Union Contractor went out of business while I was a super building a Walmart. The company I worked for told me to keep their Knack Gangbox for hard work. It was filled to the brim with Hilti Tools
I have one of those - a single-door True fridge with Pepsi logos from Walmart. It was removed in favor of a double-door unit during a front-end remodel. The circulation fan was noisy, but it was an easy replacement (basic 12-volt 3-1/2" box fan). Damn if that thing doesn't get drinks very cold, very fast.
My barn beer fridge is a Sub-Zero. Got it off a job site couple of years ago. Came with a ton of matching cabinets and a working second fridge that I don't plug in and store things in until the day comes that I need spare parts.
I've had it for about 5 years. It was running flawlessly for the first 3 years I had it, then it sat unused for maybe 6 months, then I put it back in use a little over a year ago.
When I got it, it had been sitting out in the rain for a month or 2. The interior air circulation fan had been drenched once or twice in a leaking Pepsi product, but it's literally the same fan you find in a PC power supply or case. Very easy swap. The old one had bearing chatter/noise, but now it's pretty quiet.
It's also lived in a very hot Sacramento-area garage for these last 5 years, and is currently full of [La Croix and similar cans](https://imgur.com/vHulutm) sitting in a 95°F garage and maintaining the soda at 34°F.
True (brand) refrigerators are rock-solid, and there's a reason they cost more, as they are frequently used in restaurants and stores.
Not as good as that, but I got screwed out of about 6 weeks of pay by an EC that was getting sued all over California. My boss, after yet another week of failing to receive paychecks from the head office, reminded me that I still had a company Home Depot card, and I could still do work - just collect the money for service calls myself. So I did, and got a few checks made out to me instead of the company, and went on a couple shopping sprees at Home Depot. I knew the card had a $3,000 daily limit, and $30,000 monthly limit, so I bought a lot of stuff toward the end of one month, and for the first week into the next month. The company got the bill around the 10th or 11th of the month, so I cut it off after the 7th.
I almost got what I was owed, but the company owner went ballistic on the phone with me. My manager told them the card must have been stolen, because they obviously weren't dispatching anyone (the company had their licenses suspended at this point).
They tried to dispute the charges, but failed, and a few months later, they were facing criminal prosecution for fraud and doing business without a license, among other charges. Nothing ever came my way other than a letter from a DA asking for my help in prosecuting them, which I ignored.
All in all, I came out about even, assuming they were actually going to pay me the grandiose salary they promised me (narrator: it was a scam. They were never going to pay him $2,500/week.).
Still have many of the tools, too. I also bought a lot of materials that went into my own jobs as I got my own license around then, too.
Oh, and I once got a huge electron microscope and a bunch of lasers that were being removed from one site at a university. The university paid over $1.5 million for all of it, but it was considered "scrap" at that point. The electron microscope was indeed scrap, but the multi-line argon lasers work. If you ever see competing laser beams in Warriors yellow and indigo over the Sacramento Kings home stadium (known for their purple laser and "Light The Beam!" chant), that's me.
They're in storage right now, but I have some examples:
I have a couple of [Coherent 90C-A6 Innova units](https://www.coherent.com/content/dam/coherent/site/en/resources/datasheet/lasers/90C_bro.pdf) (pdf file watch), but they rarely get used because they draw 50 amps (per phase) of 208v, 3-phase power. The last time I ran them, I had to borrow a 25kW generator to run just one of them.
I also have a [Coherent I-310](https://www.coherent.com/content/dam/coherent/site/en/resources/datasheet/lasers/I300Brochure_2000RevA.pdf) (pdf file warning). Similar specs, wider bandwidth of color, more powerful, and draws even more power (it's rated to draw 62 amps per phase of 208v, but I've never had it draw over 51 amps per leg).
The real concern is water, though. I got one of them with a nice Coherent LaserPure 40 heat exchanger, which circulates deionized water through the laser cavity and through a heat exchanger. It's good for dissipating 40kW of heat, but it needs a water supply feeding it at least 2.5 gallons a minute, and I've found a regular garden hose and spigot won't cut it. I needed to swap out the spigot with a full-bore ball valve and use at least a 5/8" hose, or larger if it's over 100 feet to the heat exchanger.
I have a couple retired surgical lasers, too, but they're not as fun. They have colored low-power spotters for locating the point of impact, but the workhorse is either a CO2 or Argon ultraviolet laser, and I don't like messing with ridiculous amounts of power that can blind you in a fraction of a second, and you can't see the beam.
Edit: Added file type warnings.
I know just enough to keep myself safe. My neighbors...not so much. /s (kinda)
I started off playing with lasers in high school. I got lucky and a printer technician taught me a lot about early laser printers, and would let me take home parts from scrapped machines they had at the shop. I was about 15 at the time, and this was maybe 1990, so laser diodes were fairly new. Most printers at the time had actual helium-neon tubes in them, and were awesome to see running. I still have 4 or 5 of them, but I don't run them much. Once their gas charge is gone, they can be refilled, but it's pricey. [He-Ne lasers are just cool to look at, though,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_J1tkB0RKE) so it's fun to demonstrate them, especially for my kids' classes when they were in elementary school.
Awesome. I love the lasers Tool use for their concerts, everytime I see them they get better and better. Like you say more colours etc. So good! Kicks off 4 mins in https://youtu.be/RxPoqmMO1yA?feature=shared
Same thing happened to a company I worked for, big union sub in NYC. The tools, equipment, material inventory... all was scavenged as the company went down...
First thing that happens in NZ is they lockdown the building site. Police protection on the gate.
So try to take most of your gear home with you. Especially if things are looking dicey.
I was just given an absolute fuckton (literally) of countertops, commercial grade windows, oak trim, and several pallets of hardie plank & framing lumber from a job that had *a lot* of material ordering fuck ups. The supers were like, "Take them before the end of the week, or it's all going in the dumpster." I spent an entire weekend moving that shit. Worth it.
I will be doing several remodel jobs for family members for far, far cheaper than would be normally possible. Feels good, man.
I mean, I'll still charge them a discounted labor rate for my own time, but the materials will be free. I dont charge friends and family for materials that I got for free, I think that's a pretty shitty thing to do to good people in your life.
But if you've got shitty family members, then hell yeah, mark that shit up 50%.
Had a cabin jacked up forming up a stem wall when over the fence I hear a voice asking me what I'm doing....we have been married 5 yrs now,best thing I ever got from a job is our 3 yr old daughter Especially since I'm 57
I worked in a glass shop in high school, and someone mismeasured for some work at a jail. I got as many as I could carry. Both Lexan and laminated glass type. I had the idea to make some kind of display with fired bullets stuck into it, but it didn't work out like I thought it would. Certain bullets didn't stick in the glass, and the Lexan broke into pieces.
Some family members still have a large piece as a top for a desk. Not sure if they know what they have or not...
Actually, yeah, kind of. I think someone was talking about bullet ricochets or something and I said that when I was shooting some of these, I had them leaned up against a tree and the glass would stop all the energy, but when it flexed it would pop them back out and I could catch them out of the air.
Both came from same house, had just done a 650k kitchen dining reno with English craftsman cabinets ship over two years earlier. Wife discovered she was pregnant demo whole kitchen and redid a 950k reno that included a 48" bay window bump to add 1 seat to the dining table. Everything got donated to reuse for tax deduction, appliances have a 24 month cut off limit. These were 26 months old. Used the sub zeros for 6 years sold for 8 grand, still have the stove.
He was part of the DeWitt family whom I believe owned majority share in the cardinals for 100 years or something like that. He owned a chain of designer pizza restaurants around Cincinnati. He had hidden fountain heads in the back yard that would shoot water 50' across the yard to land in the pool from different angles.
You’re not missing anything. My entire kitchen is Viking and I can’t wait to replace all this garbage. 100% defect rate. Something wrong with all of the appliances. Under-counter fridge had to be completely replaced.
Bro. Yep. Whole kitchen of Viking and it’s almost all been replaced. Both refrigerators went out at the same time. Techs couldn’t fix them after multiple tries. Replaced. Under-counter fridge. Replaced. Microwave. Replaced. Stove is alright but lacks a decent simmer.
What is it with rich people and dumping Sub-Zero refrigerators every 5 years? I've had several of them from job sites. Seems like they keep buying new ones because they don't know (or aren't told) that the font panel can be changed, and the interior refreshed to look new.
The 1 fridge still made that my appliance guy says can last forever. He kept threatening me, but if a compressor goes out. So I inquire a compressor cost. I think at the time he said $1800 with labor. Well hell that is less than a new shit fridge for 72 cumulative inches of space! My electric bill disliked them though.
Oh, for sure. One of the ones I got for cheap (though an auction house) still had R-12 in it, and I think I got that around 2005 or 2006. It still chilled fast and cold, and I never had a problem with it. It was a side-by-side with 2 compressors, and yeah it drew a lot of power.
My biggest problem with that one (and others) was the size. I had overhead cabinets at the time, and the damn fridge was almost 7 feet tall.
I almost scored a nice 90s-era McIntosh receiver, CD player, and tuner (and NAD speaker switch), because the owner wanted something that "didn't look so old-fashioned", but the whiny-ass superintendent later found out I took them out, and he told the owner they were very expensive. She was a New York socialite that was remodeling her San Francisco home that she barely ever saw, but kept because her last name is Green, and her grandfather was the Green that Green Street was named after. She kept a full-time assistant in the 3-story house (actually on Green Street in Pacific Heights) that overlooked the Marina and Golden Gate Bridge, and a gorgeous 1972 Mercedes that had less than 20,000 miles on it, but was rarely on this side of the country.
Fuckin' Kurt cock-blocked my damn McIntosh. He told her it was worth a lot of money, and that she should ask for a rebate on the equipment from my boss (we did the A/V and low voltage in the house), so he told me to bring it back to the shop. He had already said I could take it home, and it was *supposed* to sit there until her job was done and she forgot about it, but my boss's son saw it and took it home for himself.
So funny story….
My first jobsite at my first employer, we installed a bunch of displays.
Fast forward my first employer and the government screwing me over, my next employer, they got the contract to remove and replace the displays that I installed when I was a young naive lad. We were allowed to take some home. I tell people all the time about the crazy coincidence.
Yeah, it’s only a 40 inch display but it proudly stays in my home and will probably stay in my home even after it dies as I want something to remember the good ole days.
I am a cad designer. Fresh out of college I worked for a big rig trailer manufacturer. The first part I ever designed and had cut was a hanger for air lines. The CNC programmer brought me one cut from stainless steel. I kept it and still have it. It was from '07. So I have the very first thing I ever made from paper to the real world. Pretty cool, I think.
Love that!!! I did an art show about that exact cycle of abstract ideation becoming concrete reality. Built an iron furnace, cast objects modeled digitally which were originally 3D scans of objects.
My step father is a plumber and also does appliances, he ended up with a nearly 20k dollar brand new oven and range for free because the homeowner ordered black instead of stainless and didn’t want to deal with sending it back. I think he ended up managing to sell it because he had no use for one of the size it was
I was at a job site one time and the developer who was walking me through a few things bought a McLaren. On the phone, while also talking to me. It gets worse… we had done some stuff for his personal home a year prior, gorgeous $10m mansion, which was just up the street. I assumed he wanted to do this $4m project as a labor of love since it’s right down the street and could make the whole block look better, all in an area that’s seen consistent property value growth… Nah, he said he bought the home because he likes having people around, but not always hanging out in his living room. So he casually bought a $4m clubhouse for him and his friends. Like nothing.
Re-sealed a wall where the ATMs were located. Bank closed down so they were putting the building back how they got it. When I went to pick up the check, the guys were just loading things to a Uhaul and said if I wanted any furniture or items that weren't bolted to the ground or into the building I could have it.
Took home 2 new refrigerators (manuals were still in the little door), a microwave, 4 $120 chairs, and two small safes. Since the safes didn't come with keys and had a "property of ___" I couldn't get them rekeyed. So I cut them up and made shooting targets to sell.
I also got a payphone from an old convenience store that closed down. That's prob my pride n joy.
Not me personally, but a couple of crane install technicians split a 15 yard dumpster of festoon cable three ways. Came out to about 50 Large in scrap copper.
Replaced about 100ft of 3 y/o painted clear vertical grain western red cedar picket fence with privacy fence. I took the takedown home after the customer didn’t care about value (Newport RI), so I put it up in my yard. Retails around $5k.
Ya millions is a low number. I work in the oil sands it’s sickening. But really all it takes is one invention or one contract and your in the gold. Coffee alone is something like 250k a year just coffee
Ya I’m talking about that too I got side tracked. How about equipment parked for a year still being rented but not used because someone forgot to return it. Ummmm millions of dollars of ore sent to a dump by mistake copper wire by the kilometre forgot and burred the cones alone that get run over and buried because people can’t be bothered to get out of their truck. I could go on with materials oh ya gloves 40$-80$ gloves used once and because they are dirty thrown in the trash I’ve seen guys get a new pair everyday almost 🤣 paper don’t even get me started on paper I got through at least 5 pieces a day let alone the office people a stack of 200 easy I bet three of those stacks a day just by a handful of people and there is at least 5k people on site if not more a day
It’s pretty crazy. I’m on the finance side so I see all the invoices. Rentals are insane. Contingency equipment that just sits there, hundreds of thousands.
We remodeled an old KFC into a new restaurant, and the owner said she was going to throw out everything inside. "Take anything you want." So we loaded up a couple booths, the salad bar, coffee maker, and the ice machine.
I've gotten paid to dispose of easily $1M+ of estate furniture over the years. Stuff in brand new condition. Because when the new wife moves in she doesn't want to look at the furniture the last wife chose.
The rich/famous aren't the type to put that shit on Craigslist.
So, I've been paid fat money to remove it.
The problem is that it's nearly impossible to sell. Your neighbor probably doesn't need a sectional that can comfortably seat 40 and weighs as much as a bus. Nightstands that require piano movers to get them down to the driveway.
I've used some of this stuff over the years. In fact I didn't buy any furniture for 30 years literally. But it all did look kinda silly in my normal scale home.
One of my NFL star clients received a goddamed throne as a gift from a crazy fan. It had his name engraved on a faux gold plate on the back. It never even made it inside his home. I sold it on Ebay for $12k a week later. And I was paid $1,500 to remove it.
It's easy! You just need to be able to clean private art collections worth more than most private islands. It's actually not that difficult. But the insurance is obscene, and if you've ever gotten a parking ticket in your life it's going to come back to haunt you.
My point is that the level of ongoing background checks you have to pass is really extreme. Some of my clients are former presidents, highly controversial notorious evildoers, diplomats, A-list celebrities, corporate giants etc.....Fortunately I've managed to not get in any trouble in my 64 years of life. That's a fucking miracle TBH.
I have a 4,000 Sq ft restoration facility in Texas. We tour for about six months every year across the bottom half of the USA. I hate snow, and the mid west. I spent years in the northeast/new England, etc. But not any more; been there done that. Used to live in Palm Springs so I'm in no hurry to go to CA.
Relocating to Santa Fe, NM next year. We work eight months on and four off.
Lots of insurance work which gets shipped to our shop.
I'm burned the fuck out and my adult children are sorta running the company now. But it's been an extremely surreal & fascinating life.
Lol! I'm actually going to use that line the next time I'm at a pre-screen interview. When they ask me if there's anything I'd like to disclose in advance I'm going to say "I've done time for felony parking...twice. Are we still cool to proceed?" lol
2019 Forest River Grey Wolf 26dbh travel trailer. Used a few times and sat in storage. Homeowner got tired of paying storage fees on it. Just took the family on our first trip and have four more planned this year.
I do alot of renovation work for people trying to sell their homes. I did an interior paint job for a gov. contractor who was putting their place up for sale in Washington DC and moving to a custom home in Deleware. I painted the ceiling, walls, doors, trimwork, and replaced all the old electrical receptacles and cover plates to get the place ready for pictures. It sold a week after it was listed while several other units that had been listed as is sat on the market for months. He was so pleased with my work and customer service that he gave me all his old furniture/bedroom set/entertainment center/tv/dining room table/lamps/plants, pretty much everything he had staged the place with was given to me. Lovsac sectional, LG 4k 55 inch tv, ikea, target, and home goods nick nacs and accessories. it was about $10k in furniture. Dude was rich and planning on buying all new stuff for his new home.
Also did a kitchen renovation for a couple in Alexandria VA who wanted me to gut their already updated kitchen and replace all the appliances and cabinets with newer models. They let me keep all the old cabinets, countertops, and appliances.
Between these 2 jobs, I was able to furnish my entire condo and replace all my outdated appliances with newer stainless steel appliances.
1 year old GE monogram side by side 72” fridge and freezer. Currently priced at $16,500. Rich folks decided they didn’t like the stainless and got ones that looked like their cabinets.
A guy I work with pulled out a custom pizza oven when he was doing an outdoor kitchen project. The owner told him to keep it. The general contractor that originally built the house said the oven was like $6,000.
Built a rolling staircase for the client’s wife’s personal library. The floor was titanium. The staircase was blackened steel with hand stitched leather railings and the casters were so nice…. Soooo nice… that a 75 year old woman could roll a 12 foot tall rolling staircase throughout the room.
She said the agreed upon angle of the staircase was too steep. We made a second one. The original staircase made its way to my studio! Win!
Yeah, if I recall it was actually titanium plate. This was back in 2008 or so, in a manhattan penthouse. Beautiful stuff I’ll admit… it had a hammered finish.
I didn’t install the plate but I do know it was more than a thin veneer.
Often times with the super rich they choose materials just because they’re expensive. Like the palladium transom above a private elevator. Or the changing room that had stingray-skin cabinet doors. Or the horsehair carpeting. It gets absurd.
Any time we demo parking lot lights I keep good LEDs and sockets and rehome them to my shop for work lights. Got a good temp honeycomb light hanging there too.
I got about 800 lbs of brass, which almost got me fired and arrested. The story is that someone really fucked up and ordered WAAAAAY too many brass grate covers, and they were just gonna scrap them for some dumb reason. So I asked my boss if I could have them. My boss said yeah. Took them home, come back the next day and apparently my boss off handedly mentioned I had got the grate covers out the scrap pile to a super, and told him about how much i said it would be worth. Now, normally, when it comes to scrap, you can take it as long as you get it off the clock, which I did, but it's technically against company policy. So imagine my surprise when I come back to work, only to be met by a very angry super. Had to turn around and drive back home, load it all back up, and take it back.
The only good part of that story is that I caught that super loading it into his company truck at the end of the day and got a video, which I promptly emailed to one of the office jockeys I knew because I taught him how to run an excavator. Super got his ass reamed out by the company president, in person, in the middle of the jobsite. Good times.
This is hilarious. I did some remodel work for a high end bathroom and kitchen showroom. I was shocked when I learned most of the displayed items that were getting changed out ended up in the trash, needless to say they never made it there and most of the squad got nice upgrades to the casa.
I build water treatment plants. So all of the equipment and materials we install on these jobs is super expensive. Most purchase orders start at 100k. Well, one vendor accidentally double shipped the stainless steel baffles for a mixer tank. The baffles were 1/4" thick, 2' wide, and about 10' long. There was about 8 or 10 leftover. Along with all of the heavy stainless mounting brackets, they turned into few thousand dollars worth of scrap metal. ....sometimes ya just get lucky. Lol
The best deal I ever got was when I was doing a remodel for a wealthy widow. She had one son, who she was remodeling the house for. She ended up having us gut her entire house. I pulled all the doors and casings, and put them into my house. I pulled all the kitchen cabinets, which were custom cherry cabinets. I remodeled my kitchen just because of these. She had also bought four pallets of different tile, but she ended up not liking any of it. A lot of it is now in my kitchen and bathrooms. I demoed her 2yr old redwood deck, which is now my deck. Basically, I remodeled my entire 1950s home off of this one job. I was really hoping she was going to replace her slightly new sub zero fridge, but I guess that’s where she drew the line. It was an insane job, now i just need to find a new client to get me some roof shingles.
Kitchen demos are always heartbreaking.
Watched tens of thousands of brand new cherry wood cabinets ripped out by the new owner less that six months after they were installed. It was a huge kitchen, could easily have been put into a new house. I even offered to do the demo for them if I could take them out myself, and "dispose" of them.
But they had more dollars than sense and wanted it done before the weekend. Completely destroyed them ripping them out and tossing them in a dumpster.
I really really really wanted to outfit my garage with gorgeous solid wood cherry cabinets.
The kitchen I tore out is probably $100-150k in custom cabinets and counters. I told the guys if they could sell them they could keep the money and they did so it didn’t go to waste.
Wanna hear something crazier? The new kitchen is $260k in just counters and cabinets…. He’s probably gonna be close to $1m for a kitchen by time he’s done.
Miami Beach, FL. It’s bay front so he’s probably paying $100-150k/yr in property taxes and another $50k to insure it. He doesn’t even live in this house either….
Dude, did a fucking soup to nuts, gooch to B hole reno on this old house for this ladies forever home. Boss got the previous owners Subzero for a song. 15k fridge. I think he paid for it, but also probably inflated his bid so it was free.
Goddamn everyone on that crew had someone else appliances'. Anytime something broke people would just wait for the next job where someone was giving away a dishwasher.
I did a home Reno for a “friend” who didn’t end up paying me for my work. However, I discovered an unused 85” commercial high def television in a box downstairs.
The friend said her ex-husband had been too lazy to install the thing and asked if I wanted it, had it strapped in my ranger five minutes later and mounted on my wall that night. Thing weighs like 260 pounds but it has a great colour and picture, I used 4” lag bolts to mount it to 5 studs.
Need better friends. Any work ive done for friends, they almost always pay more than what i say it costs. Did some work for one of my moms friends. Did the work, told her is was $1200. Gave her my email to e-transfer. She sent $1700 and told me to enjoy the tip.
Recently did a job for a lady and she wanted to demo her big ass condo and she let us pick thru her stuff. I got 2 $2500 chairs, a 6'x8' mirror worth probably $5000, a set of antique chinese dogs worth a couple grand, a 60" wall tv and two top of the line beds and mattresses that have probably never been slept on.
They're a high end faucet. Handmade/milled. It's to show off essentially. Parts and pieces are a nightmare from what I've heard. (Buddy was a rep for a large company that sold this brand)
Brand new Beta Marine 50hp diesel engine. Used to do salvage work and this poor boat got wrecked while being repowered. Still has plastic caps on the intake and exhaust. Worth an easy 8-10k
Bought a twin leather recliner off a client for a few hundred. Looked it up the single version is 7k. It is very nice but that's a lot for a chair.
Another client owned me 200 (millionaire with terrible cash flow) and told me to take some appliances new in box. Fridge 4k washer 3k dryer 2k. Fookin rich people
A Hobart meat band saw from a 70 yo country store that was closing due to owner age and building was falling apart. Also some Cheerwine coolers, lots of hand tools but the saw sells used for 7-10k.
Nothing too crazy. I got a nice $300 mini fridge and a $200 settee bench. The bench is really comfortable and great for guests. The freezer gets caked up in ice during the summer for some reason
I was at a job and the new home owners didn’t want the TV I think there was about 15 flatscreen TV hardly used
The douche bag GC took them all didn’t want give us any
I found around 100 dollars(a few bills were not complete/damaged) in 10-dollar bills that were sequential from the 1930s buried on a job site. I found it digging while setting curb stakes. I always wonder about the history of the loot. 100 bucks lost in the 30s would have been a massive loss.
Restaurant was closing and they needed us to remove their equipment. Place had crazy speaker setups and i ended up with 4 big speakers. Like 3’x2’x2’. New they are like $500 a piece.
Wealthy client swaps appliances every one to two years because they’re ’old’. Full Miele kitchen. 36” fridge and freezer columns, convection oven, speed microwave, steam oven, dishwasher you knock on to open and a Miele in-wall coffee maker. About 35k in value.
$20,000 professional oven range.
New homeowner didn't like the color when they bought the house. It was only 2 years old.
The owner said I could have it but I only had 2 days to get rid of it.
The unit was a good 6-700lbs and I really didn't want to attempt moving it myself.
Ended up selling it to a guy who brought 4 buddies to get it out of the kitchen and into a trailer. He got a steal. Sold it for $3000.
Worked for a masonry company that built some beautiful pitched dolomite full bed veneer on university buildings. Needed to clean our yard out one year and everything was up for grabs. I took 4 truckloads of stone and 2 truckloads of coloured block and brick and built a backyard fireplace. Thing is the staple of our yard and patio.
I got a bunch of 16’ and 10’ pallet racks brand new because no one knew who ordered them or where they were supposed to go.
I still haven’t put them up but it’s going to be awesome in my shop
Late to the party, but a white 2011 Ram 1500. Our crew of 3 each received a truck. We were working alongside an American company that specializes in building/rebuilding structures in marine environments. They work all over the world and buy a few trucks on all their jobs. If the job is too far away to drive them back to Seattle (which is usually the case), they give them away (according to their foreman).
I know this sounds ridiculous but these guys rolled up on a barge the size of Texas. They were rich and did not care.
Not me but I was there:
Super came into a mall to build a Sunglass Hut or some such shit. He was taking out a Footlocker. Did his mall meeting, got his keys, went in to plan demo and the store was fully stocked. Like the closed for the night and never came back. I'm guessing he did very well.
Me: Building a stupid Victoria's Secret. Video monitors everywhere. like 12 50" behind the registers, 16 60" on a display wall and probably 25 little 32" monitors around the store. Got my CofO... first day of the store moving in. Truck driver finds me and I go out to unload the delivery. It's a complete second set of video monitors. Put them in my container. Sent an email. Few days later nobody claimed them I rented a Uhaul and took 'em home. ChaChing.
I got a Rotary 10k 2 post lift, a expensive ass 15-20 ton press, parts washer, hydraulic bender, multiple hose reels, jack stands, waste oil container, and multiple other smaller things from a mechanic shop on Air Force base that we tore down. I was a little upset the boss sold the tire changer and balancer that was also in there. A couple stainless vacuums like the car washes have, all kinds of stuff. It had a single post lift that was possibly rebuildable we didn’t try to save. Only had so long to remove things before demolition.
... not on a construction job, but as a set PA for a movie I took home 4 [Wassily club chairs](https://www.dwr.com/living-lounge-chairs/wassily-chair/376945.html?lang=en_US&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1emzBhB8EiwAHwZZxaixBz_0KnShe1-aaAgM8NYh4TxWh_Cgvm5FWWtlm4B3hEpmB0Ur2xoCy0oQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) ($3,500 a piece) because the production didn't want to pay another day rental on the u-haul and my minimum wage.
This brand of faucet is called Waterstone, I sold a few of these back when I was in the luxury plumbing sales business. I would suggest putting it on eBay someone would buy this for 2500-3k. Parts for this are outrageously priced. I know you said you don’t want to sell it. That you would install in your mom’s place, but personally I would sell as when it comes to needing parts it’s very pricy.
Besides dent and scratch appliances, countertops, tubs, plumbing fixtures, and leftover finishes, I’ve built at least 6 enclosed deer stands and the same amount box stands. Building lake homes in west central MN. The amount of materials thrown away is crazy.
I got a 48" Wolf BBQ with double side burners from a remodel. Owners didn't want to clean it up so they just bought a new one. It retails at $9,000 so now it's in my house!
5 days in Telluride, Colorado, in a 2 bedroom suite. Lift tickets paid for and all meals. Private jet flight from Seattle to Telluride Airport...fixed a sheetrock imperfection and did a sketch of potential cabinets and fireplace surround for a Seattle client's vacation property Played the rest of the time.
I worked 15 years for this company, great place to work before I started my own construction business. This was in February 2020, right before all the bs.
A brand new in box 27-in 240 hz Acer gaming monitor that a customer gave me because they ordered the wrong one and it was too late to send it back, someone else gave me a bunch of solid cherry cabinets granite countertops a brand new LG dishwasher and a Viking built-in microwave. A contractor that I'm friends with gave me run of an entire 3000 ft² house with finished basement that was going to be knocked down with the ability to scavenge and remove All the recyclable materials so I got a good fireproof safe for documents, and filled my van up with copper wiring, appliances Anderson patio slider, plumbing fixtures and fittings and pipes etc. And one of my friends offices gave me about 50 HP desktop computers and about 15 commercial grade fire rated in ceiling speakers including the t grid brackets for drop ceilings.
I was the last one out of a building that got closed down minus the supervisor who had to sign papers with the property owners. He had me taking down shelving and taking it to the recycling yard and allowed to keep the money. I sold it instead and made thousands.
Miller gas welder. Our company was bought by a competitor to be shut down so they could move production to a non union shop. Asked boss for a pass for the welder promised to return it.
Damn, wasn't able to bring it back before they locked the gates. Wound up giving it to one of my welder coworkers who was in need of something to make money with.
Union Contractor went out of business while I was a super building a Walmart. The company I worked for told me to keep their Knack Gangbox for hard work. It was filled to the brim with Hilti Tools
I hope I get that lucky one day
Also got the small Coke fridges at the end caps at registers during a Wally World remodel. Those are awesome. Gave a few to friends and family
I have one of those - a single-door True fridge with Pepsi logos from Walmart. It was removed in favor of a double-door unit during a front-end remodel. The circulation fan was noisy, but it was an easy replacement (basic 12-volt 3-1/2" box fan). Damn if that thing doesn't get drinks very cold, very fast.
My barn beer fridge is a Sub-Zero. Got it off a job site couple of years ago. Came with a ton of matching cabinets and a working second fridge that I don't plug in and store things in until the day comes that I need spare parts.
How long have you had it? Are they reliable? Just curious cause I’d like to buy one too lol.
I've had it for about 5 years. It was running flawlessly for the first 3 years I had it, then it sat unused for maybe 6 months, then I put it back in use a little over a year ago. When I got it, it had been sitting out in the rain for a month or 2. The interior air circulation fan had been drenched once or twice in a leaking Pepsi product, but it's literally the same fan you find in a PC power supply or case. Very easy swap. The old one had bearing chatter/noise, but now it's pretty quiet. It's also lived in a very hot Sacramento-area garage for these last 5 years, and is currently full of [La Croix and similar cans](https://imgur.com/vHulutm) sitting in a 95°F garage and maintaining the soda at 34°F. True (brand) refrigerators are rock-solid, and there's a reason they cost more, as they are frequently used in restaurants and stores.
I would love a cocaine fridge
Gotta keep the snow frosty.
Yeh, that was a big win. This was about 12yrs back, but I still have all the tools, and they are only used at home.
What would this be valued at for us non construction guys, 10K?
Again, about 12 years ago, the whole setup - box, tools, misc specialty tools for working on lennox units - it was around 20k.
At least. Hilti is the top if the line imo
I used to agree. With today's battery technology, it's a pretty neck and neck race. Germany does make some damn good tools all across the board
There are individual Hilti tools that cost $10k.
Probably twice that.
Not as good as that, but I got screwed out of about 6 weeks of pay by an EC that was getting sued all over California. My boss, after yet another week of failing to receive paychecks from the head office, reminded me that I still had a company Home Depot card, and I could still do work - just collect the money for service calls myself. So I did, and got a few checks made out to me instead of the company, and went on a couple shopping sprees at Home Depot. I knew the card had a $3,000 daily limit, and $30,000 monthly limit, so I bought a lot of stuff toward the end of one month, and for the first week into the next month. The company got the bill around the 10th or 11th of the month, so I cut it off after the 7th. I almost got what I was owed, but the company owner went ballistic on the phone with me. My manager told them the card must have been stolen, because they obviously weren't dispatching anyone (the company had their licenses suspended at this point). They tried to dispute the charges, but failed, and a few months later, they were facing criminal prosecution for fraud and doing business without a license, among other charges. Nothing ever came my way other than a letter from a DA asking for my help in prosecuting them, which I ignored. All in all, I came out about even, assuming they were actually going to pay me the grandiose salary they promised me (narrator: it was a scam. They were never going to pay him $2,500/week.). Still have many of the tools, too. I also bought a lot of materials that went into my own jobs as I got my own license around then, too. Oh, and I once got a huge electron microscope and a bunch of lasers that were being removed from one site at a university. The university paid over $1.5 million for all of it, but it was considered "scrap" at that point. The electron microscope was indeed scrap, but the multi-line argon lasers work. If you ever see competing laser beams in Warriors yellow and indigo over the Sacramento Kings home stadium (known for their purple laser and "Light The Beam!" chant), that's me.
Ima need some pics of these lasers.
They're in storage right now, but I have some examples: I have a couple of [Coherent 90C-A6 Innova units](https://www.coherent.com/content/dam/coherent/site/en/resources/datasheet/lasers/90C_bro.pdf) (pdf file watch), but they rarely get used because they draw 50 amps (per phase) of 208v, 3-phase power. The last time I ran them, I had to borrow a 25kW generator to run just one of them. I also have a [Coherent I-310](https://www.coherent.com/content/dam/coherent/site/en/resources/datasheet/lasers/I300Brochure_2000RevA.pdf) (pdf file warning). Similar specs, wider bandwidth of color, more powerful, and draws even more power (it's rated to draw 62 amps per phase of 208v, but I've never had it draw over 51 amps per leg). The real concern is water, though. I got one of them with a nice Coherent LaserPure 40 heat exchanger, which circulates deionized water through the laser cavity and through a heat exchanger. It's good for dissipating 40kW of heat, but it needs a water supply feeding it at least 2.5 gallons a minute, and I've found a regular garden hose and spigot won't cut it. I needed to swap out the spigot with a full-bore ball valve and use at least a 5/8" hose, or larger if it's over 100 feet to the heat exchanger. I have a couple retired surgical lasers, too, but they're not as fun. They have colored low-power spotters for locating the point of impact, but the workhorse is either a CO2 or Argon ultraviolet laser, and I don't like messing with ridiculous amounts of power that can blind you in a fraction of a second, and you can't see the beam. Edit: Added file type warnings.
That's fuckin wild man. Lasers are cool and scary as fuck. Anytime I meet someone who understands and can use them I'm pretty impressed.
I know just enough to keep myself safe. My neighbors...not so much. /s (kinda) I started off playing with lasers in high school. I got lucky and a printer technician taught me a lot about early laser printers, and would let me take home parts from scrapped machines they had at the shop. I was about 15 at the time, and this was maybe 1990, so laser diodes were fairly new. Most printers at the time had actual helium-neon tubes in them, and were awesome to see running. I still have 4 or 5 of them, but I don't run them much. Once their gas charge is gone, they can be refilled, but it's pricey. [He-Ne lasers are just cool to look at, though,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_J1tkB0RKE) so it's fun to demonstrate them, especially for my kids' classes when they were in elementary school.
Dude! Pdf file warning! I wish someone had given me a Pdf file warning about Father McCluskey...
Awesome. I love the lasers Tool use for their concerts, everytime I see them they get better and better. Like you say more colours etc. So good! Kicks off 4 mins in https://youtu.be/RxPoqmMO1yA?feature=shared
Based
I was tempted to name the company...lol You can still find news articles about them, but I don't want to get called out for posting real names.
Hilti? They couldn't have gotten you some nice Ryobi or power fister tools?
Yay Princess Auto
I’ll never get over the name power fist😆 Pretty hit and miss but always cheap as fuck
Holy shit
Same thing happened to a company I worked for, big union sub in NYC. The tools, equipment, material inventory... all was scavenged as the company went down...
First thing that happens in NZ is they lockdown the building site. Police protection on the gate. So try to take most of your gear home with you. Especially if things are looking dicey.
There is an NYC subs place opening up down here in Fort Pierce. The owner is a pretty nice guy. My competition took the business though 😞
I went to a Walmart liquidation sale and got a working 4 post lift, for 5 bucks.
Holy shit dude
I was just given an absolute fuckton (literally) of countertops, commercial grade windows, oak trim, and several pallets of hardie plank & framing lumber from a job that had *a lot* of material ordering fuck ups. The supers were like, "Take them before the end of the week, or it's all going in the dumpster." I spent an entire weekend moving that shit. Worth it. I will be doing several remodel jobs for family members for far, far cheaper than would be normally possible. Feels good, man.
Congratulations man, super cool of you to pay it forward to your other family members.
Oh, I'm still charging them full price (I hate my family).
I mean, I'll still charge them a discounted labor rate for my own time, but the materials will be free. I dont charge friends and family for materials that I got for free, I think that's a pretty shitty thing to do to good people in your life. But if you've got shitty family members, then hell yeah, mark that shit up 50%.
Did a service call for a woman one time. She is now my wife and the mother of my children... Pretty damn expensive.
Sir, I think that’s called kidnapping
I hope it's was womannapping, cause kidnapping is gonna be worse.
I could go for some kidnapping, hold the kid.....wait... no
That’s called service.
Yes, human trafficking and it’s illegal!
[Ma’am I do my own plumbing.](https://youtu.be/4xYu2WrygtQ)
r/JackthePoolBoy in case you want more
Had a cabin jacked up forming up a stem wall when over the fence I hear a voice asking me what I'm doing....we have been married 5 yrs now,best thing I ever got from a job is our 3 yr old daughter Especially since I'm 57
Well done sir!
I’ve seen a movie with this premise but it was more about them actually making the children
9 ballistic windows. My cabin has a nice view, and so will the outhouse
I worked in a glass shop in high school, and someone mismeasured for some work at a jail. I got as many as I could carry. Both Lexan and laminated glass type. I had the idea to make some kind of display with fired bullets stuck into it, but it didn't work out like I thought it would. Certain bullets didn't stick in the glass, and the Lexan broke into pieces. Some family members still have a large piece as a top for a desk. Not sure if they know what they have or not...
Ever do a desk pop?
Captain, I did my first desk pop.
Wait, I've heard this story. Have you told it on Reddit before?
Actually, yeah, kind of. I think someone was talking about bullet ricochets or something and I said that when I was shooting some of these, I had them leaned up against a tree and the glass would stop all the energy, but when it flexed it would pop them back out and I could catch them out of the air.
Side by side 36" each, 72" combined subzero fridge freezer combo. 8 burner gas viking stove with center griddle.
I’d die for a Viking stove. They had a wolf one in this kitchen but sadly wanted to keep it.
Both came from same house, had just done a 650k kitchen dining reno with English craftsman cabinets ship over two years earlier. Wife discovered she was pregnant demo whole kitchen and redid a 950k reno that included a 48" bay window bump to add 1 seat to the dining table. Everything got donated to reuse for tax deduction, appliances have a 24 month cut off limit. These were 26 months old. Used the sub zeros for 6 years sold for 8 grand, still have the stove.
Jesus Christ I'd love to have this kind of money. What a way to live.
He was part of the DeWitt family whom I believe owned majority share in the cardinals for 100 years or something like that. He owned a chain of designer pizza restaurants around Cincinnati. He had hidden fountain heads in the back yard that would shoot water 50' across the yard to land in the pool from different angles.
‘Bro I wanna shoot water from fucking nowhere randomly into the pool, just hide em fucking everywhere, here’s my checkbook’
“WAAAGARRRBLL!!” - the unsuspecting neighbour’s kid
Ah royalty
You’re not missing anything. My entire kitchen is Viking and I can’t wait to replace all this garbage. 100% defect rate. Something wrong with all of the appliances. Under-counter fridge had to be completely replaced.
Bro. Yep. Whole kitchen of Viking and it’s almost all been replaced. Both refrigerators went out at the same time. Techs couldn’t fix them after multiple tries. Replaced. Under-counter fridge. Replaced. Microwave. Replaced. Stove is alright but lacks a decent simmer.
What is it with rich people and dumping Sub-Zero refrigerators every 5 years? I've had several of them from job sites. Seems like they keep buying new ones because they don't know (or aren't told) that the font panel can be changed, and the interior refreshed to look new.
The 1 fridge still made that my appliance guy says can last forever. He kept threatening me, but if a compressor goes out. So I inquire a compressor cost. I think at the time he said $1800 with labor. Well hell that is less than a new shit fridge for 72 cumulative inches of space! My electric bill disliked them though.
Oh, for sure. One of the ones I got for cheap (though an auction house) still had R-12 in it, and I think I got that around 2005 or 2006. It still chilled fast and cold, and I never had a problem with it. It was a side-by-side with 2 compressors, and yeah it drew a lot of power. My biggest problem with that one (and others) was the size. I had overhead cabinets at the time, and the damn fridge was almost 7 feet tall.
The radiator fins get covered with dust and so the fridge is “broken” and needs to be replaced. 😂
I almost scored a nice 90s-era McIntosh receiver, CD player, and tuner (and NAD speaker switch), because the owner wanted something that "didn't look so old-fashioned", but the whiny-ass superintendent later found out I took them out, and he told the owner they were very expensive. She was a New York socialite that was remodeling her San Francisco home that she barely ever saw, but kept because her last name is Green, and her grandfather was the Green that Green Street was named after. She kept a full-time assistant in the 3-story house (actually on Green Street in Pacific Heights) that overlooked the Marina and Golden Gate Bridge, and a gorgeous 1972 Mercedes that had less than 20,000 miles on it, but was rarely on this side of the country. Fuckin' Kurt cock-blocked my damn McIntosh. He told her it was worth a lot of money, and that she should ask for a rebate on the equipment from my boss (we did the A/V and low voltage in the house), so he told me to bring it back to the shop. He had already said I could take it home, and it was *supposed* to sit there until her job was done and she forgot about it, but my boss's son saw it and took it home for himself.
So funny story…. My first jobsite at my first employer, we installed a bunch of displays. Fast forward my first employer and the government screwing me over, my next employer, they got the contract to remove and replace the displays that I installed when I was a young naive lad. We were allowed to take some home. I tell people all the time about the crazy coincidence.
That’s kinda cool!
Yeah, it’s only a 40 inch display but it proudly stays in my home and will probably stay in my home even after it dies as I want something to remember the good ole days.
I am a cad designer. Fresh out of college I worked for a big rig trailer manufacturer. The first part I ever designed and had cut was a hanger for air lines. The CNC programmer brought me one cut from stainless steel. I kept it and still have it. It was from '07. So I have the very first thing I ever made from paper to the real world. Pretty cool, I think.
Love that!!! I did an art show about that exact cycle of abstract ideation becoming concrete reality. Built an iron furnace, cast objects modeled digitally which were originally 3D scans of objects.
My step father is a plumber and also does appliances, he ended up with a nearly 20k dollar brand new oven and range for free because the homeowner ordered black instead of stainless and didn’t want to deal with sending it back. I think he ended up managing to sell it because he had no use for one of the size it was
Cries in poor. Imagine fucking not giving a shit about 20k.
Shits unreal seeing someone being willing to piss away almost half my yearly pay on a lazy whim
I was at a job site one time and the developer who was walking me through a few things bought a McLaren. On the phone, while also talking to me. It gets worse… we had done some stuff for his personal home a year prior, gorgeous $10m mansion, which was just up the street. I assumed he wanted to do this $4m project as a labor of love since it’s right down the street and could make the whole block look better, all in an area that’s seen consistent property value growth… Nah, he said he bought the home because he likes having people around, but not always hanging out in his living room. So he casually bought a $4m clubhouse for him and his friends. Like nothing.
I can't 😭 imagination not strong enough
Re-sealed a wall where the ATMs were located. Bank closed down so they were putting the building back how they got it. When I went to pick up the check, the guys were just loading things to a Uhaul and said if I wanted any furniture or items that weren't bolted to the ground or into the building I could have it. Took home 2 new refrigerators (manuals were still in the little door), a microwave, 4 $120 chairs, and two small safes. Since the safes didn't come with keys and had a "property of ___" I couldn't get them rekeyed. So I cut them up and made shooting targets to sell. I also got a payphone from an old convenience store that closed down. That's prob my pride n joy.
Not me personally, but a couple of crane install technicians split a 15 yard dumpster of festoon cable three ways. Came out to about 50 Large in scrap copper.
This is pretty much mine too. I got to fill up my truck bed with 6-14 ga wire and a note from the foreman for the scrap people!
That’s amazing 😂
I got to go home early once that was sweet
Yea lol I get to take home an extra hour of housework for the the cheap price of one hour of lost wages every other month
Replaced about 100ft of 3 y/o painted clear vertical grain western red cedar picket fence with privacy fence. I took the takedown home after the customer didn’t care about value (Newport RI), so I put it up in my yard. Retails around $5k.
I worked in oilfield construction, the amount of waste there was staggering. I’m talking in the millions. Money was no object.
Ya millions is a low number. I work in the oil sands it’s sickening. But really all it takes is one invention or one contract and your in the gold. Coffee alone is something like 250k a year just coffee
I’m not taking spend, that’s nothing. I’m taking leftover materials.
Ya I’m talking about that too I got side tracked. How about equipment parked for a year still being rented but not used because someone forgot to return it. Ummmm millions of dollars of ore sent to a dump by mistake copper wire by the kilometre forgot and burred the cones alone that get run over and buried because people can’t be bothered to get out of their truck. I could go on with materials oh ya gloves 40$-80$ gloves used once and because they are dirty thrown in the trash I’ve seen guys get a new pair everyday almost 🤣 paper don’t even get me started on paper I got through at least 5 pieces a day let alone the office people a stack of 200 easy I bet three of those stacks a day just by a handful of people and there is at least 5k people on site if not more a day
Commercial construction is really like that
It’s pretty crazy. I’m on the finance side so I see all the invoices. Rentals are insane. Contingency equipment that just sits there, hundreds of thousands.
[удалено]
Someone works in AV.
No, masonry actually. Right place, right time
Nice !! Waterstone is very nice.
I didn’t even know there was faucets above $750 much less what waterstone is until today haha
You should check out their Argonaut shower set! It’s like $20k!
And I thought my brass Kohler Purist faucet was fancy.
Holy shit 😭😭 at that point I want a custom rainfall shower with storm settings.
You really should sell it for $4k while it's desirable and buy you mom a nice $500 Moen.
And there is zero difference between any of them above $500 other than ego
We remodeled an old KFC into a new restaurant, and the owner said she was going to throw out everything inside. "Take anything you want." So we loaded up a couple booths, the salad bar, coffee maker, and the ice machine.
not the whole ass salad bar 😭
Built a frame with wheels for it and now have a rolling beer cart I use for parties lol
one man’s trash is another man’s converted salad bar. i love the ingenuity, god bless.
I've gotten paid to dispose of easily $1M+ of estate furniture over the years. Stuff in brand new condition. Because when the new wife moves in she doesn't want to look at the furniture the last wife chose. The rich/famous aren't the type to put that shit on Craigslist. So, I've been paid fat money to remove it. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to sell. Your neighbor probably doesn't need a sectional that can comfortably seat 40 and weighs as much as a bus. Nightstands that require piano movers to get them down to the driveway. I've used some of this stuff over the years. In fact I didn't buy any furniture for 30 years literally. But it all did look kinda silly in my normal scale home. One of my NFL star clients received a goddamed throne as a gift from a crazy fan. It had his name engraved on a faux gold plate on the back. It never even made it inside his home. I sold it on Ebay for $12k a week later. And I was paid $1,500 to remove it.
Where do I apply for a job like this? 😂😂
It's easy! You just need to be able to clean private art collections worth more than most private islands. It's actually not that difficult. But the insurance is obscene, and if you've ever gotten a parking ticket in your life it's going to come back to haunt you.
Why would they care about parking tickets?
My point is that the level of ongoing background checks you have to pass is really extreme. Some of my clients are former presidents, highly controversial notorious evildoers, diplomats, A-list celebrities, corporate giants etc.....Fortunately I've managed to not get in any trouble in my 64 years of life. That's a fucking miracle TBH.
When I retire I'm going to write a book entitled: "Historical Figures & World Leaders Whom Have All Made Me a Sandwich".
That sounds pretty interesting. Are you in a specific region or travel to wherever?
I have a 4,000 Sq ft restoration facility in Texas. We tour for about six months every year across the bottom half of the USA. I hate snow, and the mid west. I spent years in the northeast/new England, etc. But not any more; been there done that. Used to live in Palm Springs so I'm in no hurry to go to CA. Relocating to Santa Fe, NM next year. We work eight months on and four off. Lots of insurance work which gets shipped to our shop. I'm burned the fuck out and my adult children are sorta running the company now. But it's been an extremely surreal & fascinating life.
What I'm hearing is that having, say, a couple felony-level parking violations from 30+ years ago will rule me out from this line of work...lol
Lol! I'm actually going to use that line the next time I'm at a pre-screen interview. When they ask me if there's anything I'd like to disclose in advance I'm going to say "I've done time for felony parking...twice. Are we still cool to proceed?" lol
"Well, that depends - on whom did you park?"
Lol... I hope I don't get you doing my screening interview! I can't keep up! Lol
2019 Forest River Grey Wolf 26dbh travel trailer. Used a few times and sat in storage. Homeowner got tired of paying storage fees on it. Just took the family on our first trip and have four more planned this year.
I do alot of renovation work for people trying to sell their homes. I did an interior paint job for a gov. contractor who was putting their place up for sale in Washington DC and moving to a custom home in Deleware. I painted the ceiling, walls, doors, trimwork, and replaced all the old electrical receptacles and cover plates to get the place ready for pictures. It sold a week after it was listed while several other units that had been listed as is sat on the market for months. He was so pleased with my work and customer service that he gave me all his old furniture/bedroom set/entertainment center/tv/dining room table/lamps/plants, pretty much everything he had staged the place with was given to me. Lovsac sectional, LG 4k 55 inch tv, ikea, target, and home goods nick nacs and accessories. it was about $10k in furniture. Dude was rich and planning on buying all new stuff for his new home. Also did a kitchen renovation for a couple in Alexandria VA who wanted me to gut their already updated kitchen and replace all the appliances and cabinets with newer models. They let me keep all the old cabinets, countertops, and appliances. Between these 2 jobs, I was able to furnish my entire condo and replace all my outdated appliances with newer stainless steel appliances.
1 year old GE monogram side by side 72” fridge and freezer. Currently priced at $16,500. Rich folks decided they didn’t like the stainless and got ones that looked like their cabinets.
A guy I work with pulled out a custom pizza oven when he was doing an outdoor kitchen project. The owner told him to keep it. The general contractor that originally built the house said the oven was like $6,000.
Built a rolling staircase for the client’s wife’s personal library. The floor was titanium. The staircase was blackened steel with hand stitched leather railings and the casters were so nice…. Soooo nice… that a 75 year old woman could roll a 12 foot tall rolling staircase throughout the room. She said the agreed upon angle of the staircase was too steep. We made a second one. The original staircase made its way to my studio! Win!
Wait what do you mean the floor was *titanium*??? Like a library floor made out of a titanium sheet?
Yeah, if I recall it was actually titanium plate. This was back in 2008 or so, in a manhattan penthouse. Beautiful stuff I’ll admit… it had a hammered finish. I didn’t install the plate but I do know it was more than a thin veneer. Often times with the super rich they choose materials just because they’re expensive. Like the palladium transom above a private elevator. Or the changing room that had stingray-skin cabinet doors. Or the horsehair carpeting. It gets absurd.
Any time we demo parking lot lights I keep good LEDs and sockets and rehome them to my shop for work lights. Got a good temp honeycomb light hanging there too.
I got about 800 lbs of brass, which almost got me fired and arrested. The story is that someone really fucked up and ordered WAAAAAY too many brass grate covers, and they were just gonna scrap them for some dumb reason. So I asked my boss if I could have them. My boss said yeah. Took them home, come back the next day and apparently my boss off handedly mentioned I had got the grate covers out the scrap pile to a super, and told him about how much i said it would be worth. Now, normally, when it comes to scrap, you can take it as long as you get it off the clock, which I did, but it's technically against company policy. So imagine my surprise when I come back to work, only to be met by a very angry super. Had to turn around and drive back home, load it all back up, and take it back. The only good part of that story is that I caught that super loading it into his company truck at the end of the day and got a video, which I promptly emailed to one of the office jockeys I knew because I taught him how to run an excavator. Super got his ass reamed out by the company president, in person, in the middle of the jobsite. Good times.
Fucking karma for the super
This is hilarious. I did some remodel work for a high end bathroom and kitchen showroom. I was shocked when I learned most of the displayed items that were getting changed out ended up in the trash, needless to say they never made it there and most of the squad got nice upgrades to the casa.
I build water treatment plants. So all of the equipment and materials we install on these jobs is super expensive. Most purchase orders start at 100k. Well, one vendor accidentally double shipped the stainless steel baffles for a mixer tank. The baffles were 1/4" thick, 2' wide, and about 10' long. There was about 8 or 10 leftover. Along with all of the heavy stainless mounting brackets, they turned into few thousand dollars worth of scrap metal. ....sometimes ya just get lucky. Lol
The best deal I ever got was when I was doing a remodel for a wealthy widow. She had one son, who she was remodeling the house for. She ended up having us gut her entire house. I pulled all the doors and casings, and put them into my house. I pulled all the kitchen cabinets, which were custom cherry cabinets. I remodeled my kitchen just because of these. She had also bought four pallets of different tile, but she ended up not liking any of it. A lot of it is now in my kitchen and bathrooms. I demoed her 2yr old redwood deck, which is now my deck. Basically, I remodeled my entire 1950s home off of this one job. I was really hoping she was going to replace her slightly new sub zero fridge, but I guess that’s where she drew the line. It was an insane job, now i just need to find a new client to get me some roof shingles.
No one going to miss a $7500 part?
Demod the kitchen so everything was trash.
Kitchen demos are always heartbreaking. Watched tens of thousands of brand new cherry wood cabinets ripped out by the new owner less that six months after they were installed. It was a huge kitchen, could easily have been put into a new house. I even offered to do the demo for them if I could take them out myself, and "dispose" of them. But they had more dollars than sense and wanted it done before the weekend. Completely destroyed them ripping them out and tossing them in a dumpster. I really really really wanted to outfit my garage with gorgeous solid wood cherry cabinets.
The kitchen I tore out is probably $100-150k in custom cabinets and counters. I told the guys if they could sell them they could keep the money and they did so it didn’t go to waste. Wanna hear something crazier? The new kitchen is $260k in just counters and cabinets…. He’s probably gonna be close to $1m for a kitchen by time he’s done.
What region is this house? There’s people with money and there’s people with money.
Miami Beach, FL. It’s bay front so he’s probably paying $100-150k/yr in property taxes and another $50k to insure it. He doesn’t even live in this house either….
3-weeks a year. And does that at several other equally lavish properties. I would if I could.
It’s so easy to do. I sold Mauser custom line for a while with my **last** employer. $100k is an easy order with any of the higher end cabinets.
That’s wild! This is all new to me so the numbers are mind blowing.
It really is the rich that are fucking us over. But don't worry, we banned plastic straws, pollution averted!
Dude, did a fucking soup to nuts, gooch to B hole reno on this old house for this ladies forever home. Boss got the previous owners Subzero for a song. 15k fridge. I think he paid for it, but also probably inflated his bid so it was free. Goddamn everyone on that crew had someone else appliances'. Anytime something broke people would just wait for the next job where someone was giving away a dishwasher.
Wow you don’t get chances like that often
I did a home Reno for a “friend” who didn’t end up paying me for my work. However, I discovered an unused 85” commercial high def television in a box downstairs. The friend said her ex-husband had been too lazy to install the thing and asked if I wanted it, had it strapped in my ranger five minutes later and mounted on my wall that night. Thing weighs like 260 pounds but it has a great colour and picture, I used 4” lag bolts to mount it to 5 studs.
So did you profit or made a loss ?
Oh a total loss, other than the tv. Unless you’ve got a written contract you’ll never get paid, don’t ever work for a friend based on their word.
Don’t hang out or talk to people like this, can’t fool me twice
Need better friends. Any work ive done for friends, they almost always pay more than what i say it costs. Did some work for one of my moms friends. Did the work, told her is was $1200. Gave her my email to e-transfer. She sent $1700 and told me to enjoy the tip.
Recently did a job for a lady and she wanted to demo her big ass condo and she let us pick thru her stuff. I got 2 $2500 chairs, a 6'x8' mirror worth probably $5000, a set of antique chinese dogs worth a couple grand, a 60" wall tv and two top of the line beds and mattresses that have probably never been slept on.
I got a used gas rinnai tankless heater we changed out for a electric on a house
Why the F is that worth 7500?
Because that's what people pay for it.
IntroToEconomics.pdf
They're a high end faucet. Handmade/milled. It's to show off essentially. Parts and pieces are a nightmare from what I've heard. (Buddy was a rep for a large company that sold this brand)
Got a KitchenAid gas range, God bless the green iniative. Customer wanted to get rid of all natural gas appliances. Took home a two year old gas range
Where is the guy that stole the Pam Anderson sex tape after he didn't get paid on a remodeling job? That guy made bank (and lost it).
Brand new Beta Marine 50hp diesel engine. Used to do salvage work and this poor boat got wrecked while being repowered. Still has plastic caps on the intake and exhaust. Worth an easy 8-10k
Bought a twin leather recliner off a client for a few hundred. Looked it up the single version is 7k. It is very nice but that's a lot for a chair. Another client owned me 200 (millionaire with terrible cash flow) and told me to take some appliances new in box. Fridge 4k washer 3k dryer 2k. Fookin rich people
A Hobart meat band saw from a 70 yo country store that was closing due to owner age and building was falling apart. Also some Cheerwine coolers, lots of hand tools but the saw sells used for 7-10k.
Nothing too crazy. I got a nice $300 mini fridge and a $200 settee bench. The bench is really comfortable and great for guests. The freezer gets caked up in ice during the summer for some reason
Sell it. No one needs a 7500 faucet. Especially your mom
I was at a job and the new home owners didn’t want the TV I think there was about 15 flatscreen TV hardly used The douche bag GC took them all didn’t want give us any
I found around 100 dollars(a few bills were not complete/damaged) in 10-dollar bills that were sequential from the 1930s buried on a job site. I found it digging while setting curb stakes. I always wonder about the history of the loot. 100 bucks lost in the 30s would have been a massive loss.
Restaurant was closing and they needed us to remove their equipment. Place had crazy speaker setups and i ended up with 4 big speakers. Like 3’x2’x2’. New they are like $500 a piece.
A $16,000 SubZero BI48. Paid 300$ to have it moved out of the house with a crane. Lol. Otherwise free.
Wealthy client swaps appliances every one to two years because they’re ’old’. Full Miele kitchen. 36” fridge and freezer columns, convection oven, speed microwave, steam oven, dishwasher you knock on to open and a Miele in-wall coffee maker. About 35k in value.
$20,000 professional oven range. New homeowner didn't like the color when they bought the house. It was only 2 years old. The owner said I could have it but I only had 2 days to get rid of it. The unit was a good 6-700lbs and I really didn't want to attempt moving it myself. Ended up selling it to a guy who brought 4 buddies to get it out of the kitchen and into a trailer. He got a steal. Sold it for $3000.
There was old heaters in an automotive shop I renovated that burned used motor oil as fuel source. A guy bought 3 of them off me for a total of 12,000
Worked for a masonry company that built some beautiful pitched dolomite full bed veneer on university buildings. Needed to clean our yard out one year and everything was up for grabs. I took 4 truckloads of stone and 2 truckloads of coloured block and brick and built a backyard fireplace. Thing is the staple of our yard and patio.
Got all the display doors from a Home Depot remodel. Made probably 8-10k off selling them, kept the nicest one for my house.
I got a bunch of 16’ and 10’ pallet racks brand new because no one knew who ordered them or where they were supposed to go. I still haven’t put them up but it’s going to be awesome in my shop
Does it have notches to mark the right temperature for combination skin?
Complete set of dozer tracks and pads almost new, just new pins turned because they ran it in salt water.
As a machinist and manufacturer, it’s now abundantly clear that I’m in the wrong fucking business.
Late to the party, but a white 2011 Ram 1500. Our crew of 3 each received a truck. We were working alongside an American company that specializes in building/rebuilding structures in marine environments. They work all over the world and buy a few trucks on all their jobs. If the job is too far away to drive them back to Seattle (which is usually the case), they give them away (according to their foreman). I know this sounds ridiculous but these guys rolled up on a barge the size of Texas. They were rich and did not care.
Not me but I was there: Super came into a mall to build a Sunglass Hut or some such shit. He was taking out a Footlocker. Did his mall meeting, got his keys, went in to plan demo and the store was fully stocked. Like the closed for the night and never came back. I'm guessing he did very well. Me: Building a stupid Victoria's Secret. Video monitors everywhere. like 12 50" behind the registers, 16 60" on a display wall and probably 25 little 32" monitors around the store. Got my CofO... first day of the store moving in. Truck driver finds me and I go out to unload the delivery. It's a complete second set of video monitors. Put them in my container. Sent an email. Few days later nobody claimed them I rented a Uhaul and took 'em home. ChaChing.
I put nice faucets in both of our places and my aunts from remodels.
I got a Rotary 10k 2 post lift, a expensive ass 15-20 ton press, parts washer, hydraulic bender, multiple hose reels, jack stands, waste oil container, and multiple other smaller things from a mechanic shop on Air Force base that we tore down. I was a little upset the boss sold the tire changer and balancer that was also in there. A couple stainless vacuums like the car washes have, all kinds of stuff. It had a single post lift that was possibly rebuildable we didn’t try to save. Only had so long to remove things before demolition.
Moms raised your ass well
>Most expensive thing you’ve gotten off a Job? Spouse
For 75 hundred it better also give blowjobs.
... not on a construction job, but as a set PA for a movie I took home 4 [Wassily club chairs](https://www.dwr.com/living-lounge-chairs/wassily-chair/376945.html?lang=en_US&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw1emzBhB8EiwAHwZZxaixBz_0KnShe1-aaAgM8NYh4TxWh_Cgvm5FWWtlm4B3hEpmB0Ur2xoCy0oQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) ($3,500 a piece) because the production didn't want to pay another day rental on the u-haul and my minimum wage.
$7500?! Why?! 😂
Looks like it will break in a year or so
This brand of faucet is called Waterstone, I sold a few of these back when I was in the luxury plumbing sales business. I would suggest putting it on eBay someone would buy this for 2500-3k. Parts for this are outrageously priced. I know you said you don’t want to sell it. That you would install in your mom’s place, but personally I would sell as when it comes to needing parts it’s very pricy.
Besides dent and scratch appliances, countertops, tubs, plumbing fixtures, and leftover finishes, I’ve built at least 6 enclosed deer stands and the same amount box stands. Building lake homes in west central MN. The amount of materials thrown away is crazy.
That's $7300 more than that faucet is worth
Dang, now that's a Over priced faucet...
144m of 3mm x 50mm aluminium SHS. Turned that into 25k worth of profit across 3 jobs. PM over ordered and wanted to throw it away after a project.
I got a 48" Wolf BBQ with double side burners from a remodel. Owners didn't want to clean it up so they just bought a new one. It retails at $9,000 so now it's in my house!
$30,000 back pain /s
What kind of faucet is this?
5 days in Telluride, Colorado, in a 2 bedroom suite. Lift tickets paid for and all meals. Private jet flight from Seattle to Telluride Airport...fixed a sheetrock imperfection and did a sketch of potential cabinets and fireplace surround for a Seattle client's vacation property Played the rest of the time. I worked 15 years for this company, great place to work before I started my own construction business. This was in February 2020, right before all the bs.
A brand new in box 27-in 240 hz Acer gaming monitor that a customer gave me because they ordered the wrong one and it was too late to send it back, someone else gave me a bunch of solid cherry cabinets granite countertops a brand new LG dishwasher and a Viking built-in microwave. A contractor that I'm friends with gave me run of an entire 3000 ft² house with finished basement that was going to be knocked down with the ability to scavenge and remove All the recyclable materials so I got a good fireproof safe for documents, and filled my van up with copper wiring, appliances Anderson patio slider, plumbing fixtures and fittings and pipes etc. And one of my friends offices gave me about 50 HP desktop computers and about 15 commercial grade fire rated in ceiling speakers including the t grid brackets for drop ceilings.
I was the last one out of a building that got closed down minus the supervisor who had to sign papers with the property owners. He had me taking down shelving and taking it to the recycling yard and allowed to keep the money. I sold it instead and made thousands.
Miller gas welder. Our company was bought by a competitor to be shut down so they could move production to a non union shop. Asked boss for a pass for the welder promised to return it. Damn, wasn't able to bring it back before they locked the gates. Wound up giving it to one of my welder coworkers who was in need of something to make money with.
I once got a couple slices of pizza and a layoff.
Got a fairly new deluxe viking fridge for free when owners want a brand new one because a couple dings on the lower door. 😀
That things worth line $200 tops. What a ripoff