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Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

PromethiumX posted:

After the slab and all its stub outs of plumbing and electrical conduit had passed inspection the Wal-Mart appointed overseer of construction comes in the building and goes over to the plumber and says yeah that's nice and all but *flips the plumbers plan 180 degrees* that's how it should be.

There was one page in that entire set of drawings that read top to bottom rather than bottom to top. That plan was the plumbers. They had plumbed the ENTIRE BUILDING BACKWARDS. 5 acres of concrete slab had to be torn up and removed. The plumber lost his business. Talk about a monumental oversight.

Sounds like the overseer should have lost his job as well.

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PromethiumX
Mar 5, 2003

Blistex posted:

Sounds like the overseer should have lost his job as well.

And so should the GC.

Delta-Wye
Sep 29, 2005
Why the gently caress is one page backwards? :psyduck:

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

Delta-Wye posted:

Why the gently caress is one page backwards? :psyduck:

Walmart quality control.

ChaoticSeven
Aug 11, 2005

PromethiumX posted:

I do commercial refrigeration for a living. Think supermarkets. Anyhow we were set to install the refrigeration for a Super Wal-Mart last year when we got a call that the project would be delayed for 9 months minimum.

Generally the refrigeration contractor is allowed into the building after the concrete slab is poured. But we knew the slab had been poured on this particular job so we were wondering what the hell the hold up was. We later found out the reason.

After the slab and all its stub outs of plumbing and electrical conduit had passed inspection the Wal-Mart appointed overseer of construction comes in the building and goes over to the plumber and says yeah that's nice and all but *flips the plumbers plan 180 degrees* that's how it should be.

There was one page in that entire set of drawings that read top to bottom rather than bottom to top. That plan was the plumbers. They had plumbed the ENTIRE BUILDING BACKWARDS. 5 acres of concrete slab had to be torn up and removed. The plumber lost his business. Talk about a monumental oversight.

I got a feeling of dread in my stomach reading that.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

I've got one from a friend

years ago he was working as a helper for a general handyman type guy, the sort that responds to housewife's emergencies and people too lazy or ignorant of basic construction to fix their own stuff.

The house was on a slight hill. Typical house-on-a-hill design where the basement is at ground level in the backyard, and there's a ramp coming down from the front access into the basement garage. The ramp was supposed to have a California drain or any sort of drain really along the bottom of it for obvious reasons, but it did not.

They get a call from a very upset lady who lives in the house saying that a fire hydrant by her house had burst and water was getting into her basement. They arrive not knowing the extent of it: water is nearly at shoulder height in the entire basement, everything is ruined. This lady said she tried to put towels down to stop the water coming in from her driveway ramp, and then went to buckets but it was just coming in too fast. Realising this was a huge situation, the boss drives off in the trunk to go get a pump truck and says to "look busy, use a bucket or something"

My friend goes tot he back of the house and opens the loving back door, the water comes flooding out and goes down the hillside. When the boss came back the dude quick got a bucket and pretended he did it all him self.

The lady felt extremely stupid for not just opening her back door and letting the water flow out before it got so high that her entire basement was a write off.

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler
Holy poo poo! What about the wiring and outlets in the basement? Was is finished, semi-finished or just a hole in the ground? I wouldn't have been going anywhere near that place unless the electric company came over and shut off the power coming from the pole first.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

No clue, all he said was that the house has to be pretty much gutted afterwards. Keep in mind he was just the newly hired helper of a crappy "handyman". Pretty much all he did was open the back door, never went inside until the water was all out.

ibpooks
Nov 4, 2005
It's remarkable that the latch on the basement door held that much pressure.

InstantInfidel
Jan 9, 2010

BEST :10bux: I EVER SPENT

ibpooks posted:

It's remarkable that the latch on the basement door held that much pressure.

The amount of water is completely irrelevant, only the depth of the water. :confuoot:

greenman100
Aug 13, 2006

InstantInfidel posted:

The amount of water is completely irrelevant, only the depth of the water. :confuoot:

If the door is 30 inches wide, water level is 60 inches (5 ft), then an average of 1.08psi is being exerted on the door. Which is 1953lbs.

tworavens
Oct 5, 2009
thats really not that much pressure at all.

ibpooks
Nov 4, 2005
The latch on a residential door is usually held in with two or three #8 wood screws to a pine door jamb. It is remarkable it held 1900lbs.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

Don't forget the doors open IN. I'm more surprised he was able to open it at all. But he mentioned having to replace the door, maybe he kicked a hole in it or bashed it in.

ibpooks
Nov 4, 2005

PromethiumX posted:

And so should the GC.

Yeah, that should all the way up to the ME who stamped an upside down plan and the city inspector who reviewed it, and whoever inspected it before they started pouring slab. Granted the plumber isn't completely faultless, but I can totally see how it happened. Showing up to a jobsite like that to start the rough subterranean work -- there are no landmarks except a few surveying stakes amongst literally acres of flattened earth. You can't even tell where the building, parking lot, garden center and loading dock is because it's all flat. At least once the erection is done you know where the building is, but it's still just a giant rectangle with no landmarks inside.

ibpooks fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Sep 15, 2011

InstantInfidel
Jan 9, 2010

BEST :10bux: I EVER SPENT

greenman100 posted:

If the door is 30 inches wide, water level is 60 inches (5 ft), then an average of 1.08psi is being exerted on the door. Which is 1953lbs.

And if the room was the size of Texas but the depth didn't change, neither would the pressure.

Methylethylaldehyde
Oct 23, 2004

BAKA BAKA

ibpooks posted:

Yeah, that should all the way up to the ME who stamped an upside down plan and the city inspector who reviewed it, and whoever inspected it before they started pouring slab. Granted the plumber isn't completely faultless, but I can totally see how it happened. Showing up to a jobsite like that to start the rough subterranean work -- there are no landmarks except a few surveying stakes amongst literally acres of flattened earth. You can't even tell where the building, parking lot, garden center and loading dock is because it's all flat. At least once the erection is done you know where the building is, but it's still just a giant rectangle with no landmarks inside.

Which is why spending half a day head scratching and double checking is important. Plus if you get a sign off on the plans, then gently caress them, you did what was asked of you, in writing.

laninjafork
Feb 25, 2011
Just moved in and started working on my house. What started as painting moved in to drywall/insulation, and from there I started to find a lot of problems, like floor joists being nailed in to the studs and not sitting on anything. I got to work fixing those, moving from one end of the room to the other popping studs underneath. Then I pulled more of the drywall down and found this:


REALLY?? no wonder the floor sunk an inch every time I stepped around that area.
I've found a ton of "REALLY??"s in there now...an extension cord powering bathroom lights, just sort of pressed in between the drywall and studs rather than through, live knob and tube just cut and left in the ceiling in a pile of sawdust and dirt... cant believe this house didn't fall down or catch fire

uncloudy day
Aug 4, 2010

InstantInfidel posted:

The amount of water is completely irrelevant, only the depth of the water. :confuoot:

He didn't post anything about the amount of water.

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

InstantInfidel posted:

And if the room was the size of Texas but the depth didn't change, neither would the pressure.

Are you autistic? Seriously! Are you?

Praesil
Jul 17, 2004

We bought a house earlier this summer, so I have a few fun stories:

From the mortgage history, we can tell that the previous owner was a house flipper. He bought the house in July, then relisted the house in September for significantly higher than he bought it. Due to his bad timing, the house was on the market until March, when we bought it, much closer to the actual market value of the other houses in the area.


The Crack Pipe
About 2 weeks after we moved in, we noticed a large wet spot on the carpet. At first we thought it was due to the rain, and the gutters overflowing (there are lots of trees). I ended up cleaning out the gutters and discovered that the flower bed was lined with impermeable plastic. So we figured water was going between the plastic and foundation.

Wrong.

Thought about it a bit more, and realized the main sewer line from upstairs was in a closet on the other side of the wall where the carpet was wet. There was a small access panel to get to the clean out, and the rest of the pipe was hidden behind two pieces of drywall in the corner. I noticed there was some discoloration, and realized the problem - the pipe was cracked. So I pulled down the wall:



The pipe had a 4' long split in it.

Had a plumber come out to replace the pipe with ABS. Ended up being a cheap fix, but still. They had to have known about it, and chose to cover it up with drywall instead of fixing it.

The Worst Fence Ever

The fence in our backyard was most likely constructed during the flip. It looked fairly decent, enclosing the entire backyard. On the other side of the fence is a simple chain link fence, then the neighbor's fence on the other side of that for a triple fence solution (they didnt want to remove the existing fence).

We moved in back in April. In June, we noticed one board had been pulled out at the top, the screw head sheared off. We thought someone jumped over the fence. A few weeks later, another board popped. Then we got a ton of rain from the hurricanes, and a few more popped.

The idiot who built the fence put each board touching the next one. During the winter, there wasn't much rain, but once it got hot and wet, the boards started swelling, and the pressure has been knocking them off one by one. If you look at the fence at an angle, it's wavy and a mess. He had to have used the cheapest possible boards. Now I have to fix it somehow...

Otherwise, we really like our house.

Praesil fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Sep 22, 2011

Praesil
Jul 17, 2004

edit: DP

GD_American
Jul 21, 2004

LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY AS IT'S INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!

Boat posted:

Oh, and no thread like this would be complete without the This Old House Home Inspection Nightmare galleries.

Holy poo poo thanks for this link



:stare: indeed

Nuevo
May 23, 2006

:eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop:
Fun Shoe

GD_American posted:

Holy poo poo thanks for this link



:stare: indeed

Yeah, a lot of those surpass plain old laziness/sloppiness and plow on in to the fabled "how could anyone possibly think this was a good idea ever" territory.

Iskariot
May 25, 2010
Is that an old snus box? Or is it snuff in English, I forget. It's incredible!

Praesil - you don't have something like buyer or sellers insurance? Here we can file complaints on the previous owner if there are hidden damages like that. Sellers and brokers try to weasel out by claiming "as is" but the law states you can't hide behind not knowing about problems. Claims under a certain sum are dismissed so your case would probably not go to court. The insurance bit is just to avoid court but if the seller bought insurance, you're in for a long, difficult road of filing a claim with an insurance company.

ibpooks
Nov 4, 2005

Iskariot posted:

Praesil - you don't have something like buyer or sellers insurance? Here we can file complaints on the previous owner if there are hidden damages like that.

Generally no, property is sold as-is in the USA. At the time of sale the previous owner must fill out a disclosure sheet which lists known problems, and you could sue for damages if that disclosure is inaccurate; however it isn't worth going after them unless there is some huge expensive problem. It is common for the buyer to hire an independent inspector prior to sale to check the property for possible problems, but stuff can be hidden of course.

Archives
Nov 23, 2008
I never understood what inspectors actually do. Unless it's some glaring problem there is no way they can open up walls and see the poo poo that's really been hosed up.

Dolphin
Dec 5, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Archives posted:

I never understood what inspectors actually do. Unless it's some glaring problem there is no way they can open up walls and see the poo poo that's really been hosed up.
Totally hidden problems like plumbing in a wall being replaced with garden hose won't be found, but things like bad framing, failing foundations, unsafe clearances for furnaces and water heaters, bad electrical loads etc can be found. Pretty useful actually.

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler
Typically inspectors will just make sure that the foundation is ok, then maybe show up during the building process, then they might do a walk around after it's done. Unless it's a large city they pretty much know all the contractors and the quality of their work. Where I'm from they're more of a scout to look for people building without permits instead of making contractors rip things apart then start over. I'm also from a smallish Northern Ontario area so a contractor doing a crappy job or two usually means they get a reputation pretty fast and don't do much business. The inspectors also know of them so they make a point of showing up fairly often to make sure they're not screwing someone over or building a deathtrap.

Pile of Kittens
Apr 23, 2005

Why does everything STILL smell like pussy?

InstantInfidel posted:

And if the room was the size of Texas but the depth didn't change, neither would the pressure.

Shoulder height is more like 4'6. Also, that pressure is exerted on the bottom of the door - the top of the door got barely anything at all. Maybe that helped?

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler
Well I have a new crappy construction tale. . . In my own house!

I've been doing some minor renovations during the past year (first year in my house). And I've refinished all the hardwood floors, built some oak stairs, bought a furnace, going to have the duct work installed this weekend and the next, replaced 3 windows (need to do another 7) and have started repainting the trim and will move on to the walls next.

While taping and painting the trim I noticed that one piece of trim was rotten. It's against a plate glass window, and the trim on the inside and outside holds it in place. I removed the piece of trim and noticed the wood was rotten under it. The sill was rotten and I'm guessing a bit of wood in the wall as well. It turns out that the outside of the sill is actually slanted inwards. Meaning any water that hits the sill or the windows is directed towards the house and sits against the trim and gradually seems under the window into the wall. I've caulked the trim and window, and will be replacing it next year (planning to replace the wood siding with some foil covered insulation foam and some nice siding, while replacing all the remaining windows that need to go.

What kind of idiot would make a sill, and then have it slanted inwards? Ugghh! It's not as band as a snuff container holding electrical wires or a stack of books holding up a foundation pillar, but it still drives me nuts and means that I can't paint the walls in that room as I'm probably going to have to rip a significant part of that wall out to repair the water damaged wood.

Nuevo
May 23, 2006

:eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop::eyepop::shittypop:
Fun Shoe

Blistex posted:


What kind of idiot would make a sill, and then have it slanted inwards? Ugghh!

The same kind of idiot who painted every single window in my house closed? :suicide:

Brute Hole Force
Dec 25, 2005

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
Or the same kind of idiot that installs windows with no drainage, and cuts the track seal short.

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler
Or a contractor who tries to skim some money and installs horizontal sliding windows as vertical sliders.

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran

Blistex posted:

Or a contractor who tries to skim some money and installs horizontal sliding windows as vertical sliders.

Or a contractor that uses food coloring and water in a bug sprayer to spray cheap rough-sawn 2x4s green so the inspector doesn't notice he's not using pressure-treated exterior-grade wood on framing outside.

Fuzzy Pipe Wrench
Nov 5, 2008

MAYBE DON'T STEAL BEER FROM GOONS?

CHEERS!
(FUCK YOU)
Working for a construction company building a new HCA hospital in Florida:

We were supposed to reduce the settling the ground under the foundation would do with tamping and some special machinery that I'm not familiar with. (I was 16 and working part-time in the trailer/"office" for a friend of my dad's) After that was done we were supposed to call a state inspector of some sort to arrange an inspection of the soil compaction and expected settling. After getting a pass we would then be allowed to start layering gravel and then pouring the foundation. We arranged the inspection then immediately started layering gravel. Once the inspector showed the following week I was present for the discussion between the PM and the state guy and it basically went:
:clint: = PM
:hehe: = Inspector

:hehe::You really shouldn't have started graveling, none of my readings will be anywhere near accurate.
:clint:: Oh, our bad. We did do our own tests before hand though.
:hehe:: I guess that's good enough then. You mentioned there's a good steakhouse around here right? Let's go I'm pretty hungry.

I recall being pretty sure there was no testing done on our part before we graveled.

Papercut
Aug 24, 2005

The quickest substitution in the history of the NBA

Dolphin posted:

Totally hidden problems like plumbing in a wall being replaced with garden hose won't be found, but things like bad framing, failing foundations, unsafe clearances for furnaces and water heaters, bad electrical loads etc can be found. Pretty useful actually.

Our inspectors were complete poo poo, they basically pointed out incredibly obvious stuff that anyone with a brain would notice (e.g. our backyard fence which would sway in the slightest breeze needed to be replaced) while missing stuff that any city inspector or AHJ would notice in an instant. We had 3 different inspection companies review our property prior to purchase and not a single one pointed out that the obviously new electrical service had no green tag. If I wasn't an EE myself that would've been a few grand down the toilet.

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

Or a contractor that uses food coloring and water in a bug sprayer to spray cheap rough-sawn 2x4s green so the inspector doesn't notice he's not using pressure-treated exterior-grade wood on framing outside.

Ffffffffffffff...

Ok, that's a new one.

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

Or a contractor that uses food coloring and water in a bug sprayer to spray cheap rough-sawn 2x4s green so the inspector doesn't notice he's not using pressure-treated exterior-grade wood on framing outside.

How much time and effort would that cost vs just getting the PT wood in the first place?

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babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran

Rotten Cookies posted:

How much time and effort would that cost vs just getting the PT wood in the first place?

Well, it was already installed, and the wood was leftover from another job, so they could probably charge twice for it.

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