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wargamerROB posted:I can't imagine anyone being that lazy.  The first thing that comes to mind is a bathroom that we gutted. In the wall cavity behind the vanity was a heaping pile of safety razors. Apparently the slots that held the shelves in the medicine cabinet were the perfect size to stick used blades.
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Nov 16, 2012 04:15
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One Legged Ninja posted:Well, having worked in many houses, I can tell you that people are indeed that lazy. That's a feature, not a bug (it was the intended way to dispose of used razors, and was very common in old houses).
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Nov 16, 2012 04:25
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I learned something new, then. It's still a stupid idea, though.
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Nov 16, 2012 04:58
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Seventyfour posted:That's a feature, not a bug (it was the intended way to dispose of used razors, and was very common in old houses). My old house had one, i used it and i'm sure the original owner did also. It was even labeled for razor blade disposal.
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Nov 16, 2012 05:01
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Things I've found in my walls: * silver spoon * combs. Lots of combs * coffee cans. I would think this was bad, but they were being used as electrical boxes and chimney pipes, so I think it was horrible. * an aluminum pie tin under a leaky pipe * an old water damaged cardboard box full of newspapers with 2-3 cans of expanding foam spread over the top, seemingly to block the draft from a giant rotting hole in the floor behind the clawfoot tub in the bathroom. I only found this after stripping a few layers of flooring and subflooring off. * a large pile of rags and worn out clothing that had been stuffed into a hole from a dryer vent, then fell into the wall cavity. * multiple areas lacking chunks of studs where previous owners installed in-wall bathroom cabinets, removing whatever studs stood in their way. * old coins, disposable razors, medicine bottle, random junk.
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Nov 16, 2012 05:04
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kastein posted:* coffee cans. I would think this was bad, but they were being used as electrical boxes and chimney pipes, so I think it was horrible. My favorite surprise when renovating my last house was an electrical box made of two sandwiched foil pie plates, encasing several electrical-taped connections, buried in loose fill insulation, covered with planks in the attic floor. I disconnected and replaced every bit of wiring in that house. I also found a lot of Jesus in my walls.
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Nov 16, 2012 05:23
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kastein posted:Things I've found in my walls: This in particular bugged me when I reno'd my house. Whenever I found them, I'd sister them up with new 2x4's.
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Nov 16, 2012 16:51
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kastein posted:* multiple areas lacking chunks of studs where previous owners installed in-wall bathroom cabinets, removing whatever studs stood in their way. * A large original bathroom split into two. Where they wanted the toilet in the new section was centered over a floor joint. Apparently they decided the best idea was not to move the toilet 6-8 inches laterally in either direction, but to cut out a foot or so of the joist to accomodate the drain. edit: Just pulled up the old pictures (so I could irritate myself needlessly) and it seems I forgot, it was even worse. It was two adjacent joists with foot long segments removed. * Air conditioning ducts retroed into an attic with a low pitch roof, sawed out and removed all the webs on one side of five trusses in a row. * No base plate on most interior walls, and stud spacing eyeballed, if not random. 14" gap, 20" gap, 17" gap, 9" gap, 21" gap. Idiotic and structure wrecking, but not actually life and limb dangerous, but still Thanks a lot, you lazy assholes!
Harriet Tubgirl fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Nov 16, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 18:26
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I had the same random stud spacing... 120 year old houses are awesome that way. I will have to find my pic of a kitchen floor joist cut out to make way for the sewer vent pipes when I get home.
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Nov 17, 2012 02:55
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Here's a new one. My grandparents have been living in their newly built house for about 4 months now and have just gotten the laminate flooring in the basement installed. I go over to take a look and "drat it looks nice"! They're finishing the basement and have it all drywalled, doors hung, laminate laid, and all they have to do is get the trim put in and the ceiling tiles put in (but that can wait until the central vac piping is installed). I'm walking around and notice that there is a 1/8" gap between the drywall and the laminate at one end of the basement and a 1/2" gap at the other end. "Not too bad I guess. The baseboard trim should cover that." I start walking around and feel the floor give out beneath me. The laminate in one spot is hovering nearly an inch off the ground. I move to another spot and the same. I grab a handy 4' level and check it out. The flooring is level, but there are a bunch of dips in the cement under it. Seems that the guy who poured the basement forgot his level, or waited too long to float it and there are a bunch of gaps under different areas of the flooring. Question: What are the odds that these spots are going to cause the laminate joints to fall apart from moving up and down whenever walked on?
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Jan 16, 2013 15:09
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Blistex posted:
High as seasons and humidity change, or worse they might break the spine on the joints. Self leveling compound should take care of it pretty easily for you, though.
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Jan 16, 2013 15:21
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jackyl posted:High as seasons and humidity change, or worse they might break the spine on the joints. Self leveling compound should take care of it pretty easily for you, though.
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Jan 16, 2013 15:46
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Remulak posted:Who the hell put laminate down without fixing the floor first? He (or she) should know it's a repair job waiting to happen that they'll get blamed for.
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Jan 16, 2013 23:16
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Blistex posted:Here's a new one. My grandparents have been living in their newly built house for about 4 months now and have just gotten the laminate flooring in the basement installed. I go over to take a look and "drat it looks nice"! They're finishing the basement and have it all drywalled, doors hung, laminate laid, and all they have to do is get the trim put in and the ceiling tiles put in (but that can wait until the central vac piping is installed). I'm walking around and notice that there is a 1/8" gap between the drywall and the laminate at one end of the basement and a 1/2" gap at the other end.
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Jan 17, 2013 04:36
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Normal especially in renovating old construction. I was scratching my head wondering why I had to cut drywall 3" or so shorter at one end of a room than the other since I'd installed the new ceiling rafters laser leveled. Then I thought to check the floor level and sure enough, the floor was higher by 3.5" at one end of a 15' wall than the other. I think his main point was that the cement floor was horribly uneven and the laminate was hanging in space over the dips until someone stood on it, though.
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Jan 17, 2013 04:41
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kastein posted:I think his main point was that the cement floor was horribly uneven and the laminate was hanging in space over the dips until someone stood on it, though. Yes. This is the main point, and it seems my fears were justified.
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Jan 17, 2013 05:49
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Pile of Kittens posted:It's not just ugly, it's got pretty deep flaws that affect the stability of the wood. A knot or two in a 2x4 isn't the end of the world, but an inch-deep cavity or crack running along the length means it needs to be set aside. Maybe I'm paranoid because I live on the Pacific Rim and all, but drat. Yeah, there's no excuse at all for cracked lumber like that in new construction. If it is splitting now, how bad is it going to fail once it has sheetrock on it a few years?
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Jan 17, 2013 07:16
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Liquid Communism posted:Yeah, there's no excuse at all for cracked lumber like that in new construction. If it is splitting now, how bad is it going to fail once it has sheetrock on it a few years? I'm going to bet the contractor got screwed on a load of lumber and instead of sending it back or not using the "reject" pieces, they just slapped them in there. I've had terrible experiences trying to buy lumber locally that doesn't look exactly like that chewed up stuff, only has three corners, or looks like either a ski or a hockey stick. In my imagination the bundles of lumber that a contractor would buy are the same way so that they lumber store can pass off all that junk on someone. Unfortunately in this case it looks like it was passed off on an unsuspecting home owner. (this is completely disregarding the studs that were cut too short, at the wrong angle, or halfway sawed through then the dude changed his mind and just nailed it up somewhere else) The local lumber yard guys hate me now because their lumber is all junk and I'll pick through it for 45 minutes if that is what it takes to find 10 straight 2"x4"x10' boards in a giant stack. You can even tell that they restack them with the junk sides and defects to the back or arranged so that they are harder to see.
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Jan 17, 2013 20:43
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My local yard is a good deal better than that. I went there for like 40 2x4s at one point and was expecting to pick through forever, but only found like 5-6 that were even sketchy at all while picking my lumber. And even those 5-6 were worlds better than the average 2x4 off the stack at Home Depot.
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Jan 17, 2013 20:49
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kastein posted:My local yard is a good deal better than that. I went there for like 40 2x4s at one point and was expecting to pick through forever, but only found like 5-6 that were even sketchy at all while picking my lumber. And even those 5-6 were worlds better than the average 2x4 off the stack at Home Depot. For the most part it seems that I am way better off going to Lowes than any local lumber yards. They have lumber stacked up to the roof and if the pile on the bottom is all picked through junk, the dude will pop down a new stack with a forklift and they are all fresh and good to go. I'll gladly pay a little bit more to actually be able to build something that is plumb/square. Lowes also actually has different grades of lumber, some is worse than others. When I offered to pay the people at the local lumber yard more money for better lumber, they looked at me like I was dumb 
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Jan 17, 2013 20:52
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apatite posted:For the most part it seems that I am way better off going to Lowes than any local lumber yards. They have lumber stacked up to the roof and if the pile on the bottom is all picked through junk, the dude will pop down a new stack with a forklift and they are all fresh and good to go. I'll gladly pay a little bit more to actually be able to build something that is plumb/square. Lowes also actually has different grades of lumber, some is worse than others. When I offered to pay the people at the local lumber yard more money for better lumber, they looked at me like I was dumb I've found the same thing, where Lowe's far outclasses HD, 84 Lumber (when we still had it) or local yards. This has applied to everything, including building lumber, paint grade shelving / cabinet stock, stain grade material, all of it. Except for white oak, which was a bitch to track down when I did my steps. Everything else, though, Lowe's was the easy winner. And that was for two different Lowe's at both of our houses, so now with your comments, I'm taking this as a truism.
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Jan 17, 2013 22:37
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jackyl posted:I've found the same thing, where Lowe's far outclasses HD, 84 Lumber (when we still had it) or local yards. This has applied to everything, including building lumber, paint grade shelving / cabinet stock, stain grade material, all of it. Except for white oak, which was a bitch to track down when I did my steps. Everything else, though, Lowe's was the easy winner. And that was for two different Lowe's at both of our houses, so now with your comments, I'm taking this as a truism. Doesn't excuse the carpenters for using lovely-rear end boards that should either have gone on the discard pile or been cut up for firestop or cribbing or something else where it doesn't matter the 8' 2x4 had a 4" warp in it. But no, they throw it on the wall anyhow and now your wall has a giant-rear end bow. Also, is it REALLY that goddamned hard to use a tape measure, square and plumb-bob? grover fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Jan 18, 2013 |
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Jan 18, 2013 16:18
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I do security, cameras and access control, so I see lots of spaghetti wiring, mickey mouse electrical work, crooked panels, panels mounted to walls with drywall screws NOT into studs, door frames turned into swiss cheese from failed electric-strike-installation attempts, fire alarm systems that will go into trouble just by looking at them wrong, you name it. I am actually usually ashamed to say I do security system work because the work ethic of people in this field are absolutely poo poo by average. Maybe it's because the pay rate is so low usually (I have a fire alarm tech license and E.Tech diploma, so I do pretty well - but I've seen some pretty low paying jobs out there), but even the experienced security system guys are so messy with their work it's not funny. The bigger companies (ADT, Chubb, etc) are hit and miss (they're either really clean or REALLY REALLY messy), but the one and two-man companies seem to be the worst (consistently poo poo). It's a good thing I'm looking into getting out of this lovely field (trying to get into air navigation communication systems).
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Jan 21, 2013 02:00
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Just out of curiosity, then, do you have any recommendations for how to find a good company, or is it automatically a crapshoot?
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Jan 21, 2013 03:20
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Bad Munki posted:Just out of curiosity, then, do you have any recommendations for how to find a good company, or is it automatically a crapshoot? Unless the company does commissioning of systems (none of them do, because there is no money in it), you're at the mercy of whatever tech(s) they send you. I've seen guys rip apart a phone demarc looking for a line to hook their security panel into, not reconnect anything, and take off before the customer realizes they have no phone, internet or fax connection anymore. I'm mostly commercial, and haven't done residential in years. I'm not sure if residential is as bad. Companies basically make nothing from residential installs (sometimes they lose money on the install and gain it back on the monitoring contract), so I can't see residential security companies paying their techs much, which usually results in the same problem. It's pretty hard to gently caress up a home install though.
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Jan 21, 2013 03:47
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JustAwful posted:Unless the company does commissioning of systems (none of them do, because there is no money in it), you're at the mercy of whatever tech(s) they send you. I've seen guys rip apart a phone demarc looking for a line to hook their security panel into, not reconnect anything, and take off before the customer realizes they have no phone, internet or fax connection anymore. I think part of the reason it can be so bad is that it is very common to have the security system as part of a separate contract from the rest of the building work, so it's not under the supervision of a general contractor or engineer. Administrative people do this to save money (or to transfer the cost, for example from a bond measure that has a strict upper limit over to a general facilities budget), but it means the security system gets half-assed into the building after the fact.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:11
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Papercut posted:I think part of the reason it can be so bad is that it is very common to have the security system as part of a separate contract from the rest of the building work, so it's not under the supervision of a general contractor or engineer. Administrative people do this to save money (or to transfer the cost, for example from a bond measure that has a strict upper limit over to a general facilities budget), but it means the security system gets half-assed into the building after the fact. There's this, and the fact that if it's low-voltage stuff, it doesn't generally require a separate permit. For FA around here, the electricians do the conduit/box installs, and the FA guys pull wire and screw in devices after the final. If the security guys come in after the electrical final, then no inspector looks at their mechanical execution of work. Only the building owners say anything, and that's only for cosmetic stuff (crooked panels, etc.) No building owner I've dealt with has popped ceiling tiles to see the unsecured spaghetti above their security panel.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:29
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I've got an interesting story. A month ago we installed closed cell spray foam and air sealed a new home. It has been in the high teens the past few weeks. The homeowner has been heating the building with a lp and kerosene heater. He has in floor heat in the basement, but hasn't turned it on yet. He decided to pour gypcrete on the first and second floor of the house last week. He called in a panic when he went out there today. All of the moisture that he pounded into the building is running down the poly and completely warped his windows. There was about a half inch of frost on the basement walls. I feel terrible for the guy but he is a know it all retired mason who didn't listen when we told him that he needed to turn on his basement in floor heat and set up fans to create air movement.
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Jan 31, 2013 03:34
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My House, 1968. Whoever pored the basement floor came to the job and saw that there were 2 * 4's along the foundation walls, and if they were left there there would be a gap between the floor and the walls that would be filled in with wood that would rot away over 40 years. They did it anyway.
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Jan 31, 2013 13:35
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Bought a house last year. It had been retrofitted with polybutylene for most of the plumbing. We experienced our first leak in a hot water pipe in the crawl space. We didn't realize what was going on for about a day. The house got up to about 80% humidity and water was condensing on the inside of the windows. Ooops. I patched the leak but then started poking around. Here is where the copper switched over to the PB. I've since ripped it all out and installed a MANABLOC distribution system. It is probably overkill for my smallish house, but it wasn't too bad doing home runs for everything. I'm also redoing a bathroom so being able to turn off the bathroom while still having water available elsewhere is nice.  Here is a bonus shot of some exposed wiring in the attic! 
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Feb 24, 2013 18:40
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If I live to be a million years old I will never grasp why people think it's OK to Mickey Mouse something that presents a very real "burn the whole house down" possibility.
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Feb 24, 2013 18:47
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Detroit Q. Spider posted:If I live to be a million years old I will never grasp why people think it's OK to Mickey Mouse something that presents a very real "burn the whole house down" possibility. Most homeowners have no idea. It's a matter of them going "ah it's too expensive to hire a pro... my friend's nephew knows a guy who is handy, and he'll do it under the table for $100. Then some chuclefuck makes a hash of things in the attic or crawlspace and the owner never sees it. But hey the water turns on and the lights work so it must be fine!
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Feb 24, 2013 19:48
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Parents are getting divorced in the nearish future, so I've been looking at homes with my mom. This is all from the same house. Building an addition? Just board up the window and close the blinds   This is the lovely tuck under garage which is really enhanced by the ceiling fan.    I didn't even bother taking pictures of the bizarre floors the bizarre floor height changes as many as three times in the same room. Or what appears to be a sun room added to the detached garage. There's windows from that kitchen looking out into yet another decision. Painted wood everywhere. Drafty plywood door to under eave storage in the master bedroom. Needless to say we are not interested in this house of horrors. Casimir Radon fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Mar 6, 2013 |
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Mar 6, 2013 04:08
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Oh man, I should dig out my pictures from when I was home shopping this spring. One house in particular was insaaaaaane. It was roughly 60 years old and I think had a new "addition" put on every 5 years. A few things: -Back yard was falling into the river -Soil problems led to an above ground septic tank in the basement, only access to the basement was right through the maze of the house -Master bedroom had a private bath and shower...and by that I mean there was a shower door on one wall of the bedroom with a few ceramic tiles in front of it. Behind that door was a shower. -Master bedroom closet had a knee-height window in the back of the closet looking into the garage -Laundry room, which was directly off the kitchen, with roughly 6" of clearance around the appliances and a semi-boarded window looking into the entryway. I think they literally built this part of the house around those two machines. -Master bedroom had sliding glass door onto one of the two (three? I don't even know) sun rooms. There was the floor of the room, a 6" drop to the door track, and then an immediate 18" drop to the floor of the sunroom. -Basement stairs started about a half-step too low at the top The list goes on for days, really, but those were a few of the highlights. We had a good laugh that day. e: Couldn't help it, here we go. Sorry so many of these are blurry, the house was incredibly poorly lit. Raised dining area. Who needs railings, anyhow? Those steps are over-size, too, each is probably a good 2" taller than it should be.  Master bedroom shower, and toilet/sink room just a little further down the wall. The toilet/sink room was also 6" lower than the bedroom it served. Sliding glass door to a sunroom.  My sister digging the classy lighting.  Looking back into the master bedroom from the sunroom. Sister provided for scale. This looks safe!  The view from the back of that master bedroom closet, into the garage.  Yay basement septic! The whole basement reeked as soon as we opened the door at the top of the stairs.  Seriously, though, gently caress railings. <  > The "laundry room" was covered in old patchwork carpet. That lightbulb on the stand was the only source of light.  The window in the laundry room (which is off the kitchen) looking towards the entryway/front door.  Backsplash, bitches!   Hey lets just randomly throw up some wainscoting, eh? Looks classy this way, with our random windows that are too loving high and small anyhow. This is the view when you turn 180 from that awesome gold backsplash and blue counter.  Not pictured: the randomly black marble/gold fixture main level bathroom, the super lovely hung ceiling in the upstairs with office-style recessed lighting, the multiple stagnant mosquito pools in the back yard...I can't even IMAGINE what I would have found had I actually started looking deeper for code violations like wiring and plumbing and such. I probably would have gone catatonic just to protect myself from the insanity that would have been induced. Not to mention that even the floor plan itself was a hazard. Fire fighters would be at a complete loss during an emergency. Multiple times our little three-person group got separated and could not find each other even with copious Marco-Polo-ing. In fact, I'm not fully convinced the house was entirely euclidean. Anyhow, this house was an incredible example of when people should NOT be trusted to perform home improvement, and is largely responsible for my intense desire to research and meet code when performing any work at all on my own house. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Mar 6, 2013 |
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Mar 6, 2013 04:25
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Bad Munki posted:e: Couldn't help it, here we go. Sorry so many of these are blurry, the house was incredibly poorly lit.
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Mar 6, 2013 06:30
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I was doing some electrical work today and ripped out a feed for an electric stove. It had been moved at some point so there was a 1900 box with a splice to extend the wire over about 5 feet. The "electrician" who spliced the 8 gauge wires decided to strip them about 2 inches long and wrap them with bare 14 gauge copper wire to hold them together, then covered them with a big hunk of duct seal and taped the piss out of it. I haven't seen something that hosed up in a while... The inside of the duct seal was crispy from the wires arcing. Didn't think to take a pic but I'll see if I can dig it out of the trash tomorrow.
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Mar 6, 2013 07:10
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Casimir Radon posted:Parents are getting divorced in the nearish future, so I've been looking at homes with my mom. This is all from the same house. Apparently I didn't take a photo (probably cause we had an agent showing us around the house) but when my partner and her parents were looking for a place to buy we found a house that used to be owned by a vet. The backyard had been converted into kennels (concrete slabs poured everywhere with fenced in pens), the garage/shed out the back had been set up as a reception area/storage for birds and small animals, and they decided to build an extension off the kitchen for another bedroom. There was a massive window along the exterior wall over the kitchen counter, instead of covering it up they removed the window and made it a serving shelf. To a bedroom. Guess if any of that was approved by the local council? It wasn't.
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Mar 6, 2013 09:22
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Bad Munki posted:Not pictured: the randomly black marble/gold fixture main level bathroom, the super lovely hung ceiling in the upstairs with office-style recessed lighting, the multiple stagnant mosquito pools in the back yard...I can't even IMAGINE what I would have found had I actually started looking deeper for code violations like wiring and plumbing and such. I probably would have gone catatonic just to protect myself from the insanity that would have been induced. Not to mention that even the floor plan itself was a hazard. Fire fighters would be at a complete loss during an emergency. Multiple times our little three-person group got separated and could not find each other even with copious Marco-Polo-ing. In fact, I'm not fully convinced the house was entirely euclidean. I think I've read a book about that house. Did it seem significantly larger on the inside than on the outside? Did you hear growling that seemed to come from no particular direction? Did you check if significantly more time elapsed while you where in the house, compared to what you expected?
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Mar 6, 2013 09:47
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Ephphatha posted:Apparently I didn't take a photo (probably cause we had an agent showing us around the house) but when my partner and her parents were looking for a place to buy we found a house that used to be owned by a vet. The backyard had been converted into kennels (concrete slabs poured everywhere with fenced in pens), the garage/shed out the back had been set up as a reception area/storage for birds and small animals, and they decided to build an extension off the kitchen for another bedroom. There was a massive window along the exterior wall over the kitchen counter, instead of covering it up they removed the window and made it a serving shelf. To a bedroom.
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Mar 6, 2013 18:38
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Bad Munki posted:Oh man, I should dig out my pictures from when I was home shopping this spring. One house in particular was insaaaaaane. It was roughly 60 years old and I think had a new "addition" put on every 5 years. I don't care what you say, that shower is cool and the backsplash is banging.
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Mar 6, 2013 19:13
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