Hospital Lesson Learned

[rwhitaker]

We were installing a curved corridor wall outside of an existing corridor corner. The drywall contractor had to brace the new wall to the existing. So they run a kicker back to a stud in the wall and screwed 2 drywall screws in. Instead of hitting the stud, both screws went into a medical oxygen riser. This required an entire wing to be shut down, which required oxygen bottles being delivered to patients, repair of the pipe and recertification of the system. All of this had to be done after normal hours so 2 .05 cent srews cost several thousand dollars in repair expense. The moral here to to always know what is in the space you are working in. A check of the plans showed the riser at that location and moving the brace 2 feet would have saved a lot of money, time and egg on our face.

[AZE]

Sorry to hear, but thanks for sharing.  I think you make a good point especially when working in an existing facility as your actions are magnified when other people are in the building.