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Thanks for sharing Scott.
Had a shopper from hell, first the woam, spent an hour on phone with her.
Then she had to talk with husbad.'
He calls, spend another hour and 1/2, set him for cleaning, and calls me at 5,30 am to say" we have company coming from out of town, need to cancel.
So, we go do a tle roof that day, filthy as hell, chemica was weak, used 300 gallons, still would not clean.
went got more chemical, it cleaned, but it was painted, paint was peeling, roof needed re painted, cust refuse to pay.
Finally beggged cost of chems out of him.
Our appointment for two days in advance called, said we must do him that day.
It was windy, tried to get out of it.
Roof cleaned up nice, buy gust of wind "customized" wooden front doors!!!
Got 550 for that job, cost 400 to refinsh doors.
Took a Xanax, unplugged phone,locked doors, went to sleep.

Last week was a week to forget, phones dead too.
 
***UPDATE***

Went to talk with the customer today.Explained what happened and why and offered to replace the GFI recept and cover plate.She said not to worry about it they had already done it and there was no major damage.They said the could clearly tell the foam gasket behind the cover plate had deteriorated and allowed water in behind directly onto the wiring.
She paid me the discounted price,as well as, for the work done at their home and thanked me for handling the situation rather than leaving what could have been a potential fire hazard unattended.
On the up side I think they are going to have us back out to their home for a driveway and roof cleaning.
 
Pics

Here are pics of the GFI.I won't say that it failed it did trip the breaker,but because it didn't get wet on the face it took longer.
The flames had eaten away at the styrofoam backer for the dryvit.Although not enough to do any damage to the interior or exterior of the building.This could have gone real wrong real fast if we had kept pour water on it and not had a fire extinguisher readily accessible or just acted as though we didn't see what was going on.
If you don't have a FE in your truck or on your rig visit your local fire dept. Around here they will give them to you for free.
 

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I have not encountered any type of fire...yet. There is usually a power recepticle on the front and rear of most houses. I have never covered any of them but instead just wash around them without any direct water hitting them (but I am sure that plenty of water runs over it). Do I need to be covering these and what method do you guys use to protect them? Will the blue painters tape work? Thanks for the past stories guys...I guess my weekend wasn't too bad cleaning up a dirty elementary school (those mud dauber nests are a pita when up a couple stories).
 
That's a good example of how to handle a potential messy situation.

Just curious since that thing is smoked so bad. Was it an actual GFI receptacle or was it wired to a GFI breaker in the house? GFI's have been around a while but some older homes still don't have them. I'm thinking mid 70's on. A GFI should trip in a few hundred milli seconds especially with a dead short.
 
Squirtgun said:
Here are pics of the GFI.I won't say that it failed it did trip the breaker,but because it didn't get wet on the face it took longer.
The flames had eaten away at the styrofoam backer for the dryvit.Although not enough to do any damage to the interior or exterior of the building.This could have gone real wrong real fast if we had kept pour water on it and not had a fire extinguisher readily accessible or just acted as though we didn't see what was going on.
If you don't have a FE in your truck or on your rig visit your local fire dept. Around here they will give them to you for free.
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Nice job Scott. It looks like a burnt Marsh mellow. Hahaha!
 
David we cover the face of recepts with duct tape in this case the water went behind the recept into the box.We did our due diligence to try and protect the outlet.I have never used the painters tape since IMO it doesn't stick as well.

Rick this was a GFI outlet.Since the water never hit the face it didn't trip instantly.With water dripping into the box it was a full minute or two(an eternity when a customers business could be burning down) before it finally tripped the breaker.When I open the weather proof cover to see where the smoke was coming from flames shot through the duct tape.That is when I started emptying one of the FE on it.
 
Squirtgun said:
David we cover the face of recepts with duct tape in this case the water went behind the recept into the box.We did our due diligence to try and protect the outlet.I have never used the painters tape since IMO it doesn't stick as well.

Rick this was a GFI outlet.Since the water never hit the face it didn't trip instantly.With water dripping into the box it was a full minute or two(an eternity when a customers business could be burning down) before it finally tripped the breaker.When I open the weather proof cover to see where the smoke was coming from flames shot through the duct tape.That is when I started emptying one of the FE on it.
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I agree with Scot to use duct tape over painters tape. I some times go one step over the top of that if plug cover looks old I will ask the owner to turn off out side power till I finished house has time to sry.
 
Squirtgun said:
Since Thursday I have struck out hard on 3 jobs.Losing money on all 3 due to unforeseen conditions.
Thursday's job should have been simple 1 concrete drive way and parking pad at buildings right next door to each other.I figured no more than an hour for both.What a nightmare they both turned into because the 50yrs old concrete didn't look new blah,blah,blah.Explaining to them it won't ever look new took an extra 20 minutes on top of the 2 extra hours I spent trying to make this crappy concrete look the best I could.
Today's job was supposed to be a simple dryvit building wash(front of building only) and side walk cleaning.First the building wouldn't come clean,the algae and mold have eaten into the dryvit to the point chems and light pressure won't take any of the stuff off.Then a GFI receptacle in the front wall catches fire while I am rinsing.I duct taped the recepts,but failed to notice the gap between the wall and weather proof cover that allowed water to get in behind the cover directly on the wiring.
I break out he fire extinguisher put out the flames because the GFI doesn't trip the breaker until much later.Call the customer and ask them to please come kill the power only to find out they have left the state.Wait for their daughter to show up to cut power and make sure nothing inside was burning.Thank goodness she was super cool about everything.She kept telling me the recept wasn't my fault and don't worry about it.That I shouldn't discount the job because we have time involved etc.
I explain to her the building won't come clean and repainting is the best thing to consider at this point.Discount the job a $100 for not getting the dryvit clean and replacement of the recept.
Then on to the home of the same customer for a walkway and patio cleaning.Again some nasty old concrete that looked 100% better but still looked bad after cleaned followed up by a patio loaded with planters tables,chairs and a huge grill.They promised they would move it all,but somehow forget in their effort to get out of town for the weekend.
I hate days like this anyway,but a couple in the same week really make me miserable.Even worse is hemorrhaging cash on jobs that should be easy.I have forgotten I'm only human and there are some things that just can't be cleaned no matter how hard I try.
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