LOL!
I remember a friend's Fiat Panda...he repaired a 3" rust hole in the sill with a piece of cornflake packet stuck in place with masking tape. He then used pollyfilla to level the surface and completeted it with a couple of coats of black hammerite!
It passed the MOT!
s
Almost forgot ...
Doorway in wall that divides house, (4) joists meet (2) from either side above. Lintel was a /little/ thin, as it was actually the door frame itself, two courses of bricks above ... they had become a little loose over the years and were easy to remove by just pushing through the other side with my finger! Leaving the floorboards to support 4 joists from above.
OK I bottled it and used an acro before doing the pushing.
Alex.
I was helping a older lady who had just moved by putting in an extra socket but then found a trailing red wire that I couldn't account for. Fortunately the previous owner turned up at that moment to collect his post and when asked remembered that he'd run out of yellow/green and it was actually an earth bond.
And I had a little battle with a 'professional' builder who seemed unaware of the fact that swept waste tees should go with the flow and wastes work better when they go downhill, not up.
When I was younger, the house my parents bought, needed substantial work for the mortgage to be approved, so my parents got grants, and hired builders to do the work, with us all assisting as labourers to keep costs down.
In one room, we found all the wiring to the sockets was actually constructed from a mixture of bell wire and telephone wire.
Ironically, the previous owner of the house was an electrician.
Here's a classic described by someone here a few weeks ago and is worth flagging for anyone who missed it (remember the over-the-stairs cupboard held up by string?):
My parents house had the overflow from the cold tank emptying into a small plastic container halfway across the loft.
Almost too many to mention in our 1930's ex-council place. Seems the previous owners made lots of "improvements":
Many more were found and fixed.
Mind you, a friend has just bought a place down the road which has been "done up" for sale. Laminate fitted with no expansion gaps, kitchen sink moved with associated amusing drainage solutions, gas cooker fitted with no tap...
C
Whats french for Part P......
Dave
Moved into two year old house which required completely redecorating. Retired to bath for a long soak on day one and was disturbed by screams from down stairs that water was coming down the lighting flex in the study below. Hurriedly vacated bath and found that overflow connection was not sealed to bath, the previous owners solution to this problem had been to strategically place a soup bowl under the bath trap to collect the water. When bowl filled, water ran across plasterboard and down lighting flex. Interestingly enough, bulb did not blow, or fuse or rcd clear! Took sensible action, emptied bowl, went back to finish bath!
Regards Capitol
The big lead overflow pipe on our bath had been hammered together so that no water could flow through it.
It was no problem until someone left a bath tap running and water went over the wall side of the bath, down the wall and down the kitchen wall too.
Still, the kitchen walls needed cleaning and painting ...
Mary
Here a few bodges I found after moving in to my current house.
Iron flex in the loft to extend the lighting circuit.
Extra power point spurred off the lighting circuit (with no earth).
Neutral and Earth mixed up on immersion heater.
Overflow from loft tank went up.
Bathroom washbasin fixed at an angle.
Lighting cable to extractor fan.
No lintel above downstairs lounge window so the brickwork above sagged.
Soakaway dug in back garden next to storm drain!
Brick missing from inside wall of small extension.
Garage narrower at the back than the front.
Garage door painted with emulsion paint.
Fence posts placed with too much concrete (about 1m^3) per post!
Main stopcock seized half open so someone had fitted another in series.
Ceilings painted with long blobs of Artex hanging down.
Waste pipe from Bath went upwards.
...and many more I have forgotten about!
Mark
I think some of these could have gone into a parallel thread: Nightmares.
Mary
Had this on a lead gas pipe in my house... Fortunately it's now been removed!
Yes. I am inclined to agree.
... I have remembered a couple more, but I am saving them for future use ... just in case!
Alex.
A few years ago, my then partner had a faulty dimmer switch which I offered to replace. She didn't know where the Cu was, but the meter was in the playroom (converted by the previous owner from a garage). Playroom had wood panelled walls and the meter was behind a door in the panelling. Meter tails disappeared behind the panelling. I removed some of the panelling to find the tails connected to find now Cu - all the circuits were connected direct to the tails with connecting blocks. Best part was that the previous owner had told her he was an electrician!
Dave
oops..
should read ....I removed some of the panelling to find no CU - all the circuits were connected direct to the tails with connecting blocks.
Being in Essex, the bodgers paradise, you know about electrics. It is in your blood to bodge.
_________________________________________ Usenet Zone Free Binaries Usenet Server More than 120,000 groups Unlimited download
We had exactly this situation as well. I can't say it was a pleasant job to remove it either; 20+ years of very smelly gunk came out of it.
In my previous house the owner had installed a 2 kw heater in the conservatory. As there was not socket he had dropped a feed down from the lighting circuit. I only found out when I plugged in my rcd in order to use the lawn mower and it kept tripping. This was because the lighting circuit had no earth. I am assuming he didn't use the heater very often, or maybe he just put in a larger fuse!
He also built a retaining wall, 6 feet high from a single skin of bricks, not tied in to anything and with no drain holes. Unsurprisingly this had started cracking and bowing and I was able to knock it down with a kick.
He also built an arch of single bricks by the side entrance. This was not tied into the house wall, but was just sort of wedged against it. It had cracked and I thought it unsafe, so when investigating it gave it a little rocking and it fell down onto the path below causing a massive crack in the concrete.
There were numerous other bodges, but these were the 3 most serious, all of which could easily have led to death or serious injury.
So although new building regulations (such as Part P) are annoying, I can see the point. Not sure whether they will deter people like this though.
I wouldn't know. I was too big to get into the space to do it.
Well, that was my story and I'm sticking to it!
Mary
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.