Crappy Construction: The Four POs of the Housepocalypse

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Crappy Construction: The Four POs of the Housepocalypse

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Boogeyman posted:

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.

Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing it looks like a church that closed down and someone turned it into a garage?

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 20:47

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 21:17

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

wolrah posted:

I just went downstairs and noticed this. I have absolutely no sane explanation for why what seems to be soot would be there, but I have to imagine this is something I should be concerned about. On a scale of 1 to turn the gas the hell off now how much do I need a new water heater?

Nothing in that area should ever really burn unless things were beyond hosed up. I'm guessing you got some dusty stuff in that area and the convection draft of the hot pipe is pushing air up that column maybe. Unless it smells burnt it's probably just weird dust buildup.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2014 06:08

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Missing Name posted:

I used a debit card at one of those stores, does that count

Checking back in on the Hoodwinked House, the attic has been a conducive environment for ice damming and more halfassed work. We'll see if a September 18th update or so is simply "fell off catwalk lost fingat"

Surprised that house hasn't burnt down yet for mysterious reasons. Haven't looked at updates on that place in a while... since looking for a house myself I don't enjoy bringing on a possible panic attack. I did enjoy the great foam explosion incident.

http://youtu.be/6NPD4NorVFs

# ¿ Sep 16, 2014 19:59

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Does every wall in a foundation bowing in count as crappy old construction? Mind you sole plate isn't bolted to foundation walls and floor joists aren't nailed to sole plate. Entire house floating on foundation.

^^^ house I was supposed to close on today that an engineer discovered last minute after sellers tried to do a foundation repair between our last inspection and final walkthrough. 20-30k+ repairs plus gutting basement and a lot of the first floor to reattach structure to foundation.

Will be a fun engineering report to read sometime next week.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2014 04:01

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Wish I could get a thermal photo cause the toilet in hotel I'm staying at in Austin is plumbed incorrectly. Felt oddly warm sitting on the can and when flushed it had the aroma that only poo being cooked can give off. Water feed is actually the hot water tap.

Edit: There is no cold water right now :psyduck:

, the sink is hot water and hotter water.

dietcokefiend fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Nov 5, 2014

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 06:38

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Fo3 posted:

My brother and I subdivided a block of land (inner city block, and we split side by side so both would have street frontage, making them narrow but long blocks). He built a house on his half, I sold my land. As it was on a slight hill, there's a basic 2 course limestone block and mortar retaining wall between them (E: about 3-4ft high).

The people I sold my half to are building a house now, with their brick garage (part of the house) against my brother's boundary side.
Builders didn't even put down a slab for the garage, but they built a full height brick wall right on the boundary just sitting straight onto this dinky little retaining wall.
I guess they're going to pour the garage floor concrete slab later? The slab for the rest of the house is there and walls are up for that.
Never seen a builder skip the slab for the garage until last, what reason could they possibly have for that? Usually you build a wall on the slab, not next to it.
Never seen a wall that's going to be connected to the rest of the houses roofing just chucked up upon a cheap retaining wall (that someone else built), before either.

Guessing they are probably skipping through permits too? It sounds pretty outside of building code. My main worry would be would this structure start to put your bothers place at risk? Unless we are talking Detroit or something, most cities would be on top of this if an inspector got wind of the shenanigans.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2014 19:43

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

From the chemicals that crap puts off, hell I might pursue someplace that can do testing to see if anything toxic is present around that basement (ceiling, walls, etc) and how to clean it.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2015 18:08

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Hard to tell, but also might be using non dimming CFLs which get quirky when voltages fluctuate. Might explain the brightness part.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2015 16:13

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

WeaselWeaz posted:

Stuff like that is why I didn't but a flipped house. My house is old, buy I'm the third owner and know most of the work that was done.

That said, this guy is an rear end in a top hat. When at the beginning he finds out one of the cabinet doors wasn't attached I can't see how he wouldn't have seen that in the walkthrough or earlier. He was plenty negligent. And he called a building inspector on a neighbor. Friendly.

Some of the stuff with that dudes house isn't exactly "flipped in a terrible way" more so being just you bought a really bad house that wasn't built well to begin with. The stuff he goes on and on and on about being stuff the flippers did is in part stuff that the original builder of the house could skimped out on. It still doesn't change the fact it sucks really bad, but hell its not just one dude's fault or negligence here.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 17:25

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Maybe they live in some crazy plot of land where the sun is always setting? At my old house during fall I think the drat thing wouldn't close at 5-6pm when the sun was setting and blinding one of the sensors. Had to get a cardboard box to place in front of my garage door to cast a shadow on the thing and then close the door and go back outside to collect the box :argh:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 20:28

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Leperflesh posted:

It is not hard to find 20A tamper-resistant outlets:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=42525

http://www.legrand.us/adorne/products/outlets/artr202m4.aspx

These ones are $3:
http://www.menards.com/main/electrical/wiring-devices/outlets/20a-tamper-resistant-outlet/p-1404590.htm

These are $1.50, with free shipping (if you buy 200 or more, lol):
http://www.homelectrical.com/20-amp-tamper-resistant-decorative-duplex-receptacle-white.gp-sere02bstrsgw.1.html

I don't really get the "more expensive" thing, either. They do cost more, but when you're talking about spending like five bucks instead of three, even if you're doing a lot of outlets the increased cost is negligible.

e. Look, they even have them at Home Depot:
http://www.homedepot.com/s/20A%2520tamper%2520resistant%2520outlet?NCNI-5

This was a last minute fix while I was visiting my parents home, where they had recarpeted and painted a room, with the outlets being a finishing touch. My mom was at Home Depot and after some back and forth on the phone we ended up with some commercial grade 20A child-resistant plugs for about 6 bucks each :haw:

. Pretty good decision to swap out the outlets though, since whomever installed them 25+ years ago before they bought the house back-stabbed every single one in a massive series. Every wire end was discolored from heat. We always used space heaters in that room growing up and blew the breaker and had weird issues. That helps to explain some of that.

Homes always have their little shop of horrors from DIY projects over the years. Can't wait till the next owners 40-50 years down the road find my crazy crap.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2015 13:52

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

As I work on wrapping up a hidden fort I built into the side of my kids closet in a wall space above a staircase I'll need to share some of the crazy lengths of making a room for barely two kids fitting inside of it hold a god drat grizzly bear in terms of weight loading.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2018 22:51

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

spog posted:

I'm gonna guess that you didn't start by cutting through the I-beams.

Good lord it started by drilling through some 1960's multilayer drywall/plaster combo that coated a bedroom in dust and then I read about how asbestos was sometimes used in that era. It started stupid, but at least that lab test came back clean..

Since the floor of this project rested on 2x4's going at like a 45-degree angle, most of it was reinforcing it every way possible. If I can't break through it, my kids won't :v:

# ¿ Dec 19, 2018 23:02

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

spog posted:

Super-reinforced floors, asbestos-testing. Man, you've really got a thing about not maiming your children!

Don't worry though, I'm getting a framing nailer for Christmas for the ultimate goal of using it remodeling my master bathroom. Thankfully traditional joists. But I'm going to be moving a couple walls and probably a toilet and plumbing stack.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2018 23:08

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Ashcans posted:

I've been considering running some conduit for wiring, because while we don't show a ton of wireless networks in the area we do get interference from different kinds of monitors and stuff that is very irritating to deal with.

Sitting in my office there are 25 different networks that show up on my phone. I don't think that's even all of them, as the list isn't consistent and there are probably others that stay hidden. It's weird to think how short a time it took to go from wireless networks being brand new to saturating areas with too many that they start interference.

The most magical moment at my current house was finding a pathway for cat6 to go from the basement up to the attic above the 2nd floor by only pulling. I have this brick and block construction place with a lot of wire mesh in some walls that destroys wifi signal. On the upside I can see all my neighbors, but I couldn't do poo poo myself without a centrally located AP. First order of business was getting my home media stuff like the Apple TV hardwired so Netflix wasn't buffering on my 250/50mb fiber connection. Wifi makes me so sad these days.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2018 23:12

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

spog posted:

Childhood me is jealous as gently caress of the kids with the hidden fort built by their awesome dad.

Hell, adult me wants one.

Feast your childhood dreams on this:

https://m.imgur.com/a/sdtRiJm

# ¿ Dec 19, 2018 23:45

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

Should be finalized in a week or so. Did a quick overview on Reddit, but probably going to work on a more detailed overview here. Such an awesome and fulfilling project as a dad.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2018 00:11

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

peanut posted:

omg are you gonna draw a treasure map leading to the fort and give it to them for christmas???!?!!!!!

plz put artificial grass on the platform

Treasure map is my goal. And not for Christmas. Santa didn�t bust his rear end making this... there will be no doubt who did.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2018 01:47

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

sneakyfrog posted:

... im just saying secret lock thingy would be about the only thing to make it into dadjesus territory

The door is going to be a decoy type door. But no lock, this is going to have a magnet. Can�t have a little guy getting trapped in a wall.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2018 01:48

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

shortspecialbus posted:

The one suggestion I have is to strongly emphasize that it's not a place to hide in a fire. Kids may just do exactly that in a panic.

Yea both kids are at daycare where they do training for stuff like fire drills and active shooter drills (jfc, what a world). So they have that type of training started where you want to leave a place when there is smoke/fire.

My Lovely Horse posted:

alternatively line it with asbestos after all

There is always this option.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2018 14:20

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 21:17

dietcokefiend: Apr 28, 2004; HEY ILL HAV 2 TXT U L8TR I JUST DROVE IN 2 A DAYCARE AND SCRATCHED MY RAZR

H110Hawk posted:

There is only 1 light on that pole.

Its the Christmas Star leading Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2018 20:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Crappy Construction: The Four POs of the Housepocalypse