The Dumb Things DIYers Do...

[RoyJackson]

Keeps out raccoons - until they chew the plastic. :laughing:

Or squirrels...which I do have a problem with occasionally.

 

[Chuck52]

Maybe a Bird guard, and yes a raccoon will eat plastic if they smell food. JY.

Even before his knee operation, I can't see Bird wanting to climb down that chimney.

Chuck

 

[Danno1]

Electric wire ran from outlet to outlet... not through the wall... in front of it, then another sheet of paneling on top... 1/8" of protection...



.

I've seen AC and low voltage, both, run straight through the wall to the outside, up the outside of the wall, and then back into the next floor up!


.

 

[jonyyuma]

Most people won't admit they have modified or added to the electrical system. Especially after it burns to the ground..Jy.

 

[clemsonfor]

Lets see a diverter in the tub that would not let you shower in one bath downstairs only would come out of the faucet not divert to shower, the other tub had a bad hot water valve so all the hot would do was trickle, you could not take a hot shower at all just a bath on the bad diverter side, $25 and about 30 mins had both taken care of, can you say deferred maintenece, then there is the taped up splices in the 12/2 wire the hidden junction boxes in the wall, the random front porch light on some strange breaker that supplys a room that is not even adjacent to the porch. Mnay other things that dont come to mind now.

I had a budy that when he redid his basement he said all the outlets were wired with speaker wire!

 

[jimmyj]

Most people won't admit they have modified or added to the electrical system. Especially after it burns to the ground..Jy.

That is a great call out. But I honestly think basic electrical is pretty darned easy. The problem is most of us don't know our limits.

Good one with the milk crate on the fireplace! Imagine when it catches fire and the melting plastic drips down. Ugh! :confused2:

 

[/pine]

I had to put a ring of fine mesh hardware cloth around the spark arrestor on my chimney to keep bats from falling down the outer ring of the pipe...

as for on topic...the wildest thing I ever ran across (and this so unbelievable but I swear I am not kidding)...
...in house built by the owner and inherited by his daughter there was an open/exposed "knife switch" (115 VAC) on the wall of a shower in the bathroom...honestly it was in the shower about shoulder height...it powered the only light in the bathroom...

I was originally asked to remodel the house but it would have cost so much just bringing existing utilities up to code made it cost prohibitive...I ended up demo-ing the house her father had built and setting up a 'Wausau' home for her...

 

[jimmyj]

there was an open/exposed "knife switch" (115 VAC) on the wall of a shower in the bathroom..

Aye carumba! That is nutso. Amazing that it probably was there for ages and nobody got hurt, amazing! :confused2:

 

[tglass]

There has got to be more to this story frogfish. Was the previous owners name Haney by chance? Got me laughing the more I think of it, sounds like another day in my life.

 

[/pine]

continued...

the entire house was unbelievable...it was mostly finished with some very rough type of plaster that the old man had done all himself it really looked like something you would see in a third world country utility wise..almost all the plumbing was exposed galv. pipe...the elec was mostly peg &tube (single conductors) and knife switches... the amazing thing is it was lived in for a really long time and the daughter hated to see it go...

When I get back to FL I will look for the pictures I took before the demo...