I biffed this one!

Bid a 6/12 36sq house as 25sq. Then I threw a 8' 2x4 off the roof a couple hours before we finished. I'm usually very good at tossing boards precisely, but this time that sucker tipped a branch, flipped about 5 times end over end in the opposite direction and cracked the tail light lens on their lexus. I felt like an a**

Oh well, there has definitely been worse days around here! You all know what thats about!

:laugh: There is more. Because of inclement weather, Conrad was making panels in a family roof of the unoccupied segment of the house. We kept waiting for another panel, so I finally hollered and asked what the holdup was. He answered "BB's! They're all over the floor!" I said that was OK as long as they hadn't been shooting in there. A few minutes later, I hear, "Frank, you better come look at this..." Well, my favorite underlay is skip sheathing...... Building was just a shell with 20 sq. of tin up there. Looking up through the joists and rafters in the unlit building was like looking up at a starry night... :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

I just wish that episode in my life ended on that note, but no, there was more to come.........

The tail light was the cheap part, although I just found out it was $400 before installation! Woody: I bet that Ferrari light would be double now, or more.

The rough part was the underbid. 11sq x ~$335/sq But still, we've definitely had worse losses. My Dad's worst loss involved re-painting a van and several other issues, then when he went to collect the final check, the dog bit him!

I could picture all these stories as if I was there, it was great yet heart-stopping at the same time. I hope I never have one as personally invasive as your's, Frank. :(

Oh, yeah, I've had a few "biffs" in my career. Gotta love 'em. Most have been a lot more expensive than a tail light.

I have missed materials. Eagleviews have really eliminated that.

Frank, when it comes to mishaps you definetly lead the pack.

:laugh: I watched an open 3-gal. bucket of Karnak Ultra slide off a 12 onto a patio with glass tables, lots of chairs, plants, etc. When I got down there, I found the bucket upright and not a single splash of mud anywhere! :woohoo: :woohoo: Missed all the furniture too.

Many years ago,I left my stepson to paint a new tin roof on 2 conjoined historic houses with a huge deck along and around the conecting hall. He had 5 gal. buckets of Terne11 and he set that up on the new deck. :woohoo: :side: :S Well, I get a call. :ohmy:

The two Golden Retrievers had overturned a bucket on the deck. Both dogs now resembled Black Labs!. :woohoo:

BTW, the house has a huge doggie door! :woohoo: Dogs had free run of the house too..... :ohmy: House had new paint, new floors in some areas too. :S

Maybe I'll let you know more later....... :( :(

I used to get all sorts of calls about low dollar items getting broken or torn up when I was sub-contracting the work out to other crews. I would just ask the client what would it take to make it right and then do whatever was necessary according to their response.

After doing that for many years, I worked alone for about a year with no problems until I let my nephew help me on a job one weekend. I made the mistake of letting him tie one of the ladders on the rack, the home owner grabbed my attention about something else and I forgot to check the ladder he tied before taking off. Sure enough, we're going down the freeway at 75 mph and the ladder comes off with an 18 wheeler behind us. The big rig barely avoided hitting it as it turned long ways covering up both north bound lanes. Then it spun around the other way, hit a metal railing on the side of the interstate, tore up the bottom two rungs and the feet of the ladder.

That was 2 years ago and I've been working alone every since. Haven't had any such problems but I'm not perfect. It'll happen sooner or later. Been lucky so far I guess. I was changing out a power fan on a steep roof with a patio full of furniture, expensive gas grill and some glass tables below when I dropped the old fan and it went sliding down gaining speed as it went. All I could do is watch and grit my teeth. Fortunately it missed everything and didn't do any damage. :huh:

The old tossed 2"x4" always seems to grow wings or legs when someone throws it off the roof. Had an employee smash an ornamental claw flower pot imported from Italy one time. I had moved it out into the middle of the yard so it would be "safe". His reasoning was that he threw it out there so he wouldn't hit anybody.

It is always amazing when you go to the extra length to protect something that the enviable happens. Like the time I removed a satelite dish and placed it on a patio table on the far corner of the deck to keep it "safe". I told a gopher to take the box of nails down on his next trip as we were cleaning up and I was capping off the roof. There was a roll of felt behind the box of nails and the idiot walks by and picks up the box of nails by the plastic straps and the roll of felt takes off. It was if that sucker had eyes. It angled off down the roof at full speed and makes the jump to the corner of the deck and breaks the satelite dish. Job profit gone in 3 seconds.

"Logic in decisions" does not exist in some people. I had one guy that everytime you asked him to do something he would start to say "I was thinking". My lead hand got so tired of him saying that he finally snapped and said "He hired you to work Bill, not think". That morphed into me saying "I hired you from the neck down, go back to work" when I've had some hire trying to manage the job.

Frank, that's hilarious because his "logic" was flawed. I always tell my guys that if they have any logic behind their decisions, I will usually understand.

Twill: yep, you know it. If it ain't me, it's my guys that mess something up. Or they just slow down for no particular reason. You know how hourly guys are, but to be fair, they work their ass off most of the time.

Luckily, last month may have been the best month we have ever had during our 27 years of business. Per man hour, without a doubt.

:( I had an employee complain every day about the extra distance he had to walk around a greenhouse on a job. :unsure: So later, when he tossed a 2x4 off the roof and through the specially curved $300. a piece glass, he said "I didn't know that was there." :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

I should have killed him on the spot! :angry: