newbie plumber here, how the hell do i avoid these dumbass diy messes?

been in the plumbing game for like 6 months now, and im sick of walking into houses where homeowners think they can swap out a Moen shower valve with some youtube tutorial and end up flooding the damn place. out here in rural Ohio, everything's old farmhouses with cast iron stacks that are already half clogged, and these idiots make it worse with pvc glue jobs that aint even cured right. saw a post on r/Plumbing last week about some guy trying to DIY a PEX repipe and now his whole basement smells like sewer, and it got me thinking, how do you newbies out there handle telling customers 'hey, this is a crap-show, let me fix it for real'? i mean, i charge $95 an hour but half my jobs are undoing this BS, and its pissing me off. anyone got tips on spotting the worst diy disasters before i even start? watched that Roger Wakefield video on common PEX mistakes and yeah, it helped, but still feels overwhelming.

never touch a job where the water's already shut off wrong, it'll bite you in the ass later.

these diy'ers make me wanna quit some days, spent 4 hours yesterday redoing a toilet flange that was zip-tied to the subfloor.

start with a pressure test on the whole system before touching anything, use your ridgid gauge.

im so over these homeowners thinking hgtv makes them pros, one lady glued her drain backwards.

same here man, feels like every third job.

try explaining code to them, ipc 405 says no, but they dont care.

ipc violations everywhere, document and move on.

had a guy who 'fixed' his sump pump with a shop vac hose, flooded his garage.

always bring extra pvc primer, these hacks never use it.

primers the difference between a solid joint and a leaker.

one time i found a flex line from home depot connected to cast iron with hose clamps.

flex lines are fine for washers, but not mains, smh.

yeah, saw that in plumbers united group, total disaster.

hate when they use cpvc in hot lines, melts under heat.

cpvc in hot? thats a code violation for sure.

always inspect the whole run, not just the obvious.

bad splices lead to nightmares, test everything.

testing is key, use a milwaukee pressure tester if you can.

milwaukee's decent, but ridgid's more accurate for me.

frustrated with these calls too, but it pays the bills.

pays, but eats your soul some days.

try the job costing software like jobber to track these time sinks.

billing extra is smart, they caused it.

one diy'er drilled through the water line thinking it was electrical.

drilled through? thats a geyser waiting.

always shut off at the street if they wont listen.

had a newbie like you ask in the contractor fight fb group, got good advice there.

contractor fight is gold for rants like this.

yeah, vent there when plumbing gets you down.

fitting a whole new line after diy sabotage.

sabotage is right, these people are dangerous.

clueless leads to calls at 2am.

2am calls for leaks? no thanks, i screen them.

screening is key for sanity.

one guy used silicone sealant instead of pipe dope on threads.

silicone on threads? leaks guaranteed.

guaranteed mess, had to redo the whole manifold.

manifolds are tricky even for pros.

tricky but necessary in remodels.

worst is when they pour drano down everything.

blame game is real in this trade.

had a customer epoxy a crack in the copper line, held for a week.

epoxy on copper? temporary at best.

temporary fixes lead to emergencies.

emergencies pay more, silver lining.

stress builds character, or so they say.

character? more like ulcers.

ulcers from diy plumbing, fml.

fml indeed, but we laugh to cope.

laughing at a toilet installed upside down.

how even is right, hilarious though.

hilarious until it overflows.

overflows on carpet, nightmare cleanup.

cleanup adds to the bill.

deserve it for the headache.

headache central, these newbies.

newbies or diy'ers? both suck.

both, but diy'ers win for stupidity.

stupidity level expert.

call them out, educate if possible.

educate falls on deaf ears usually.

deaf ears and wet floors.