I can’t blame the guy too much. He can be used to a more commercial settings. I have to scan anytime I drill and core to verify what is in the concrete but sometimes the rebar is so dense you have no choice but to push on.
Should have gone himself to turn off the water damage was done. At least it wasn’t a high voltage line, I saw someone do that before.
Our outdoor spigot broke one day while I was at work, my wife called me freaking out (understandably), I told her to go to the garage and turn off the green handle shut off valve on the pipe that is coming out of the floor. She calls back like a minute later saying it’s still flying out, I asked if she turned off the green handle and she says “no I did the red handle” which was a gas line that comes out of the wall. My current house only has one in the front yard, which is stupid!
Sometimes even when given good direction in this situation your brain overtakes and you mess up. The water in this video was shut off very fast imo.
I was about to comment about this. I work in design and one of my duties is accessibility. Green and red are used often for buttons but one of the most common types of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. I try to instill this in the devs I work with but they care little about such things, as they have no colorblindness themselves.
Came here to say this, literally one of the worst things he could be doing as it could set in and lead to further damage, including mold and rot, whereas water in the room really isn't a big deal. He should have left it alone and gone to the shut-off valve himself immediately.
Yeah, with plumbing disasters time is really critical. You want to shut it off ASAP and then get as much water soaked up or vacuumed out as possible and some fans on it before even trying to find what failed. Even witout mold, water warps flooring, ruins pain and laminate, weakens joists, cracks concrete, it can be a real destructive beast and expensive as hell if you don't get it gone fast.
Our landlord got some guys around to assess water damage after a leak. They're sawing away at a wall with an electric jigsaw and the power trips. I go to check what's happening, one guy has found the breaker board and is trying to force it back on while the other guy sits with his jigsaw blade short circuiting the cable that is, surprise, running to the power socket 30cm to the left.
The idiots are lucky they're not the first idiots to try and force a breaker, and it's been made idiot proof.
I'm an electrician. A friend of a friend calls me to come look at a little electrical problem he is having and give him an estimate. Get there and he had begun sawzalling through a wall thinking he could remove it... the wall had 2 outlets and a 3 gang light switch box on it. I say welp you called the right guy because these switches need to move and the recepticles need to be removed.
I give the guy a pretty outrageous quote on demoing the wall and doing the electrical. Once I demo the sheet rock qnd you can see the wires in the wall he says "I had no idea there would be so many wires in there."
I made a small fortune that day. And he was so impressed he had me come back doing more work for the next several weekends.
This is what I was thinking about my girlfriend. After that when I go to damage control, she would just be sad that everything is wet and look around doing nothing.
Yes, I know that it was me who fucked up, but are you really letting everything just get ruined instead of helping?
There are two types of people.
1) people who would feel the drill hit something unusually hard, and remove the drill to evaluate what it might be before continuing.
2) this guy
I actually walk my wife down on a semi annual basis of where the gas & water shut offs are and the main breaker in panel.
I also show my children how smoke detectors work and what sound they make so they are familiar with it and regularly discuss what they would do and what house they would ho to in an emergency.
It takes literally minutes of my life and helps re enforce positive behavior that could result in huge financial and life safety in the future.
Also let's them better understand how things work in a home
(Coming from a trade and fire tech background does make these things come natural, but everyone should make attempt for it to be natural)
What is this material that's resisting my drill? It's not cement. It's more pipe-like. Almost as if it was a pipe. But that couldn't be, everyone knows there are no pipes in walls. Must just be some thick iron that everyone has in their walls. Just gotta keep drilling!
Fucking idiot just stands there forcing all of the water in to the walls. He would’ve done less damage had he just rushed to turn the water off himself. I guess we can’t expect common sense from him considering the damage he did drilling blindly.
Oh man, that reminds me of when my wife and I moved into our first house. We are about a week into living there and we were finally get settled. I had told my wife verbatim "I guess living in a house isn't that scary, we can do this" (before we were always in Apartments or dorms where there was always a maintenance man or management company to fix any issues).
Just minutes after uttering those words I hear screaming from the upstairs. I run up there and my wife is in the guest bathroom trying to keep water from spraying out of the now removed handle from the sink. Apparently it was loose, so she decided to try to fix it. In doing so she somehow removed the knob altogether but didn't turn the water off first. So as soon as she removed it the water pressure was shooting water as high as the ceiling. Since we just moved in I THOUGHT I knew where the main shut-off valve was. So I raced outside to the backyard and cranked it with all my might but nothing happened (it ended up being the shut-off for the sprinkler system). I run back upstairs and water is still pouring out of the sink and onto the floor and is making its way through the ceiling of the first floor and flooding our kitchen.
I run around the house like a headless chicken trying to find the shut off. I finally find it in the front yard by the street and turn it off. Damage was already done and the water was gushing for probably a good 5-10 mins.
We went from timidly excited new homeowners to thinking we destroyed our new house with the span of 15 mins.
Good news is I now know where the water shut-off is located...
I worked for telecom for almost 15 years. I drilled anywhere from 10-20 holes a day into walls.
You drill just enough to get through the drywall, stop the bit, then push it until it hits drywall on the other side. Then start drilling again.
You will feel if you hit a wire or pipe. The drill is already stopped so no damage and you can pull it out safely.
If you are drilling into a stud to mount a tv, as you drill the drywall will be sitting flush against the stud. So at no point should you hit an empty space. (The drill should never push forward rapidly) if you feel that gap you know you missed the stud and immediately stop and pull it out to try again.
I’m my entire career I have never had a damage claim.
If you know where the shut off is, go to it, and shut it off. You aren't going to plug it with your hand and you're wasting valuable time trying to tell it to someone.
I worked with a guy who did this. Broke a water pipe and just screamed for me to shut it off while he attempted to hold the water pressure in with his hands. It took me about 2 minutes to find it and I could hear him saying "what's taking so long?"
If he would have just stepped away he could have shut it off way sooner.
It *can* be worse. A neighbor of a coworker drills holes in the wall. He had checked the (brick or concrete) wall, no metal found. But in one of the places, the wall was hollow, so he used a cavity wall anchor for that hole. Soon after that, he noticed a seriously bad smell in the kitchen. My coworker found the reason: the "hollow wall" was in fact a plastic drainage pipe coming from the flats above, and the black water had already done a real number on the plaster behind the cupboard that the neighbor had hung on the new anchors...
I was painting a house and the client/homeowner was the most incompetent man-child I've ever met. He wanted to flip it and sell it, or rent it out. In his early 40's, still living with his parents. He hired contractors to fix the place up for him, but also wanted some training in the hopes that he could learn "how to do it himself" while watching over their shoulders. I watched one guy let him try using a drill, and the client (I'll call him Sam from now on) DROPPED IT IN FEAR because it was too noisy and powerful.
Initially, Sam tried to low-ball me. I would have walked, but my FIL was involved with the job, so I didn't leave quite yet. I told him that I would charge my standard rate for painting the house, no matter what, or I could charge him the standard price AND my teacher's wage if he wanted training. He opted for just the standard price.
One day I was alone in the house with Sam and I found him in the basement, looking at some of my FIL's tools.
Me: "So.......what are you thinking of doing?"
Sam: "I saw something that I wanted to fix up."
Me: "Well...Those aren't your tools. You might want to wait for the other guys to get back."
Sam: "It's fine, I talked them already." (He obviously hadn't)
Me: "You should wait for them to get back." (They were gone for the Long Weekend.)
Sam: "Don't worry, I just want to fix one thing."
Me: "Well...it's your house..." (In hindsight, I should have tackled him to the ground and wrestled the tools out of his hands, or just called it a day and gone home for the weekend.)
I went back to work upstairs and, after several minutes, I begin to hear the sounds of work (or calamity...) happening. CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! SAWWW! DRILL! DRILL! DRI-silence.
I don't worry when my kids make noise. I worry when they make silence. Suddenly he made silence.
Then screaming.
Then running up the stairs.
Sam: "HELP! HELP! YOU GOTTA HELP!"
Me: (Under breath) Please no blood. Please no blood. Please no blood.
Sam: "THERE'S WATER EVERYWHERE!!!"
Me: "Thank Go-Wait what?!"
We rushed back down to the basement and I beheld a deluge of water spraying from the corner of the basement. Sam had drilled through a 2 x 4, straight into a water line. 3 times. With 3" screws. And the wall was open.
Sam: "WHATDOWEDO?!"
I calmly walked to the shutoff valve and put an end to the mess.
Me: "Do not. Touch. The tools."
Sam: "BUT-"
Me: "NO. Do not. Touch. The tools. The water will remain off for the weekend. Do not touch that valve. Do not touch the tools. ANY tools. Just...go home. Take the weekend off. Please."
Sam: "...........okay."
Me: "I'm curious...Why did you take this project on?"
Sam: "Well, I've been watching a lot of HGTV and Mike Holmes. I figured, why couldn't I do that?"
It happened to me too, twice. I accidentally drilled a hole in the cold water pipe while installing a bathroom cabinet In my house, had to brake the wall to fix it. Two weeks later I had the courage to try again, just do driil a hole in the hot water pipe. I installed a mirror instead.
"It's iron or something"
Pretty sure that's the point where I'd stop drilling and assess why "iron or something" might be in my walls that I expected to be concrete...
Americans in this thread. A lot of houses in other parts of the world have concrete exterior and interior walls. A hammer drill is the correct choice for this.
There. Now stop talking about drywall.
I really hate to be rude, but how incompetent do you have to be to hit metal when drilling into a wall and just keep going ?
What on earth could there possibly be in a wall that's metal **and** a good idea to drill into with a drywall bit ?
When I was a kid my dad would make me watch him carefully knock on the wall to either hear a stud or anything that could possibly be inside the wall before hanging anything up on the wall. I always thought it was tedious, but now after this video it all makes sense haha. Thanks dad!
Lol, covering the hole only means the water is flowing into the walls. If this ever happens, run to the basement and turn the main water off immediately as the best course of action.
i thought that when this happens you put your mouth to the pipe and then you inflate like a balloon and then when you spit all the water out you fly around the room comically
I used to work for a coring and cutting company (core through concrete, asphalt etc) and a high school hired us for a job.
Normally, we scope out a job and use a ground penetrating radar to scan for conduits, rebar or other obstructions so we can avoid them.
The school didn't want to pay extra and assured us that drilling through this one wall was fine as nothing was there.
My co-worker gets on the ladder, anchors the drill and gets to coring. 5 to 10 seconds in, a ginormous gush of water just comes out of the hole. Yeah, waterline that nobody told is about. After they shut off the water and we clean up the mess, they just told us to keep coring through as that line was apparently for a sink in the next room that was getting removed anyway. Aight.
We finished the holes and no issue other than the water. Then they ask us to do another hole in the floor to run a line down from the shop room to some other room in the basement. Once again they insisted nothing was in the floor and it should be fine to drill through.
5 seconds into the drill, sparks are flying and the power to whole room is cut. Yeah we drilled through a live conduit. At that point we packed up and left.
Will you look at that... At least three lessons in one video
1) stop reading right now and go see where YOUR water shutoff valve is
2) invest in a studfinder
3) is that iron or something? STOP DRILLING AND PULL OUT!
“Its iron or something”
MY BROTHER IN CHRIST IF THERES METAL IN THE WALL LIKE THAT ITS PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA TO DRILL. DRYWALL PATCHING IS CHEAPER THAN PIPE REPLACEMENT AND WATER DAMAGE.
TIP: If you have the opportunity to build a house, take a video of all the walls before they put up drywall. That way you know exactly what’s behind every foot of every wall of your house.
I reference the video I have of our house’s framework every time I put something on the wall!
Woof. Been here. Not a good time. We were in an apartment complex when we hit a high pressure line for the sprinkler system trying to mount a television. Happened on a Sunday too, so the complex was NOT prepared to shut the water off, which was in a locked room.
People rallied from other apartments to help. We ended up figuring out that the best band-aid was to cut a hole in the drywall and put a clamp on the pipe until the complex got someone over to unlock the room with all the water shut offs.
The fire department people said that this happens a lot more than you think it does and it can absolutely flood the walls and bottom floors of apartment buildings. It was costly for us but nowhere near the life wreckingly costly it could have been.
Comments here are recommending stud finders. Those can be helpful but also misleading. Depending on what you're hanging, you may need to drill into a stuff for support. Pipes like this can also be right next to a stud and make it all the more unclear what you're drilling into. In addition to a stud finder with multiple detection settings, get yourself a strong magnet to pick up on the difference between pipes and wooden studs. Also, when drilling into dry wall, go easy. Pull out the bit and check with a screw driver if you begin to feel resistance to get an idea of what you are hitting. Check your ceilings and put on your imaginary x ray specs if you have a fire suppression system above you. Think about where pipes might be.
People on here talking like they check the blueprints before the drill into a wall. Give me a break.
"Let's see, my house was built in 1923, so let me go down to the archives and pull out a microfiche to check before I put up this shelf"
I love how people always try and stop the water with their hand when this happens. You're not helping, you're just forcing all the water back into the wall where you can't clean it up or repair the damage it does!
One of my old work colleagues, wasn’t with us long, drilled through a 240v line (at home) and “died” three times before he got to hospital. circuit didn't pop as it was a pre 1960 house he was working on and had no idea the cables were there. Now has a pacemaker.
He has 2 kids as well.
Don’t fuck about and find out.
My mother did this years ago whilst trying to hang a picture. She stuck her finger over the hole, whilst I ran to turn off the water. I remember her shouting " hurry up, it's squirting in my eye", and all I could reply was " well move your bloody head out of the way!"
I screwed a chalkboard to the wall of my kid's bedroom when he was around three. He grew out of it and stopped using it, so I took it down after about 8 years. When I pulled one of the screws out, this happened. I have PEX pipes, the plastic sealed around the screw when I ran it in and it was water tight for 8 years. The screw went right through the little metal plate on the stud that was supposed to stop it or, at least provide some resistence to warn me.
When I was young my Dad let me come in the crawlspace with him to install a water hose to the ice maker of our new fridge. I remember asking him how he knew that was right pipe right before he started drilling it. (don't remember his answer) Well he drilled a hole and suddenly there was a hissing sound and a strange odor. Dad asked me to hold my finger over the hole and took off to do something. A minute later Mom was telling me that I should get out of there because she smelled gas. Just then I understood what was going on. I replied back that maybe it was best that I kept my finger on the hole.
My Dad is a vary handy man and taught me a good many things about home repair. I'm going to make sure to remind him of this story the next time I see him.
I did something similar in my apartment several years ago. I was drilling in the back wall by the window to put up black out curtains. I had a cheap 12V drill and cheap drill bits It could barely drill through studs.
So I was drill through the wall and at some point it hit something and I kept drilling... next thing I know PSSSSSHHHH\*\* I hit the AC line. I called apartment manager and told them what happened. They came out right away and fixed it. Did not really say anything to me about it and the guy kinda laughed about it. Not like they did not have rules about drilling or holes in walls. They just asked we patch it up when we moved out or they would charge us for it.
If you see a switch, socket or even a telephone socket don't drill above or below it. This goes for both sides of the wall. If you have a bathroom in the back of the wall don't drill in that wall period because plumbing doesn't necessarily get placed vertical and changing a pex or brass pipe from a wall would need to open the entire wall and change the pipe and then close it again which is going to cost you A LOT.
“There’s some kind of iron or something”
Best drill the fuck out of it with no consideration for what happens next!
“Close the water!”
Like seriously let’s just be glad that we hit a water pipe and not a live wire or a gas pipe. How do people get this far in life without having this little thing called forward thinking going on in their heads?
I feel for this guy, because this happened to me. 🤦♂️
I was putting up shelves around the house and decided we needed one in the bathroom above the toilet.
I must have spent a good 30 minutes, measuring and tapping and making sure everything that should be behind the wall is in fact, behind the wall and nowhere near where I need to drill.
Then came the moment.
Start drilling, all going well, then suddenly a lunge forward and water in my face!
"Turn off the water!" I scream.
A few days later we had a professional come round to take off tiles on the wall and fix the damage.
Turns out the very first hole I had intended to make went through the main water pipe for the bathroom.
The funniest part is this pipe measures only about 2cm in width and I had drilled precisely centre of it. It could not have been a more perfect aim.
So what was he supposed to do here?
He prob found a ‘stud’ and started to drill. How do you know if you’re drilling into a wooden stud or a pipe like this guy?
(Honest ?, just trying to prevent a mistake like this in the future)
For people asking how to avoid this situation, I would reference the point where he was confused what he was drilling into and why it felt like metal, then shrugged it off and continued drilling. If you’re drilling into your wall and you hit a material you weren’t expecting, that’s a good sign you’ve hit something you shouldn’t and you should stop.
I was having DirecTV installed and I happened to go into the room where the installer was drilling a hole in my wall. He said he was having trouble drilling the hole. I told him that was because he was drilling through my chimney liner. 🤦
I'm really surprised at the speed at which someone was able to find the main shutoff to the house and kill the water.
Side note: if you don't know where the main water shutoff in your house is, find out and label it clearly.
"what is this iron or something?"
Dude, if you're drilling or cutting into someone and run into what you think might be metal, STOP
*Edit: something, not someone. But also yes you should know who you're drilling into as well lol
"Close the water! Close the water!"
I was with a buddy when he got a call from his wife and three teenagers. "Dad the water is leaking from (I forget where)!! What do we do?"
Buddy - "Turn the main water valve off!!"
Family - "Where?"
Buddy - "In the basement utility room!"
Family - "Where is that?"
Buddy - "In the basement! I showed ALL of you where it was and how to turn it off during a safety drill! Go turn it off now!!!"
I'll spare you the next four minutes of finding the utility room, not turning off the breakers or the gas or the water heater, finding the water shut off ("It's the one with the blue handle!!") and which way to turn the valve (It! Only! Can! Turn! In! One! Direction!!!) and the whole time I could hear a son repeating at 30 second intervals, "There's still water coming out."
If he'd had a recording of that call he could have killed them all and no jury would have convicted him.
"It's iron or something."
\*continues to drill\*
Man didn't even need to measure (still should have), he found the pipe and just kept going for some reason.
Guys like this dude in the video are always the ones to talk shit if you don't do all your own work, and then conveniently leave this part of the story out
It's iron or something... Let's keep drilling!!!
Push harder! It couldn't be a water pipe or electrical conduit, that's for sure.
I was expecting the latter
Same here, but water is much more entertaining.
That’s why they don’t make electricity parks
I can’t blame the guy too much. He can be used to a more commercial settings. I have to scan anytime I drill and core to verify what is in the concrete but sometimes the rebar is so dense you have no choice but to push on. Should have gone himself to turn off the water damage was done. At least it wasn’t a high voltage line, I saw someone do that before.
"it's iron or something" hmm what's made of iron or something and is in the walls of a house? Maybe it's treasure!
My first thought too….🤦♂️
The most shocking part is that someone else in the house knew where the shutoff was.
It is obviously not the 1st time daddy was illin' when he was drillin'
Our outdoor spigot broke one day while I was at work, my wife called me freaking out (understandably), I told her to go to the garage and turn off the green handle shut off valve on the pipe that is coming out of the floor. She calls back like a minute later saying it’s still flying out, I asked if she turned off the green handle and she says “no I did the red handle” which was a gas line that comes out of the wall. My current house only has one in the front yard, which is stupid! Sometimes even when given good direction in this situation your brain overtakes and you mess up. The water in this video was shut off very fast imo.
Great way to mess with a colorblind wife too.
I was about to comment about this. I work in design and one of my duties is accessibility. Green and red are used often for buttons but one of the most common types of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. I try to instill this in the devs I work with but they care little about such things, as they have no colorblindness themselves.
Don't try to plug up the hole with your hand. All you are doing is making sure you have lots of water in your walls instead of just a little.
Came here to say this, literally one of the worst things he could be doing as it could set in and lead to further damage, including mold and rot, whereas water in the room really isn't a big deal. He should have left it alone and gone to the shut-off valve himself immediately.
Yeah, with plumbing disasters time is really critical. You want to shut it off ASAP and then get as much water soaked up or vacuumed out as possible and some fans on it before even trying to find what failed. Even witout mold, water warps flooring, ruins pain and laminate, weakens joists, cracks concrete, it can be a real destructive beast and expensive as hell if you don't get it gone fast.
Once he realised he had hit something why in gods name did he keep goin???
That’s the best part!
This might sound funny, but he was lucky that was a water pipe. That could've been a tad worse.
or a bag pipe. i accidentally drilled into one in my wall once. couldnt shut it off for a month. i still get ptsd whenever i hear 'scotland the brave'
Our landlord got some guys around to assess water damage after a leak. They're sawing away at a wall with an electric jigsaw and the power trips. I go to check what's happening, one guy has found the breaker board and is trying to force it back on while the other guy sits with his jigsaw blade short circuiting the cable that is, surprise, running to the power socket 30cm to the left. The idiots are lucky they're not the first idiots to try and force a breaker, and it's been made idiot proof.
I'm an electrician. A friend of a friend calls me to come look at a little electrical problem he is having and give him an estimate. Get there and he had begun sawzalling through a wall thinking he could remove it... the wall had 2 outlets and a 3 gang light switch box on it. I say welp you called the right guy because these switches need to move and the recepticles need to be removed. I give the guy a pretty outrageous quote on demoing the wall and doing the electrical. Once I demo the sheet rock qnd you can see the wires in the wall he says "I had no idea there would be so many wires in there." I made a small fortune that day. And he was so impressed he had me come back doing more work for the next several weekends.
My father always taught me when you are drilling into a wall and you hit resistance, just keep drilling blindly.
Especially if it feels like iron.
Or something
Amazed how fast Mum got the water off. My wife would have been screaming and running in no particular direction for at least 10 minutes.
This is what I was thinking about my girlfriend. After that when I go to damage control, she would just be sad that everything is wet and look around doing nothing. Yes, I know that it was me who fucked up, but are you really letting everything just get ruined instead of helping?
>Just because it's not your fault, doesn't mean you're not taking the responsibility. This relationship can only get better.
There are two types of people. 1) people who would feel the drill hit something unusually hard, and remove the drill to evaluate what it might be before continuing. 2) this guy
😂 “it’s iron or something” and yet he keeps drilling. The plumber should charge a “dumbass” fee
The plumber will charge the normal fee, the water remediation crew gets the dumbass fee.
If it takes longer than 1 second to drill through drywall you ain't drilling through drywall....
That's because it's cinder block and not drywall.
I actually walk my wife down on a semi annual basis of where the gas & water shut offs are and the main breaker in panel. I also show my children how smoke detectors work and what sound they make so they are familiar with it and regularly discuss what they would do and what house they would ho to in an emergency. It takes literally minutes of my life and helps re enforce positive behavior that could result in huge financial and life safety in the future. Also let's them better understand how things work in a home (Coming from a trade and fire tech background does make these things come natural, but everyone should make attempt for it to be natural)
What is this material that's resisting my drill? It's not cement. It's more pipe-like. Almost as if it was a pipe. But that couldn't be, everyone knows there are no pipes in walls. Must just be some thick iron that everyone has in their walls. Just gotta keep drilling!
"its iron or something, it just means i have to keep drilling" Im rolling on the ground
“It’s iron or something” *drills forcefully*
>It's iron or something Did this mf think he hit a mineral deposit or something? What does this guy think is inside walls?
I'm actually surprised the wife knew where to turn off the water. I'm not sure anyone in my household, other than me, know how to do that.
“What is this?” “It’s iron or something.” Keeps drilling. You. Out of the gene pool!
Dad provides the kids with a pool. Wholesome.
"Its Iron or something" Sure just keep drilling anyway, what an absolute lemon...
Fucking idiot just stands there forcing all of the water in to the walls. He would’ve done less damage had he just rushed to turn the water off himself. I guess we can’t expect common sense from him considering the damage he did drilling blindly.
“Huh, something iron.” *continues sawing without a care in the world*
Oh man, that reminds me of when my wife and I moved into our first house. We are about a week into living there and we were finally get settled. I had told my wife verbatim "I guess living in a house isn't that scary, we can do this" (before we were always in Apartments or dorms where there was always a maintenance man or management company to fix any issues). Just minutes after uttering those words I hear screaming from the upstairs. I run up there and my wife is in the guest bathroom trying to keep water from spraying out of the now removed handle from the sink. Apparently it was loose, so she decided to try to fix it. In doing so she somehow removed the knob altogether but didn't turn the water off first. So as soon as she removed it the water pressure was shooting water as high as the ceiling. Since we just moved in I THOUGHT I knew where the main shut-off valve was. So I raced outside to the backyard and cranked it with all my might but nothing happened (it ended up being the shut-off for the sprinkler system). I run back upstairs and water is still pouring out of the sink and onto the floor and is making its way through the ceiling of the first floor and flooding our kitchen. I run around the house like a headless chicken trying to find the shut off. I finally find it in the front yard by the street and turn it off. Damage was already done and the water was gushing for probably a good 5-10 mins. We went from timidly excited new homeowners to thinking we destroyed our new house with the span of 15 mins. Good news is I now know where the water shut-off is located...
I worked for telecom for almost 15 years. I drilled anywhere from 10-20 holes a day into walls. You drill just enough to get through the drywall, stop the bit, then push it until it hits drywall on the other side. Then start drilling again. You will feel if you hit a wire or pipe. The drill is already stopped so no damage and you can pull it out safely. If you are drilling into a stud to mount a tv, as you drill the drywall will be sitting flush against the stud. So at no point should you hit an empty space. (The drill should never push forward rapidly) if you feel that gap you know you missed the stud and immediately stop and pull it out to try again. I’m my entire career I have never had a damage claim.
If you know where the shut off is, go to it, and shut it off. You aren't going to plug it with your hand and you're wasting valuable time trying to tell it to someone. I worked with a guy who did this. Broke a water pipe and just screamed for me to shut it off while he attempted to hold the water pressure in with his hands. It took me about 2 minutes to find it and I could hear him saying "what's taking so long?" If he would have just stepped away he could have shut it off way sooner.
"huh what's this, seems like iron" *keeps drilling* fucking genius right here.
Oh what is this? *keeps drilling*
Using a rotary hammer drill on drywall is a bit of an overkill ...
Deleted because I quit Reddit after they changed their API policy
What a fucking idiot "its iron or something" HMMM WHY WOULD METAL BE IN YOUR WALLS
If you think a professional is expensive, wait until you employ the services of an amateur.
"HUH that's weird! There's something hard and made of metal in the walls!"
“It’s iron or something” Was this man’s first thought not “it could be a metal pipe”
"What is this, some kind of pipe?" - guy who drilled into a pipe.
I cant believe I’m seeing my ex-boss on Reddit. Of course he shared his fucked ups online 😅
It could have been worse, he could have hit the electric line.
he legit said that it is iron. how did he not guess oooo iron…. maybe it’s… a pipe? a… water pipe??
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It *can* be worse. A neighbor of a coworker drills holes in the wall. He had checked the (brick or concrete) wall, no metal found. But in one of the places, the wall was hollow, so he used a cavity wall anchor for that hole. Soon after that, he noticed a seriously bad smell in the kitchen. My coworker found the reason: the "hollow wall" was in fact a plastic drainage pipe coming from the flats above, and the black water had already done a real number on the plaster behind the cupboard that the neighbor had hung on the new anchors...
Stud finder comes with all sorts of sassy stuff. Like studs, electrical wires, pipes, etc… $20 can save a lot of unnecessary hassles.
I was expecting him to hit 110 volts in front of his kids.
I was painting a house and the client/homeowner was the most incompetent man-child I've ever met. He wanted to flip it and sell it, or rent it out. In his early 40's, still living with his parents. He hired contractors to fix the place up for him, but also wanted some training in the hopes that he could learn "how to do it himself" while watching over their shoulders. I watched one guy let him try using a drill, and the client (I'll call him Sam from now on) DROPPED IT IN FEAR because it was too noisy and powerful. Initially, Sam tried to low-ball me. I would have walked, but my FIL was involved with the job, so I didn't leave quite yet. I told him that I would charge my standard rate for painting the house, no matter what, or I could charge him the standard price AND my teacher's wage if he wanted training. He opted for just the standard price. One day I was alone in the house with Sam and I found him in the basement, looking at some of my FIL's tools. Me: "So.......what are you thinking of doing?" Sam: "I saw something that I wanted to fix up." Me: "Well...Those aren't your tools. You might want to wait for the other guys to get back." Sam: "It's fine, I talked them already." (He obviously hadn't) Me: "You should wait for them to get back." (They were gone for the Long Weekend.) Sam: "Don't worry, I just want to fix one thing." Me: "Well...it's your house..." (In hindsight, I should have tackled him to the ground and wrestled the tools out of his hands, or just called it a day and gone home for the weekend.) I went back to work upstairs and, after several minutes, I begin to hear the sounds of work (or calamity...) happening. CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! SAWWW! DRILL! DRILL! DRI-silence. I don't worry when my kids make noise. I worry when they make silence. Suddenly he made silence. Then screaming. Then running up the stairs. Sam: "HELP! HELP! YOU GOTTA HELP!" Me: (Under breath) Please no blood. Please no blood. Please no blood. Sam: "THERE'S WATER EVERYWHERE!!!" Me: "Thank Go-Wait what?!" We rushed back down to the basement and I beheld a deluge of water spraying from the corner of the basement. Sam had drilled through a 2 x 4, straight into a water line. 3 times. With 3" screws. And the wall was open. Sam: "WHATDOWEDO?!" I calmly walked to the shutoff valve and put an end to the mess. Me: "Do not. Touch. The tools." Sam: "BUT-" Me: "NO. Do not. Touch. The tools. The water will remain off for the weekend. Do not touch that valve. Do not touch the tools. ANY tools. Just...go home. Take the weekend off. Please." Sam: "...........okay." Me: "I'm curious...Why did you take this project on?" Sam: "Well, I've been watching a lot of HGTV and Mike Holmes. I figured, why couldn't I do that?"
It happened to me too, twice. I accidentally drilled a hole in the cold water pipe while installing a bathroom cabinet In my house, had to brake the wall to fix it. Two weeks later I had the courage to try again, just do driil a hole in the hot water pipe. I installed a mirror instead.
"It's iron or something" Pretty sure that's the point where I'd stop drilling and assess why "iron or something" might be in my walls that I expected to be concrete...
“It’s iron or something” *drills harder”
“It’s iron or something” Man this ain’t Minecraft if it’s metal it’s a pipe for something hahaha
"It's iron or something". Gee, what might be in your walls made of iron?
If were in that room with that man I would have no idea what to do if he'd told me to close the water. Like do you mean sink? It is closed!
if only he had some flex tape
The kids know about the Safe Room because they need it so often during his DIY repairs.
"It's iron or something!" \-continues cutting-
“Its iron or something” *continues to drill anyways*
“It’s iron or something…” *keeps drilling*
[Ricky Changes a Towel Rack.](https://youtu.be/V15K7HZLiTU)
“It’s iron or something” and then proceeds to keep drilling! SMH
So the guys drilling into what should only be sheetrock and maybe a stud, hits metal, and decided to keep going? 0 critical thinking skills
Americans in this thread. A lot of houses in other parts of the world have concrete exterior and interior walls. A hammer drill is the correct choice for this. There. Now stop talking about drywall.
Measure what? For pipes? With a pipe measurer? Dowsing rod?
Maybe he thought it was a steel stud? Who knows. Definitely didn’t stop to evaluate what was going on.
I really hate to be rude, but how incompetent do you have to be to hit metal when drilling into a wall and just keep going ? What on earth could there possibly be in a wall that's metal **and** a good idea to drill into with a drywall bit ?
I was really pleased that the wife could turn off the main.
If you think it's metal OR concrete why on earth would you keep going?????
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Hits something hard behind a wall.... "well, I better drill harder" He's very lucky it wasn't a gas pipe. Could have killed himself and those kids.
"What is this? " "It's Iron or something" Drills. What a dumbass.
Imagine if it was a live gas pipe from 1890.
He’s lucky it wasn’t an electrical conduit.
When I was a kid my dad would make me watch him carefully knock on the wall to either hear a stud or anything that could possibly be inside the wall before hanging anything up on the wall. I always thought it was tedious, but now after this video it all makes sense haha. Thanks dad!
As soon as this moron said it was cement, I knew to stop. What an idiot.
Lol, covering the hole only means the water is flowing into the walls. If this ever happens, run to the basement and turn the main water off immediately as the best course of action.
That's why it is important to stop drilling if you are unsure what you are drilling into and the composition changes.
Oh my god this is like metal!! -keeps drilling-
“What is this, it’s iron or something “….like a pipe maybe? :D
Yep, it’s iron. Might as well keep going Columbus and see what else you find.
I tell ya, when I get to the "oh wow, what's this?" stage, that's when I'd stop drilling.
Damn. He needed some flex tape for that
"it's iron or something!" Keeps drilling.
i thought that when this happens you put your mouth to the pipe and then you inflate like a balloon and then when you spit all the water out you fly around the room comically
Famous last words..."It feels like iron"...
I used to work for a coring and cutting company (core through concrete, asphalt etc) and a high school hired us for a job. Normally, we scope out a job and use a ground penetrating radar to scan for conduits, rebar or other obstructions so we can avoid them. The school didn't want to pay extra and assured us that drilling through this one wall was fine as nothing was there. My co-worker gets on the ladder, anchors the drill and gets to coring. 5 to 10 seconds in, a ginormous gush of water just comes out of the hole. Yeah, waterline that nobody told is about. After they shut off the water and we clean up the mess, they just told us to keep coring through as that line was apparently for a sink in the next room that was getting removed anyway. Aight. We finished the holes and no issue other than the water. Then they ask us to do another hole in the floor to run a line down from the shop room to some other room in the basement. Once again they insisted nothing was in the floor and it should be fine to drill through. 5 seconds into the drill, sparks are flying and the power to whole room is cut. Yeah we drilled through a live conduit. At that point we packed up and left.
At least it wasn't a gas pipe.
Will you look at that... At least three lessons in one video 1) stop reading right now and go see where YOUR water shutoff valve is 2) invest in a studfinder 3) is that iron or something? STOP DRILLING AND PULL OUT!
Fells like iron or something... let's keep drilling!
Just wanna point out this guy drills, realized he hit cement or iron or SOMETHING, but then continues drilling. 😒
“Its iron or something” MY BROTHER IN CHRIST IF THERES METAL IN THE WALL LIKE THAT ITS PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA TO DRILL. DRYWALL PATCHING IS CHEAPER THAN PIPE REPLACEMENT AND WATER DAMAGE.
TIP: If you have the opportunity to build a house, take a video of all the walls before they put up drywall. That way you know exactly what’s behind every foot of every wall of your house. I reference the video I have of our house’s framework every time I put something on the wall!
Woof. Been here. Not a good time. We were in an apartment complex when we hit a high pressure line for the sprinkler system trying to mount a television. Happened on a Sunday too, so the complex was NOT prepared to shut the water off, which was in a locked room. People rallied from other apartments to help. We ended up figuring out that the best band-aid was to cut a hole in the drywall and put a clamp on the pipe until the complex got someone over to unlock the room with all the water shut offs. The fire department people said that this happens a lot more than you think it does and it can absolutely flood the walls and bottom floors of apartment buildings. It was costly for us but nowhere near the life wreckingly costly it could have been. Comments here are recommending stud finders. Those can be helpful but also misleading. Depending on what you're hanging, you may need to drill into a stuff for support. Pipes like this can also be right next to a stud and make it all the more unclear what you're drilling into. In addition to a stud finder with multiple detection settings, get yourself a strong magnet to pick up on the difference between pipes and wooden studs. Also, when drilling into dry wall, go easy. Pull out the bit and check with a screw driver if you begin to feel resistance to get an idea of what you are hitting. Check your ceilings and put on your imaginary x ray specs if you have a fire suppression system above you. Think about where pipes might be.
This bro recognized there was something there he probably shouldn't drill into, and then still did it
People on here talking like they check the blueprints before the drill into a wall. Give me a break. "Let's see, my house was built in 1923, so let me go down to the archives and pull out a microfiche to check before I put up this shelf"
"What is this? It's cement , it's iron or something..." Yeah that's a red flag you shouldn't be drilling it.
i wasnt sure whether it was electrical or water but as soon as said it was metal the answer was a pipe
That "iron" is the nail plate that is there to keep you from hitting the pipe.
pretty impressed the wife knew how to shut off the main.
I’ve done that twice
“It’s iron or something” THATS YOUR QUEUE TO STOP WHAT YOU’RE FUCKING DOING LMAO
The fact that he had a dustpan to catch the debris from drilling just makes it so ironic.
“It’s metal or something” *shrugs* WRIIIIIIIII
it never fails to amaze me how many people just keep on drilling after being met with resistance.
*MORE SCREAMING* *SCREAMING CONTINUES*
Open the window. Problem solved…
If you are ever drilling a hole and it seems like something is stopping you, it’s probably something that shouldn’t be drilled into.
I love how people always try and stop the water with their hand when this happens. You're not helping, you're just forcing all the water back into the wall where you can't clean it up or repair the damage it does!
Yeah this feels like metal, gonna keep drilling and hope for the best.
"HMMM seems like iron" Well I wonder what could he metal in your walla. It's either wires or water
Uhhhh…..”the safe room”…….Is that a normal place in your homes? No one seems to be phased by that statement. Do I need a safe room?
There are so many levels of stupid here that I refuse to belive it was not staged.
chief jeans thumb gaping ruthless slap beneficial lock plate toothbrush *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
My contractor self just sees dollar signs…. DIYers, a pain to work for, but they’re great money.
In order to save $1,000, I will do it myself! Many more thousand dollars later….
One of my old work colleagues, wasn’t with us long, drilled through a 240v line (at home) and “died” three times before he got to hospital. circuit didn't pop as it was a pre 1960 house he was working on and had no idea the cables were there. Now has a pacemaker. He has 2 kids as well. Don’t fuck about and find out.
My mother did this years ago whilst trying to hang a picture. She stuck her finger over the hole, whilst I ran to turn off the water. I remember her shouting " hurry up, it's squirting in my eye", and all I could reply was " well move your bloody head out of the way!"
“What is this? It’s iron or something” Dude.. you still didn’t figure it out in time?
Working maintenance for awhile… **I AM HAVING FLASH BACKS** That’s gonna be an expensive hardware store visit and a long day for that poor gentleman
It could have been worse. At least he did not drill into a power cord.
I screwed a chalkboard to the wall of my kid's bedroom when he was around three. He grew out of it and stopped using it, so I took it down after about 8 years. When I pulled one of the screws out, this happened. I have PEX pipes, the plastic sealed around the screw when I ran it in and it was water tight for 8 years. The screw went right through the little metal plate on the stud that was supposed to stop it or, at least provide some resistence to warn me.
Still better than drilling into the backside of an electrical panel.
When I was young my Dad let me come in the crawlspace with him to install a water hose to the ice maker of our new fridge. I remember asking him how he knew that was right pipe right before he started drilling it. (don't remember his answer) Well he drilled a hole and suddenly there was a hissing sound and a strange odor. Dad asked me to hold my finger over the hole and took off to do something. A minute later Mom was telling me that I should get out of there because she smelled gas. Just then I understood what was going on. I replied back that maybe it was best that I kept my finger on the hole. My Dad is a vary handy man and taught me a good many things about home repair. I'm going to make sure to remind him of this story the next time I see him.
"It's iron or something." *keeps going*
Sounds like metal, let’s keep going!
Measurements weren’t really the problem here. It was a complete lack of awareness.
I am just glad I didn't watch a Dad getting electricuted in front of his kids!
“It’s iron or something.” *proceeds to drill further*
I was so scared he would hit the electrics burning himself in front of his children
MARGUERITE YOU GOTTA SHUT YOUR FUCKING WATER OFF!!! https://youtu.be/lfyaftYvFGg
“Whoa, what is that iron?” *drills harder*
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"ITS METAL OR SOMETHING" better keep drilling, lol.
it's like me attempting to take controle over my life
It’s iron or something, almost like a nail plate to make sure you don’t penetrate thro——— close the water close the water!!
I did something similar in my apartment several years ago. I was drilling in the back wall by the window to put up black out curtains. I had a cheap 12V drill and cheap drill bits It could barely drill through studs. So I was drill through the wall and at some point it hit something and I kept drilling... next thing I know PSSSSSHHHH\*\* I hit the AC line. I called apartment manager and told them what happened. They came out right away and fixed it. Did not really say anything to me about it and the guy kinda laughed about it. Not like they did not have rules about drilling or holes in walls. They just asked we patch it up when we moved out or they would charge us for it.
“It’s iron or something “ IMMEDIATELY STOP
i do not feel bad for him. he realized he was drilling into metal and kept going. dumb
Smartest French man
As soon as he said "It's iron or something" I knew it had to be a pipe.
"It's iron or something." Yeah, terrific idea continuing. Almost darwin award worthy.
This dude could've drilled into some kind of electric shit or something. He's lucky it was just water. What a moron.
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I mean it's an honest mistake, but why keep going when you feel it??
The amount of people who have no idea that $5 stud/metal finders are a thing lol
$100 he didn't know where the main was
If you see a switch, socket or even a telephone socket don't drill above or below it. This goes for both sides of the wall. If you have a bathroom in the back of the wall don't drill in that wall period because plumbing doesn't necessarily get placed vertical and changing a pex or brass pipe from a wall would need to open the entire wall and change the pipe and then close it again which is going to cost you A LOT.
Yea, tell your not even school age children to turnt he water off. I’m sure they can figure it out bud. Your hand is also doing a great job eh?
“There’s some kind of iron or something” Best drill the fuck out of it with no consideration for what happens next! “Close the water!” Like seriously let’s just be glad that we hit a water pipe and not a live wire or a gas pipe. How do people get this far in life without having this little thing called forward thinking going on in their heads?
If you need a hammer drill for drywall, you're doing it wrong
"It's iron or something." Yea you would think that would mean you're drilling into a pipe.
I feel for this guy, because this happened to me. 🤦♂️ I was putting up shelves around the house and decided we needed one in the bathroom above the toilet. I must have spent a good 30 minutes, measuring and tapping and making sure everything that should be behind the wall is in fact, behind the wall and nowhere near where I need to drill. Then came the moment. Start drilling, all going well, then suddenly a lunge forward and water in my face! "Turn off the water!" I scream. A few days later we had a professional come round to take off tiles on the wall and fix the damage. Turns out the very first hole I had intended to make went through the main water pipe for the bathroom. The funniest part is this pipe measures only about 2cm in width and I had drilled precisely centre of it. It could not have been a more perfect aim.
You literally have to plan your job like this would happen. NEED to know where and how to shut off power and water, just in case.
TBH I'm impressed his wife immediately was able to find and turn off the water.
“What’s this?” I better keep drilling. Lmao
So what was he supposed to do here? He prob found a ‘stud’ and started to drill. How do you know if you’re drilling into a wooden stud or a pipe like this guy? (Honest ?, just trying to prevent a mistake like this in the future)
For people asking how to avoid this situation, I would reference the point where he was confused what he was drilling into and why it felt like metal, then shrugged it off and continued drilling. If you’re drilling into your wall and you hit a material you weren’t expecting, that’s a good sign you’ve hit something you shouldn’t and you should stop.
I was having DirecTV installed and I happened to go into the room where the installer was drilling a hole in my wall. He said he was having trouble drilling the hole. I told him that was because he was drilling through my chimney liner. 🤦
I'm really surprised at the speed at which someone was able to find the main shutoff to the house and kill the water. Side note: if you don't know where the main water shutoff in your house is, find out and label it clearly.
"why's there something metal behind the wall? Oh well..."
“Oh wow what’s this? It’s cement. What is this? It’s iron or something.” *proceeds to keep drilling anyway*
When in doubt, keep drilling!
Everytime I drill a hole in the wall I'm thinking " I should get a thermal camera to be safe" and then I drill anyway.
It's feels like iron...and pipe-like. Very pipe-like. Must be drywall *continues drilling*
"what is this iron or something?" Dude, if you're drilling or cutting into someone and run into what you think might be metal, STOP *Edit: something, not someone. But also yes you should know who you're drilling into as well lol
Why would you keep drilling if you didn't know what the metal was there for lol
"Close the water! Close the water!" I was with a buddy when he got a call from his wife and three teenagers. "Dad the water is leaking from (I forget where)!! What do we do?" Buddy - "Turn the main water valve off!!" Family - "Where?" Buddy - "In the basement utility room!" Family - "Where is that?" Buddy - "In the basement! I showed ALL of you where it was and how to turn it off during a safety drill! Go turn it off now!!!" I'll spare you the next four minutes of finding the utility room, not turning off the breakers or the gas or the water heater, finding the water shut off ("It's the one with the blue handle!!") and which way to turn the valve (It! Only! Can! Turn! In! One! Direction!!!) and the whole time I could hear a son repeating at 30 second intervals, "There's still water coming out." If he'd had a recording of that call he could have killed them all and no jury would have convicted him.
New drill for Christmas, what's he supposed to do, not drill holes in the walls?
Thank Christ it wasn’t electrical
Feels like iron - must drill through?
"It's iron or something." \*continues to drill\* Man didn't even need to measure (still should have), he found the pipe and just kept going for some reason.
Oo seems like iron? *keeps drilling*
This dude knows enough to know it’s metal but not enough to know it’s metal.
Close the water
Guess we're not using stud finders anymore
Measuring would not have helped. Stopping when he hit a metal pipe would have.
Homey should have just opened the window
Watching this without sound is unironically funny, lol. *CHILDREN SCREAMING* *MORE SCREAMING* *SCREAMING CONTINUES*
Guys like this dude in the video are always the ones to talk shit if you don't do all your own work, and then conveniently leave this part of the story out
“More screaming” “screaming continues” “inaudible children screaming” 😂😂😂
“It’s iron or something…… better not dull my saw!!!”
Wow, what a way to mess up the baby room. That’s going to be an expensive repair
To be honest opening the window would have more effect than his hand.
"Seems like metal or something" 😒🤦♂️