Found a leak in an old boiler I didn't even touch

Last month I was on a job in Gary, Indiana, just helping a buddy swap out a pressure relief valve. We fired the thing up and I noticed a slow drip near the back header, not where we were working. Turns out the original gasket was rotted and the whole seam was weeping. I didn't do the repair on it, but it got me thinking about how much of this trade is catching stuff before it becomes a blowout. Anyone else find themselves checking sections that aren't part of the ticket just because you can feel something's off?

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karenb971mo ago

Ha, I gotta disagree with you there. Checking stuff outside the ticket is how you end up doing free work and getting blamed when something else breaks. I've seen guys get burned that way, touching a pipe that wasn't part of the job and then the whole system fails a week later. It's not about feel, it's about liability. You fix the leak you're paid for, you note the other problem on the invoice, and you move on. That rotting gasket? Not your problem unless they pay you to make it your problem.

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