In the nineties I was the PM on a large house fire in Vancouver and a BBQ fire had started an outside wall on fire and the fire got up into the attic space and burned up the trusses necessitating the complete removal of the entire roof and trusses. Very little water damage occurred to the residence as the fire dept used foam I think.
I had a truss company come out to measure for new trusses. I was being a nice guy and helped the truss guy with measuring the upper wall plate distances as he was by himself. Unfortunately, I was holding the smart end of the tape measure and was calling out the measurements to him. I always double check my measuring, so I know that I was making accurate measurements and shouted them out to him.
When the trusses finally arrived they didn't fit. Some were too small and some were too long!!!
I know that it was the truss company that screwed up and because it was me that held the smart end of the tape we ended up having to pay their bill!!! They put a lien on house until we paid for the wrong trusses. I had to pay because we received several million dollars a year in losses from the insurer on this loss and we didn't want to rock the boat.
Never, ever hold the smart end of the tape for a sub!
I ended up ordering new trusses from another truss company and during that wait (2 weeks) a significant microburst storm cell came through the area flooding and filling the temporary tarps we'd put up and then flooding 2 floors of the house completely!
The drywall, insulation and hardwoods, etc, etc... Was irreparably damaged.
A $100k job just became a $200k plus job. The Insurer did allow the extra costs on the claim, but they were not very happy. Neither was the Homeowner as the job took way longer.
For years afterwards, I shuddered every time that I drove through that neighbourhood [scared]
