r/mildlyinfuriating • u/BulkheadRed • 1d ago

Winter is Coming Door-to-door salesman steps over the tape blocking off my freshly painted steps

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

I spent over 20 hours prepping, sanding, and painting my front steps while the weather is still good before winter, including taking two afternoons off work to get the job done before it's too cold. I just finished the job this afternoon and the paint is still tacky.

There is a long strip of painters tape attached to a paint can very obviously blocking off the stairs when you're facing it.

I have NO Halloween decorations up yet either.

Edit: for everyone saying it's not enough or my tape job is shit, it's like a 45 degree angle across the steps, and it's not a construction zone, it's my house. If you walked up to a piece of tape blocking your path at a residence where you weren't invited, you would probably at least second guess whether you should be proceeding forward. Thankfully, it's mostly dry and there is no need for rework as far as I can tell. That's what makes it mildly infuriating. He COULD have done damage, but it doesn't look like he did.

Edit 2: this is also not a common occurrence. I get MAYBE one knock a month on my door unsolicited. It just unfortunately happened to be the one day I had painted. It wasn't an expected situation. This was a mere just in case measure. Small town Canada.

[OC]

16k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/TurkeySlurpee666 21h ago

I do construction. People completely ignore safety cones and caution tape. The only thing that works (usually) is creating a true physical barrier that's too annoying for the average person to cross. Cones alone don't work. Cones with tape on the top work a bit better, but cones with tape on the top and in the middle work the best.

We also have to be super careful when laying out cones on roads. If people get confused or feel trapped, they panic and accelerate, sometimes through barricades. I'm pretty sure it's their flight response kicking in, but people freaking out behind the wheel is a big concern for us.

2

u/cl0udmaster 13h ago

That's a very optimistic view of their reaction. My counterpoint would be that they accelerate and drive through barricades because they're dumb.