Domestic Archaeology

A modest proposal:

When you do work on your house, or have work done, try to be a good "neighbor" to the people that will follow you in the house.

I don't begrudge you the oddities you may find necessary to enjoy your abode. There are some things that drive me a little crazy, wallpaper for example, that I wouldn't ask you to give up. Just don't do short-sighted unnecessary things that will cause grief later on, maybe even for YOU, if you change your mind.

I just spent the better part of an hour excavating a ceiling box in my front room. The previous owners apparently didn't like ceiling light fixtures. I don't begrudge them that. But the guy who did it didn't put a cover on the box. He packed the box solid with plaster, entombing the wires, wire nuts (which fed another active light) and threaded hardware. In what was apparently a second process, he applied a second layer of plaster to even off the ceiling.

The outside layer chipped out easily enough. But the plaster in the box was applied with great care, making sure to fill every nook and cranny. It wouldn't chip out with a hammer, especially because the box was just suspended between two beams and thus flexed upwards when hit. Using a drill, a tiny pry bar and a couple of screwdrivers I managed to slowly pick away the plaster without (I hope) damaging the wires, in much the same way paleontologists tease stegosaur bones out of stone.

Try to keep this in mind. Maybe we'll all benefit.

Greg Guarino

Reply to
Greg G
Loading thread data ...

I'm curious-- how did you know the box was there in the first place?

Patrick

Reply to
Patrick Cleburne

You could see a roughly circular "patch" in the ceiling. It wasn't a terrible job, but easy enough to see. I also saw the fixture location in my neighbor's house, which is the same as mine.

Greg Guarino

Reply to
Greg G

Wait...maybe they were onto something. If we pumped the entire conduit and box system full of plaster wouldn't it conduct heat between wires and pipe better than air? And you could overload/overheat to the point of molten insulation which would have no where to go and no room for fire! I like it!

tongue firmly in cheek

Reply to
Steve Kraus

Would you mind posting your address? Perhaps we could make a public list of houses whose owners are unusually, shall we say, ingenious?

Oh. Never mind...

Greg Guarino

Reply to
Greg G

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.