Horror stories?

[tilejoe]

Just curious about the terrible, awful, horrible install stories that are out there, whether it be insane HO or GC's or repair, anything.

This isn't really bad, but I have to share.
I just worked for a woman that was so disconnected from the reality of the working class that when the market crashed, she said, " you should go to the bank now and withdrawl all the money you will need for the next 5 years."
Sure, i'll do that.

My 1200 bucks are all gone, now what?

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[muskymike]

Hi Joe, you got more than me!! :lol1:

[scuttlebuttrp]

Wow Joe; I hope to live the highlife like you one day. $1200 all at the same time? :)

Not scary, but doing carpet in Ohio a long time ago I opened the roll of pad to let it expand. A piece of paper fell out and the lady of the house picked it up and went into a coniption. She started freaking out because the paper said that the pad we were installing was flammable.

"Umm, maam. You live in a house made out of wood."

She calmed down a bit then.

[tilejoe]

OK, so it was really only $4.00 in my account.

[Jim Farrell Tiler]

i were born in a shoebox int middle oft road

[Davestone]

We didn't have a shoebox,but we did have dirt to eat.

I was doin a Mexican tile job once and the woman was asking me all about it,and why there were stripes of yellow on the tiles.I explained how they stacked them in the ovens so the heat would get around them and then burned old tires to bake them down in Mexico...She went apesh*& and called off the job and bought ceramic, i never went back,quite the environmentalist.

I also did some accent stripes on a driveway,had to mud these little wire cut pavers,well the homeowner decides to move into the new house a week early,two moving vans drive up and start movin furniture across the new pavers cracking them like popcorn..got paid to redo them.

Another time i was doin a mall and the drywallers needed more drywall and used a forklift across the 8x8's,sounded like popcorn going off.

One time i sent my helper to 7-11 to get some drinks, an hour goes by finally the boss comes over and says my helper found a guy dead in his car at the store and had to go home.

One time i rang a doorbell, and through the glass saw a woman standing in the foyer,she says come in, i say"Creative tile" she says i know come in....she was naked....and not hot...me and my hleper waited outside till she got dressed,she said "i thought you were the cleaning lady"... :uhh:

Oh yeah one more, i was doin a job for three old ladies and they picked me apart, i mean pissed and moaned for three days about nothing,finally last day i had had it, one of them was in her socks skating around the room looking for high corners the other was on her hands and knees looking for pinholes in the caulk,finally the third says "sir..i say "yesssss" she says"Could you do me a favor and bring your caulk over and caulk the windows, they need it"...i say "What?I'm doin the tile not the windows"She says"well you've got the caul right there".,then the one on her knees says"Sirrrrrr...WHAT<WHAT<WHAT THE HELL IS IT NOW?"I cracked.I says"Ladies i am DONE,BYE!"

[olzo55]

let's see. as far as tearouts, i had to repair a mudbed that the drain was higher than the bed. the bed was also a collection of wood shims,cement board, pieces of tile and mud. of course it pooled some nasty water as well.

people wise. i've had a homeowner tell me that i would do her repair because she was wealthy. like she owned me or something. didn't do her job.

was in the house tiling when a vet came to put down their sick dog. everyone was crying so i asked if it would be ok to come back the next day. of course that was ok.

i knew in advance (the shop i worked at informed me) that the homeowner's mother was murdered during the night. when he came to the door to let me in, he told me about that and said he was tired because the cops had interviewed him during the night and he would be in the back bedroom sleeping. i kept looking over my shoulder and kept my hammer close by just in case.

[Davestone]

Okay i can't stop now
I did a condo unit and during the estimate the owners says he'll be up north and the condo manager will inspect it and give me the check,and he gave me his info.I finished the job the manager looks it over and says"Okay".. "How about the check?" says i....."What check?" says he?...problem...i had the owners bus. number and this was before cell phones..i could never get through to him, he wouldn't call me back...One day i call and by the voice could tell this was a temp girl or at least a different one,so i says i'm his brother in law and i'm standing at the airport waiting for them to pick me up but my call wouldn't go through to the house, she say "You mean this number?" .. Bingo..I call the home number about midnight, he answers pissed, i say "You owe me money",he says "How did you get this number?, i say "Cause yo owe me money." I got a check.

One more my last real bad job, i even made a thread about it on the Dirty Grout site.

I got a call about a saltillo strip and seal,and went over there with a couple different sample strippers,(i'm at least smart enough to do a test strip)in a condo 45 minutes away,a small 300 footer,went under the cabinet with a water based stripper, waited a few minutes and the sealer came right off.Okay, so i set up an appointment for a few days before Thanksgiving last year i think,and i figure one or two days.Well i go there and it turns out they had used at least four different kinds of sealers,they finally admitted, and some were even factory sealed.
I used at least five different strippers and every tool i own,day after day i was on my hands and knees breathing methylene chloride cleaning one tile at a time,with three applications of stripper, cause the saltillo sucks the wet stripper in and it dries too fast.I wound up driving an hour away and getting a product that was called Soy stripper, it was less caustic.....What a friggin nightmare,i couldn't get the tile completely stripped in some areas no matter what i tried,but it turned out looking pretty nice,but they were sympathetic and paid me,i had pics but i think i deleted them.

[Foochacho]

Olzo do you ever get any jobs in Flossmoor?
Seems like every job I get in Flossmoor has a crazy lady. Must be the water.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Had one lady offer us green hot dogs she was cooking. For some reason, we weren't hungry. :shrug: