Bodges you’ve seen.
Discussion
Jack.77 said:
Maybe obviously but you could get some concrete posts in there and double up the concrete gravel boards with 3 ft closeboard panels on top
I'm going for a block wall with inbuilt concrete posts and 6ft closeboard panels. Doing it all myself so I am going to be testing the neighbourly bond!Fonzey said:
Stripped my kitchen out at the weekend.
Oven had a 3 pin plug on it with "FRIDGE" written on it in marker pen
Hob went into the 40amp (or whatever it was) cooker circuit
Fridge had a plug on it with "COOKER" written on it in marker pen
Isolating the cooker circuit didn't isolate the 40amp circuit
Isolating the kitchen sockets circuit didn't isolate anything
Isolating the downstairs socket circuit isolated approx. half of the kitchen
Isolating the upstairs socket circuit isolated the rest...
Glad we're rewiring it all!
Sounds like our house, owned by an electrician since 1960, and rewired in 2000 apparently.Oven had a 3 pin plug on it with "FRIDGE" written on it in marker pen
Hob went into the 40amp (or whatever it was) cooker circuit
Fridge had a plug on it with "COOKER" written on it in marker pen
Isolating the cooker circuit didn't isolate the 40amp circuit
Isolating the kitchen sockets circuit didn't isolate anything
Isolating the downstairs socket circuit isolated approx. half of the kitchen
Isolating the upstairs socket circuit isolated the rest...
Glad we're rewiring it all!
Pretty sure that he did it with offcuts from other jobs. I found 8 junction boxes under my daughters bedroom floor alone.
'Living Room' breaker controlled one single socket, and was the onyl thing actually wired into the old 80's crabtree RCD consumer unit. Everything else was hanging off the non-rcd protected unit. There were also 2 JB's on the way!
Two more of the living room sockets were spurred off the upstairs 'ring' which had a figure of eight in it. That took me a moment or two to figure out!
A further two were spurred off the kitchen ring, with a another spur up to the loft. Of course no fusing on these spurs of spurs.
The loft lights were running off this spur with no fusing down. The wiring for this ran right past the upstairs lighing circuit, which would have been much simpler and safer to feed from.
The shower feed had a 30amp junction box halfway along its run, and as above, was not RCD protected.
All the wires were twisted, laid haphazardly etc.
The guy wouldn't have known a 'safe zone' if it bit him on the arse. cables run at 45 degrees, on gentle curves, all acceptable apparently. Had to turn everything off before drilling or chasing anywhere.
Pretty much every socket I removed the wires literally fell out of the terminals.
The first light on the upstairs circuit, the neutral 'out' was not and had never been secured in the fully screwed up terminal - the bare wire was just resting alongside the neutral terminal block.
There was an outside pedestal type light that when I put the IR tester on the circuit, failed miserably. Some armoured cable leaves the house, runs along the fence, and then disappears into the ground. What emerges from the ground the other side of the garden is a piece of white twin and earth, so somewhere under the ground is a junction box most likely full of water.
Had one years ago...
Outhouse and tried to trace cable, ended up at the main switch, turned it off, outhose was still on. we tried everything, even tried to put an earth fault on it, fist a lamp to earth, then a kettle... nothing tripped it...
we eventually after much deliberation tried a plug with a short in it. popped the fuse. no trip... hmmm...
Scratched heads... still power....
cable went so far and then was lost.... main board was tried again. meter and meter tails the whole darn thing... meter disconnected and tails wrapped up... still power at the outhouse.
Soooo it was getting a bit frustrating. anyways mate goes out and says had enough of this s
te and grabs a set of jump leads...
he came back in 10 minutes later... its dead now... now lets see where it was fed from....
day later we gets a call, the guy was saying his neighbour came back from work and his house was dead. anyways cable now identified as comming from the neighbours house supply. This must have been like this for 30 odd years as that was how long friend had been there.. anyways turns out that the outhouse belonged to the neighbour originally and had never been swapped over when the neighbour bought the outhouse. Neighbour had died and well that seemed to die with them.
sorted out now.
Outhouse and tried to trace cable, ended up at the main switch, turned it off, outhose was still on. we tried everything, even tried to put an earth fault on it, fist a lamp to earth, then a kettle... nothing tripped it...
we eventually after much deliberation tried a plug with a short in it. popped the fuse. no trip... hmmm...
Scratched heads... still power....
cable went so far and then was lost.... main board was tried again. meter and meter tails the whole darn thing... meter disconnected and tails wrapped up... still power at the outhouse.
Soooo it was getting a bit frustrating. anyways mate goes out and says had enough of this s
te and grabs a set of jump leads... he came back in 10 minutes later... its dead now... now lets see where it was fed from....
day later we gets a call, the guy was saying his neighbour came back from work and his house was dead. anyways cable now identified as comming from the neighbours house supply. This must have been like this for 30 odd years as that was how long friend had been there.. anyways turns out that the outhouse belonged to the neighbour originally and had never been swapped over when the neighbour bought the outhouse. Neighbour had died and well that seemed to die with them.
sorted out now.
Used to be a pipe with a tap on it sticking out of my grandparent's garage floor. My uncle turned it on and heard a hiss. Turned out to be a gas pipe straight off the mains. Perhaps at some stage my grandparent's house had had a gas meter and supply. Anyway, this unmetered pipe was occasionally "flared off" with the aid of a cigarette lighter to heat the garage. What, apart from theft and risk of fire and explosion, was wrong with that?
Oh yeah, another bodge at that house. Removal of fruit tree stumps with plastic explosives taken home from work on the bus.
Oh, and converting a shotgun to fire 22LR with the aid of a length of curtain rod. I'm guessing the fit was loose enough to allow the centre fire pin to strike the 22LR rim. I think that counts as a bodge. Apparently on one occasion he forgot to remove the curtain rod before firing a shotgun cartridge. The curtain rod removed itself and a chunk of turf from the end of the garden.
Oh yeah, another bodge at that house. Removal of fruit tree stumps with plastic explosives taken home from work on the bus.
Oh, and converting a shotgun to fire 22LR with the aid of a length of curtain rod. I'm guessing the fit was loose enough to allow the centre fire pin to strike the 22LR rim. I think that counts as a bodge. Apparently on one occasion he forgot to remove the curtain rod before firing a shotgun cartridge. The curtain rod removed itself and a chunk of turf from the end of the garden.
My first house, many years ago, was interesting, a repossession.
From the day we saw it, until completion, it wasn’t cleaned (dogs poo under the carpet in spare bedroom!)
But the best one
Late FIL was stripping the wallpaper in lounge. His arm disappeared into the wall.
They had wallpapered straight over a 2 brick hole for an air-vent!
Just a hole to the outside vent.
From the day we saw it, until completion, it wasn’t cleaned (dogs poo under the carpet in spare bedroom!)
But the best one
Late FIL was stripping the wallpaper in lounge. His arm disappeared into the wall.
They had wallpapered straight over a 2 brick hole for an air-vent!
Just a hole to the outside vent.
ATG said:
Used to be a pipe with a tap on it sticking out of my grandparent's garage floor. My uncle turned it on and heard a hiss. Turned out to be a gas pipe straight off the mains. Perhaps at some stage my grandparent's house had had a gas meter and supply. Anyway, this unmetered pipe was occasionally "flared off" with the aid of a cigarette lighter to heat the garage. What, apart from theft and risk of fire and explosion, was wrong with that?
Oh yeah, another bodge at that house. Removal of fruit tree stumps with plastic explosives taken home from work on the bus.
Oh, and converting a shotgun to fire 22LR with the aid of a length of curtain rod. I'm guessing the fit was loose enough to allow the centre fire pin to strike the 22LR rim. I think that counts as a bodge. Apparently on one occasion he forgot to remove the curtain rod before firing a shotgun cartridge. The curtain rod removed itself and a chunk of turf from the end of the garden.
Reminds me of a bodge I almost perpetrated. My brother and I were replumbing a bathroom. When we had removed everything, there was a random pipe sticking up through the middle of the floor. It was capped off. It didn't seem to link to anything. We kept stubbing our toes on the bloody thing. One evening, my brother smacked himself on it and cursed - "I'm going to bloody hacksaw that off". As he went to locate the hacksaw I decided we'd better check first. I unscrewed the cap and the room filled with the smell of gas. It was screwed back tight and a plumber called.Oh yeah, another bodge at that house. Removal of fruit tree stumps with plastic explosives taken home from work on the bus.
Oh, and converting a shotgun to fire 22LR with the aid of a length of curtain rod. I'm guessing the fit was loose enough to allow the centre fire pin to strike the 22LR rim. I think that counts as a bodge. Apparently on one occasion he forgot to remove the curtain rod before firing a shotgun cartridge. The curtain rod removed itself and a chunk of turf from the end of the garden.
AstonZagato said:
Reminds me of a bodge I almost perpetrated. My brother and I were replumbing a bathroom. When we had removed everything, there was a random pipe sticking up through the middle of the floor. It was capped off. It didn't seem to link to anything. We kept stubbing our toes on the bloody thing. One evening, my brother smacked himself on it and cursed - "I'm going to bloody hacksaw that off". As he went to locate the hacksaw I decided we'd better check first. I unscrewed the cap and the room filled with the smell of gas. It was screwed back tight and a plumber called.
Gas-fired hot water geysers were quite popular once upon a time; they had a habit of killing people taking a hot bath with carbon monoxide poisoning.
Thought I might add my findings to this thread. All these bodges were in the SAME bathroom.
The bathroom was over 25 years old so had lots of time to accumulate the bodges.
First one was the tenant putting a bowl under the waste trap to catch a slow leak… 4 years ago.
Doing the kitchen next week
700 shower tray? Never seen one.
——
The 3 layers of tiles may explain that
Tile, paint, tile, paint then final tile. Beautiful.
——
Shower door cut down to a smaller size but this meant the pivot door wouldn’t shut flush.
Not only that, they didn’t cut it enough so inserted the frame INTO the wall then tiled over that!
——
What’s that I see poking into the wall cavity?
Surely not!?
Didn’t bother to measure the kitchen worktop enough so made it even more work by cutting the plasterboard wall AND notching the frame out and thus weakening the showers wall… hence the leaky tiles.
It gets better folks. Wait for it.
——
The bathroom was over 25 years old so had lots of time to accumulate the bodges.
First one was the tenant putting a bowl under the waste trap to catch a slow leak… 4 years ago.
Doing the kitchen next week
700 shower tray? Never seen one.
——
The 3 layers of tiles may explain that
Tile, paint, tile, paint then final tile. Beautiful.
——
Shower door cut down to a smaller size but this meant the pivot door wouldn’t shut flush.
Not only that, they didn’t cut it enough so inserted the frame INTO the wall then tiled over that!
——
What’s that I see poking into the wall cavity?
Surely not!?
Didn’t bother to measure the kitchen worktop enough so made it even more work by cutting the plasterboard wall AND notching the frame out and thus weakening the showers wall… hence the leaky tiles.
It gets better folks. Wait for it.
——
https://youtu.be/pLjA5UAigMU
Triple tile with extra surprises..
——
https://youtu.be/f_JJPAbaowM
Worktop notch out and bonus hot water tank notch out.
——
Do I win this thread yet?
Triple tile with extra surprises..
——
https://youtu.be/f_JJPAbaowM
Worktop notch out and bonus hot water tank notch out.
——
Do I win this thread yet?
Here are some from our recently bought house. They had the kitchen refitted using a company that retained the existing units rather than rip it out and replace everything.
The fridge is now where the light switch once. So they just cut in to the door frame and put the switch there instead.
I am assuming the floor was kept (or put down first) but lets not that get in the way of the measurements.
I suspect the existing tiles were not removed so with the second layer of 'new' ones on top the original blinds end up doing this and only go half way down:
And from the bathroom. I believe this is the original radiator as fitted by the house builder.
The fridge is now where the light switch once. So they just cut in to the door frame and put the switch there instead.
I am assuming the floor was kept (or put down first) but lets not that get in the way of the measurements.
I suspect the existing tiles were not removed so with the second layer of 'new' ones on top the original blinds end up doing this and only go half way down:
And from the bathroom. I believe this is the original radiator as fitted by the house builder.
Bought a house back in the seventies with an intermittent fault on the ring circuit. Unplugged everything and still had a fault with wired fuse blowing. Stripped the ring circuit wires from the fuse and trace inspected the visible parts of the cable finding a crushed/twisted section which looked very suspect - so opened up the sheathing to find a nice burned live.
Almighty flash and the fuse next to the offending circuit fuse had blown. Nice chunk out of my cutters...
Seems someone had wired each end of the ring circuit to two adjacent fuses, then added a further spur to one fuse to make it appear to the unwary to be a conventional ring!
Almighty flash and the fuse next to the offending circuit fuse had blown. Nice chunk out of my cutters...
Seems someone had wired each end of the ring circuit to two adjacent fuses, then added a further spur to one fuse to make it appear to the unwary to be a conventional ring!
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