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Shoddy Workmanship: The Thread

17,080 Views | 118 Replies | Last: 5 days ago by Absolute
Sea Speed
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I absolutely love seeing videos and pictures online of things people do that are just absolutely mindblowingly stupid in construction or renovation. I send the good ones to a few friends, but I am always on the lookout for more. Please post the insane things you see that you just can not believe people did to their property here so we can all get a good laugh.

I will start us off.

Sea Speed
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Sea Speed
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Sea Speed
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Milwaukees Best Light
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2 ends of the same cord.


BenTheGoodAg
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That first one gave me heart disease.

The worst one I have personally seen: Warehouse folks at one of the sites I worked were often rejects from other crafts. They were also responsible for temporary PMs of items. This group of superstars wrote off 3 400MVA generators because they hooked up a dehumidifer backwards and pumped water into the generator. Three times. They were hooked up like this for months. Probably tens of millions in costs.
Sea Speed
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This reminds me of the wiring in my workshop turned chicken coop. I flipped the switch and it started arcing and nearly caught all the cobweb build up on fire.
Jason_Roofer
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The stuff professionals do amazes me sometimes.

Check this out. 1 of 6 pex lines touching the decking.

I'll find my photo of the electrician that ran Romex under the shingles….
agdoc2001
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I wish I'd taken a picture, but a year ago I swapped a fan in my dad's living room only to find that 1) the fan was only secured to drywall with 2 screws and 2) there were 2 power wires in the electrical box, 1 of which was constantly hot, uncovered, and apparently not controlled by any switch in the entire home

This was the previous owner's doing, not my dad who is very handy
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SoulSlaveAG2005
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A friend of mine recently moved out of state. When his house didn't sale, he decided to rent it.

He asked me to patch some wall holes and minor paint, cosmetic touch ups. During his move and while I was touching things up we noticed water dripping from ceiling. There was a small 1/4 inch plastic line running from one wall area to another… an obvious home job, but it sprung a pin hole leak, and I couldn't locate the source of the line as it was covered up either behind shiplap in the laundry room or somewhere else. We shut off the water to the house, fixed the line and then moved on.

Well- 6 months later he calls and asked if I know anything about removing shiplap. Yup, super easy just remove 1 board at a time.

Why I ask… well the line spring a leak again, and the renter tried to fix the line and fell through the ceiling. lol

He had a plumber come out and sure bough. Determined the little plastic line was tied into the water pipes for the washer, in the utility room.

So rather than pay a plumber to cut holes or $140/hr to remove shiplap he hired me for a couple cases of beer.

As I remove more shiplap, more things come to light.

1) the dryer vent is a repurposed gutter spout, with duct tape as the bottom venting into the ceiling. And he cut through the entire ceiling header to install it.
2) the precious owner shiplap led over their natural gas cut off valve
3) they used a saddle clamp/valve to tie into the copper line to run their crummy plastic line that kept popping
4) they used fernco adapters to tie copper to pvc for the washer hot/cold lines
5) rathe than install new outlet boxes to properly joint wires etc, they just squeezed everything really tight. Of course as I'm removing the outlets bare wires touch the sides and arc/short out.




Sea Speed
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The gutter spout kills me.
SoulSlaveAG2005
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Dude. I felt terrible sending him pics and updates.

I'm like. Man- as a landlord, once you know, you know. Now you need to have a plumber properly fix all of the water, gas, vent issues, as well as have a electrician come run the lines and correct the outlets,

All of our texts are discoverable, and while I'm not certified in any of these trades, I know none of this is up to minimum codes, nor is it safe for your renters. If a flood or fire happens, you're on the hook.

He agreed and went ahead and had it all fix properly before his handyman came in to replace the shiplap.
Jason_Roofer
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BenTheGoodAg
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The gutter spouts are... something.

What would kill me is wondering just how many other landmines are scattered throughout a property like that.

Yikes.
Absolute
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Oh man! I have a folder full of this stuff after 20 years of inspections. Some make you wonder how this species survived and think that natural section needs to make a comeback. If we keep protecting the idiots we just get more of them
Absolute
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At least they used conduit. That's barely a defect!!
BenTheGoodAg
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He's talking about SoulSlaveAG2005's friend who has gutters as a dryer vent.

Not the conduit gutter.
SoulSlaveAG2005
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*insert* why not both gif..
Absolute
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I've seen gutter used for dryer vents. Multiple times

This photo was a funny one to me, perfect example of quality control these days. New construction inspection 800k plus house a week before closing. Couldn't open the attic door due to interference with garage door opener. Same house the downstairs ac didn't cool at all. Someone knew, because they turned the upstairs one down to 55. Like that's going to fool anyone. The tankless water heater also didn't work. And those were just the funny issues.

AtlAg05
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After took down the over the range microwave this is what I saw. I think they forgot to run wires to the ovens so there are these holes and some cut just above the top of the cabinets. Barely had enough drywall to mount the new mount.
Sea Speed
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Just saw this one.

P.H. Dexippus
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Post-Harvey, I managed a college age church youth group team of 30-40 people mucking out houses for two weeks. The church provided some basic tools, I gave out a suggested list of items for team members to buy (gloves, box cutter, claw hammer), and then supplemented from my own stash.

First thing at each house was to determine insurance status and if we had approval to demo the minimum necessary drywall. We'd then mark a score line and then leave it to everyone with a box cutter to get to work. Some people were on pry bar duty. Some were pushing brooms, running a dry/wet vac, or setting fans. Some were filling trash bags. And a few who knew what they were doing, were assessing the best way to handle flooded cabinets/builtins/fire places/sunken floors/etc. I was floating around to lend a hand where needed, answer questions, etc.

So a couple of days in, we are about 45 minutes into our work on another house when I hear a sawzall running. I don't initially think anything of it, figuring it was the knowledgeable group dealing with ruined kitchen cabinets. But then one of the students runs up to me to advise that an older volunteer (mid 50s) who had tagged along with us that day was cutting the drywall with the electric saw he had apparently brought. The student had suggested he stop doing that, but the older volunteer blew him off. Just when I turn the corner to the laundry room where numb nuts was sawing and shout at him to stop, he cuts the 240v feeding the dryer outlet. Sparks, flames and smoke erupt. I got to spend the next hour tearing out 8' of drywall, burnt/smoking insulation, and chasing/containing the fire spread that made it to the attic with a fire extinguisher.

I asked the idiot what he was thinking, cutting with a 6" blade reciprocating saw into a 2X4 stud wall (he cut most of the way through 3 studs), while PLUGGED INTO an outlet on that same wall. All I got was a sheepish shoulder shrug. I kicked him out after dressing down (as much as you can with a church volunteer). Thankfully he hadn't yet managed to cut through the water supply lines to the washer. He's lucky all he received was embarrassment. Notice the melted/missing blade material.
Sea Speed
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Throwout
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That guy is a great follow on X. Some of the stuff he posts will blow your mind.
Sea Speed
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For sure. Terrible Workmanship is one of my favorite corners of Twitter. Just incredible.
jamesf
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The detached garage of my old house had wires running all over the place, and I could not figure out heads or tails of it. One thing I remember from it was that there were two like 4 gauge wires running underground through conduit from the breaker box to the garage and then just connected to the nearest outlet for power. The ground wire for the whole garage ran directly to a ground rod next to the garage and separate from the breaker box. I finally decide to just rip out all of the wiring and rewire it correctly, running three wires through the conduit so that it could be grounded properly. Just to show how much wire I removed, I took all the old wires to be recycled and got like $40-$60 for it.
Sea Speed
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Dill-Ag13
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Well now I need a link to the listing
SoulSlaveAG2005
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Not sure if this qualifies or not buut… I'm building new bar stools for the kiddos.

I made an improvised router sled to to level out pieces and the seat. Well, I slipped and it dug out a section of one of the legs that I was cleaning up…

Just so happened the bit was about the same width as a piece of oak scrap I had laying around… now it's an accent inlay feature. I hd to make a matching cut on the other leg as well. I haven't shown the wife, however I now realize I have to make 5 of these stools… so thats another 18 inlays to match this one.


swampstander
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I got a kick out of how this guy ran his line set for his DIY mini split.

MouthBQ98
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The OP pic resembles the wiring job I found in my barn. A massive tangle of repurposed power cables, old power strips, bits of 3 conductor house wiring, with mostly twist connectors.
p_bubel
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After waiting weeks for my counters, they install one piece the ****tiest way possible.

It was notched to fit the door trim, and I doubt there's enough of the slab left to replace, so not an easy fix.

Amateur hour.
.
SoulSlaveAG2005
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Dude. What. The. Heck.

That's brutal.
p_bubel
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Yeah, I just dunno. I hope they were high, though I don't think they were.
SoulSlaveAG2005
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Seriously. Could they not have rotated that end piece and tried to get the veins lined up… it looks like it could have works..
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