Quote:
CHECK FOR PIPES & CABLES. Sorry for shouting that, but the extra 5 mins making sure is well worth it!


Pity even professionals forget this sometimes. Like when I moved in to this house, several years ago, and left the cable bloke installing the line while I popped down to the shops. Came back 15 minutes later to a strong smell of gas, two Transco vans, a pale-faced cable engineer, and much excitement as they sorted out the gas leak he'd produced by drilling through the gas main which was installed inside the cavity wall Pretty good shot, he had more than a meter of wall to pick a spot on, and managed to hit a 15mm copper pipe with an 8mm drill bit on the first try

Cost Telewest about £600 to gave a real professional come out and replace all the gas piping.

Not as funny as the IEEE member electronics engineer father of a friend of mine who managed to drill dead center through the water main into the power feed to the house BEFORE the distribution board, thus dumping 240V at 100A or so into the pipe and drill bit before the riser fuse blew! Didn't harm him, much (more damage caused from falling over in surprise than from electrocution) but made one hell of a bang. It also shortened a 2 foot 10mm masonry bit by about 8 inches, blew a fist sized hole in the breezeblock wall, the water main, and the riser, and covered everything with water

Took him years to live that one down...

pca
_________________________
Experience is what you get just after it would have helped...