Lots of you know that I am involved in the nanotechnology world but I am revealing to the Steemit family that I am also a Plumber and Gasfitter by trade.
Yessir..that is true.
I own a plumbing, heating, gasfitting and air conditioning company as well as saving the world with nanotechnology.
Figured I have a few stories from being in the trades for 26 years. Let's see if anyone else likes them.
I will start with this one.
Is it a wild tale about getting heat back on at -45 degrees Celsius in Northern Canada. Nope
Is it about finding jewellery for people when they flushed it by accident and being a hero. Nope.
This one is about destroying a water main line.
I started my company in 2001. About 2 years into it I was working with 2 guys I had hired. A journeyman and a brand new apprentice. The apprentice had trained as a chef and had decided to change careers.
We were working on an old warehouse that hadn't been used for a long time ad were bringing the water and sprinkler system back on line so that the building could be leased out.
When it was the sprinkler test time 2 of us spread out throughout the building while my other journeyman opened the valve to fill the system. Immediate regret. In the space of 20 seconds we created an infamous "Alberta indoor typhoon". Every single joint in the entire system spewed water.
We began yelling to have the water shut down and that may have panicked my helper a bit and he slammed the valve shut. For those of you who haven't heard of water hammer this is how you create it.
Wikipedia: Water hammer is a pressure surge or wave caused when a fluid in motion is forced to stop or change direction suddenly. A water hammer commonly occurs when a valve closes suddenly at an end of a pipeline system, and a pressure wave propagates in the pipe. It is also called hydraulic shock.
This shock can be immense. The pipes jumped and threatened to tear from the ceiling. We kinda shat our pants.
But...it didn't fall and the hammer effect only lasts for a second so we were free and clear.
Righttttttt......
As we assessed what had happened I heard water running through the main water line where it came into the building. I knew immediately what had happened.
We ran outside to see an eruption in the middle of the road and a water volcano erupting forth. The hole was about 20 feet in diameter and had lifted the asphalt about 4 feet.
The main waterline...serving an ENTIRE industrial park....was spewing out what I envisioned was the biggest lawsuit I would face. This line fed 3 gigantic lumber mills, multiple oil and gas facilities, and approx. 25 other associated service businesses. I was shutting them all down.
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We called the local municipality to alert them what had happened and while we waited for the Reaper to descend on my dreams of ruling the plumbing world my new chef turned apprentice looked at me, smiled, and said with the happiest look on his face..
"Plumbing is fucking cool!"
I couldn't help it as I burst out laughing and realized that there is always a different side to every moment.
My favorite memory of my apprentice Jay.
Oh...it all turned out great. The pipe that broke was actually the last old part of the system that had not been upgraded. No one was using the warehouse so they decided to save money and not replace it until needed. I just made them need to that day.
My company stayed in business, we succeeded in fixing the warehouse and I made some money.
Being a plumber is cool..some days way cooler than others.
Would love to hear from my fellow tradespeople if something similar happened to them.
Thanks for listening.