something you just wouldn't believe

realspeed

realspeed

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Bazza
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the previous owner of this house was a nutter. Look what I just noticed above the inside of the up and over garage door I was adjusting to get it to lock better.



Can you actually believe he used a long adjustable clamp to keep the joists seperate

Please don't mention the wiring its something i have not got around to yet. Would you believe the main garage light is a sodium one? True.

And can you beat this


Yes it does vanish into the wall
 
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Yup. Sounds like the bodge merchant that lived here! The cable run to supply electricity to the garage is normal sized cable, not armoured and casually run under a few bits of wood.... Also some lunatic wired in a normal 13 amp socket on the bathroom ceiling just above the bath to power their hideous Xmas lights!
 
I've seen Acro props boxed in holding up rotten beams and a building site where the power was being run into the new build's circuit using a lead with a plug on each end. A friend is currently "in discussions" with a building firm who would appear to have put extractor fans in all the bathrooms in the block which vent into the void between the floors rather than the outside, resulting in damp ceilings along the joist run.
 
When I get time it looks like a total rip out and complete rewire with a proper trip fuse box to split power and lighting. When i had the boarding kennels I fitted a main trip box so each circuit tripped individually and from there into the cattery another circuit fuse breaker box. To the kennels again the same thing in the grooming parlour with yet another in on of the kennel blocks serving both blocks. Ok may seem overkill but if a heat lamp failed anywhere or another electrical failure it was so quick to isolate and find, without affecting the rest of the property complex.
 
A survey didn't pick that up? :lol:
 
There was a kitchen I worked on where the gas to the cooker was by a standard flexi connector- compression joint one end and tap connector at the other.
How the place never blew up I'll never know.
 
When I worked on a friend's bathroom a few years ago, I had to remove some panelling to find the stopcock on the incoming water supply. Whoever had put the panelling in had left a glass under the stopcock to catch drips and panelled it in.

kendo1 said:
There was a kitchen I worked on where the gas to the cooker was by a standard flexi connector- compression joint one end and tap connector at the other.
How the place never blew up I'll never know.
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Gas is quite a low pressure so whilst not right, it would probably be fine.
I don't know the current rules, but at one time, compression joints were o.k. for gas as long as they were accessible and you could get a spanner on them.


Steve.
 
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SarahLee said:
Just to satisfy my curiosity, is that mysterious dangling plug actually attached to anything . . . or is it just some weird ornamentation?
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Oh never underestimate a man's fascination with a dangling power lead in a garage :lol:
 
Be positive - you've gained a sash cramp :)
 
Sarah

I have no idea, I think he must have used it as a dingle dangle.Loads of weird things they did like leave the face plate of a socket hanging in mid air. So I refixed it back to the back box and connected the tumble dryer and that didn't work. The silly sods had a fused switch for it and they removed the fuse. Loads of silly stupid things done,easy to fix but they never bothered. Have you ever seen a bedroom with 3 TV socket outlets ? 3x cyclops comes to mind each with one eye. Oh not forgetting 4 TV aerials on the roof and another in the loft. Such a shame because it is a lovely house but lacked a bit of maintenance. Talking to neighbours he was running around doing work in other houses , god help them, and neglected his own.

So to get it back to a good start we are

Having new central heating boiler installed- replacing 2 radiators with heated towel rails- had 7/8 door locks/ catches fixed- all widows eased off as they are still and 2 window handle gear boxes replaced- Completely ripping out the main bathroom and new suit/wall tiles and power shower - fixing 2 shaver/ lights over hand basins- all gutters cleared- 5 ring oven professionally cleaned (looked as if it had never been do thick grease inside) -new carpets in 3 bedrooms and in hall stairs and landing- new light fittings throughout they just left bulbs hanging -fixed front door latch as it didn't fit the locking plate. Recon on about 3 months work with repainting and decorating . Just to give you some idea not including sorting out the garden or garage electrics.

Who said retirement was the time to take things a bit easier????? not one of that age
 
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... When you're done, could you pop round to my house please, I have a few things that need seeing to ...
 
Had a quick look at garage electrics and it appears that if electrical power was wanted anywhere he used extension leads instead of wiring properly. Did get around to sorting one lighting circuit , all I can say is either he was a genius or a nutter and I suspect the latter.
Bought an LED floodlight and replace the most horrendous setup ever. From the light switch the wire went into a ceiling rose with the bulb holder hanging down (didn't work). From there it went into a 300w small floodlight (again not working ). From there into a florescent tube(yet again not working) and finally into a sodium floodlight which did work. Looks as if each fitting was being used as a junction box connection. Needless to say I replace the whole thing from the switch to the LED light. I am amazed he didn't blow himself up
 
A very long time ago...
My ex wife's father was a man who knew nothing but thought he knew everything and would listen to nobody.
All that the house had was a 2 pin 5 amp socket in the kitchen - so he ran electrics to every room in the house from it, using low voltage bell flex, with joints taped together with sellotape, and run along skirting boards and under carpets.
Of course, the 5A fuse couldn't cope with this so he fixed that problem by replacing it with a nail...
I think it was a miracle that they never had a fire.
 
I've come across blown fuses having been 'fixed' by being wrapped in silver foil before now. There are plenty of people out there that are a danger to themselves.
 
Stuart M said:
I've come across blown fuses having been 'fixed' by being wrapped in silver foil before now. There are plenty of people out there that are a danger to themselves.
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And to neighbours/paasers by........

Went to a friend's new house a year ago, and he was trying to work out how the electrics "worked" (30s built house).

I am not an electrician but understand the 'regs' and always run my own cables getting a qualified electrician in to connect all.

After 20 minutes rooting around I found incorect cables everywhere. 1.5mm fitted to ring mains instead of 2.5mm. Lighting with correct 1mm circuits but .75mm 'flex' to switches...... And old vulcanised 15am radial lines.

A year on and nothing has changed!

Except he has just bought a new Volvo xc70

Priorities eh?

Steve
 
When we moved in here tbe previous owner had left an electric hob
trouble was that it was wired in using a normal plug into a socket and instead of a fuse in the plug was a small metal bar!!
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The power cable running to my garage used to be tied into the trees (it's about 20m away from the house). Amazingly, that's almost legal.
 
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