Goofy/Shoddy Home repairs

[pb4uski]

Farmer Brown, who once owned our old farmhouse, decided it was high time they had running water in the house in the late 1950s or so. He built a frame kitchen/bathroom add-on to the old cream-brick edifice, a well was drilled and piping was run into the house. To keep costs down, they skipped the septic drain field and just ran a pipe from the tank to a nearby alfalfa field to drain off the effluent. The home inspector spotted the shortcoming when we were looking at the place about 30 years later. The county condemned the system shortly thereafter.

Many of the older summer "camps" around here had the sewer from the house going into an underground sistern made of cedar logs.... effluent would leach out in the cracks between the logs and the solids would settle in the bottom.... actually, not a horrible idea for gray water if the soils leach well.

 

[Sunset]

.....

My lake house has copper pipes, and pinholes appear from time to time--requiring repairs. Wrap the leak in an old bicycle innertube and put a screw clamp on it--and you're good to go.

So after you sell it, we can expect to hear about this again

I had the same issue, but found soldering pipe is really pretty easy as long as you drain it.

How many pinholes in a pipe do you allow before you solder on a new piece ?

 

[Bamaman]

We have a lakehouse and my father ran interior quality Romex down to our boathouse for a 220 volt irrigation pump. Years later, our HVAC kept quitting. Come to find out, the Romex insulation had deteriorated behind our seawall, and was shorting out whenever it rained heavily and water puddled. My father had piggybacked the wire into the HVAC circuit instead of drilling through the brick into the back of the circuit box and running its own circuit. Had anyone stepped into the water behind the seawall, they could have got a jolt of electricity.

Another time, my father ran a wire to the boathouse for lights and a boat hoist. He cut the wire with the lawnmower and spliced the wire together without wearing his glasses. He had it wired white/black and black white--with the polarity crossed. Whenever we entered the boathouse at night in our pontoon boat, we'd see sparks fly. The motor on the hoist had also been killing fish in the water. Had someone gone swimming, they would have been electrocuted.

What's so bad is that my father ran the electrician apprenticeship programs for the big power company, TVA.

 

[pb4uski]

Those support blocks are accepted here too. but only on a self standing/non-heated accessory building (shed or deck) In my case the deck was attached to the house using a ledger board. A deck can be supported by a solid pier footing (it doesn't heave with frost) or free floating (it is free to move about) but not both.

I like the crushed gravel idea for a free floating structure. My previous house sat upon a large deposit of gravel left from the last ice age. That whole section of the county did. All of the house except one corner. That corner dropped over 9 inches in ~30 years. I had architects, engineers, city building inspectors come out and paid for soil survey's. the soil survey said at 12 ft down, that corner was still undisturbed soil. Perfectly capable of supporting the weight. Nobody could tell me why the corner of the house sunk or what the one-and-done solution should be. I chalked it up to being different supporting soil makeups.

In our case the deck is attached to the house... but an important difference is that this is on 3' of crushed stone, not gravel, the crushed stone provides plenty of room for water to drain away and doesn't heave.... I concede that it probably wouldn't pass code for what is required in many parts of the country but it is what it is and it doesn't heave at all so it is fine with me. If we ever replace the deck I may put supports down below the frost line or put the 4x4s in Schedule 40 sleeves as described in my prior post.

 

[Bamaman]

My lake house has copper pipes, and pinholes appear from time to time--requiring repairs. Wrap the leak in an old bicycle innertube and put a screw clamp on it--and you're good to go.

So after you sell it, we can expect to hear about this again
I had the same issue, but found soldering pipe is really pretty easy as long as you drain it.
How many pinholes in a pipe do you allow before you solder on a new piece ?

We have a neighbor with over 100 pinholes in copper pipes covered by innertubes and clamps. He never has another leak.

I think it'd be just so much easier to cut out the sections where this is happening and use compression or sharkbite fittings on PVC pipe to replace them.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Our area had a tornado a few years ago, and several friends had to rebuild. A year after moving back in, one noticed a dripping water sound coming from the crawl space. The contractor forgot to hook up the shower drain to the waste line and water had been draining into the crawl space - for a year.

Another friend's house - contractor tore off all of the drywall, got rid of mold, then put drywall back in. Without a permit inspection and without installing smoke detectors per code. He had to rip out the whole house drywall, install the smoke detectors and then pass inspection before putting up drywall.

See post #4 my mother in law must have gotten the same builder. Who does these things?

 

[pb4uski]

See post #4 my mother in law must have gotten the same builder. Who does these things?

Morons.

 

[Ronstar]

See post #4 my mother in law must have gotten the same builder. Who does these things?

I saw your post - after I posted. Could be the same builder!
Who does these things - I'm wondering the same thing.
How can something like that happen - at least twice?


I did my own plumbing - cpvc supply and pvc waste/ vent. I have to admit that I did something similar. I finished the supply lines and turned on the water to check for leaks. Heard a loud gushing noise - I forgot to glue two fittings together. I must have gently put them together to check measurements to the next fitting and forgot to glue them. Luckily I caught this immediately and only had a gallon or 2 of water to clean up in the basement.

 

[Koolau]

I have one that I still have trouble believing - and I was there. FIL/MIL bought a small cottage on a local river in 1965. Though it had a well, there was no septic system, so they simply threw dish water or sponge bath water out in the yard following use. A "tree" was the outhouse. FIL got the brilliant idea that he needed to install a septic system, toilet, shower, bathroom sink, etc. and also tie in the kitchen/bath waste. This was about 1970. So with MY help, he dug a complete septic drainage system, installed the "box" or whatever you call it, finger system, tiles, etc. He left everything exposed so the Co. inspector could check it out. The inspector said it was the best job he had ever seen - and it was all done by hand(s). So we completed everything EXCEPT FIL never hooked up anything to the septic system. DW and I sold the place (septic system, but no toilet or shower) in 2006 following death of her last parent.

 

[pb4uski]

Why didn't FIL hook it up after doing all that work and getting it inspected?

 

[Koolau]

Why didn't FIL hook it up after doing all that work and getting it inspected?

One of the great "unknowables" of life, I suppose. DW and I put in our 2 cents worth as in ("if you expect us to visit you here, you better at least connect the toilet.) But, to no avail as it never happened. One thing that may have intervened is that they eventually bought a fairly decent travel trailer which had its own toilet. Sometimes they would drive it to the cottage and live out of the trailer. Seemed odd to us but then you had to know them. YMMV

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I saw your post - after I posted. Could be the same builder!
Who does these things - I'm wondering the same thing.
How can something like that happen - at least twice?


I did my own plumbing - cpvc supply and pvc waste/ vent. I have to admit that I did something similar. I finished the supply lines and turned on the water to check for leaks. Heard a loud gushing noise - I forgot to glue two fittings together. I must have gently put them together to check measurements to the next fitting and forgot to glue them. Luckily I caught this immediately and only had a gallon or 2 of water to clean up in the basement.

small world, I bet the builder is moving west he is probably in California now.

 

[akck]

At my oldest son's house that he bought a couple years ago.:

For some reason the photo loads sideways, but who would use so many couplers to attach the hot water tank? I know, the same person who installed this:

I'll let you guess what's wrong with it.

 

[AutumnElf]

We've had some problems with our houses, but the crappiest previous owner job was in our house we just sold. We bought it as a (in good condition) foreclosure but the bak wouldn't agree to fix this problem. We figured we could fix it easily but it sat for years until my husband devised a nice solution.

What it was was a very fat vent hose piping air and heat to the living room. None of the neighborhood houses had central air or heat (baseboards for heat). So someone put in a weak ac unit. One of the things that made it weaker was this big fat hose. It came out of the.ceiling, dropped down and went back in to the side of the other wall. It was an exposed greenish-brown plastic eyesore for years. Very badly installed. It not only looked ugly but the ac was a whisper of air down in the living room.

Finally, we decided to sell and had to do something about it. My husband finally carefully crafted and angled some light plasterboard around it, added some trim and then painted the whole thing plus the walls. It looked great!

I know sometimes my husband does jury-rigged junk sometimes too, but I sure was proud of him for that bit of admirable work!

 

[target2019]

In previous home, we had some drywall work done on the lower level. Several years later I heard a psst, and a water pipe was peeing on the inside of wall. Sure enough, drywall guy drilled a crew in a copper supply pipe. It takes a few years, but the dissimilar metals re-act, and you will get a nice mess.

 

[Ronstar]

....For some reason the photo loads sideways, but who would use so many couplers to attach the hot water tank? ....

They probably didn't use that many couplings originally. But the house has probably had the water heater replaced several times. Each time, the plumber cuts the pipe to get the water heater out, then adds another coupling when he puts the new one in.

 

[meierlde]

They probably didn't use that many couplings originally. But the house has probably had the water heater replaced several times. Each time, the plumber cuts the pipe to get the water heater out, then adds another coupling when he puts the new one in.

Where I live they use flexible couplings from the supply pipes to the water heater, so you just need to unscrew the coupling to change the water heater. I am surprised that plumbers don't do that on any water heaters that don.t have such a feature.

 

[Ronstar]

Where I live they use flexible couplings from the supply pipes to the water heater, so you just need to unscrew the coupling to change the water heater. I am surprised that plumbers don't do that on any water heaters that don.t have such a feature.

I know - those flexible couplings are the best.

 

[ChiliPepr]

I think you're right about their meaning polybutyl pipe was being used.

...

Pex is what just about all the new houses are using. It's easy to work with, much more labor saving (over PVC or copper) and it swells without breaking if the water in Pex freezes.

+1

The new Pex is the best thing since sliced bread. It makes plumbing work much quicker and easier. I did major plumbing replacements in my current home with it and it was much quicker and easier than using copper. The only issue I have found with it is that a sheet rock screw will puncture it easier than copper.

 

[Philliefan33]

One of the goofiest things I saw was in a neighbor's house, soon after they moved in. This is even worse than painting over switch plates.

The previous owner had pointed the master BR to freshen it up before putting the house on the market. Nice, except they left the bedroom door open when they painted and just painted around the open door. When the door was closed there was a rectangle of the old paint color still left on the wall.

 

[Revlefty]

One of the goofiest things I saw was in a neighbor's house, soon after they moved in. This is even worse than painting over switch plates.

The previous owner had pointed the master BR to freshen it up before putting the house on the market. Nice, except they left the bedroom door open when they painted and just painted around the open door. When the door was closed there was a rectangle of the old paint color still left on the wall.

Now that's funny.... I don't care who you are!

 

[ERD50]

At my oldest son's house that he bought a couple years ago.:

For some reason the photo loads sideways, but who would use so many couplers to attach the hot water tank? I know, the same person who installed this:

I'll let you guess what's wrong with it.

Practicing sweating copper joints?

The second one took me a few seconds, looks like ~ 1 1/2" PVC for a waste drain, going to the inner circumference of the flange, rather than 3" (or 4"?) with the flange fitting inside the drain pipe?

The proper way also eliminates an edge into the flow of effluent (what a nice word!). The combo must have meant many clogged toilets, or they only used it as a urinal.

-ERD50

 

[SteveNU]

At my oldest son's house that he bought a couple years ago.:

For some reason the photo loads sideways, but who would use so many couplers to attach the hot water tank? I know, the same person who installed this:

I'll let you guess what's wrong with it.

I kinda like the way the wire snakes out from behind the wall board to the heater.

And that toilet flange, no problem just put the toilet back in but rotate it 90 degrees....

 

[kcowan]

My lake house has copper pipes, and pinholes appear from time to time--requiring repairs. Wrap the leak in an old bicycle innertube and put a screw clamp on it--and you're good to go.

or get some small brass screws and power drive them into the hole? It worked until the copper needed replacing at 30 years old. Man that was a big job!

 

[MRG]

We rented a place that was new. Nice little patio home, landlords down the street. When we looked at it he apologized for the spare bedroom.

The plumbing crew installed the toilet with a clean out valve pointed the wrong way(180°), then the drywall folks came by, couldn't attach the drywall cause the valve was too far past the studs. They were smart and just cut around it.