Bodges you’ve seen.
Discussion
Thought I would add one here, my sons house is under renovation and we started on the hall , under the carpet and underlay was some quarry tiles that where loose and not particularly well laid. so we took these up and the subfloor looked strange, on closer inspection it appears to be made of browning plaster mixed with no1 road stone. will let you know what is under this.
We should have expected something odd as when we dug up the kitchen floor we found the concrete to have a thin plastic bag as the dpm and coal was used as hard core.
We should have expected something odd as when we dug up the kitchen floor we found the concrete to have a thin plastic bag as the dpm and coal was used as hard core.
Not quite a bodge, but...
When having the downstairs remodeled we were having the builder (who used to own the house) take out a few questionable internal block/glassblock walls from the 70s/80s. One walled off part had been his kitchen when he first moved in. At one end was a painted brick wall facing that wasn't in keeping (stone, rendered farmhouse) and lost a good 6 inches of room, so we asked the builder to remove it and take it back to the original stone. Which he proceeded to do.
We came home later on - noted he had taken down the wall to expose an expanse of charred/blackened wall (not done recently). Upon our enquiring the builder said - 'Ah that brought back some memories - I came home from the pub one night a little the worse for wear and put the chip pan on. Fell asleep and woke up with the pan well alight with flames going up the wall. Threw the chip pan out of the window then went outside to the van, brought some bricks and mortar in and built the brick wall to cover the scorch marks up the wall' before the wife noticed!'
To be fair the quality of the brickwork was pretty good for someone who was pissed and just put out a chip pan fire. We did keep a closer watch on his work after that though...
When having the downstairs remodeled we were having the builder (who used to own the house) take out a few questionable internal block/glassblock walls from the 70s/80s. One walled off part had been his kitchen when he first moved in. At one end was a painted brick wall facing that wasn't in keeping (stone, rendered farmhouse) and lost a good 6 inches of room, so we asked the builder to remove it and take it back to the original stone. Which he proceeded to do.
We came home later on - noted he had taken down the wall to expose an expanse of charred/blackened wall (not done recently). Upon our enquiring the builder said - 'Ah that brought back some memories - I came home from the pub one night a little the worse for wear and put the chip pan on. Fell asleep and woke up with the pan well alight with flames going up the wall. Threw the chip pan out of the window then went outside to the van, brought some bricks and mortar in and built the brick wall to cover the scorch marks up the wall' before the wife noticed!'
To be fair the quality of the brickwork was pretty good for someone who was pissed and just put out a chip pan fire. We did keep a closer watch on his work after that though...
AstonZagato said:
From the "Pictures that make your teeth itch" thread
Guilty-ish of that one...stemll said:
IKEA vanity unit. Dumb arse plumber three away the low profile unit and instead used standard u-bend, which meant top draw couldn't be used until I had to put dividers either side of where the u-bend will intrude into the draw. I didn't need to cut into the base of the draw though!
Don't know if I can call it a bodge or not, more like incompetence. I looked at a job this morning where the under floor heating wasn't working properly. It was about 5kW of heating so it needed to be run through a contactor because the thermostat isn't rated at enough current to switch the floor directly.
A while ago the contactor had broken so someone had been out to replace it and apparently the floor hadn't worked properly since, it wasn't switching off properly apparently. After a bit of head scratching it turns out that he replaced the contactor with a normally closed variant whilst the faulty one was normally open, so this means that when the thermostat was calling for heat the floor was off and when they turned the thermostat off the floor came on.
The customer said when she came downstairs the other morning the room was about 40 deg and the two rabbits in the corner were both spread eagle in the cage shedding their fur as quick as they could.
A while ago the contactor had broken so someone had been out to replace it and apparently the floor hadn't worked properly since, it wasn't switching off properly apparently. After a bit of head scratching it turns out that he replaced the contactor with a normally closed variant whilst the faulty one was normally open, so this means that when the thermostat was calling for heat the floor was off and when they turned the thermostat off the floor came on.
The customer said when she came downstairs the other morning the room was about 40 deg and the two rabbits in the corner were both spread eagle in the cage shedding their fur as quick as they could.
sociopath said:
20 years ago we were doing up the kitchen in our London house and removed a unit that had been built into the old chimney breast, ready to put a range cooker in the space.
We found that the whole breast and chimney stack all the way up was being held up by a couple of pieces of 2x2 and the plaster had been sellotaped back on.
Quick emergency job to put in a concrete lintel before the whole thing came down.
ETA
In our current cottage in North Wales we have a (fairly modern) fused switch. It's active in that it had power and it works but we have no idea what it controls, and turning it on or off doesn't seem to do anything
This has reminded me of one. We bought a house out in the Irish country side, well away from anywhere. Gas is in an LPG tank, water comes from its own well and the waste goes in to a sceptic tank. We found that the whole breast and chimney stack all the way up was being held up by a couple of pieces of 2x2 and the plaster had been sellotaped back on.
Quick emergency job to put in a concrete lintel before the whole thing came down.
ETA
In our current cottage in North Wales we have a (fairly modern) fused switch. It's active in that it had power and it works but we have no idea what it controls, and turning it on or off doesn't seem to do anything
Edited by sociopath on Monday 4th May 22:45
A year or so after we had bought the place, we had an electrical around to fit a few extra sockets. Whilst he was there we asked him to look at a socket in my daughters bedroom. It was a double socket but only one side worked.
He took a look and said that something was wired in to it, but he had no idea what it was. So we switched it off and in the hope that we would notice something not working. Fast forward a few weeks and the sceptic tank needed emptying. The guys who came to do it said that the macerator thing wasn't working. So we got them to replace it. Once they put the new one it it still wasn't working. This is when we remembered about the socket. He went up and reconnected the wire behind the socket and it all began to work again. No idea why they picked this sockets as its upstairs at the opposite side of the house, at least two hundred meters from the tank.
We found some stuff over the last year in our new/old house.
The first one was less bodge, just couldn't be arsed to finish it. Downpipe from neighbours into our property. Looking at the mortar that was the consistency of cream cheese, and the stink of the backed up water in the downpipe I reckon it had been like that or a couple of years.
Then there was the middle class F&B bodge.
The first one was less bodge, just couldn't be arsed to finish it. Downpipe from neighbours into our property. Looking at the mortar that was the consistency of cream cheese, and the stink of the backed up water in the downpipe I reckon it had been like that or a couple of years.
Then there was the middle class F&B bodge.
I live with one daily: the plumber who worked on our extension clearly didn’t know his left from right. The builder stopped him before he tried to install the UFH manifold on the right hand side of the kitchen, rather than the left.
However, no-one spotted (until after the borders had gone) the back to front plumbing of the new bathroom basin mixer tap. Left for cold, right for hot.
However, no-one spotted (until after the borders had gone) the back to front plumbing of the new bathroom basin mixer tap. Left for cold, right for hot.
OMITN said:
the plumber who worked on our extension clearly didn’t know his left from right
I was working in an office that had a significant extension done, which involved cutting a hole in a corner wall to add a door.The builder couldn't remember which side of the corner wall needed the door and was asking around the office if anyone knew.
I suggested he check the plans as it wouldn't be very funny if he put the door in the wrong place.
He couldn't be bothered as the plans were with the architect (less than a mile away...). He guessed the wrong location for the door, so forever more it'll be award to use...
Not a bodge per se - but on a previous house someone extended it and had to extend the lighting circuit to add a new light in the room.
Despite having a 3 plate ceiling rose, they used choc blocks in the void between floors above it instead.
When I had the floor up in the room above, I touched a wire and later all the lights in the downstairs were acting weird - the neutral was loose.
I was very lucky that the carpet was already up so I could pull up the right board and fix it. Not so lucky it took several hours to find...
Inaccessible locations require maintenance free connections - and ceiling roses already have all the terminals you need.
Same person built a stud wall on a carpet (gah) and fitted an inline extractor in as part of a bathroom refurb, then took away the loft hatch access.
I've yet to find bodges in my new house... yet.
I was sponsored by Tarmac on my Degree so I had to work for them during the holidays, in my first week I was working on a large shopping centre in Bromley - I had a look around and was then looking at the plans
The large square columns were shown as parallel to the shops on the plans were 45 degrees in the building
I asked how was I misreading the drawing
"Your not, the first ones were put in wrong so we thought if we did all the rest the same, no one will notice"
The large square columns were shown as parallel to the shops on the plans were 45 degrees in the building
I asked how was I misreading the drawing
"Your not, the first ones were put in wrong so we thought if we did all the rest the same, no one will notice"
I'm currently in the process of stripping rubberised paint with quartz mixed in from the whole of our upstairs that the previous owner pained on, at much expense I'm guessing.
But the house was built in 1875 and the paint has trapped all of the moisture in the walls so the plaster is coming off, plus it takes your elbow skin off if you even look at it
It kind of looks like when the salt is starting to come through the walls.
Oh, and a guy I used to work with told the story of how a couple of years ago he bought the show home of some new builds. 6 months after he moved in they started to get a horrible smell. It turned out that the waste pipes had just been for show and exited into the wall cavity.
The builders had to move them out while they essentially rebuilt the house foundations, sounds nasty
But the house was built in 1875 and the paint has trapped all of the moisture in the walls so the plaster is coming off, plus it takes your elbow skin off if you even look at it
It kind of looks like when the salt is starting to come through the walls.
Oh, and a guy I used to work with told the story of how a couple of years ago he bought the show home of some new builds. 6 months after he moved in they started to get a horrible smell. It turned out that the waste pipes had just been for show and exited into the wall cavity.
The builders had to move them out while they essentially rebuilt the house foundations, sounds nasty
james6546 said:
I'm currently in the process of stripping rubberised paint with quartz mixed in from the whole of our upstairs that the previous owner pained on, at much expense I'm guessing.
But the house was built in 1875 and the paint has trapped all of the moisture in the walls so the plaster is coming off, plus it takes your elbow skin off if you even look at it
It kind of looks like when the salt is starting to come through the walls.
Oh, and a guy I used to work with told the story of how a couple of years ago he bought the show home of some new builds. 6 months after he moved in they started to get a horrible smell. It turned out that the waste pipes had just been for show and exited into the wall cavity.
The builders had to move them out while they essentially rebuilt the house foundations, sounds nasty
That is a massive fBut the house was built in 1875 and the paint has trapped all of the moisture in the walls so the plaster is coming off, plus it takes your elbow skin off if you even look at it
It kind of looks like when the salt is starting to come through the walls.
Oh, and a guy I used to work with told the story of how a couple of years ago he bought the show home of some new builds. 6 months after he moved in they started to get a horrible smell. It turned out that the waste pipes had just been for show and exited into the wall cavity.
The builders had to move them out while they essentially rebuilt the house foundations, sounds nasty
k up lol. In my new build not quite as imprrssive as that, the wall units in the kitchen were put up using only 6mm rawl plugs into the plasterboard on a dot and dab wall, didnt even reach he blockwork with the fixings. 3am one morning the whole run of units gave way and came crashing down, i thought someone had drove into the house. The builder sent the kitchen fitter back out with his tail between his legs, who blamed it on his labourer. Ye right.
To be fsir on them, new hob, worktop and wall units went in, along with 500 quid to cover all the booze and glasses that had smashed all over the floor. Most of it was s
t that relatives buy you at crimbo that never gets drunk anyways.james6546 said:
I'm currently in the process of stripping rubberised paint with quartz mixed in from the whole of our upstairs that the previous owner pained on, at much expense I'm guessing.
But the house was built in 1875 and the paint has trapped all of the moisture in the walls so the plaster is coming off, plus it takes your elbow skin off if you even look at it
It kind of looks like when the salt is starting to come through the walls.
Oh, and a guy I used to work with told the story of how a couple of years ago he bought the show home of some new builds. 6 months after he moved in they started to get a horrible smell. It turned out that the waste pipes had just been for show and exited into the wall cavity.
The builders had to move them out while they essentially rebuilt the house foundations, sounds nasty
That’s clearly made up, zero chance all waste water and effluent could be used fbe put in to a wall cavity for 6 months without near immediate visible signs.But the house was built in 1875 and the paint has trapped all of the moisture in the walls so the plaster is coming off, plus it takes your elbow skin off if you even look at it
It kind of looks like when the salt is starting to come through the walls.
Oh, and a guy I used to work with told the story of how a couple of years ago he bought the show home of some new builds. 6 months after he moved in they started to get a horrible smell. It turned out that the waste pipes had just been for show and exited into the wall cavity.
The builders had to move them out while they essentially rebuilt the house foundations, sounds nasty
bennno said:
That’s clearly made up, zero chance all waste water and effluent could be used fbe put in to a wall cavity for 6 months without near immediate visible signs.
Well I didn't make it up, but who knows whether he did. I guess it depends where the cavities were etc.It sounded like they did a really quick job of setting up the show home and forgot to actually finish it off afterwards.
They had to live in a hotel for a few months
OMITN said:
....
However, no-one spotted (until after the borders had gone) the back to front plumbing of the new bathroom basin mixer tap. Left for cold, right for hot.
Oh dear in that case I am a bodger and guilty as charged!However, no-one spotted (until after the borders had gone) the back to front plumbing of the new bathroom basin mixer tap. Left for cold, right for hot.
I always plumb cold on the left and hot on the right. The reason being is as I am right handed I hold the kettle in my right hand, or a glass in my right hand etc, then use my left hand to turn the cold tap on.
The other way around would feel kack-handed to me. Appreciate most mixer taps come the other way around so it must be me that is wrong.
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