[Rustbuster]

Having worked in the industrial side of the trade for a while I've seen some nasty stuff. One that sticks out in my mind was a rendering plant where they made oil, fertilizers ect from animal products that were not fit for human consumption. I saw truck loads of fish guts, poultry waste, dead horses, pig parts...you name it if it wasn't usable for human food it came to this place and was turned into something that was useful. One co-worker witnessed a dead killer whale from the local aquarium being hacked up with a chainsaw to fit into the auger that leads to the big grinder.

Worked in waste water treatment plants as well. Gum and corn some of the most popular solids that had to be filtered out of the water for treatment.

 

[JNLP]

Never worked anywhere that nasty. Nastiest was inside of one of the steeples we were working in. If you've ever been inside an old churches steeple you know how dirty they can be. The bell was so big & the area around it was so small, we had to craw around all day in about 8 inches of dirt, straw, and everything else that made its way in there along with a few dead birds. Coughing up black crap for a good 2 days after that.

 

[ibsocal]

Crawling inside and Sandblasting a cht tank on one of the usa's finest warships,the tank was about 6'x4'x6' sandblast to a sp10.pulled out kilo sized dried hash sh#t bricks.ricochet @ 110 psi in close quarters + the noise = intense and loving it.HEAVY METAL MADNESS:nerd:

 

[Rustbuster]

You got to love that fine dust that is unavoidable when sandblasting and knowing what it wasn't just broken down abrasive eh?

That show Dirt Jobs should do a segment on sandblasting. I did a job on a coal ship loader once using black slag abrasive, what a dirty job that was. Black slag is dirty to begin with and combine it with some pulverized coal dust and this white boy wasn't too white at the end of the day. The old lady would squak about having to clean the tub after I took a shower then I would remind her that that dust and dirt paid for that tub!

 

[premierpainter]

Donating work to a inner city public school. They had us painting 2 boys bathrooms in December during the X-Mas break. We were going to do 4, but after finding out that the boys thought it was funny peeing in the heaters, we only did 2. It smelled SOOOOO bad.

 

[daArch]

Nothing to compare to all the above, but on some residential jobs, painting the base and or walls around a toilet can be pretty darn NASTY.

We did one house that was a family of SEVERELY obese people. The guys obviously could not see what they were hitting when they peed, and none of them could sit completely on the seat. Let your imaginations run from there.

And then there was the bathroom that ALL the trades used in a renovation. And we all know how a group of trades people can misuse a bathroom over the course of six months. I just got a bucket of Clorox and high rubber gloves, put my respirator on and douched and mopped the whole area before I started.

And decades thick pigeon crap is no fun to work around. We encountered that when painting the windows on a downtown theater.

 

[vermontpainter]

And somehow painters have the reputation as high priced prima donnas...

 

[smalljobs]

Did an interior in a house of a woman that had 62 cats, 9 birds, 4 dogs. (Quite the animal lover) She was evicted due animal neglect and she made local news papers. They said she was a little eccentric...Duh ya think. The house flipper bought it on foreclosure, gutted it entirely to the frame. It still smelt like s**t! Pee too! Finished inside and the flipper found out I had a hot water powerwash rig and wanted me to powerwash the siding because it oxidized. I looked at the exterior and half of it was off the house laying in the dirt and mud in the yard. He actually wanted me to powerwash the siding on the ground in the mud. Who am I to argue, Mc
Fly. $300, mud everywhere, I looked like pigpen.
Cash only, I said. He paid it, reluctantly. Never worked with him again. The brainiacs you meet in this world.
Powerwashing definitely needs to be on Dirty Jobs.

 

[Rustbuster]

And somehow painters have the reputation as high priced prima donnas...

You know it's getting bad on a job when the welders are the ones walking off.

 

[Rich]

Crawling inside and Sandblasting a cht tank on one of the usa's finest warships,the tank was about 6'x4'x6' sandblast to a sp10.pulled out kilo sized dried hash sh#t bricks.ricochet @ 110 psi in close quarters + the noise = intense and loving it.HEAVY METAL MADNESS:nerd:

ditto...except I was on a submarine
about 3 years ago, I thought I'd give up painting houses for a while and....

I was in a tank blasting with lead shot...someone decided to "teach me a lesson" (since I was new) and cut the safety off my blast line :blink: . I understand trying to teach someone a lesson, but putting others lives danger? not so cool

I'm in this tank, blasting and can't shut off the blast gun. I yelled out for someone to shut my hose off, but no one could here me, so I had to set the hose down (still shooting lead shot everywhere) and run out of the tank (which is more like a slow crawl) and yell at them to shut the hose down! I was PISSED(not to mention sweating profusely, tired, sore, filthy, scared-pretty much everything not fun) and told them I'm no longer blasting, period.

Painting houses is a walk in the park in comparison to crawling around on steel for 8 hours a day. I realized that in about a year, then I opened my biz and painted houses with a smile on my face and a back that wasn't sore

 

[[email protected]]

Spraying a Attic after a fire that was only 200' long with engineer roof trusses. with about total height in the space about 4'

 

[Crown Restoration]

This thread is giving me the heepie geepies.

 

[bikerboy]

Pulled a piece of wallpaper off the wall, (floor to ceiling) undeneath looked like it was sprayed with cockroaches. Yelled for Pops to check this out. One look and he said "Pack it up, we're going home."

 

[samthedog]

I was a teacher for a few years. Imagine 32 pubescent kids crammed into one tiny classroom after a hot day of sport in the sun. The smell could curdle milk powder.

 

[timhag]

Can't wait to see what Crow has to say.:wacko:

 

[[email protected]]

The cockroaches remind my of a job. Had a customer that I was helping with an eviction. We moved a dresser and the wall moved behind it. you guess it a wall of cockroaches. The sad part was she was being evicted for lack of payment. Under the couch was well over a $1000.00 in cash. On top of it being low rent. was most likely only paying $100.00

 

[timhag]

I worked in a Psychiatric Emergency Room for eight years as a Psych Tech. Man, the sh*t that came thru those doors. We had one guy come in on an involuntary commitment via the Pittsburgh Police in hand cuffs. He was brought in due running the streets directing traffic naked. He was a well known schizophrenic and was known to be combative to wards staff. After getting him strapped to the bed, he decided to free his arms and take a dump and smear it all over the walls. Although, I wasn't the one who had to clean the room, I was one of the people who had to go back in and strap him back down.

 

[vermontpainter]

Can't wait to see what Crow has to say.:wacko:

Good point TH. Cant weight to here about brushin out da inside a ole hog head up Ma Carson farm

 

[timhag]

Good point TH. Cant weight to here about brushin out da inside a ole hog head up Ma Carson farm

Thats old crow for ya.....lol

 

[Purdygirl]

Wow, I thought I had a good worst job ever, but I see you are some hard core prima donnas!!
I was in my first year of painting and I guess we were slow because the boss put me and the other first year apprentice into a swimming pool and told us to remove all the paint down to the original cement or plaster or whatever the hell was under it all. We're talking coats and coats of different pool paints, epoxy paints, you name it. We had to wear full Hazard suits and masks, and the paint remover wasn't working at all, it was one thick gummy mess. We tried every scraper, machine & chemical known to man and were in that damn pool for WEEKS with fans blowing, scraping and scraping Our knuckles were shot, we were making no money. It was hell. Worst job ever.