Hate it when that happens

[InOmaha]

The Holmes guy was right that you always want to do it right the first time. But he typically was dealing with Canadian winter building codes that don't apply here. Just like hardening your house for tornado wind loads doesn't apply up there (or here for most builders so I had to hurricane clip the roof myself).

We had to move up here quickly and found a builder spec house. My father in law built houses for decades so he came to look at it and talk to the builder and walk through some of his other houses under construction. He liked the guy, and said other than some of the cheap finish work you see in most new home construction, the core framing was solid and straight and the appliances were better than average.

Our only major issues have been repainting everything inside and out and fixing the windows. The windows are custom so I've been repairing them one by one as the cheap frame rots out due to a poor design that traps water. Everything else we've fixed we did because we wanted to, not because we had to.

I really don't trust anyone to work on my house, except one of my friends who does excellent work but is really, really slow. It's easier and faster for me to do it myself.

 

[mrblaine]

The Holmes guy was right that you always want to do it right the first time. But he typically was dealing with Canadian winter building codes that don't apply here. Just like hardening your house for tornado wind loads doesn't apply up there (or here for most builders so I had to hurricane clip the roof myself).

We had to move up here quickly and found a builder spec house. My father in law built houses for decades so he came to look at it and talk to the builder and walk through some of his other houses under construction. He liked the guy, and said other than some of the cheap finish work you see in most new home construction, the core framing was solid and straight and the appliances were better than average.

Our only major issues have been repainting everything inside and out and fixing the windows. The windows are custom so I've been repairing them one by one as the cheap frame rots out due to a poor design that traps water. Everything else we've fixed we did because we wanted to, not because we had to.

I really don't trust anyone to work on my house, except one of my friends who does excellent work but is really, really slow. It's easier and faster for me to do it myself.

My helper has been helping me on some of the house stuff as time permits. He is as picky as I am but he doesn't understand construction. My challenge has been trying to get him to understand what has to be perfect and what you don't fuss over because it won't matter. The basic rule is "what the eye don't see, the heart don't grieve".

The "contractor" missed putting the insulation back in the side wall and ran the ply and siding. He had to remove the interior drywall, insulate and put up new drywall, tape, and texture. I did the front wall, they did the side wall. They did the framing on theirs, I did it on mine.

If you look at them from normal viewing distances, you can't tell them apart. If you put a straight edge on them, their belly band is out at least a quarter inch. Mine is out the thickness of a business card. My helper didn't see it.

This was all in response to him bitching that his house wasn't perfectly straight and I used it to explain that they never are nor do you want to pay for that. I can build you a perfectly straight, square, and plumb house. All you have to do is triple the budget and no one will really be able to tell the difference.

 

[THunter]

Good to follow along here. We got a nice roof leak for Christmas, along with $4K worth of interior damage. Roofers are backed up 3 months due to the recent rains but the tarp USAA paid to put on the roof is holding. I'm at the rookie apprentice handyman helper skill level so appreciate learning from you with experience.

I know what I don't know so will hire out where needed.

 

[xxdabroxx]

I find electrical connections like this in my house:

Twist it together and wrap it in electrical tape. This one was in a light fixture. There were sections of romex spliced together in the attic and walls with similar connections. Twist and wrap. I've rewired pretty much the whole house at this point.

 

[mrblaine]

Good to follow along here. We got a nice roof leak for Christmas, along with $4K worth of interior damage. Roofers are backed up 3 months due to the recent rains but the tarp USAA paid to put on the roof is holding. I'm at the rookie apprentice handyman helper skill level so appreciate learning from you with experience.

I know what I don't know so will hire out where needed.

We've been battling roof leaks since we moved in. We have the worst possible roof you can get in this part of the world. There is a 5 foot parapet around the exterior that hides a flat roof and 10 roof drains. The roof drains are what destroyed the deck and rotted all the posts.

I've been able to get up in the roof and rework all but two so far and move them from the outer edge of soffit over the deck walkway back to the wall line so they go into down spouts and drains.

Sadly, when I did the powder room ceiling, there was old evidence of a leak that had been repaired poorly in the drywall. When we tore the ceiling out to raise it back up, I found out why it was leaking and why they had never fixed it.

The roof drains are ABS and hot mopped in. The connection at the bottom is DWV sized and the drain pipes are SDR so not exactly the same OD. They attached the SDR to the DWV with the rubber clamp couplings sized for DWV so not a good fit. They fixed the leak by tightening up the clamp which only slowed it down. I was able to find DWV to SDR adapters and do a glue joint which doesn't leak now.

We had some other leaks as well and I've had to temporarily repair them until the roofer can get here in a few months so I know your pain.

 

[THunter]

Yours sounds like an ongoing battle. Once the roof is done, I'll get the basics done on the interior.

 

[Daryl]

Does it control anything or is it a junction box?

It was used as a junction box.

 

[Daryl]

I find electrical connections like this in my house:
View attachment 130844

Twist it together and wrap it in electrical tape. This one was in a light fixture. There were sections of romex spliced together in the attic and walls with similar connections. Twist and wrap. I've rewired pretty much the whole house at this point.

Amazing the shit work some people do.

 

[mrblaine]

It was used as a junction box.

I don't know of any States where that is okay. The bit I've gleaned from electricians over the years is they have to have a cover on them and be accessible.

 

[someguysjeep]

a lot of problems come from different trades not willing to work together, and as soon as 1 turns their back another hacks their work so he can get his job done.
the framers didn't leave room for the plumbers to run the main stack so they cut out the only support beam holding up my 1/2 bath and that corner dropped 2.5". the toilet leans over and back. the whole room leans over and back, and they just left it and finished the walls.

the PO had some plumbing work done to the tub and they didn't feel like running a proper vent so they heated up the PVC with a lighter (you could see the black swirleys) and bent a hump into it, to stop flow that direction the whole thing was clogged with soap scum and all kinds of nasty.
the new light fixture in the main bathroom had the old knob and tube wires pulled loose and they ran naked copper wires and just skinned the feed wire and wrapped around it. and ran the ground for the vent fan to an old cut off copper pipe.

really scary when you start to find chit like that behind your walls.

 

[Lilnuts]

"I don't know of any States where that is okay. The bit I've gleaned from electricians over the years is they have to have a cover on them and be accessible. "

Not in any state, it's the national electrical code that all junction boxes are accessible.
After being a res remodel contractor for many years, nothing surprises me any more! The hardest part is trying to explain to the homeowner " we opened up the wall you asked and we found this @%#&^*(&^%%" and now it cost more to get back to a good starting point.

 

[Daryl]

I don't know of any States where that is okay. The bit I've gleaned from electricians over the years is they have to have a cover on them and be accessible.

I agree. I removed it and rewired the entire room.

 

[DrDmoney]

The PO of my house was the Owner/Builder, so I know who is responsible for most things wrong. I’ll start by saying he was an electrical engineer at UC Davis and every light fixture was custom made by him and it’s apparent that he neither advocated nor owned a Phillips screw driver, every screw in this house requires a Standard screwdriver (corrected). But that’s another story, in September, right before we had our Rubicon trip, I ripped all the carpet, drywall, closet, sewing cabinet, and linen closet framing. My plan was to reinsulate the exterior walls, tie into an abandoned chimney flue pipe located in a chase on one of the outside walls for a pellet stove, fix a central vac fuck-up (pipe jogs out of the wall below the top plate and through the ceiling), move all the outlets to code compliant locations and heights, put in some recess LED lights, a ceiling fan, and install a hardwood floor. Simple right? well I started ripping the rock off the walls only to find out the single ply flat roof that was installed just prior to foreclosure leaks because the hot mopped roof it replaced was cut out at the reglet and flashing was tucked in behind the stucco but not necessarily behind the felt. This is one of those things I can’t blame on the previous owner as he was 80 something years old when he was foreclosed on.

This window looks out on the roof next to the chimney. I’m having the whole house re-stuccoed, at this roof and chimney they tore the stucco off and did ice and water shield along with new flashing and EIFS System to help with the R-value.

Collateral work now includes redo on the chimney to roof flashing on the upper roof and replacing traditional Spanish tile roofing damaged during the other work. I have hundreds of tiles from the original construction that were stacked out at the back of the property. The stucco contractor paid for the roofer which was nice.

 

[Hog]

The PO of my house was the Owner/Builder, so I know who is responsible for most things wrong. I’ll start by saying he was an electrical engineer at UC Davis and every light fixture was custom made by him and it’s apparent that he neither advocated nor owned a Phillips screw driver, every screw in this house is a flathead. But that’s another story, in September, right before we had our Rubicon trip, I ripped all the carpet, drywall, closet, sewing cabinet, and linen closet framing. My plan was to reinsulate the exterior walls, tie into an abandoned chimney flue pipe located in a chase on one of the outside walls for a pellet stove, fix a central vac fuck-up (pipe jogs out of the wall below the top plate and through the ceiling), move all the outlets to code compliant locations and heights, put in some recess LED lights, a ceiling fan, and install a hardwood floor. Simple right? well I started ripping the rock off the walls only to find out the single ply flat roof that was installed just prior to foreclosure leaks because the hot mopped roof it replaced was cut out at the reglet and flashing was tucked in behind the stucco but not necessarily behind the felt. This is one of those things I can’t blame on the previous owner as he was 80 something years old when he was foreclosed on.View attachment 131028View attachment 131029View attachment 131030View attachment 131031View attachment 131032View attachment 131033View attachment 131034
View attachment 131038
This window looks out on the roof next to the chimney. I’m having the whole house re-stuccoed, at this roof and chimney they tore the stucco off and did ice and water shield along with new flashing and EIFS System to help with the R-value.View attachment 131037
Collateral work now includes redo on the chimney to roof flashing on the upper roof and replacing traditional Spanish tile roofing damaged during the other work. I have hundreds of tiles from the original construction that were stacked out at the back of the property. The stucco contractor paid for the roofer which was nice.



View attachment 131036

Ouch!

 

[jeepins]

I've tried to watch him. I'm good for about 30 seconds and then get annoyed and turn the channel.

Yep 25 min of commercials and 5 min of work aside from the family nonsense but I do think he does good work from what I’ve seen.

 

[DrDmoney]

Apparently the walls were all rocked before the flooring was decided, so he built the subfloor up in this room 1 1/2” in this room to level out with the tile on the rest of this floor which explains why I’ll have to build up the bottom plate to rock to, why the outlets are all low, and why the counters are all low (the cabinets were all installed before the mortar bed and tile built the floor up 2 “)

see here how the jambs for the sewing cabinet and closet were below the sub floor, the recess in the middle is where a linen cabinet was.

so I could have just gone on with the interior work while the outside was being done but I wanted to wait till it was done and water tested by some heavy rainstorms. The chimney leaked 4’ above the roof flashing and the stucco guy stood by his work and sent a crew out right away to redo the chimney which they had just finished right before this last rain and no leaks.

 

[mrblaine]

Apparently the walls were all rocked before the flooring was decided, so he built the subfloor up in this room 1 1/2” in this room to level out with the tile on the rest of this floor which explains why I’ll have to build up the bottom plate to rock to, why the outlets are all low, and why the counters are all low (the cabinets were all installed before the mortar bed and tile built the floor up 2 “)

see here how the jambs for the sewing cabinet and closet were below the sub floor, the recess in the middle is where a linen cabinet was.
View attachment 131046View attachment 131047View attachment 131048View attachment 131049
so I could have just gone on with the interior work while the outside was being done but I wanted to wait till it was done and water tested by some heavy rainstorms. The chimney leaked 4’ above the roof flashing and the stucco guy stood by his work and sent a crew out right away to redo the chimney which they had just finished right before this last rain and no leaks.

Don't build up the bottom plate. Run a row of flat blocks out of 2x4 or 2x6. That gives you backing and nailing for anything you want to install like baseboard.

 

[mrblaine]

it’s apparent that he neither advocated nor owned a Phillips screw driver, every screw in this house is a flathead.

[fastener pedantic] Flathead is a type of screw head that is tapered on the underside for a countersunk hole and flat on top. They can be many drive styles including slotted, Phillips, Allen, Torx, etc. [/fastener pedantic]

 

[DrDmoney]

[fastener pedantic] Flathead is a type of screw head that is tapered on the underside for a countersunk hole and flat on top. They can be many drive styles including slotted, Phillips, Allen, Torx, etc. [/fastener pedantic]

You got me, slotted screw. I stand corrected and what’s worse is I buy thousands of them, FH and FHUC in 300 series stainless all the time.

 

[mrblaine]

You got me, slotted screw. I stand corrected and what’s worse is I buy thousands of them, FH and FHUC in 300 series stainless all the time.

As long as you don't own any flat head screwdrivers, we're all good.