I guess my approval rating will drop severely after this one.....but,

So I'm building this house two doors down from my personal home (new development), it's a custom home, 3000+ sq ft jobber. So I'm sitting in my truck with the A/C on watching my framing crew looking at some plans (isn't that what we're supposed to do?) when up drives this white cab and a half chevy....drives right up to the slab of the house, guy hops out, walks right up in the middle of the crew and starts looking over my plans with my framer. I'm like who the f&*% is this guy?

I'm thinking to myself this is going to be good, I'm in lay low, watch and see mode to figure out who this tool is. After about 3-4 minutes, he takes the plans and starts to walk the property line on the right side of the lot. After about 3-4 minutes of that, he takes the plans back to my framer, speak a few seconds and they look up at my truck simultaneously and my framer points towards my truck............Oh boy here we go.

So the tool gets to my truck, I slowly roll the window down, (1/2 way) and he starts babbling about owning the lot next to this house and how big a house he's going to build, and he just wanted to make sure my plans were sufficient for the subdivision, and how this house was going to look next to his house and all this eng BS for 2-3 minutes...........ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

And then the clencher, he just came right out and said it, he dropped the ole "I'm a civil engineer for the city.........."

I said stop right there, first of all, get off my job site, second of all, don't ever tie up my workers again while you act like you know what you're doing, and third of all, since we are going to be neighbors I don't want to hear from you again until a year after you've moved into your house. Look of utter discorrespondence took over his face. I rolled up my window and turned up my radio.


PS he said alot more stuff than that but I think I've painted the picture sufficiently.

 

Perfect, you played that chump while keeping your cool.
Been their in the past as a foreman electrician but on industrial
jobs mostly, i've had these types of chumps get into my face then
calmly put them in their place. Slowly at times it sinks in that they
know that I know they are useless A-holes. I like the ones that insidt on
blabbing many times on their cell phone at a meeting, I once asked to borrow their phone then tossed it out of the trailer in the mud.
When you make the outhouse walls you know your good.
Deal with attorney's on a build they're the worse.

 

Meh, He could have gotten all that information at the code enforcement/building inspector's office.

 

Some people just gotta act all important, and think they are in charge when they have no authority...

 

I love stories like this :-)

 

I envision a sea of red tags for this home.

 

[QUOTE=makomaker] Look of utter discorrespondence took over his face. QUOTE]

Wow, that's a 10 dollar word - discorrespondence. What does that look like?

 

engineers always get me, there seems to be 2 types, 1 type who knows what they are doing, appreciate what they do and have no self esteem issues about it, the other type knew what they were doing in school, have self esteem issues about it at work, and are just tools all around.

 

I think bf250 pretty much nailed it. Engineering schools don't really prepare you for the "real world". People who are down to earth and aren't the high-and-mighty, I'm-better-than-you types usually don't become teachers. Stick a bunch of 20 yr olds into a room, bombard them with technical info for 4 years with guys who think they're better than everyone else, teach them everything they know from a book, and guess what they're gonna turn out to be?

Guys who drive a "white cab and a half chevy" and say things like "I'm a civil engineer for the city.........."

 

Why blame engineers for this episode? It seem like a busybody next-door combined with a city official, bad combination. Before I buy, I try to find out who lives next door on both sides.

Jim

 

The are all sorts of engineers and in general they are just people some PITA some down to earth. I ar trained as an enjunear my self and am about as earthy as you could want, least my wife says so, har.

This guy was either feeling self important or just wanted to know if the neighborhood was going to be up to snuff.

If he really is employed by the city, he could be a real PITA in the future for you. City government and all the permit issues are a big scam, "ya gotta know someone who knows some one and pay off the right people". And some of them can place roadblocks in your path, all perfectly leagal, just going by the book. Our factory got to tear out a brand new fire sprinkler system because the hangers were wrong, just going by the book.

Let's hope he was just being a jerk and has no real pull with the city.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Good job. Way to put that weasel in his place.

 

Rep points given as that was bad ***.

Kudos to you!

 

[QUOTE=spikedog]

 

Actually I'm not flaming all engineers, I've worked with some really good ones. But as a rule, they can be real tools, and I'm not talking about the a$$ hole ones.

I'm talking about the ones that are total jobs, but they don't have a clue they're total jobs. The kind that need two computer programs, a slide rule, a GPS and a pocket ruler to take a dump.

Those ones'sss..........