Responding to a friend who posted this on Facebook






Years ago me and a partner accepted a contract to complete a warehouse loft in Brooklyn. Plumbing, Heating, Ventilation and some light structural work. The job had been started by someone else, and the client was unsatisfied with how things were going.
We first had to correct an extraordinary amount of problems left by the last contractor. We soon came to the conclusion that this was the work of a extremely bad handyman, and dubbed him "The Butcher".

Day after day, over and over we ran into more and more outrageous work that had to be redone. At one point I had to inspect and finish a shower stall that was started by 'The Butcher'. I quickly realized that it didn't have a trap installed on the waste line (a fitting used to hold a water seal and prevent dangerous sewer gases from entering the living space). That left me no choice but to disassemble the entire unit to see if there were any other serious violations, which was a very frustrating situation considering the amount of time it took away from the large amount of work we had ahead of us. After removing a wall to check the vent piping (which supplies air relief to protect the newly installed trap's seal), I noticed that the vent piping had absolutely no space around it where it penetrated the floor. This was not a problem in itself, but I needed to see that it was properly connected to the waste line under the floor.
There was a small sliver of insulation protruding from where the pipe penetrated the floor, so I pulled on it hoping to expose enough of a crack to get my saw blade into to widen the hole.
As I pulled on the sliver of insulation, the entire pipe (Which was only 3" long and disconnected) fell into my hands. 'The Butcher' had propped up this pipe to look as if it was installed, and placed the sliver of insulation under it to further seal the illusion. I immediately started laughing hysterically, and my partner and the client quickly came over to see what was going on.

I tried to explain things to them while laughing hysterically with tears running down my face, and they stood there watching stunned and confused. It took me all of 5 minutes to regain composure and get back to work. I had absolutely no control of my laughter, and felt like I was reborn afterwards. I guess it was just a matter of my safety relief valve popping off.