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The contractor could have sprayed it with a real reserving solution (similar to the that green PT solution). Or he could have stained it or. . . so many options if you're already spraying it.
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# ? May 18, 2024 18:42 |
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Blistex posted:The contractor could have sprayed it with a real reserving solution (similar to the that green PT solution). Or he could have stained it or. . . so many options if you're already spraying it. Guarantee food coloring is cheaper.
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Blistex posted:The contractor could have sprayed it with a real reserving solution (similar to the that green PT solution). Or he could have stained it or. . . so many options if you're already spraying it. It's the sketchy principle of the thing, man.
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I recently was installing a wall to divide a room into two bedrooms. There was originally a wall there that the previous owner had removed. I thought that meant it would be easy to replace. I measured and found that it lined up exactly with a ceiling joist. Except there was no ceiling joist there. Whoever removed the wall cut the whole joist out instead of just the framing. Thanks rear end in a top hat.
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My chandelier in my dining room died on Friday, I was trying to change out a bulb, the glass part of the bulb separated from the metal end, and the prongs that hold the filament shorted. It also fried the fixture when it shorted. I had been wanting a better looking light anyways, so I went out and bought a new 5 light chandelier ($38), three two packs of dimmable CFLs ($45, jesus christ), and a new dimmer switch ($22, guess regular dimmers don't work with CFLs). Turns out it was probably a good thing that it fried. After detaching it from the ceiling, something didn't look right with the way it was hung. Went up to the attic and discovered what's in the picture below. The red metal strap with the two bolts was lying on the drywall, that's what held the fixture up. The junction box was upside down, not attached to anything, and the cover doesn't fit (or even cover everything). The wires you see sticking out are speaker wire that was powering the fixture, they were twisted to the romex and wrapped with duct tape (gently caress wire nuts, those cost money!). To top it all off, there was a pile of metal folding chairs on top of the whole mess (I guess to keep it in place). I hate my loving house.
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Boogeyman posted:a new dimmer switch ($22, guess regular dimmers don't work with CFLs). Nope, they don't. Dimmable CFLs claim to work OK with the old type dimmers, but YMMV with those. The newer style dimmers work a lot better with CFLs. Your picture sure looks like one of the ceiling fans I replaced in my house. I took it down and discovered that the fan's support bracket was screwed directly into the wooden box support spanning the joists and the ceiling box just poked up and into the hole. Worse, they put the support directly against the drywall, leaving no room to put that box back in properly. Luckily a saddle box suited me just fine.
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Just heard about this one last night. A friend of mine still works for Rona delivering building materials (I did this for two summers years ago). He said that this one job they were delivering to had a house with a 55 foot engineered beam* that ran down the middle of the place so that it only required one support in the middle. This think cost ~$2500 and they delivered it with a big note pasted to it for the crew putting it up. Note: posted:"MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE!" Do I even need to finish this story? Anyway, they measure, once, measure again, everyone in the crew measures and then they mark the beam where it needs to be cut, and nobody wants to do it. At this point my friend should have been on the road for 15 minutes heading back, but he just had to see this through. Finally the head contractor steps forward and takes his skill saw and "ZIIIIIPPPP" it's cut! There is a small cheer from the crew and my friend applauds. They hoist it up, slid it in the one slot they cut out of the block, and "SHIIIIIT!" Exactly one 10" block width short! They had no idea how that happened, and that crew had to eat that $2500 themselves. The worst part was that they could have inserted it into the one notch, and had it overhang the other side since the mason actually left a perfect gap rather than cut a block on the other side and figured he's just parge over whatever space was left. * this engineered bean was basically sandwiched chipboard with a slotted 2x6" on the top and bottom holding it all together.
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Just got home from work an hour ago and was excited to see what the contractor did in my basement with regards to installing the duct work. The work he did looks great. . . just one problem. He was loving chain-smoking in my house all day and it smells like an ashtray! Tomorrow he's going to find a note that politely explains that I don't wish him to smoke in my home, then when the job is done he's going to find a bill for dry cleaning every suit and dress in my house. Luckily I have not bough a new sofa set yet, so small miracles! Honestly, who smokes in another person's house! Especially without asking. Every single window in the house was closed, since it was October, so I get to enjoy every single particle floating in the air and adhering to everything I own. I'd airing out right now, and I have about 20 scented candles going at the moment, but all I can smell is loving cigarette smoke. After the cost of materials I don't think he's going to be making any kind of profit whatsoever.
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Basically the only way to fix our house properly at this point is to get a bunch of dumpsters and a bulldozer and start over. Apologies in advance since every time I talk about or work on this place I get all ![]() This being western PA, our house was previously owned by some of the most broke-rear end and not-that-smart people in existence. It was also owned by a machinist at one point so sometimes I'll find a cardboard top from a box of capscrews wedged somewhere to stop a squeak or other sorts of Wile E. Coyote engineering or evidence of odd equipment, compressors, cisterns, or boilers being installed at one point. Generally when it was remodeled previously it was done using recycled freebies or things that people would find at the dump. The basement sink was one such item. It was an old enameled cast iron kitchen sink with 'sample' written underneath, which in itself is awesome except someone went through the effort of drilling many, many 5/16" holes going across to snap off the backsplash. ![]() But, like I said, this area isn't exactly known for 'smart'... Even more stupid are the people that actually bought this place without testing the faucets, the furnace, opening closets and cabinets, and actually thought they could easily fix this place up, but that's another story. All the 2x4 studs on the second floor walls are turned the wrong way, so the walls are only 2" thick instead of 4". I've seen this done in other houses, too, but it's just weak, stupid and acoustically horrible. The previous owner also said the walls were lath and plaster. They're actually recycled plasterboard that was full of holes that were just covered up with wallpaper. Electrical: I've managed to fix most of the electrical stuff with my dad already. As best as I can tell the house originally started out with a 120V 30A service and knob-and-tube wiring, which had been spliced into over the years using just about ever other method in existence. Some of it was done properly using cloth-covered NM, other sections in the attic were either clothes iron or heater cord (the really old cloth-wrapped stuff) to run a pullchain light outside the second floor hall closet, crudely spliced into the original K&T. The outlets on the front porch are run with that metal armored (BX?) rubber insluated stuff that's just twisted together and left floating in space; no box. One outlet is installed in what would've been surface mount conduit at some point except it's behind a wall with the porcelain face exposed. Strange. There was a similar pair of porcelain conduit receptacles with an obsolete NEMA type in the basement on a backer board that was connected to two separate 120V circuits on opposite phases to get the 240. Oh and of course nothing was grounded properly so if there's any metal conduit or armor for any significant length connected to a switch or outlet box you'll get a nice tingle if you touch the plate screws since it's floating electrically. As it is, there's a couple other unfuck-previous-work projects that we're working on, then we can cut the power to and pull all the old wiring out for good. it's the last circuit left which still runs lights and outlets on both floors of the front half of the house. Windows: Almost all the original vertical double-hung windows were removed and replaced with homemade windows that swing in. ![]() Plumbing: Galvanized steel sucks. Nearly all the valves were siezed, the pipes were rusted on the inside to the point of being nearly clogged solid. Basement loo is neat, but not if you have a septic tank. The plumbing was installed under an addition outside the main foundation, so flush toilets were added afterwards. There is a weird cistern of sorts under a section of the basement floor, so I'm assuming a spring ran through and pooled there. I'm fascinated of the possibilities of where the drain line for that would end up. Kitchen sink on the other side of the house just exited through the wall and ran down the hillside where it emerged near the drainage ditch. Kind of normal for stuff like that to be done where septic tanks are involved on old houses, but not normal for it to be done with automotive exhaust pipe, which is incidentally what was used for the bathtub drain on the second floor. As far as the basement drainage, the aforementioned basement sink went underneath and across to a floor drain, then diagonally three feet over past a metal plate that was covered over with some sort of skim layer of concrete, then about four feet to a floor drain in the corner. There may even be a floor drain further up a couple feet from the first one I mentioned. I pulled up the metal plate to take a peek and it looks like the drain was built up on the original floor by 2" of bricks on either side, with the floor higher than that. I don't know what they were trying to do. ![]() Weird.
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Knob and tube is basically kill on sight now for code, isn't it?
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My wife and I bought a new construction house 6 1/2 years ago, back when anyone and everyone could get a home loan, so they were putting these houses up as fast as they could to keep up. The interior was pretty decent, although the layout leaves something to be desired. Why you would put the electrical and gas service entrance on one side of the house, but install the rest of the utilities in the center makes no sense to me. Instead of tucking the furnace, water heater, and laundry away in the corner, they're front and center as soon as I walk down the steps to the basement. Not a code violation, more of a common sense problem. The "plumber" who installed everything was a joke. None of the pipes were strapped properly so they bang when you shut off the faucet fast. The water heater was installed with a thermostatic mixing valve, but no check valve like the instructions require, so when I turned on the cold water at the kitchen sink, it blasted out 150 degree hot water first before finally going to somewhat cool water. And seriously, who sets a residential water heater to 150? There's even a big warning sticker next to the thermostat saying "don't set above 120". None of the windows in the basement opened properly when we moved in. They are all 6' wide vinyl sliders, and I could barely force them open with both arms. The builder sent someone out to "fix" them. The fix was basically taking out the moving sash and removing the rolling wheels on the bottom. Sure, they slid somewhat easier, but it's still a struggle for me, and my wife can't open the office window at all. Later I discovered the real fix; there's supposed to be a screw in the top center of the track that you can adjust in or out to move the frame slightly. The builder never installed the screws, and left them all in a bag with a set of installation instructions the windows. Install the screw, give it a couple turns and now they slide much easier. But now with the wheels missing they're starting to slide harder now that the smooth vinyl is getting roughed up by the repeated sliding. I fixed that with some peel-and-stick teflon dots from the hardware store. The exterior was full of problems, most likely because the house was built in late December thru early February in Minnesota. I've had to remove and replace the exterior outlets because they weren't weatherproofed properly, so the GFCI breaker would trip every time it rained. The guys installing the siding took a shortcut installing the j-trim around the windows and didn't trim the bottoms properly. Instead of a J-trim and undersill combination, they just used undersill with the nailing flange cut off, so the siding flexes out and flaps in the wind. They didn't read the directions when installing the shutters, so they drilled holes thru the siding and sheathing, so when it rains, a ton of water gets behind the siding from the undersill problem, then leaks into the walls thru the shutter spike holes. Compounding the problem on the front of the house, they didn't install a kick-out flashing at the bottom edge where the porch roof meets the front wall, so all that water streams down and hits the same shutter. I can't necessary fault the builder for this one, but the shingles they installed on every house in my addition are one of the brands from Certainteed that's been in the news due to premature failure. Every time it rains, I have to sweep a ton of granules off the sidewalk. Of course, Certainteed won't admit my shingles have a problem, so we're going to have to replace a 7 year old shingle on our own dime next spring.
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Godzilla525 posted:Windows: Almost all the original vertical double-hung windows were removed and replaced with homemade windows that swing in. Obviously they realized their terrible swing-in mistake and tried to fix it for you! ![]()
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Godzilla525 posted:Jesus This needs pictures so that idiots like me can understand this and so everyone can see the horrors of this house.
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UCS Hellmaker posted:This needs pictures so that idiots like me can understand this and so everyone can see the horrors of this house. I also would like to see this horror.
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Sgt Fox posted:I also would like to see this horror. Thirding. Especially the basement floor. That just sounds like a huge bag of ![]()
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GD_American posted:Knob and tube is basically kill on sight now for code, isn't it? It's legal to leave as-is, but cannot be extended, reworked, or covered in thermal insulation. GFCI can be legally added for safety. Switches and receptacles on K&T circuits can be replaced. Light fixtures can be replaced only if they are certified for use on 60°C wiring, but most modern fixtures will require 90°C wiring.
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Last week I removed a lovely 80s plaster arch.![]() rear end in a top hat installer/previous owner backfilled the cavity with rubbish and offcuts that fell on me when I opened the wall. ![]()
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fist4jesus posted:Last week I removed a lovely 80s plaster arch. The 1970's and 80's were a low point in decorative construction. I know hindsight is 20-20, but really, who thought that those looked good? The only thing that was worse was the "compartment" style in the late 50's and 1960's when every house built had a million walls so that you couldn't walk more than 10 feet without hitting one. My uncle rennovated a house 5 years ago (which he just sold for 2x what he bought it for) and it was a mess. It was a typical 1000 square foot, 2 bedroom bungalo with so many walls that heating it required 2x as much energy as it should have. ![]() Keep in mind that this was a small house, and the living room had just enough room for a sofa, one chair, a tiny coffee table and the TV. The dining room was downright claustrophobic, and the kitchen had a horrible "choke point" where the fridge door nearly touched the wall that divided it from the dining room. When everything was opened up he found that the heat in each room was about 5x more consistant. Before you'd walk from one "roomlette" to the other and the temperature would rise or fall ~5 degrees C because air couldn't circulate properly. He also removed a ton of light fixtures because the millions of walls were no longer blocking the light. My aunt was worried that it would look like one big room, but was surprised how you can have "perceived walls" or transition points that separate rooms by just changing the flooring type, or having the ceiling change height by an inch or two. Wall colours having a subtle change with trim dividing them also helps with this perception of "another room" when really it's just one open space. I don't think you can really go wrong with an open concept house, but I have seen it taken too far the other way. On house of a co-worker was just one giant open cavern on the first floor with the entrance, kitchen, dining room, living room, office, and even LAUNDRY ROOM being all visible to each other with the exception of a few strategically placed support columns scattered throughout. After a few years of living like that they bought some of those folding changing walls, and even broke down an had a contractor build a wall to make the laundry area a room. p.s. does anyone know a good free program that will let you replicate your floor plan? Maybe a home design program that will even let you see the inside of your house? I remember our school had a kick rear end one that let you step inside the house you designed and pan your view in a 3d environment, allowing you to choose colours for the walls, and flooring types.
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A while ago we worked at a slaughter house / meat processing plant. Instead of putting in giant coolers using cooler panels the engineers of the building decided that they would use the building itself as a cooler. We got called in because the ceiling was falling down in a portion of one of the coolers. What we saw there was a nightmare. All of the walls and ceiling were covered with FRP (the white bumpy 4x8 sheets of plastic they use in bathrooms in gas stations). The moisture in the rooms was incredible. Water was basically running down the walls. We started tearing the ceiling down and discovered that they had glued the frp panels onto drywall. Underneath the drywall was what was supposed to be the vapor barrier of plastic, but they had not taped any of the seams. Above that, in the attic, the guy who sprayed open cell spray foam in the building didn't reach out to the very edge of the building and there were large parts that were completely uninsulated. The ceiling trusses were basically encased in water and had started to rot. Drywall and open cell foam are basically sponges and with the amount of moisture created by the refrigeration units every part of the ceiling was beginning to sag and fall. The owner had us reinsulate with closed cell foam, put up treated plywood, and cover it with frp. He asked us to redo the entire building, but we declined. The building is less than 4 years old and is on the verge of falling down already.
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Blistex posted:p.s. does anyone know a good free program that will let you replicate your floor plan? Maybe a home design program that will even let you see the inside of your house? I remember our school had a kick rear end one that let you step inside the house you designed and pan your view in a 3d environment, allowing you to choose colours for the walls, and flooring types. I use Google Sketchup for this. You can "paint" things and place a lot of premodeled furniture and stuff, as well as make your own.
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I live in a city with a lot of old people, quite a retirement city, and they still build in that compartment style as that's what old people apparently want. It's a weird generational thing but they rather have 3 tiny barely usable rooms than one big one. Kitchen, living room, and dining room HAVE to be separate. In their minds more rooms = higher class and cooking is not a social thing you involve guests in. And speaking of cold storage, I just did a fire safety inspection thing on a huge cold storage facility that keeps everything at -28c which is gently caress-off cold. Of course I visited in the summer in summer clothes. Couldn't feel my hands after about a min in there and I was only allowed in without protective gear for 3min. There's so much engineering that goes into the walls of those place, I can't believe that meat packing place did what they did. Could they get any restitution from the builders or was it their own drat fault? Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Oct 24, 2011 |
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If you use your kitchen to COOK then an open concept can lead to problems. I've seen too many new condos with open concept kitchens that have no ventilation or windows. Good luck trying to impress your dinner guests when you are having a fish fry.
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Neutrino posted:If you use your kitchen to COOK then an open concept can lead to problems. I've seen too many new condos with open concept kitchens that have no ventilation or windows. Good luck trying to impress your dinner guests when you are having a fish fry. Don't they have exhaust hoods over their stove tops? Or are they "cheap" condos, as in ones that are expensive, but they have cut corners on things you wouldn't notice until you moved in? Baronjutter posted:I live in a city with a lot of old people, quite a retirement city, and they still build in that compartment style as that's what old people apparently want. It's a weird generational thing but they rather have 3 tiny barely usable rooms than one big one. Kitchen, living room, and dining room HAVE to be separate. In their minds more rooms = higher class and cooking is not a social thing you involve guests in. Now that you mention it, one of the last jobs that I delivered to when working for Rona was a cottage for a retired couple. I was dropping off some insulation and drywall (not load bearing drywall), and when I was inside I noticed that there seemed to be stud walls everywhere. They were in the process of wiring it, so you could still see the full length of the cottage because the drywall had not been put up yet (because I had just delivered it, try and keep up). Oh, I found a blueprint of the floorplan. ![]()
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Blistex posted:(not load bearing drywall)
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Iskariot posted:You have to stop posting that. I'm sitter here giggling like an idiot whenever I read it. Do you have any suggestions on what type of insulation I should be using on my stairs? They are very cold and drafty! What's the required R level for interior stairs to meet code? (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
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Stop it! Please! My coworkers are giving me funny looks. ![]() Wonder how many reading this are scratching their heads wondering what mushroom we're having and if we share.
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Iskariot posted:Stop it! Please! My coworkers are giving me funny looks. Ok, ok, I'll stop. I have a question about house proportions? Should an addition to an existing structure be 3x or 4x larger than the existing structure? Also how much of the addition should be dedicated to garage space? 80 or 90%? I don't want my house looking silly.
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Blistex posted:Do you have any suggestions on what type of insulation I should be using on my stairs? They are very cold and drafty! What's the required R level for interior stairs to meet code? Oh you subversive.
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Blistex posted:I have a question about house proportions? Should an addition to an existing structure be 3x or 4x larger than the existing structure? Also how much of the addition should be dedicated to garage space? 80 or 90%? I don't want my house looking silly. You laugh! My (dickhead) neighbor just build a 50' x 70' garage/barn on his 63' wide city lot right behind the 860 square foot house. So yeah, the garage is 4x the size of the house; and now instead of seeing a field with deer and woodland creatures and poo poo out my back window, I can see about 50 square of brown shingles. He apparently went to the code office and determined what the minimum setbacks were for all his lot lines and sized the garage to that, essentially a "maximize button" for the waaaaay out-of-place structure. Also he has obviously-used bedsheets hanging in the front windows instead of curtains: priorities? If only the foreclosure crisis was a little more targeted. ibpooks fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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ibpooks posted:You laugh! My (dickhead) neighbor just build a 50' x 70' garage/barn on his 63' wide city lot right behind the 860 square foot house. So yeah, the garage is 4x the size of the house; and now instead of seeing a field with deer and woodland creatures and poo poo out my back window, I can see about 50 square of brown shingles. He apparently went to the code office and determined what the minimum setbacks were for all his lot lines and sized the garage to that, essentially a "maximize button" for the waaaaay out-of-place structure. Also he has obviously-used bedsheets hanging in the front windows instead of curtains: priorities? If only the foreclosure crisis was a little more targeted. Shiiiiiiiit! We are going to need some photos of this asap! What does he do in that garage? Is it a business or does he own an airplane? Is he starting his own storage facility?
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I think he's into "muscle cars", although from what I've seen any of his prized treasures are no nicer than what you could find at an average car auction / junk yard. You know the kind: scoop poked up through the hood with tin snips, obviously homemade body work, paint job with over spray, spoilers and other aftermarket accessories with cheap fabrication / exposed rivots. A poorly rendered flashback to an era when his wiener still worked without medical intervention. I'll try to get a picture next time I'm home during daylight hours.
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ibpooks posted:I think he's into "muscle cars", although from what I've seen any of his prized treasures are no nicer than what you could find at an average car auction / junk yard. You know the kind: scoop poked up through the hood with tin snips, obviously homemade body work, paint job with over spray, spoilers and other aftermarket accessories with cheap fabrication / exposed rivots. A poorly rendered flashback to an era when his wiener still worked without medical intervention. Post pictures of the cars here, thanks in advance! ![]() ⇩ ⇩ Oh. Right. Barn for cars. ![]() Nuevo fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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I'll see what I can do, but the cars haven't been outside since the garage was built; just the usual collection of pickup trucks with NASCAR + NRA themed decals that muscle car enthusiasts drive. Although to be fair I live in a semi-rural area so these are not all that uncommon in general.
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Good lord. This thread is hilarious and terrifying at the same time!
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Baronjutter posted:And speaking of cold storage, I just did a fire safety inspection thing on a huge cold storage facility that keeps everything at -28c which is gently caress-off cold. Of course I visited in the summer in summer clothes. Couldn't feel my hands after about a min in there and I was only allowed in without protective gear for 3min. There's so much engineering that goes into the walls of those place, I can't believe that meat packing place did what they did. Could they get any restitution from the builders or was it their own drat fault? There were/are a lot of shenannigans that went on at that place. That guy kicked his contractors out 3-4 times and brought in different crews, so I'm not sure who he'd try and get money out of. We got paid and got out of there.
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Really guys, no one thought to maybe send me an RFI?![]()
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maybe it's for tiny kids? In a school?
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Baronjutter posted:maybe it's for tiny kids? In a school? Haha, it is for tiny kids. What happened is they swapped the sink and urinal positions so now the counter height GFCI is next to the urinal.
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Blistex posted:Shiiiiiiiit! We are going to need some photos of this asap! As promised, Garagezilla with sensitive info and good neighbors redacted. There's another roll-up door that's covered up by the house in the first picture. In the second picture the garage goes several more feet to the back that got cut off on my phone camera. ![]() ![]()
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# ? May 18, 2024 18:42 |
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ibpooks posted:Garagezilla I wonder if he's buddies with the people a couple of neighborhoods over from me that built this monster: http://g.co/maps/rwhvr That big building with what may as well be a parking lot in the middle of the map is a garage. It belongs to the small house that's slightly to the south of it. The street view is from right after it was built, there's an RV and other assorted poo poo parked out there now, and about quadruple the amount of firewood. Shortly after this was built, the city changed something in the residential zoning laws to prevent it from ever happening again.
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