Job on the 14th floor at Mercy General went sideways fast

I was swapping out a valve for the hydraulic unit in the elevator at Mercy General in Chicago. As I pulled the old one, a seal blew and dumped about 3 gallons of oil across the machine room floor before I could shut the line. Had to grab a mop and call the building manager to explain the delay - took me an extra hour to clean up and test the new valve. Anyone else ever have a minor swap turn into a major mess like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly_henderson831mo ago

OH COME ON. Three gallons of oil on a machine room floor? That's barely a spill, that's like a medium-sized puddle. You're acting like you flooded an entire hospital wing. I worked at a place where a guy dropped a 55-gallon drum of gear oil down three flights of stairs. THAT was a mess. They had to bring in hazmat and the whole building smelled like a garage for weeks. I bet that "minor swap" took you an extra hour because you spent half of it panicking and the other half figuring out where they keep the mop bucket.

the_nancy1mo ago

My buddy Tim had a job over at the old Hilton on Michigan Ave where he was just swapping a thermostat on a boiler. The thing was ancient and when he twisted the old one off, the whole housing cracked and maybe 40 gallons of scalding water came gushing out before he could get the main valve shut. He had to stand there in ankle deep water for 20 minutes waiting for the maintenance guy to show up with a sump pump and a wet vac. The hotel got a free indoor pool for the afternoon and Tim had to buy new boots after that one.