"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
04/29/2019 at 11:28 • Filed to: None
2
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
04/29/2019 at 11:28 • Filed to: None | 2
| 19 |
My contractor is here working on the bathroom remodel, and he had to go to the attic a couple of times. The pull-down stairs are, I believe, original to the house, wooden, and
very rickety. He
said that they are dangerous (they are) and offered to replace them with a more robust aluminum
unit.
(H
e also
said he’d knock $100 off his installation fee since he’s already here. Fair enough.
)
This morning, they cut down the frame of the old stairs and found out that the entire stairwell
was attached
to the ceiling joists with finishing nails. Kevin is going to be using quarter-inch
lag screws to hold
the new stairs up.
All this is actually rather par for the course in this house. Every time we do any work or remodeling we discover so much half-assed construction.
TheRealBicycleBuck
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 11:38 |
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Eeek. The r oof structure in our first rental house was made with strips of defective wood flooring. The fellow who built it worked at the local wood flooring plant.
What people think is adequate (and can get away with) is frightening.
OPPOsaurus WRX
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 11:38 |
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the finish nails wouldn’ t really be a problem if there were a few hundred of them in there.
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ttyymmnn
> OPPOsaurus WRX
04/29/2019 at 11:39 |
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There weren’t.
VincentMalamute-Kim
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 11:46 |
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This is how the lights were wired in the basement of a house in the mountains I was in. Apparently there are no codes if you’re in the mountains.
At least he had the white and black wires correct. I declined to touch the staple but it looks like it should have missed the hot wire. I’m not sure if he had bad aim with the staple gun or really good aim.
facw
> VincentMalamute-Kim
04/29/2019 at 11:49 |
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The exterior garage lights at my parents house were “ wired” into a remote control outlet like that. Pretty much the first thing that they did after moving in was to a WeMo switch properly wired instead for remote control and timer purposes.
HammerheadFistpunch
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 11:50 |
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“Every time we do any work or remodeling we discover so much half-assed construction.”
This story I know well. Everytime the pilot light goes out on a gas fireplace downstairs it smells like my basement is home to a chain smoking den. Turns out the previous owners installed the slide in unit WITHOUT CLEANING OUT THE OLD FIREPLACE! I can see charcoal and ash behind the unit and everytime the wind blows strong enough its basically a camp fire in my house. Then they decided they ought to tile it in, just to be sure no one could do anything about it.
ranwhenparked
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 11:56 |
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My parents replaced the front door on their 1980s tract house last year and found out the door frame had been held in with two finish nails. I mean, it held for 30 years, but clearly corners were cut.
TorqueToYield
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 12:01 |
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Nailed it.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> OPPOsaurus WRX
04/29/2019 at 12:05 |
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All of the shelves in our house were installed with hundreds of 2 " brads. I discovered this when I tried to install a new shelving system in my daughter’s closet . What should have been a quick half-day, turned into a couple of weekends. I had to rip down the shelves, then pull all of the brads individually. Then I had to repair the drywall and paint the walls before I could start the install.
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ttyymmnn
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/29/2019 at 12:43 |
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Yeah, but they didn’t fall down. Which reminds me of a joke:
Did you hear the one about the prostitute who didn’t know the difference between lube and window putty?
Her windows fell out.
Monkey B
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 12:44 |
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I hear ya, I can’t even to begin to describe the horrors I unearth every time I touch my house. It’s bad enough her ex is her ex as he’s, well...her ex . But he also did 90% of what was done to this house before I got here and it’s mind numbingly awful. The only room he never touched was the only one s he ever wanted touched ...the kitchen. Luckily it’s the only one I’ve done yet so I didn’t have to deal with any of his booby traps.
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ttyymmnn
> VincentMalamute-Kim
04/29/2019 at 12:44 |
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I’m guessing that staple was pure luck.
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ttyymmnn
> ranwhenparked
04/29/2019 at 12:46 |
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My front door needs to be replaced. Can’t wait to find out what they did there. When the contractor ripped out the old tub, we found that none of the plumbing was secured. Every time you pulled the shower valved the whole thing moved in and out. It’s secured now.
Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/29/2019 at 13:11 |
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And sadly they often DO get away with it.
My bird IS the word
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 13:19 |
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we figured out the person that built my parent’s house was a cabinet maker. Being, he used formica as flooring and built the stairs going up to my parent’s bedroom like old 40s cabinets with big metal corners and more formica. H
e also wired the house from the top down instead of room by room like you are supposed to, so each fuse was for one wall of sockets.
farscythe - makin da cawfee!
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 13:28 |
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in my house they managed to install the pull down stairs across the hall way instead of along it... so instead of just being able to pull the stairs down and use them in the hallway as they should be
what i have to do is get into the spare bedroom then pull the stairs down as they end up just inside the spare room... whilst also completely blocking the shower door
its a fantastic bit of build first think maybe
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ttyymmnn
> farscythe - makin da cawfee!
04/29/2019 at 13:32 |
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Somebody didn’t think that one through.
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farscythe - makin da cawfee!
> ttyymmnn
04/29/2019 at 13:37 |
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whats worse that i think it was installed properly origin ally... they somehow fixed it this way
Funktheduck
> VincentMalamute-Kim
04/29/2019 at 14:34 |
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This reminds me of the shed at my ex’s. When we were together a tree fell on the shed and house. Nothing serious but repairs were needed and the insurance wrote off the shed. It needed taken down and replaced. The wire running from the house to the shed was buried a few inches down with no conduit. They ran the wire up the wall and across the ceiling to power some lights and outlets. Staples all through the wiring. I guess nothing got knicked. Got lucky.