bit of air in there can mess up the whole system, so we gotta get all of it out.

HO: Mm-hmm...

God forbid we waste even an ounce of the remaining ONE POUND of his precious R-22 from his 15 year old unit, though. It's not like he's not paying a stupid amount for the time, labor, and parts for what is essentially trying to fix old age with a liver transplant and a massive blood transfusion instead of cutting his losses and just getting a new unit.

Meanwhile, the install and service managers were fishing in the Savannah River, not a care in the world.

Hey everyone, I'm really curious about pursing a trade but don't know enough about each one individually to make a accurate decision. I'm a 19 Y/o who works for a local parks department we pour concrete to build shelters at parks, I work full time in the summer and part time in the fall/winter/spring. With all that my knowledge is very low to most of this so I came to ask for some general advice, Id appreciate it if you could help me out. Essentially what trade jobs are big right now, I like to work with my hands and Build things if that helps at all, how can I get into these trad field and and what sorta degree/ apprenticeship would be needed. Thanks guys

Went out to a service call a few weeks ago and found a 3 ton AC package unit flat. No pressure in it at all. It was running while I was there. The customer also ran it over the weekend. I looked at the serial number and thought it read the system was 14 years old.

Replaced the system today and found out the unit is not 14 years old. It is 4 years old. Compressor is still under warranty and instead of $4,000 to replace the system we could have fixed it for under $2,000. My boss is pissed because I told them the system is 14 years old and the customer decided to replace the system thinking the same thing.

I gave the office the mod and serial number with my initial work order. They just went of of what I told them.

I feel like shit. I just misread the serial number. It was an honest mistake. I don't even get any kind of bonus for the customer getting a new system.

Thanks for listening. Needed to get it off my chest.

I'm going to lay this out as a time line of the week so far. I apologize if it looks like I don't know how to type. I am doing this voice to text and I don't care how it looks because I am running out about 12 hours of sleep since Tuesday.

This week's forecast, extremely high temp and humidity with chances of severe weather.

Monday: hungover and exhausted from helping my father in law move everything out of his house because he sold it and try to move it all in less than a week.

Tuesday: on call tech calls me at about 9 a.m. and told me he has been on a Downed rental chiller at a cheese plant since midnight. He puts in about 14 hours on it then called it quits because Carrier chiller rental service tech is in route from Chicago. He goes home to catch some sleep before leaving on vacation Wednesday morning. I volunteer to start my on call rotation a day early to help out. I end up working until about 6 o'clock Tuesday afternoon and then go home and relax. My project manager calls me at about 8:30 to tell me to go to sleep and that I need to drive an hour and a half away as the chiller rental tech is unable to fix that unit so a replacement chiller is coming up from Indiana. Chill or should be here at about 2 a.m.

Wednesday: i end up getting home at about 5:30 in the morning. I should an email to dispatch to let them know I will be coming in late. Son is already coming up and I can't sleep when its light out. My wife has decided that we don't need curtains that actually do anything because the ones we have looks super cute. I failed fall asleep so I said fuck it and headed back into work at about 8. I end up running calls all day and get home at about 6 o'clock again. I'm asleep by 7:30.

Thursday: I'm back up by 5 and heading to go help a tinner install a makeup air and duct work because we are short handed. End up in an argument with a project manager who has royally fucked up a project that I sent him for next week. Pissed off for the rest of the day. Had to pull off the job multiple times due to heavy thunderstorms. Leave site early for apprenticeship meeting. During apprenticeship meeting my phone doesn't stop going off from notifications from our answering service. My service lead ends up taking a call or two for me while I am at the meeting. Luckily those calls are nothing serious and we're more just over the following updates on projects. Meeting gets out at 7 I start heading an hour and a half away to hit a service call. While on my way storm gets so bad at that I can't see more than 20 yards in front of my van. Customer and I both agree that call Ken wait until morning but he needs someone on site first thing. Primary technician for this site agrees to get it for me. Call comes in for downed chiller at data center. Rain and wins have somewhat stopped but tons of lightning still. I am NOT happy.

Get on site and realize I am way over my head. I am completely unfamiliar with this style of chiller and its controls. Call lead service tech for help three separate times and never hear back from him. I ended up shooting the primary technician for this customer a text to let him know I am on site, but I am NOT expecting any response from him as he is on vacation and most likely hammered.

Primary technician for this site calls me within 5 minutes and talk to me through repairs for about an hour.( as he is a member of this subreddit, I know he will read this. Eat shit douche canoe, I hope you're good and drunk until Monday) I ended up on site until almost midnight.

Friday: out of bed at 5:30. Heading to do some easy plan maintenance for a late back Friday. Can you guess we're this is going? Almost on site when call comes in for rooftop unit down at a factory about 2 hours the opposite way from where I'm at. No other technicians available, I turn around. Finally on site, maintenance guy escorts me to downed unit. Spend 3 hours trying to troubleshoot communication problems with this unit. At this time I realize it is not this unit that is having an issue. I find the maintenance supervisor and we figure out which unit is the one that is actually having problems. Meeting supervisor and I are both extremely frustrated with the maintenance guy who escorted me to this unit. No wonder I wasn't getting proper communication. Not even the same controls as the area that is warm. Spend another 3 and a half hours diagnosing and repairing equipment.

I am finally home and just want to crash.

Tomorrow(Saturday): apparently every other service technician that I work with is completely on available for a few hours tomorrow. I have family in town from New York who I only get to see a few times a year and it just happens to be my weekend on call. Not very fucking happy about it.

My on call rotation not end until Wednesday morning. Pray for me.

Went to a residential new home area. Guy in charge of all the construction (I'd imagine he's the foreman or contracting manager) has an issue that is plaguing his area. All of his brand new expensive refrigerators are spraying water all over the place out the front. Apparently, has already contacted two plumbers and they say everything is fine. As the warranty appointed appliance guy, I get sent to check it out.

I come to find out, well, the water pressure is just too damn high. 30psi than allowed for this fridge to work properly. So I tell the guy to just turn down the pressure on his valves and he just stares at me. Just stares and yells why I'm too cheap and lazy and don't care about the customer, why I won't even make an attempt to try to replace anything on his 20 expensive as fuck refrigerators. I mean, he's literally yelling at me inside some family's house while they're home and in the kitchen.

I went to the supply valve from the wall and turned it down, immediately the fridge stopped spraying water everywhere and went to normal. This guy looks at the fridge, looks at me and just stomps out in a fit yelling "whatever!" on his way out.

Asshole.

So I'm working on a rooftop today and I needed power. No problem, there's like 8 outlets around mounted on equipment disconnects. Not a one of them works of course. So I walk the exterior of the building to find one at ground level. Out other the 6 I find, only one works and it happens to be on the opposite corner of the building from where I need it. I have 150' of cord, it will reach. Nope, I'm all of 4 feet short.

Story of my life.

Fuck you to whoever had this account before me. When my company took over this account last fall, two of the four roof tops had bad heat exchangers that were clearly not recent issues. One of them ended up getting a new collector box, all new burners, & a new inducer. Now I'm doing the AC maintenance start up and I find that instead of fixing leaks on systems you just disconnected the contactor for that compressor. And then when the other stage developed a leak you did the exact same thing so now that rooftop unit is down. And then you've done the same thing to two other units on one of two circuits each.

I understand it's a small account that doesn't bring in much money. But god damn it that doesn't mean you can scab out and pull this shit. It's one thing if you where waiting on approval from the customer for the repairs but you never even made the customer aware of the issues. The same guy has been dealing with the HVAC for 15 years and he said you never brought up any issues when you did quarterly PM. At this point I see no excuse.

Fuck you, you fucking scab.

First real hot week of the year. 12 hour days. Monday off because of the holiday. Within my 90 days so no pay. What ever. Tuesday spend 3 hours cleaning and charging a system with five pounds of R22. Leak check entire system and nothing. Not a single bubble or beep. Wednesday get a call back on a pm I did a week ago. The customers carpet is soaked. The coil came off the rear deck and was just hanging there above the furnace dumping all the condensate. Had to cut a hole in the coil box just to get to the damn coil. Ended up slipping and taking the skin off my knuckle. The amount of blood was amazing. Thursday. Went through a ceiling. That was fun. Today I went on a quick condenser fan motor swap out. Ended up finding the motor was not bad and the system is two pounds low. Oh this was at 4pm. So in short. This week sucked. Looking forward to next week.

It's been a bit dead in here so I thought I would throw this out there.

What made the best shops you have been with the best and the worst shops the worst? Please, no shop names.

How many of you guys have fired customers? What was the reason or tipping point? Any backlash because of it?

The 10 commandments of the HVAC service tech: https://youtu.be/HnDcsLSL4dY

I've worked as a roofer in the middle of England for about 4 years now and i'm very glad to have found this sub as i've heard and been a part of a few tales over the years.

When I first started I was told this story by a guy at the builders merchants. Theres was roofer who worked for a company in my town who was using small hand held angle grinder to cut the pointing out of some brickwork to make way for lead flashing. As you may know using a grinder with one hand can be risky and in this case the grinder kicked back and cut off his pinky finger.

He went to hospital, but they couldn't reattach it for whatever reason, but he kept the finger.

Turns out he had been going through a turbulent divorce at the time and his now ex-wife went from being pissed off with him to mortified when she looked through the post and opened a package containing her now ex husbands pinky finger.

When I started out doing HVAC/R, I was a residential installer/helper before moving into service. As I'm sure anyone else here that has done residential work can attest to, people are fucking disgusting.

We got sent out to do an emergency furnace change out in the middle of winter. We were warned that the house was a little gross, but that was the under statement of the year. We came in through the garage and every thing seemed fine. The second we opened up the door to the house I started to dry heave. It smelled like a freight train with 50 cars of piss and shit had been unloaded in the house. We collected our selves and made our way down to the basement that smelled the same but with bleach mixed in. I'm guessing the homeowners tried to clean the floor up, which I was thankful for but we still were going out and getting breaths fresh air every few minutes. The dogs in the seemed to have confused the furnace with a fire hydrant because most of the sheetmetal on the furnace from about 6" down was gone. We could hardly get the furnace out of the house because there was not enough of the bottom of the unit to sit on the dolly. To top it off, I had to use my brand new mechanics gloves, as they were the only ones I had with me that day. They went right in the garbage that night along with my sense of smell for about a week. Thank god for plastic booties, my boots did not get ruined due to the smell.

It's happened to all of us, or will. First time for me, I was 12 months into the trades as a crane operator / sign installer, and was in a bad part of Jersey City, NJ on my cherry-picker, drilling some anchors into the wall for a new sign cabinet. It was a typical install and I had joined a co-worker who drove the cherry-picker and I had driven a pickup with some tools we might need. He was on a ladder drilling as well. So, out of the corner of my eye I see someone on a bike grab something out of my pickup, and my co-worker sees it and starts yelling and climbing down the ladder, and we watched as some crack head grabbed a Hilti PA gun out of the truck and rode off. He was long gone before we could do anything. My coworker was not surprised and told me I shouldn't have left that out like that. When I told my boss he said the same thing. I was from rural Colorado - so I was new to the big city. He told me - you don't leave shit out like that 'cause you can't trust none of these people. Lesson learned. Years later I had started my own company. I had a nice truck with tool cases, but I also had a lot of shit under tarps and I was spending a lot of days on the road at my jobs and staying in hotel parking lots - with lots of sketchy out of town contractors - but it never dawned on me they might rob my shit. Then my shit go robbed. Like I said, I had just started my business, and invested about $4K in tools, and had invested another $2K by then, and I lost about $2,500 in tools that day. Gotta always lock shit up. I had a coworker, an electrician with a little Chevy Colorado w/ tool cases, rack, etc. and always loaded with tools, cable, conduit, ladders, etc. He lived up in Lancaster on a desolate street way outside of town, and he usually left home about 4am, and went out to start his car 15 minutes earlier. Well, one day someone jumped in and stole it. Nope - even in those areas where you think you're safe - trust no one. Another subcontractor of mine - a nice, 70 year old guy, who'd been doing hydro-seeding / irrigation & grading his whole life and was down to himself and some part time help, but still working - and he had just bought a new bobcat and roller grader worth about $50K and got it stolen. He hadn't yet been able to get insurance. When I heard that, it was hard - I felt that guy basically just lost his retirement. Another subcontractor - he was a hood installer - and he had a steam cleaning / pressure washer trailer and was at Home Depot in San Bernadino around noon, and as he and his helper approached their truck and trailer, two guys jumped them, hit them both in the head with the butt of their pistols - took the keys, their phones, wallets, truck, trailer and beat them up. Lesson learned - fuck San Bernardino. I have so many other stories: - thieves stealing copper wire / pipe on vacant buildings / jobsites; - trusted employees using employers supplier accounts to buy $10's of thousands in materials for years before getting caught; - employees who steal from others, etc. until they get caught; - and I was going to say that and end; but I have one more that is a favorite: This happened to an ex-employer before my time. He was the inside GC for a major corporate campus, where highly confidential work took place, and everything was under tight security to ensure nobody took anything, took photos, etc. These are coveted contracts - I know because I've had several - and worth millions per year in work, but if you fuck up, you're done. So, this ex-boss was young and this was his first corporate relationship and he had some seedy employees, and something got stolen from a desk in the clients offices and they called in my ex-boss and laid it out for him how they had camera and security check point evidence showing that one of his crew stole something. They were letting him know that all his current contracts were cancelled and neither he nor his crew could enter the premises - not even to collect their tools; and they would be calling the police and pressing charges. My ex-boss was shocked and had no idea. He panicked. He expressed he had no idea, but asked them for details. They told him the time and date, and he figured out quick who he thought it was, and he told the client he thought he knew who it was and asked if they would not press charges if he could get the guy to return the stolen property within 8 hours. They were a bit surprised, but agreed. My ex-boss called the guy he suspected and told him they had him, but he could return the property. The guy showed up, turned it in and walked away. The client decided NOT to cancel my ex-boss's contracts and continued working with him; but that was lucky. I've never had an employee under my watch every steal from a client.

I never stop learning. My lesson from the past week was to pay more attention to my "rough" plumbing and electrical. We're setting finish / fixing issues with finish, and I've got water lines and electrical boxes behind painted drywall that are not secured. Nothing I can do now but tear out the drywall and secure the box / pipe. The client is complaining that the outlets and faucets are loose. It was bad workmanship by our subs, but our job to check it. I learned a lot more this week, but that's probably the most important. What did you learn this week?

I have not. I am a PM/Super and I've been threatened but never came to blows. I've heard stories though:

• An ex employer told me that his framing crew had an asshole inspector. They'd had enough and they were 2 weeks behind and their job was done. He was back again for the 4th time on the framing inspection, and writing up new corrections - all bullshit - so they got him up on the roof - 4 stories up. Once they got him up there, they brought up another 16 guys and the job card, and they cornered him not more than 8' from an unprotected drop off the eave, and when the inspector saw this he paused and looked back at the crew lined up against him. my boss and his guys stared the inspector down and handed him the card. My boss said "the framing is approved," and handed him the card. He took it and stammered for words, then signed it and walked away. If he hadn't, he would have been an obituary.
• Another 3rd person account: I had a superintendent working for us for under $60K. He was 65 years old and had built over 50 McDonalds. We were building fast-casual TI's and he was a pro. I asked him why he wasn't working for a GC building McDonalds and making more money. He said that he was blacklisted. After more than 50 McDonald's - one particular Owner's Rep / Construction Manager from McD's corporate had crossed the line for the last time, and he made the first move and pushed my employee, after which my employee knocked his ass on the floor. After that, McD's said he couldn't manage another job; but I loved that employee - he was a great guy and stood up for himself against a total asshole.