Bodges you’ve seen.
Discussion
Fatball said:
One house we had when I was a kid had an extension lead/cable going from the house, over an access road at the rear and into a detached garage. The cable in the house had a round pin plug and at the other end in the garage was another round pin plug.
That reminds me - I mounted a wiring case etc for a network switch, cctv etc in the loft. The power supply for this is an extension cable run through a hole in a cupboard into the loft. I really must sort that out 
The guy that did my hall flooring(engineered oak) turned out to be a total bodger. I managed to rectify most issues - nails sticking out 1cm where he had blasted his nail gun at the skirting boards etc etc
Anyway, he had wedged a pencil under one part of the flooring where it joins at the stairs! I say joins, where he made a mess of it at the stairs. Its a bit springy there - clearly too tight and now trying to expand.
Total tw4t. He added it to his Facebook gallery, lord only knows what state some of those other "projects" are in that he has photos of.
Anyway, he had wedged a pencil under one part of the flooring where it joins at the stairs! I say joins, where he made a mess of it at the stairs. Its a bit springy there - clearly too tight and now trying to expand.
Total tw4t. He added it to his Facebook gallery, lord only knows what state some of those other "projects" are in that he has photos of.
Edited by 8-P on Tuesday 5th May 11:47
This was one of my particular favourite 'discoveries' in my house:
(condensed house renovation thread here for further bodges found: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
(condensed house renovation thread here for further bodges found: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Joyrider1 said:
This was one of my particular favourite 'discoveries' in my house:
(condensed house renovation thread here for further bodges found: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Splendid. What did you suspect it was there? Cant see whats the other side from the pic.(condensed house renovation thread here for further bodges found: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
8-P said:
Splendid. What did you suspect it was there? Cant see whats the other side from the pic.
I wasn't sure what to expect, but it definitely wasn't a window 
- That's a breeze block wall on the outside of it (you can just make it out in the right hand pane - part of an extension over the top of the garage that went on in 1986) - Not sure why they didn't just take it out and brick it up properly, but nothing surprises me in this house Nothing too drastic in my house, although only been in this one 7 months and yet to start knocking things around.
Had a new, larger towel radiator put in the bathroom (as well as a whole new heating system). Where the toilet / bathroom had been knocked into one the previous owner left the door in the wall and just tiled over it, same for the hallway side, except just wallpaper over the door.
I think the same as above is downstairs in the living room and dining room where the layout has been changed.
Had a new, larger towel radiator put in the bathroom (as well as a whole new heating system). Where the toilet / bathroom had been knocked into one the previous owner left the door in the wall and just tiled over it, same for the hallway side, except just wallpaper over the door.
I think the same as above is downstairs in the living room and dining room where the layout has been changed.
Joyrider1 said:
I wasn't sure what to expect, but it definitely wasn't a window - That's a breeze block wall on the outside of it (you can just make it out in the right hand pane - part of an extension over the top of the garage that went on in 1986) - Not sure why they didn't just take it out and brick it up properly, but nothing surprises me in this house
I see now yes. What you cant see wont harm you. - That's a breeze block wall on the outside of it (you can just make it out in the right hand pane - part of an extension over the top of the garage that went on in 1986) - Not sure why they didn't just take it out and brick it up properly, but nothing surprises me in this house The most recent btl i bought had FOUR layers of tiles on the bathroom walls, there was no floorboards under the bath either, it sat upon a length of fairly decayed worktop that was just laid on top of the joists.
Wires twisted together in various light fittings, no connector blocks or even insulation tape used.
Toilet plumbed into the hot water not cold. The basin in bathroom was plumbed in with 2 cold taps rather than 1 hot 1cold.
There was absolutely zero screws holding the front door frame in place, just a liberal use of expanding foam. As soon as i sawed down the foam sides the entire thing just fell out into the garden.
The absolute winner was the gas pipe alterations to the cooker. They had clearly moved the cooker from its original position and rather than re pipe it they used a length of garden hose to reach the new location, held over the copper pipes at both ends with jubilee clips.
By the way the winner of this thread has to belong to that loft convetsion staircase, that is a belter.
Wires twisted together in various light fittings, no connector blocks or even insulation tape used.
Toilet plumbed into the hot water not cold. The basin in bathroom was plumbed in with 2 cold taps rather than 1 hot 1cold.
There was absolutely zero screws holding the front door frame in place, just a liberal use of expanding foam. As soon as i sawed down the foam sides the entire thing just fell out into the garden.
The absolute winner was the gas pipe alterations to the cooker. They had clearly moved the cooker from its original position and rather than re pipe it they used a length of garden hose to reach the new location, held over the copper pipes at both ends with jubilee clips.
By the way the winner of this thread has to belong to that loft convetsion staircase, that is a belter.
PrinceRupert said:
vaud said:
Brother in law's house bought from a family who had it for 3 generations.
Came to take up the somewhat flexible laminate floor.
Laminate floor
Carpet
Laminate floor
Carpet
Carpet
Some 2 inches lost to progressive laying of flooring. New doors also needed as they had all been trimmed to match the layers...
That's amazing. Surely it would be harder work to trim the doors than to take up the old flooring?!Came to take up the somewhat flexible laminate floor.
Laminate floor
Carpet
Laminate floor
Carpet
Carpet
Some 2 inches lost to progressive laying of flooring. New doors also needed as they had all been trimmed to match the layers...
The house mentioned earlier in the thread.
Hall floor:
Carpet, carpet carpet tiles, vinyl tiles, self levelling compound.
After chipping it off cm by cm, there was an original Victorian tessalated tile floor underneath it all.
Joyrider1 said:
This was one of my particular favourite 'discoveries' in my house:
(condensed house renovation thread here for further bodges found: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
We had half a hidden window in our bathroom. When the extension was built way before we bought the place, the builder had simply sawn through the old window frame where it was obscured by the extension wall, put in a narrower window and covered the old one (glass and all) with plasterboard. Plumber discovered it when we had the bathroom re-done.(condensed house renovation thread here for further bodges found: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
There was also a weird box structure on the wall in a storage cupboard in our study. Always wondered what was in it, and found out when we had the kitchen refitted. The integrated microwave was evidently too deep to fit into the enclosure where they put it, so they had just made a hole in the supporting wall between kitchen and cupboard, and made up the box in the study to cover it! No lintel put in place to support the wall above, but now has some hefty wood supports...
Moved into our current home about 6 years ago. Previous owner was an electrician who had a stroke, when he recovered he packed that in and became an artist then left his wife and kids in this house - she had no clue. Her mum moved in with her, she had no clue either.
The sitting room was the budgie room (1 off) - no kidding. Massive lounge with a single budgie cage and some plants. They just lived in the kitchen/diner
The kitchen laminate was a bit all over the place, cheapest B&Q stuff possible. When I took it all up they had used newspaper as underlay.
There was no extraction unit over the hob, a hole was present in the wall with a kitchen towel stuffed in it. When asked where it was, she told me it was in the garage... ok weird. Turns out the ex has fitted new cabinets and measured a gap for the hob extractor between the two ajoining cupboards, only then put and end panels on and realised that the extractor no longer fitted - so placed it in the garage. To be fair all I did was remove the end panels and cut out slots to allow the extractor to be used until we fitted a new kitchen.
The cupboards that he had fitted didnt look very straight, placed a tin of baked beans on its side and it would roll to one end.
They had some 'light fittings' installed in the knocked though kitchen/dining room - these were long white ceramic flower pots with a home made light fitting installed in them, I guess she just like the look of them so much she asked him to install them.
He had put underfloor heating in the bathroom, then tiled over the top - This left a 3/4" rise between the landing carpet and the top of the bathroom floor tiles...not smoothed off or anything, you could see underneath the tiles where the adhesive hadnt splodged out far enough - which he thought was fine.
Wiring to all the downlights installed upstairs was made with choc block and insulation tape - no 59p junction boxes to splash out on here
The wiring behind one of the walls in the budgie room had the earth left chopped off, live and neutral in a choc block and wrapped in brown paper for safety
He had converted half the double garage into an 'art studio'. A semi decent job with some joinery and all plaster boarded up - it did have 32 double sockets installed.... not sure why he needed so many. Roughly half was covered by cupboards or shelving I suppose so he had a plan at one point.
I've rectified all that I've found, and I've done significant work on the house but I'm sure there are others hidden away that will pop up for a surprise at some point in the future
edit - found a shot of the extractor
Note no cupboard kick-boards present, or under oven trim piece.
Oh on the sink drainer fell though at week 2... and I mean literally broke in two.
The sitting room was the budgie room (1 off) - no kidding. Massive lounge with a single budgie cage and some plants. They just lived in the kitchen/diner
The kitchen laminate was a bit all over the place, cheapest B&Q stuff possible. When I took it all up they had used newspaper as underlay.
There was no extraction unit over the hob, a hole was present in the wall with a kitchen towel stuffed in it. When asked where it was, she told me it was in the garage... ok weird. Turns out the ex has fitted new cabinets and measured a gap for the hob extractor between the two ajoining cupboards, only then put and end panels on and realised that the extractor no longer fitted - so placed it in the garage. To be fair all I did was remove the end panels and cut out slots to allow the extractor to be used until we fitted a new kitchen.
The cupboards that he had fitted didnt look very straight, placed a tin of baked beans on its side and it would roll to one end.
They had some 'light fittings' installed in the knocked though kitchen/dining room - these were long white ceramic flower pots with a home made light fitting installed in them, I guess she just like the look of them so much she asked him to install them.
He had put underfloor heating in the bathroom, then tiled over the top - This left a 3/4" rise between the landing carpet and the top of the bathroom floor tiles...not smoothed off or anything, you could see underneath the tiles where the adhesive hadnt splodged out far enough - which he thought was fine.
Wiring to all the downlights installed upstairs was made with choc block and insulation tape - no 59p junction boxes to splash out on here
The wiring behind one of the walls in the budgie room had the earth left chopped off, live and neutral in a choc block and wrapped in brown paper for safety
He had converted half the double garage into an 'art studio'. A semi decent job with some joinery and all plaster boarded up - it did have 32 double sockets installed.... not sure why he needed so many. Roughly half was covered by cupboards or shelving I suppose so he had a plan at one point.
I've rectified all that I've found, and I've done significant work on the house but I'm sure there are others hidden away that will pop up for a surprise at some point in the future
edit - found a shot of the extractor
Note no cupboard kick-boards present, or under oven trim piece.
Oh on the sink drainer fell though at week 2... and I mean literally broke in two.
Edited by The Hofff on Tuesday 5th May 14:24
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