One Queensland tradie is airing out his industry’s laundry in a confessional series online and has uncovered some unbelievable acts.
Kyle Romaior, 31, is a fully licensed electrician who has worked in the industry for years and has heard many stories on sites.
Two months ago, the 31-year-old created an anonymous confession box on a construction site to see what tradies submitted.
It was a success, and now, tradies can anonymously submit the wildest things they’ve done or seen at work online, and the results are staggering.
One tradie admitted that after a client refused to let him use the bathroom, he retaliated by saving his poo and incorporating it in the renovation.
“I double-bagged it. Threw it in the wall with the insulation and sheeted over it,” he confessed.
Another tradie confessed that he and his mates got in the habit of drawing unflattering animations of a rude female client on the unfinished walls of her house they were building.
She was never supposed to know because the art would eventually get covered, but their boss didn’t know and walked through the building site with her, and she came face-to-face with the crude drawings.
Once she discovered it, they were paid for their work up to the date, but lost the remainder of the job.
Horrifyingly, a renderer admitted that when he was working on a site where there was no bathroom for miles, he defecated into a bucket and then mixed his poo with concrete and used it to finish off the walls.
“I got on with the job, and now every time I drive past that house, I think they have literal sh-t built into their walls,” he revealed.
There’s also a bunch of anonymous tales of tradies discovering sex toys in unlikely places, or having affairs with married clients or hot mums flashing them.
One tradie admitted that after coming over to a woman’s house to fix an issue, they ended up having sex and only after it was over and he was “packing up his tools” did he notice a wedding photo on the wall.
It’s a horrifying insight into the secret life of tradies, and the people who watch the videos are usually shocked.
“My jaw is broken,” one wrote.
“That is crazy,” one remarked.
“Wild,” someone else wrote.
Mr. Romaior told news.com.au that the confessions that make it onto social media aren’t even the craziest, but he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing some of them.
“The wildest confessions I can’t share because they go against TikTok and Instagram guidelines,” he explained.
The 31-year-old said the most popular confessions are the cheating and ones where wives sleep with tradies.
The tradie confession videos on TikTok are racking up hundreds of thousands of views, and while Mr Romaior had an “inkling” they’d resonate, he is shocked by how quickly they have taken off.
The 31-year-old has found it fun to share his industry stories online and hopes it opens up more conversations.
“In a private setting tradies do chat to each other. There’s never been a problem with having humour on-site and civilians have never had the opportunity to listen before,” he said.
Mr. Romaior is also hopeful that the platform will allow him to share other important tradie stories and discuss things, like mental health.
He said that tradies often still feel the pressure to come across as “tough”, and while they do chat with each other, there’s still a stigma about talking about mental health issues.
“It isn’t weak to speak,” he pointed out.
On construction sites, funny stories are talked about, not mental health, but hopefully, that will begin to change.
Even though his industry can be a little controversial, the 31-year-old enjoys being a tradie. He loves that he can move around and isn’t stuck in an office all day.
Sometimes it sucks that people always complain that tradies “overcharge” as the electrician pointed out, “no one sees the work we put in”.
