# Who does the crap jobs?



## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

My boss worked for a 1/2 day at an animal rending place. I know a guy who is, I guess, a plumber, and he goes down inside septic tanks and repairs them.

Is there money in this work?
And what kind of crap work have you done?

The worst for me so far has been welding shops. Everything is just covered in dirty dirt.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Someone asked me one time what kind of electrical work I specialize in. My reply: "Crap work no one else wants to do". That's true, in part. Everyone's money spends the same. For each guy that turns down a certain type of work, that drives up the price for the guys who are willing. This is the reason, for instance, that rewiring an old house is two or three times more profitable than wiring a new house.


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## Charlie K (Aug 14, 2008)

I do a lot of work in waste water plants, lift stations, pumping stations and recently a lot of tunnel work. I take the good with the bad. There are a few of us in our company that have worked in the treatment plants for 25 years off and on. We have changed contractors a few times and we still get the work. 

Charlie


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Charlie K said:


> I do a lot of work in waste water plants, lift stations, pumping stations and recently a lot of tunnel work. I take the good with the bad. There are a few of us in our company that have worked in the treatment plants for 25 years off and on. We have changed contractors a few times and we still get the work.
> 
> Charlie


I notice that the medium and large contractors will bid work based on the guys they have on the payroll at the time, and what their experiences have been. That makes good sense, to me. I overheard a couple guys at the supply house one time puzzling on why XYZ company was doing a certain job that was out of the norm for them, until the one counter guy reminded them that so-and-so worked for XYZ company now, and he's done work like that before for ABC company, his old employer.


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## tates1882 (Sep 3, 2010)

kaboler said:


> My boss worked for a 1/2 day at an animal rending place. I know a guy who is, I guess, a plumber, and he goes down inside septic tanks and repairs them.
> 
> Is there money in this work?
> And what kind of crap work have you done?
> ...


The worst was a potato processing plant. We retroed a tot making line and the old fryer hoods and the area in a 30' raduis was covered by 3" of nasty black greasey slick smelly foulness with no name.  I was only a lowley 2nd year so everyday I was covered. I also did some work in a bean receiving plant and the area around the shaker screens were pretty freaking dirty.


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

I grew up on a hog farm, then worked at a pork slaughter plant. 20,000 dead hogs a day, 6 days a week. I have also done plenty of lift staions and sewage stuff. Helped a guy open up a lift pump once, I had asked if it was under pressure, guess what? It was, covered in gray/brown water from the waiste down. We do lots of old house rewires, lots of 2-3 story jobs, the real fun ones. But nothing beats trash cans full of faceless hog heads. :thumbsup:


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## Englishsparky (Nov 6, 2010)

I have done all sorts in the past from pig farms, to sewage works and every crap job on the site which no one else wants to do... It's all good fun...


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## wendon (Sep 27, 2010)

About 2 weeks ago we were working on a feeder install at a dairy facility. Probably about 15 degrees, frozen manure, cows, gates etc. to work around and then it started to snow!!! I thinks that rates high on the scale!


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## Rockyd (Apr 22, 2007)

Back on topic...I work a lot of oilfield...not so much the last two years, but a lot. All kinds of good things to play with.... Lot'a of "stuff" over 600 volts to go bang with, BETX pumps (Benzene,Ethylene, Toulene, and Xelene pump....good fun if it leaks), Media balls, H2S, Way below '0' cold....and did I mention it blows in the winter time too? Seen some really ugly incidents involving oil...and stilll whining and sniveling about this, that, and the other...

Makes me wonder why oil under ground is "a great reserve for the future", but considered a pollutant as soon as it enters a pipeline???


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## nitro71 (Sep 17, 2009)

Dirtiest place I've ever worked was in a mine. At the end of the day you are covered in black dirt. Most mines have shower facilities on site because you get so dirty.


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

Section 8 housing..........:whistling2:


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## kevmanTA (Jul 20, 2010)

poultry processing.. I've got a very strong stomach, I fish, and hunt, never had a problem cleaning an animal.. But the smell in the back room where all the leftover parts get put into a slurry and it's raked in a bath tub shaped container just gets to me.. We've gone there to change a push button, and just been hosed with blood, looks wonderful going to the next service call like that...

I always give credit to those septic tank pumping guys, I could never, no matter how bad my money situation gets, do their job...


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## mattsilkwood (Sep 21, 2008)

I've got a pretty strong stomache so most of the nasty jobs don't bother me too bad, poo is where I draw the line though. I've done a little bit of control work at lift stations but I cant mess with the pumps or anything like that, I just can't do it. 

I once saw a guy pumping out the porta johns go in with the hose in one hand and a sandwich in the other. I just about lost it right there.


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## MF Dagger (Dec 24, 2007)

Changing out ventahoods in section 8 housing is a pretty crap job. The roaches and dead roaches and roach feces make the wall kind of a smeary brown behind them


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

mattsilkwood said:


> I once saw a guy pumping out the porta johns go in with the hose in one hand and a sandwich in the other. I just about lost it right there.




Your #*^% is someones bread & butter.


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## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

Hahaha good stuff so far!!!! But I don't know what section 8 housing is.


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## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

kaboler said:


> Hahaha good stuff so far!!!! But I don't know what section 8 housing is.


for poor folk on the federal govt's dime


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

kaboler said:


> Is there money in this work?


Yes



kaboler said:


> And what kind of crap work have you done?


You name it. Mostly waste water and chemical work.


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

Jlarson said:


> Yes
> 
> 
> 
> You name it. Mostly *ROOFING* ,waste water and chemical work.



:whistling2::whistling2::laughing::laughing:


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

:lol: :lol:


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## RKRider (Feb 7, 2010)

Worst job I had was at the county animal shelter. Not a lot of fun turning that valve and filling up the gas chamber


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

RKRider said:


> Worst job I had was at the county animal shelter. Not a lot of fun turning that valve and filling up the gas chamber


 
I'd go hungry and homeless first.


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## millelec (Nov 20, 2010)

my co-gen plant was originally designed to incinerate household trash as part of the heat loop. we use (2) 150 HP blowers to draw a suction on a 20" diameter pipe ...is like the drive up bank machine on steroids. the pipe is all below grade and trash gets stuck from time to time, so will manually auger it w/up to 300' of connectable steel rods. really fun in summer w/diapers and kotex that have been festering for several days. trash comes from 4 high rise residential buildings. another fun job was cleaning out fuel oil tanks on my first sub so they could repair cracks in the tank walls. wearing forced air, crawling back thru manways w/oily sludge everywhere. good times


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

Blow up, 24-72 hours very little sleep, tons of soot.

36" sewer main broke and overflowed into an electric room.

Blow up and sprinkler went off water pipe broke, 115 degrees and 100% humidity, nothing better that soot and steam. 

Sewage plant next to the conveyor belt that takes the waste to the incinerator. 7 days testing circuit breakers.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

medical waste plant with carts of dirty needles everywhere. Kissed a new screwdriver goodbye that fell in one of them.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

Cackle Fresh egg farm in Laie Hawaii. Flies. Billions and billions and billions of them. And the smell when the guy runs the bobcat to shovel all the crap from under the cages is not possible to describe. I put in the original automation for the feeder/egg delivery there. Klockner / Seimans plc's very early version.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

I've done a LOT of lift station and "Brown Trout farm" work, none of that compares to rendering plants, and their close cousins, pet food plants. I get ill just driving up to a rendering plant, especially if it's one that takes road kill from the highway dept. Whenever I had a job at one, I sent the newbies if I could. If I had to go, I made sure EVERYTHING was so impeccably organized that we didn't spend one extra minute there.

Other bad jobs:
Working under a nail making machine at a steel mill on my back for 6 days, everything was sharp and the lighting was low pressure sodium, that eerie yellow kind. I could not tell the difference between the oil that was everywhere and my own blood, I almost bled out under there from a deep cut on some razor sharp metal. I started getting light headed and came out from under, when I got to the door to get some air everyone else saw I was soaked in blood and called an ambulance.

Hooked up a mixer and pump system at a plant where they pumped sewage treatment plant residue onto forests as fertilizer, the stuff left over AFTER they do everything they can at the treatment plant. When it worked, the operator had no regard for wind direction and sprayed us all. No biggie for him, he lived in it every day. The rest of us vomited for a half hour (while he laughed).

Lowest gallery at a dam on the Columbia River setting up sensors. There was stuff growing *and glowing* in the dark down there that scares me. I was deathly afraid of getting cut and getting an infection that couldn't be cured.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

Shockdoc said:


> medical waste plant with carts of dirty needles everywhere. Kissed a new screwdriver goodbye that fell in one of them.


Oh yeah, I did a medical waste incinerator plant too, I know what you mean. I also did NOT want to know what was in the blue bags marked "surgical center biological waste".


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## varmit (Apr 19, 2009)

I had to do some work in a WWI era foundry on an arc furnace that was in use. The place had very little lighting, a dirt floor, 110 plus degrees everywhere, exposed 4160 buss on the furnace with no real guards, hot metal laying everywhere, but the worst thing was the noise level- even with ear plugs the noise was painful. If you were 2 feet from someone, you had to holler as loud as possible to be heard. i told my company owner not to take any more work at that place.


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

We had to re-light a oil hydroginization (margerine) plant. Everything there was slimy oily. You had to climb up into the ceiling which was a plumbing nitemare. We wore tyvek suits to try to stay somewhat clean till we found out tyvek melts when you touch a steam line, which were everywhere and uninsulated. We all got burned, almost heat stroked, nearly fell a million times. It sucked. Oh, and as for rendering plants, the slaugther house had its own out back. It was a steel-span building with fibreglass insulation. The insulation would get torn, and the blood/bone dust would get in it, then when the seasons changed and the humidity went up it would draw moisture. The fly's would lay their eggs in it, and when they got big enough it would RAIN MAGGOTS. No joke.


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

Put on the suit, rubber boots and climb down 40' into a lift station to change some float switches. Poo and used condoms floating by. Oh, I love my job. (Most days.) LOL>>>>>>>>>>


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## tufts46argled (Dec 23, 2007)

Did about a year of work for Mississippi Prison Industries in the women's prison!


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## mattsilkwood (Sep 21, 2008)

Chris1971 said:


> Put on the suit, rubber boots and climb down 40' into a lift station to change some float switches. Poo and used condoms floating by. Oh, I love my job. (Most days.) LOL>>>>>>>>>>


 I'm not that GD hungry.:no:


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

A friend of mine is a mech at a hospital in a big town a couple hours away. Just imagine a little Detroit, bad town. I called him one day to see what he was up to, he had a toilet up pulling out everything that had been in the room that would flush. I asked him what kind of shots a guy had to have to do a job like that, he just laughed at me. I've done some nasty stuff, but I'm not sticking my arm in a hospital sewer pipe!


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## doubleoh7 (Dec 5, 2009)

All this talk of browntrout farms and rendering plants..... The worst I've ever smelled is the Campbell's Soup plant in Napolean Ohio. I drove a truck over the road in '03-'04. I had to pick up there and deliver to a Wal Mart DC several times. I could smell that place at LEAST a mile away. i have not eaten Campbell's Soup since.


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## kevmanTA (Jul 20, 2010)

macmikeman said:


> Cackle Fresh egg farm in Laie Hawaii. Flies. Billions and billions and billions of them. And the smell when the guy runs the bobcat to shovel all the crap from under the cages is not possible to describe. I put in the original automation for the feeder/egg delivery there. Klockner / Seimans plc's very early version.


The smell when they first dig into that manure is tough to handle.. We redid a 400' turkey barn in PVC, it was all good until they dug into that stuff.. Makes your eyes water and everything.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

I have worked some nasty places, WWTP's, etc. Worked a chemocal plant that used maggots to break down material had huge vats of them (THe size of oil storage tanks). Tire plants are nasty. But hands down, the worst place ever is Zug island in Detroit, in Guiness book as the dirtiest place on earth. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR&qpvt=Zug+Island+Pictures


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## kevmanTA (Jul 20, 2010)

Zog said:


> I have worked some nasty places, WWTP's, etc. Worked a chemocal plant that used maggots to break down material had huge vats of them (THe size of oil storage tanks). Tire plants are nasty. But hands down, the worst place ever is Zug island in Detroit, in Guiness book as the dirtiest place on earth. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR&qpvt=Zug+Island+Pictures


Haha, I used to fish across the river from there..


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

RKRider said:


> Worst job I had was at the county animal shelter. Not a lot of fun turning that valve and filling up the gas chamber


I would love that job, I'd dress in black everyday.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

kevmanTA said:


> Haha, I used to fish across the river from there..


Hope you did not eat what you caught.


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## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

I'm a near-vegetarian. Do any of you, after working at one of these places that deal with killing animals, alter your point of view?

As for the other stuff, like "browntrout farms" hahaha, it's a good thing that human waste isn't dangerous like it used to be, but still, your poor tools man.

Do you all forget about your tools?


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

After growing up with livestock, and then working at the slaughter plant I'd have to say no. Pork still tastes fine to me. I'm not crazy about the procces, but I'm not so offended to stop eating meat.


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## DINGUS (Jan 11, 2009)

had to replace blood pumps in a blood trough at a chicken plant processing plant a couple of weeks ago. waded through about 18 inches of coagulated chicken blood to pull old pumps. smelled kind of bad but hey, it was overtime...


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

I did the crap job today.......

Crawling under a low deck to secure some cables that the home inspector found. It was cold, wet, soggy, muddy, spider web filled 16" tall space. Did I mention someone took my coveralls out of my van?


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## electricalperson (Jan 11, 2008)

i used too always repair the septic tanks. replacing the pumps and floats in a dirty tank sucks


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

electricalperson said:


> i used too always repair the septic tanks. replacing the pumps and floats in a dirty tank sucks


Been there.


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## electricalperson (Jan 11, 2008)

brian john said:


> Been there.


i actually kind of enjoyed doing it after a while i became good at troubleshooting septic tank controls and pumps


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## mr_g (Feb 8, 2011)

I got a call to a Lowe's store one time. The lift station failed and the bathrooms were, ofcourse, out of service. Plumber was called first but both lift pumps kept tripping breaker. I troubleshot problem to be in the tank, submersible grinder pumps. Vacuum truck took 2.5 loads to empty that thing. I climb down there, no cables or chains to lift the pumps from the top, and find one with a shoe lace stuck around the impeller, the other had a pair of women's underwear wrapped up in it!


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## van2977 (Jan 13, 2010)

first day with a old company and we went to a funeral home. I got to go fix the exhaust fans in the embalming room ....and guess what was not under a sheet when I first walked in then was covered for the longest 20 minuets of my life. I have since found out that the funeral home broke some law letting me in there while there was a body present. Also section 8 housing , a asphalt plant , and thats it but I get paid the same service change , kitchen finish with a helper or yes funeral homes . its better than sitting home I guess.


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## doubleoh7 (Dec 5, 2009)

van2977 said:


> first day with a old company and we went to a funeral home. I got to go fix the exhaust fans in the embalming room ....and guess what was not under a sheet when I first walked in then was covered for the longest 20 minuets of my life. I have since found out that the funeral home broke some law letting me in there while there was a body present. Also section 8 housing , a asphalt plant , and thats it but I get paid the same service change , kitchen finish with a helper or yes funeral homes . its better than sitting home I guess.


 

The local funeral home is my best customer. It is owned by a very nice couple and they pay their bills IMMEDIATELY. I don't do much volume, it is just service call stuff, generally. But they never complain. I walked into a room once and there with a body in it. No big deal.


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## Krummholz (Feb 9, 2011)

kaboler said:


> My boss worked for a 1/2 day at an animal rending place. I know a guy who is, I guess, a plumber, and he goes down inside septic tanks and repairs them.
> 
> Is there money in this work?
> And what kind of crap work have you done?
> ...


Chinese kitchens and college sorority houses - sounds silly, but they're both nasty places. Chinese kitchens are virtual grease pits and they take care of nothing - easy to lose one's appetite for Chinese food. Sorority girls are some of the worst pigs in how they live I've ever imagined. Thought it might be kind of fun (you know...) but it was anything but.

True story: they were tripping breakers a lot but never when we were around so we put up a piece of paper and asked them to write down the circuit number whenever they tripped a breaker to help us with our troubleshooting. We came back two weeks later and the paper was filled with "20" - 20 of course being the breaker size. :doh:

Coal-fired power plants, particularly along the coal handling systems - nasty stuff too - coal dust everywhere; can't touch anything and not turn immediately black.


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## Tackdriver (Dec 3, 2010)

I worked at an electroplating place for 9 years. Then I moved to plastic extrusion, been there 7. Both places are a challenge, but that plating place was like it flew out of hell. Corrosion/humidity/moisture all over everything. I got good at running PVC because it was the only conduit that would survive it. All the metal ones would be dissolved in a day.


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