- Thread starter plasticpigeon
- Start date
If you put the steel on its side it holds the bricks better
I mean at least something is there though right 
Lacan07
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All of the power sockets upstairs were undersized in my house, they used the same wire you're supposed to use for the lights1930s semi -
We’ve found a steel that at some point in the past has been put in the wrong way around. Our builders said they’d never seen anything like it. It’s holding a brick wall above it.(What would the logic/situation of sticking a beam on its side ever be?
)
Fitted wardrobe in the way of your electric wiring? No problem - just send it straight through an outer corner of said wardrobe straight through from top to bottom ceiling and floor
Dread to think what else is coming when we start renovating properly
tobydog
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We have a very large inglenook. A previous owner had fitted a long fluorescent tube light behind the bressumer beam but, rather than connecting it to the lighting circuit, they took a spur of the nearest power socket. Our consumer unit (actually fuse box at the time) had separate fuses for the lighting and socket circuits so if there was ever a good reason to turn all the power off before you start work on something, that was it. Thankfully our electrician found it before we found out the hard way
.As long as that spur was appropriately fused then nothing wrong with that - ideally it would be documented as well.
Of course you should always test to make sure circuits really are safe/dead/isolated before doing anything.
Assumption is the mother of all cock ups.
Of course you should always test to make sure circuits really are safe/dead/isolated before doing anything.
Assumption is the mother of all cock ups.
malcolm
& Clementine the cat
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OK lads, we need to core drill through this wall. But boss we can't get through - the mesh behind the concrete render is stopping the drill. Move it sideways and try again. That worked - the timber supporting the house was a lot softer.
Fortunately my timber frame doesn't support very much these days. At most half of one bedroom wall. But really?
Fortunately my timber frame doesn't support very much these days. At most half of one bedroom wall. But really?
88v8
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Mesh in the render... so they did a thorough job... are you complaining that it wasn't bodged?
Gothichome
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Something as simple as a Scratch awl to look for the studs never crossed their minds it would seem. A stud finder might be to technical for them.
Stevers
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This was taken during what might be termed one of the many 'discovery' phases of replacing our drains. Our house is on a slope and there's a retaining wall parallel to the house for our 'garage' that is below the house. At the base of that wall was what looked like a spring - that's interesting I thought. Then one day I spotted bubbles and realised there must be a grey water leak in the drains, but where? Well, this was a different and much worse sort of black water leak, seen here second joint down - I mean how was a unaligned unjointed end on connection ever going to work?! Interestingly, the middle pipe is a perfectly functional rain water drain with the fast running culverted stream in the back lane clearly audible at the other end of it. At some point the downpipe had been diverted into the gully as seen here. Full marks I suppose for ingenious use of clay fittings, and what must be one of the more unusual patterns of clay gully, extracted from it's deep hole, adapted and ready for another 140 years service.
Feltwell
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- Shropshire, England
Yeah, that's erm..... an interesting way of doing a drain.......
The fact it was done in clay as well is proof that workshy bodges are not a new phenomonen!
The fact it was done in clay as well is proof that workshy bodges are not a new phenomonen!
Zebra
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- St Albans, Hertfordshire
I had two of those yard gullies - one at the front and one at the back, both laid in the middle of concreted areas, that weren't connected to any pipework at all, just dumping the water under the concrete right adjacent to the house.
Athers1971
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How about this for connecting rainwater goods?
That hangs perilously close to the border between bodge and genius
Lacan07
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I came across a builder in Alton the other day removing external concrete render from an old house just off the high street. They were renovating the upstairs flat (its a shop) and discovered the end wall was soaking wet. The render was old and tired and had failed in various places, I felt the wall at ground level and it was extremely wet. Interesting stuff as I'd only really read about the nuisance of external render, I'd never seen the damage up close. The builders solution is to tank the entire house and then re-render in waterproof plaster. I said nothing, part of me understands why they do it though. I guess it depends what the internal plaster / finish is. To do it properly would make an already expensive job very expensive.
Cubist
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Re-cyling Effort = 10/10
Economy = 10/10
Functionality = 8/10
Innovation = 10/10
Aesthetic Appeal = 0/10
Toby Newell
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- Surrey
Bodgers were highly skilled furniture craftsmen and wood turners primarily from the Buckinghamshire area. I consider myself to be a bodger (in spirit, in that I do an inordinate amount of intricate wood fiddling, not that I am highly skilled) A boDGE would be a highly skilled and professional bit of carpentry...
A botCH from old English 'to mend' or more pertinently, from middle Dutch 'to patch' as in to make a temporary running repair, to a leaking boat for example, would seem more appropriate.
If, for example, one executed a temporary 'patch' repair and left it in lieu of a more thorough permanent repair that would seem a more logical etymology.
Somewhere along the Chinese whisper chain Botch got replaced with Bodge and no one has bothered to check.
And I see them on every job, every few minutes...
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Cubist
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- Shropshire/Herefordshire Border
Perhaps an improvised 'cleat' - as used on boats - to secure a rope from above for say a loft ladder or stabilise a heavy/awkward load on the stairs below?You mean THE Worst!?
THE worst is this!
(It's on a landing between floors and nothing can be hung, just slides right down. I'm suspecting some "secret" use for it but my IQ doesn't stretch. I've left it in place for now, it's probably structural)
View attachment 10525
Makes me seethe when I see the slots in screws not lined up orthogonally.You mean THE Worst!?
THE worst is this!
(It's on a landing between floors and nothing can be hung, just slides right down. I'm suspecting some "secret" use for it but my IQ doesn't stretch. I've left it in place for now, it's probably structural
That WAS what you were referring to, right?
CliffordPope
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The slots very nearly are orthogonal ? (means at right angles)