Time to replace a fluorescent bulb in the kitchen. Remove the frosted drop panels and what do I find? Yes it's a plastic grocery bag used to fill the hole. They disintegrate and come out in a bazillion pieces after they've been stuffed in there for, oh, six years or so. What a mess to clean up.
Cool, the same guy did the reno work on my house.
I didn't know Ray Charles was an electrician too.
The stuff I found in my N Falls House would fill a large, very funny (if it's not your house) book. 
It's a shame that most of my best work in that house will never be seen.
Dumbest thing I have found in my current house: a wall switch did not work but the ceiling fan could be turned on/off at its switch. Removed the wall plate, the two black wires had been wire nutted together and the switch stuffed back in the hole. Had a note 'USE THESE' taped to the wires. How much is a wall switch, $1.09?
The roof was pretty new (> 7 years) but was leaking at one of the plumbing vent boots. Some braniac had run drywall screws in the boot to hold it tight against the roof which were exposed to the weather. The cardinal rule of roofing: there should never be an exposed screw or nail unless you absolutely cannot avoid it. If there is a screw or nail head, you cover it with roofing cement and check it yearly. Of course water went down the screws, dripped into the ceiling above the bathroom and rotted a hole in the drywall. When I found that, I immediately checked the other two boots; sure enough they had exposed screws too. I took those out and used flashing under the shingles to channel water out onto the roof.
What is it about home repair that brings out the "good enough" in people? I have a 100 year old farm house that is full of "what the?!?" fixes I am working on. Of course I am taking a different path and creating a worse puzzle for the next guy to figure out 
I've run across some wiring in my house (current and former) that would irritate anyone. I lived in one house where the landlord didn't realize glass tube fuses were out of style AND against current code. Aluminum wiring? Had that. WTF connections? Those too.
I held a home inspection license for a few years and thus had access to a website which had some of the inspectors' favorite 'finds'. It's called the ASHI Reporter and is a catalog of fail.
http://www.ashireporter.org/HomeInspection/Articles/What-ASHI-Inspectors-Find-in-the-Field/2384
One sample:
And you wonder why we need building codes?
Every house seems to have those WTF improvements.
This Old House has a great feature on their website called 'Home Inspection Nightmares. They are now up to part 27. Enjoy!
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/info/0,,20211283,00.html
Curmudgeon wrote: I held a home inspection license for a few years and thus had access to a website which had some of the inspectors' favorite 'finds'. It's called the ASHI Reporter and is a catalog of fail. http://www.ashireporter.org/HomeInspection/Articles/What-ASHI-Inspectors-Find-in-the-Field/2384 One sample:
Lemme guess, unvented crawlspace near to a body of water about 40' away or is there an open sewer pipe under there?
Poor drainage, the pipe heat tape has been direct wired, the light bulb hanging down is not in any type of fixture, the wire connections are not in a junction box (required by code to prevent shocks or heat from connections igniting nearby materials), the insulation is damp due to the poor drainage and that's just off the top of my head. If I was crawling under there to fix something and saw that I'd be backing my happy ass out in a HURRY, doing my best not to touch anything which looked faintly electrical or metal.
One of my favorites:
The hose or tube sticks out of the wall on the other side. Appears to be a homemade urinal.
Curmudgeon wrote: One of my favorites:
I need one of those in my garage!
As I'm renovating my g/f's 100+ year old house, I'm finding a few head scratchers. The one that really bugged me recently was the electrical feed to the garage, which is fed from the main panel through a 60A breaker. They used 2 4/0 aluminum cables for the lines and a 2/0 aluminim cable for the neutral. No conduit, just clamped to the bottom of the basement ceiling joists. For those of you who don't play with wiring every day, a 4/0 wire is about the diameter of your pinky and AL wire is good for about 200 Amps. They had to chop away more than half the strands to get it to even fit into the 60A breaker lugs. The wires also hogged up a ton of gutter space in an already crowded panelboard. Because I'm adding a number of new circuits to the panel, I really wanted that gutter space - particularly across the top where the 2/0 ran to the N lug (we won't discuss how they effed up the grounding...).
So I cut the wiring out of the panel, ran them to the junction box and lugged them to a more reasonably wire size. Due to the lack of working space, that little dirty project took about half a day. My "Doh!" moment was starting to disconnect the circuit only to discover my dinky little 10" cable cutters were laughed at by that 4/0 wire, requiring an emergency run to Lowes for a pair of 24" cutters (and another $61 spent). I've probably spend a grand or more on tools since we started this project.
trucke wrote: And you wonder why we need building codes?
I do not mind codes.. I mind useless codes. I have been borrowing power from my neighbor for a few days after my meter box shorted out last friday. I had a licensed electrician come out on saturday to replace it.. now the electric company will not reattach until a code inspector comes out and gives the ok... I understand that... but I had to go out and buy a 65 dollar building permit to replace the faulty metre box.. wtf? It's not like it is new construction or even a modification.. it is a replacement (and an emergancy one at that) for something that burned out
I am still waiting on the damn inspector to show up and give his ok....
dculberson wrote:Curmudgeon wrote: One of my favorites:I need one of those in my garage!
I have one in my garage
Ian F wrote: I've probably spend a grand or more on tools since we started this project.
See, that is a GOOD thing. How I got a new sawsall, some new channel locks, like 24" in length, and various chemicals, that I have gone on to use on other car and home projects. 
In reply to Curmudgeon:
Damn that website makes me not want to go through with the process of buying a house that I just started....
Curmudgeon wrote: One of my favorites:
Well...it also appears to be in an outhouse, so it's not really that big a shock (to me).
When we bought our current 100-year-old house, our first project was to redo the bathroom. Upon removing the subfloor we found that someone thought it was a great idea to cut through the top 50-70% of each floor joist, about 4 or 5 in a row, in order to run plumbing.
That would explain the sagging ceiling in the living room underneath wouldn't it? A simple job always seems to turn into something major once 5 generations of previous owners have gotten their mitts into it.
Curmudgeon wrote: I held a home inspection license for a few years and thus had access to a website which had some of the inspectors' favorite 'finds'. It's called the ASHI Reporter and is a catalog of fail. http://www.ashireporter.org/HomeInspection/Articles/What-ASHI-Inspectors-Find-in-the-Field/2384 One sample:
Huh, that looks like 50% of the crawl spaces I go into.
In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:
Not to mention the insulation is in wrong... paper should be toward the heated space or in this case, up.
Yeah, the paper is a moisture barrier and should go up.
When I built my shop, the electric co-op said I had to have a licensed electrician do the wiring. I'm plenty capable of doing wiring and am sufficiently terrified of electricity that I was capable of doing the work. Being a cheapass, I had my electrician b-i-l help me and sign off on the permit. During all this, I had to buy a meter box ($125.00) and when all was completed I called the co-op for an inspection.
The guy shows up, inspects the work and was happy with everything- except my meter box. Seems I needed a special box for a digital meter. So I ask where I might get one of these boxes, sonofagun they are available through the co-op. How much? Free, just go pick one up. 
Damn. Out $125.00.
So I get their magic box, hang it on the wall (different size, had to redo the siding) and called for connection. The guy shows up, shines a light in the box and inside my breaker box, pronounces all is well, then installs an ANALOG METER. 
Oh, I was PISSED to say the least. I started to say something, then decided to STFU.
That's not a urinal, that's a Sacrarium used to dispose holy water. Holy water cannot be dumped into a regular drain. It needs to go into a non vented receptor that leeds straight to the ground where no one is allowed to walk upon. Returned to the Earth from where it came. Look it up if you don't believe me.
The urinal in question was in a shop building, not an outhouse. You gotta wonder, if an unsuspecting soul were standing outside...
Another one from the g/f's house. A few weeks ago I was running copper lines for a kick space heater in the kitchen. I pull up flooring to find the biggest freakin mouse nest I've ever seen ( thankfully long abandoned). After clearing out said nest I uncover a large metal plate. Wtf? In one corner is a 4" pipe sticking up. I shine a flashlight down the pipe and under this plate is a long abandoned well. Circular brick work and everything with water about 8' below.
Best I can determine is the kitchen was built over was used to be the back yard. The door opening from the living room used to go outside and they dug a well right next to the door. Nice.
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