construction stories. the good and the bad

Tonygreen said:

I guess I'll start when I was 15 and we were roofing my aunts barn. Her son my cousin was a real lazy fuck would never do no work and general burn out all around. So that day he is helping us roof the barn and we had 2x4's tacked in to walk across as we worked our way up because it was too steep to stand so I carry up a load of shingle and step off the ladder onto the 2x4 and my dumb ass cousin had put one nail in it right in the middle... down I went. lol... 6'1 250 down the drain lol... still feel that one! Landed flat on my back, saw a flash of light and couldnt walk for about 2-3 weeks lol...

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Lucky guy you are...

Sir_Syzurp said:

So... one day I'm out doing a round of pick ups of granite slabs to take back to the shop for fabrication. I pull up to the slab store, they load me up with 8 10'x9' slabs of some red shit called Iron Ore Red each slab was worth like 6 grand. I get loaded up and my buddy who was my helper at the time was in the bathroom and comes out running towards the flatbed. I didn't get what he was going to do at first, but then it hits me and I see him accelerate, "He's about to jump" I tell myself... let me back up and give you some quick background on this guy, anything where there is a minute chance at getting hurt, this is guy that gets hurt... so back to the story. He comes barreling towards the truck and leaps trying to jump on to the back of the bed, well he makes it, but overshoots and slams face first in to the sharp side of the slab, splits his cheek wide open. So we clean him up and get him bandaged and super glued up pretty well, enough to stop the bleeding. We hit the road finally and are on the way to the job site. Because of all the weight and value of the slabs I am driving 5-10 under the speed limit the whole way, as I approach one of the biggest intersections in the city as far as traffic is concerned an ambulance sitting at the red light of the other side of the intersection flicks on his sirens and doesn't perform a intersection check, he just books it as fast as he can. As you can visualize at this point, traffic on my side of the intersection is moving at 45-50mph in what is a 6 lane moving intersection with 10 lanes total including right and left turn lanes. So the ambulance comes shooting in to the intersection causing a lock up, luckily nobody gets in to an accident but people are sideways and in mid intersection... I see the mayhem and apply my brakes as slowly but steadily as I can but my truck begins to skip because of the weight of the slabs. I come skidding in to the intersection on the far right trying to avoid hitting anyone in my lane headings, but just my luck on that day, the ambulance was right there as I was skidding and it t-bones me, snapping all of my slabs in half (almost $49,000 worth of slabs), but that isn't the worst of it. The ambulance was found at fault and come to find out at trial they were carrying a patient who was ok at one point, but flatlined the next moment unexpectedly, and they lost them in the ambulance because of the accident.

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Thats really shitty. All because that driver failed to do his job for one moment someone who would have been fine died.

The slabs man. Fuck sakes people just dont realize how much money their ignorance can cost the next guy. Id be kicking that drivers ass or at the very least scaring him to death with my excellent yelling skills... Im not joking i am a pro at yelling at people...

Your helper. Classic... Ive had those guys you are convinced are gonna kill themselves on their site. This one joker, kyle man he was a monkey... I saw him swing from high bay light to high bay light to access a area we couldnt get to otherwise. It was the single most fucked up thing ive ever seen, he made it through that one but ive seen him get hurt so many times. Hes missing pieces of his fingers from pulling stunts with saws. Not one piece but fucking pieces.... Dont you learn kyle? Hes like learn what? You say safety he says safety is for people who will outlive 30. Crazy fuck...

Anyone here ever work on a roof on a chicken ladder? I have and hate it so much.

ok so I was like 18 now and my manager at work was gon out of town, he had a tree in the back yard he wanted taken down. $500 was the bounty. I was all in.
So I got smart and got a pole saw rented. Three days later his entire back yard was chest high in shit. Took me three more days to saw it up into pieces heh. Two days to Haul it off in the trunk of my box top chevy a load at a time. 500 bucks ha!

His neighbor comes out and has me look at a tree in his backyard. Says he wants just the top taken off and how much will I charge. Oh its pretty high, $500 outa cover it. I figure ill make up for the shit job I was just finishing. I wanted the money so bad I dont bother gettin someone to help, like foot the ladder...

So Im up about 30 feet with a running chainsaw and the ladder kicks out and down I go.

Splat.

Couldnt even yell for help. Bruised chest walls are a bitch. 5 weeks downtime on that one.
Guy eventually came out and called an ambulance, slid the 500 in my pocket...

When I was young safety and estimates were not my strong suit.

Tonygreen said:

ok so I was like 18 now and my manager at work was gon out of town, he had a tree in the back yard he wanted taken down. $500 was the bounty. I was all in.
So I got smart and got a pole saw rented. Three days later his entire back yard was chest high in shit. Took me three more days to saw it up into pieces heh. Two days to Haul it off in the trunk of my box top chevy a load at a time. 500 bucks ha!

His neighbor comes out and has me look at a tree in his backyard. Says he wants just the top taken off and how much will I charge. Oh its pretty high, $500 outa cover it. I figure ill make up for the shit job I was just finishing. I wanted the money so bad I dont bother gettin someone to help, like foot the ladder...

So Im up about 30 feet with a running chainsaw and the ladder kicks out and down I go.

Splat.

Couldnt even yell for help. Bruised chest walls are a bitch. 5 weeks downtime on that one.
Guy eventually came out and called an ambulance, slid the 500 in my pocket...

When I was young safety and estimates were not my strong suit.

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Im big on safefy. Im not fucking overlord 2.0 safety robot but ive seen some horrific shit happen on the job. Thats not the whole reason why tho.

My grandfather buzzed off 3 fingers with a circular saw right in front of me when i was a kid. He got mad i laughed at him, he said "why you laugh boy? " i was like 5 years old i said it was dumb to cut yourself with a saw. He said i was right... We were about a 3 hour drive from the hospital. My grandfather decided it was easier to say fuck the fingers lets have dinner rather than try get tjem attached. It stuck with me and ive always thought people who are not careful with dangerous tools deserve to get taught a lesson.

Ive even learned the hard way, i was rushing with the table saw when i was 19. I was trying to build a box around a window (to hide hps light this was in my home where i was growing) and i was pushing ply through way to fast. Saw caughti it wrong, bucked it amd i almoat lost hal of my left index. I never fucked around again with safety, those thimgs stick with you. I felt so dumb...

Im glad you were alright after your falls tony. They could have been the fucking end of you so im glad your turned out to be ok after them. In a way it probably was good they happened the way they did... Taught you a lesson without killing you...

Most of us who work safe either learned our lesson or are given to common sense. Most guys ive worked with tho have no regard for safety. None of my guys did until i beat it into them.

Laat year i started a deal with them. Everyone who goes accident free (small cuts and bitch shit excluded) for the year gets a bonus. Three quarters of themgot that bonus last year.

Hey i wanted to throw it out there, big thanks to everyone whos added a story to this thread. Im greatly enjoying it and hope to keep it going and hear many more.

There are some really great stories in here. Its cool because everyones experiences are so different on the job.

Hey any other bosses out there? If anyones got any goodies to share involving their dummies let us know. Ill wait on mine a bit or until someone else posts one. Even if you arent a owner, foremen, supers, anyone in charge, if you have a good one let us know

I've got a few, I was lead estimator and warehouse manager for my families high end flooring and countertop company. The ambulance story is probably my worst though...

So another one, we are working on Mike Tyson's house, who at the time lived about 5 doors down from Wayne Newton. Mike wasn't home at the time, so Wayne comes over to check out the work we are doing on the home. When he comes by one of our setters gets excited and jumps up to approach Wayne and introduce himself. He starts walking towards Wayne, but wasn't paying attention. We were prefloating and waterproofing the second level deck outside, and the setter steps right in to a 3" pour of deck mud, then while trying to high step out of the deck mud he trips and falls knocking over the 5g waterproofing bucket and lands right in to the goop from the bucket. Poor guy was probably so embarrassed. Needless to say Wayne still shook his hand and bullshit with us for a few while we cleaned up the mess and did some more floating.

Our fabrication shop is full of dumb shits who don't mind safety and only care about production. One of our old employees lost an eye to a blade getting kinked in a slab and shattering because he constantly refused to wear safety glasses. Have seen fingers cut off a couple times, saw a guy practically get crushed in between 2 slabs because he wasn't paying attention to his body position when the slab was released from the forklift clamp, was ok but broke some ribs and an arm.... My same helper who busted his face open had a solid 1 piece 18' granite column fall on 4 of his finger tips and completely blew all of the meat out of them, too many stories to tell.

Sir_Syzurp said:

I've got a few, I was lead estimator and warehouse manager for my families high end flooring and countertop company. The ambulance story is probably my worst though...

So another one, we are working on Mike Tyson's house, who at the time lived about 5 doors down from Wayne Newton. Mike wasn't home at the time, so Wayne comes over to check out the work we are doing on the home. When he comes by one of our setters gets excited and jumps up to approach Wayne and introduce himself. He starts walking towards Wayne, but wasn't paying attention. We were prefloating and waterproofing the second level deck outside, and the setter steps right in to a 3" pour of deck mud, then while trying to high step out of the deck mud he trips and falls knocking over the 5g waterproofing bucket and lands right in to the goop from the bucket. Poor guy was probably so embarrassed. Needless to say Wayne still shook his hand and bullshit with us for a few while we cleaned up the mess and did some more floating.

Our fabrication shop is full of dumb shits who don't mind safety and only care about production. One of our old employees lost an eye to a blade getting kinked in a slab and shattering because he constantly refused to wear safety glasses. Have seen fingers cut off a couple times, saw a guy practically get crushed in between 2 slabs because he wasn't paying attention to his body position when the slab was released from the forklift clamp, was ok but broke some ribs and an arm.... My same helper who busted his face open had a solid 1 piece 18' granite column fall on 4 of his finger tips and completely blew all of the meat out of them, too many stories to tell.

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I got my start as a hardwood flooring guy. It will always be my favorite thing i do. I do mostly everything, i can run almost any equipment or machine going, and laying hardwood floor will always be my favorite.

Haha ill take the taste of sawdust over drywall anyday.. Hell half my tattoos probably have a little sawdust in them cause i go to work with freshies all the time. Come home and the tattoos got all sorts of sawdust on em. Imnot worried tho, never got an infection. Probably that shit gets sterilized, cuttings a hot process.

Thanks sir syzurp for the stories. Especially letting people know the dangers of construction when you arent careful.

PLAY IT SAFE PEOPLE!

I've seen my dad on a chicken ladder plenty of times.luckily he's never had any serious injuries. I will not get on a chicken ladder on a roof.and floating floors are a pain in the ass

shithawk420 said:

I've seen my dad on a chicken ladder plenty of times.luckily he's never had any serious injuries. I will not get on a chicken ladder on a roof.and floating floors are a pain in the ass

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Fucking chicken ladders... They are fucked to work on. I hate heights...

Yeah i instal floatin floors but i was a solid hardwood guy when i started, and thats still where my heart is. I do high dollar instals referral only now. I dont lay just any floor anymore, i have to feel it or i pass on the job. While i love flooring to death, if its not my job i know it right away.

I wish I could choose which jobs I can take.I'm lucky to get one.I might have a dome to roof though.now that is scary.no harness either

shithawk420 said:

I wish I could choose which jobs I can take.I'm lucky to get one.I might have a dome to roof though.now that is scary.no harness either

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I do alot more than just floors. I dont take low end floors because they dont pay well. Also because i cant put my heart into those types of floors. I need to really feel it and make some coin to take myself away from the 6 other projects i have on the go always.

I instal floor by myself. Any of my guys could help me but i do it myself. I like to be alone when i do them, that way when its done i can look at it, the whole thing is all me. I guess i just feel different about flooring. Its where i got my start, theres this kind of nostalgia. My guys know not to bother me unless they absolutly have to when im installing hardwood. Ive yelled a couple times because one of them fucked up my flow. Usually have to spark up ro get it back.

Sorry to hear you have a hard time finding work man. Also sorry to hear about your upcoming dome. No harness eh? Cound me out. I dont take shit like that i wouldnt take the risk myself or one of my guys who i care for deeply fall to their death or paralysis... I wish you the best shithawk. If you feel like posting pics of the work in progress (if you get a chance to do so from somewhere safe) i would love to see them and im sure many here would.

Well maybe.might be to easy to track me down if I did.I got some old jobs I might post pics of if its safe to do

shithawk420 said:

Well maybe.might be to easy to track me down if I did.I got some old jobs I might post pics of if its safe to do

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Take pics of it while you are working on it man. I do it all the time The work wont look anything like what it did in progress so no one would ever be able to link them.

But if you are not comfortable i wont push you. Its better to be safe than sorry, if you think someone might link it then of course its not wise to post a pic

. No matter what tho i never post pics of finnished work, because that shit people recognize. That just asking for someone to notice and poke around. Or some random dick who lives in a condo building you just worked on to realize, hell i know this work its outside and i even talked to them about it... Not good. I stick to incomplete work.

Oh and before bed, before i forget. I removed 1200 feet of fence with myself and 4 guys today. So the jackass who built the fence did cement the posts in, technically, however they put buckets in the holes they dug, put cement in them and put posts in those. For real, im serious and heres a pic. Its fucked in the head. Needless to say im leaving that shit. Id charge alot to dissuade a motherfucker from trying to contract us to remove that shit...

Here you go folks. Hack 2.0 what not to do in fence building. Fuck sakes.

Lol!it probably won't be for at least a week but I'll try to post pics

shithawk420 said:

Lol!it probably won't be for at least a week but I'll try to post pics

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have a good night man.... That would be cool.

Not a very exciting story but,I was on the job site and I had to take a piss.so I go behind the tarp.when I'm done pissing I walk out from the tarp and a hammer goes flying 40mph literally just inches from my head.one of the older workers was simply too lazy to put the hammer back so he thinks throwing it is a better solution. I don't know if I would have lived if it had hit me in the head.I still cringe when I think about it

shithawk420 said:

Not a very exciting story but,I was on the job site and I had to take a piss.so I go behind the tarp.when I'm done pissing I walk out from the tarp and a hammer goes flying 40mph literally just inches from my head.one of the older workers was simply too lazy to put the hammer back so he thinks throwing it is a better solution. I don't know if I would have lived if it had hit me in the head.I still cringe when I think about it

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Its unlikely you would have lived dude. I cringe with you. Id beat the shit out of one of my guys and throw them off my site in a heartbeat. Ive told them all that, if i see a flying tool pray i dont kill you. No one would consider it after the last incident. I pushed one of the guys out the door and locked it behind him. I brought him what i owed him in cash that night and told him he will never work for me again. I also will not give a referance and if anyone calls asking about how he was i would tell them what he was terminated for and it was the second time i had a isse with him and safety.

Well today was fucked up. One of my guys took a call, from his kids school. I let dads take those calls and leave without a word, i understand that shit. Anywey so his kid got caght smoking crack at school. So he says he has to go get him. Little fuck was expelled from public school. I told him i needed him at the site and ill go get him. He looked disturbed and way like "what you gonna do to him O"? All my guys call me O...So i told him hes coming to work. Hes he said i dont know hes only 16. I told him its not a option and if he likes his job hes going to thank me. He did thank me and then i left. I went to pick his kid up and the cops were with him outside of the school in the lot.

I got out and threw him a hard hat and a pair of boots i picked up along the way. The cops asked me who i am. I said im his dads boss and now his boss because hes kicked the fuck out of school. The cops told him hes so lucky he got a job less than a hour after getting kicked out of school. He was freaked out i had his boot size, i laughed. Buddy i asked your dad. Fucking dummy. The cop asked what i do and i told him everything. I hate plumbing tho so i make my guys do that 100%. They asked if hes getting paid or if im going to work him as slave labour. This little fucker is going to make 2 grand a month, he dosent pay rent and he has to work 4 days a week. Hes got a sweet deal but now hes got no choice. Hes going to be a construction worker and thats just the price hes going to pay for being a fuckhead and blowing his future. Where else is going to teach him skills and pay him a salary many wish they made for a 4 day work week.

So he didnt want to talk in the truck. I introduced myself with my name, then told him everyone calls me o. He should as well on the jobsite. He asked why o, my name dosent start with o. I told him nevermind that, none of my guys know.I told him all i expect is a good days work and he does what hes told. When i show him something pay attention or you could get killed. He asked if this was his dads idea. I told him no, i didnt give his dad a choice and if he had have argued i would have told him to find a new job. He asked if i would have really fired his dad if he argued i told him i dont fuck around. I told him he was going to work with me, every day, all day until i decided i didnt need someone to bring me my water or tool bag or read news off the internet or articles i told him to read. Ill pay for entertainment plus it will teach him something along the way. I like learning and if he dosent, too bad he will anyway.

I brought him back and told everyone they were to tell him to get any tool they wanted, drinks, smokes (i provide smokes if guys run out, i figure whats it, 10 bucks to keep em working, so i give up a pack of mine from the truck) i dont care, if they want or need something hes getting it. If he argues i want to hear about it right away. I told him a would glue him to the wall with construction adhesive if i had to.

So off he went. My guys made him lift a 200 pound slab for no reason, move it across the yard and then bring it back and level it. Litterally no reason. Then i told him i needed him to bring me my tool bag from my truck. I have 4 bags 2 of which are hand tools. So he cane and asked which one. I told him i needed all of them i cant remember which i needed. So he brought them, in two trips. I laughed my ass off, my bags are about 100 pounds each. I picked out my favorite hammer, a estwing hammer and a flat prybar. I told him take this shit back and go get me my sledge hammer and 3 foot pry. So he brought them back, got me my shit then i sent him to the store for a couple monte cristos. Theres a cigar shop close to our site today.

I demoed another huge fence today while my guys worked on putting up the replacement for the one i finnished destroying last. I do all the demo, i love it. I love wrecking shit. Im stupid fast at it too. My favorite tools are hammers, especially sledge hammers and tye engineers hammer... I like breaking peoples work and replacing it with mine.

So back to the kid. He watched me smash, saw and drive my truck (which has a huge push bumper just for smashing fences and wildlife that sadly jump infront of my truck, i much preffer its primary use of fence wreckin...) though a shitload of fences. He stepped on a board with a nail in it and it got stuck in the sole. I laughed and told him to wait im coming. Out comes the cats paw and i pryed it out of his sole. It didnt go through the shank of his 300 dollar boots. I told him chill its fine and he will live. Thats why i bought the fucking things.

We worked his ass half to death, made him do all this bitch shit, but i bought him dinner, smoked a few joints with him, gave him his first cuban cigar (with his dads permission after a hard day where he earned it) and a hundred dollar bonus and probably a half o of weed. He said this was the only time stuff like this happens, because hes new right? I laughed and told him thats how we roll here. Dont expect hundred dollar bonuses everyday but if you dont have a lunch ill buy you one. No one goes hungry when they work with me. Ever. If you are hungry get some food i pack millions of protein bars, fruit, juice, fresh bread almost every day, nuts or if you need a hot meal go get one, ill even pay, bring back for everyone. Sometimes i need a hot meal and know its a real boost.

My guys pour their heart into their work because im good to them, pay well and ontime, and make sure no one ever goes without. I take guys for beers, buy beers as bonuses after hard days, i leave and get a pack for everyone. I do what i can in exchange for quality, fast work and all i ask other than that is respect my tools, respect me, never steal anything, ever, and show up on time and do what the team needs to succeed.

Well my guys kid was impressed and realized hes the luckiest almost crackhead alive. I was alot nicer than he thought i would be, and not as scary as most people with so many tattoos are as he put it. Well maybe he will be lucky, never piss me off and i wont be mean as he put it. I doubt it tho, im sure by the end of the week ill have already yelled in his face. You never know tho, his dads a master carpenter and a really hard worker. Maybe he will really turn out.

Lets see. Maybe he will be like my other drop out and do a good job. I hope so, because if he dosent hell awaits...

Wow.I'm impressed dude.but if true be careful.he might brag to his crackhead friends and try to steal your tools.I've seen it happen too many times.hehe I've used the cat claw to pull out nails out of my boot too.lol

interesting stories... I did all kinds of construction as a kid from framing ,concrete,cabinets,roofing ect ect ect....no serious accidents.. but I did once modify a nail gun and some dumbass got a nail in their hand......Safety first unless its fun then the hell with it....yeehaw