Rob Griswold
I plugged in the 220 drum cord and then needed to change out the drum-side end of it ... and I forgot to unplug it. One hell of a ride on that lightning.
Kevin Knauff
Hooked into the panel and touched the box ... blew me across the room and singed my eyebrows off!!!
Steve Ford
Chainsaw blade on a grinder. It wasn’t pretty.
bbsanding
I was using my partner’s big machine, and the cord was full of twists, kinks and hotspots, so I turned off the machine. As I was going to disconnect the cord from the machine, the cord slipped out of the plug end and touched bare wires to my palm. It burned through my leather gloves and gave me the shock of my life. I jumped a few feet into the air and had to catch my breath. My partner apparently had just “fixed” the plug and didn’t tighten it enough. I threw the whole cord away. Take care of your cords, people!
Troy Stanfield
I nearly cut my finger off with a drop saw while I was working on a staircase, requiring microsurgery that afternoon. That was closely followed by my worker undercutting a door jamb not knowing he’d cut through an illegally placed concealed gas line. The saw was sparking as it cut through!
Jorge Perez
I wired up a four-prong to a three-prong the wrong way, and the whole 220-volt cord turned red-hot. It was quite sparky at the female plug, causing a nice burn mark on the floor.
Tina Darling Boone
In 1973, we coated a whole house with moisture-cure urethane and the lady forgot to tell us about the pilot light on the hot water heater. We stepped outside by the truck, and it blew all the windows out of the job!!!
Cuyler Rigney
Recently I was vacuuming and as I was walking backwards I stepped into an old vent hole that went straight to the basement. Only half of me went down, LOL.
Jeff Allen
I fell down stairs while covering a smoke alarm on my birthday in July. I got a broken tibia, a titanium rod and two screws.
Jayson Dunn
I had a 100-year-old garage door fall on my head.
Ed Sheridan
Ever seen stitches through a nail before? I was cutting out a flush mount and took my eyes off it for half a second.
Dave Marzalek
I held a piece of flooring in my hand to groove the end and the router went into my hand, spraying blood all over the wall.
Jhonas De Lima
In 2021 I placed a Gorilla ladder on a flight of stairs going to a basement while I was sanding double-faced treads going to the upper level. The ladder slipped out, and I fell and broke my wrist and got bruises and a concussion. In 2022 … same Gorilla ladder. I was on the very top sanding the outside of a bullnose … that last stretch the last couple inches to finish sanding the bullnose. I fell and broke my left collarbone. My wife gave me the ultimatum: You either stop using ladders or I’ll divorce you. Lesson learned.
John Blom
My brother emptied his edger bag onto an almost-extinguished fire at a new construction build. The dust immediately plumed up and flashed into his face. He got third-degree burns all over, but he was lucky that he had his N95 mask on, so he didn’t breathe in as this was happening. Lesson learned and still going strong 25 years later.
