Bodges, scrimping and Friday afternoon jobs
No, the bricks are laid normally and the joists are horizontal.
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2008
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- 24,313
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- Location
- Llanfair Caereinion, Nr Welshpool
- Country
I really wonder how the last owners lived in this house, we noted the floor boards under the cistern were bowed so found a plumber to fix, plus a few other jobs at the same time, as well as stopping the cistern dropping a floor he also found the shower in the same state below the cistern had to renew beams.
The originally house had a garage below it, but this had been converted into a granny flat, we had been provided with an electrical installation certificate which reading it seemed to cover the whole house, however it seems the granny flat was all it covered, turning off main isolator and main house was still powered, found another fuse box sandwiched between original garage ceiling and new false ceiling.
The central heating got us scratching our head, in the flat there was a wall thermostat, oil boiler, two pumps, and a receiver for a wireless thermostat, in the main house there was a timer, allowing either once or twice DHW or DHW+CH plus all on or all off. However have never found the wireless thermostat, and it did not matter what I did with the time clock the main house heating did not seem to work.
Looking further we found one pump in flat simply plugged into a socket, plugging that in, main house central heating worked, found three core and earth between main house and flat in house red, yellow, blue, in flat brown, black, grey, and one core open circuit.
OK for me easy enough to rewire central heating I installed Nest and so that three core and earth only carries 12 volt at very low current, and now can control heating from the main house, well anywhere where we have phone coverage. We likely the house and location and have been able to correct all faults, but what I wonder is how did the last owners manage when to turn on central heating you had to leave main house walk down steps outside and go into flat and plug in the pump. The central heating used three FCU's and a socket, from two different consumer units. Flat worked OK, but the house was in a right mess. No thermostat.
We think they must have over stretched themselves, as the repairs were not super expensive, but until done not easy to live in the house. We have also found remnants of a garden railway which it seemed at one time when through the house, I thought that was just a 1956's song.
The originally house had a garage below it, but this had been converted into a granny flat, we had been provided with an electrical installation certificate which reading it seemed to cover the whole house, however it seems the granny flat was all it covered, turning off main isolator and main house was still powered, found another fuse box sandwiched between original garage ceiling and new false ceiling.
The central heating got us scratching our head, in the flat there was a wall thermostat, oil boiler, two pumps, and a receiver for a wireless thermostat, in the main house there was a timer, allowing either once or twice DHW or DHW+CH plus all on or all off. However have never found the wireless thermostat, and it did not matter what I did with the time clock the main house heating did not seem to work.
Looking further we found one pump in flat simply plugged into a socket, plugging that in, main house central heating worked, found three core and earth between main house and flat in house red, yellow, blue, in flat brown, black, grey, and one core open circuit.
OK for me easy enough to rewire central heating I installed Nest and so that three core and earth only carries 12 volt at very low current, and now can control heating from the main house, well anywhere where we have phone coverage. We likely the house and location and have been able to correct all faults, but what I wonder is how did the last owners manage when to turn on central heating you had to leave main house walk down steps outside and go into flat and plug in the pump. The central heating used three FCU's and a socket, from two different consumer units. Flat worked OK, but the house was in a right mess. No thermostat.
We think they must have over stretched themselves, as the repairs were not super expensive, but until done not easy to live in the house. We have also found remnants of a garden railway which it seemed at one time when through the house, I thought that was just a 1956's song.
Every house I've bought has turned out to be a pandora's box of strife of varying degrees.
I remember the wiring mess in my current house which I found when a fuse blew. Turned out someone had just run a cable from the fuse box into a 5-way extension, with plugs off the extension each feeding double sockets in an extended-on utility room. One plug was feeding 3 double sockets. Another plug was connected to the boiler control box, which was connected to a mechanical timer on another floor, which was connected into a different ring via the shower pump terminals. When a fuse blew in the utility room it blew the timer clean off the wall. That needed a complete rewire of the garage and utility room.
I also had a 45 amp electrical connection that - rather than route properly through the house - they just drilled through an external wall, threw it up over the roof and into a box on the other side of the house. No conduit, to fixings, just plain grey cable.
But the best one of all had to be a sink I replaced, and I couldn't work out how they had fitted in such a deep basin. Turns out they just removed bricks from the inner cavity wall so they could recess it... on top of it the sink there was no lintel, no weather seal, just plain timber. All to save themselves about 6" in a kitchen that's about 20' x 10'.
Burst CH pipes because the previous owner used cold water push-fits all round the system... spent hours on my belly under the floorboards replacing with HT fittings.
Cedar tree planted right on top of the mains stop cock, clearly about 10 years ago... hours with a spade, pick-axe and saw getting through routes 3" thick to get to the stop cock so I could shut the water off.
Two rooms of lights in an extension wired straight into the mains. A mystery plug we found, which it turned out powered a set of halogens that had been recessed into the ceiling of the room but clearly they couldn't be bothered wiring them properly, just plastered over the cable from the socket until it went into the ceiling.
I can't get people who just do jobs badly... but there seems to be tons of them.
I remember the wiring mess in my current house which I found when a fuse blew. Turned out someone had just run a cable from the fuse box into a 5-way extension, with plugs off the extension each feeding double sockets in an extended-on utility room. One plug was feeding 3 double sockets. Another plug was connected to the boiler control box, which was connected to a mechanical timer on another floor, which was connected into a different ring via the shower pump terminals. When a fuse blew in the utility room it blew the timer clean off the wall. That needed a complete rewire of the garage and utility room.
I also had a 45 amp electrical connection that - rather than route properly through the house - they just drilled through an external wall, threw it up over the roof and into a box on the other side of the house. No conduit, to fixings, just plain grey cable.
But the best one of all had to be a sink I replaced, and I couldn't work out how they had fitted in such a deep basin. Turns out they just removed bricks from the inner cavity wall so they could recess it... on top of it the sink there was no lintel, no weather seal, just plain timber. All to save themselves about 6" in a kitchen that's about 20' x 10'.
Burst CH pipes because the previous owner used cold water push-fits all round the system... spent hours on my belly under the floorboards replacing with HT fittings.
Cedar tree planted right on top of the mains stop cock, clearly about 10 years ago... hours with a spade, pick-axe and saw getting through routes 3" thick to get to the stop cock so I could shut the water off.
Two rooms of lights in an extension wired straight into the mains. A mystery plug we found, which it turned out powered a set of halogens that had been recessed into the ceiling of the room but clearly they couldn't be bothered wiring them properly, just plastered over the cable from the socket until it went into the ceiling.
I can't get people who just do jobs badly... but there seems to be tons of them.
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dontbelieveawordofit
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dontbelieveawordofit
and filled the floor in with old bed slats.
D
dontbelieveawordofit
Nowt wrong with a bit of repurposed timber, at least they were screwed down (and not too many beermats to level the job? Done worse myself)
Looks like our house, our living room door was hung to open onto the internal wall, I hung the new one to open out to the external wall (where the switch is). Best of a bad job imho.
I lifted the chipboard floor in our loft to check some wiring.
Found that the insulation between the joists was made of old newspaper, plastic bags, some rockwool and a coat still on the hanger carefully bottoned up and placed in between the joists.
I kept that coat hanging in the loft for many years, it amused me.
Found that the insulation between the joists was made of old newspaper, plastic bags, some rockwool and a coat still on the hanger carefully bottoned up and placed in between the joists.
I kept that coat hanging in the loft for many years, it amused me.
Renovating bay windows- found some big lumps of newspaper rolled up & stuffed into a gap as backing for plaster. I'll have to find it, it was declaring great loss of local men at the Somme...
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dontbelieveawordofit
I had some 1918 newspaper out from the walls in our house.
I thought that, especially in older houses, doors opened onto the internal wall. This was so that someone entering the room had to open the door fully and physically enter the room, to see what was going on in there.
Opening onto the external wall means someone can "crack" the door a tad, and peek in onto any occupants.
Interesting!, ours was built 1950's.
Was wondering why they hung them that way round especially the living room.