I finally took my grandpa's advice about asking questions on job sites

My grandpa was a carpenter for 40 years and he always said, 'If you don't know, ask. It's cheaper than fixing a mistake.' I ignored him for like five years on my plumbing crew. Then last month I tried to reroute a main drain in a house in Austin without confirming the layout first. Ended up cutting into a branch line that fed three bathrooms. Cost the company $800 in extra pipe and labor to fix it. Now I ask every single time I'm unsure. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice from a older relative turn out to be dead right?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade31mo ago

My dad told me the same thing about measuring twice and cutting once on every single project. I spent a whole Saturday building a bookshelf wrong because I was too cocky to double check my numbers. Haven't skipped that step since and it's saved me countless hours of rework.

mark7311mo ago

Cocky is one thing, but one bad Saturday to learn a lesson seems like a fair trade (especially if the wood wasn't too expensive). I get that it's frustrating, but calling it "countless hours of rework" sounds a little dramatic when you didn't check your numbers once, you know? Most mistakes in woodworking I see are people not reading their tape right, not the measuring twice rule. Double checking is smart, but a lot of guys act like one slip up will end their whole career. Sometimes you just need to slow down a bit and it works out fine.