Memorable bodge jobs in your new house...

Louise.H

Wow, makes me realise our issues aren't too bad considering what some people have found!

Aside from the fact that everything could leak has leaked - radiators, bath, toilet, solar water installation, guttering etc etc, we have had numerous little things:

• garish blue wallpaper painted beige without enough coats so you have the wallpaper pattern showing through in random parts.
• flowery cheap stickers on the bathroom tiles which of course were hiding holes in them.
• melting cupboard doors near the oven space.
• What I thought was a odd paint job on the kitchen ceiling was a thick layer of grease *gag*.
• most hideous carpet known to mankind in the lounge which was glued down - when removed revealed beautiful floorboards.

I do love having my own house though and its great to make it look loved again after years of being ignored.

MPH80

I've found two crackers in my place so far:

• A partition wall that didn't go all the way to the ceiling - it finished about 2 inches short, but was covered by polystyrene coving
• A 5-way lighting junction in a ceiling rose on the landing with not one but two extensions coming out of it as well as a two-way switch for top/bottom of the stairs. I spent hours trying to re-wire that one when I found it.

kaya

We brought our ex council mid terrace 6 years ago, the guy who lived here before was apparently a site labourer who was thrown off of every site he worked on, we had scaffold boards cut up and fitted to the ceiling as mock Tudor timber things, instead of artex we found a 3 inch layer of swirled plaster between the beams , they obviously wanted a cottage feel and I'm assuming the guy didn't know how to put in a false ceiling so he has
Poured about 8 inches of concrete over the entire ground floor of the house to raise it , I'm 5"7 and I can touch the ceiling easily, he took the walls back to brick in the lounge and covered them with ornamental brickwork which all fell down in one big dangerous peice , the wiring for the sockets in the lounge had been taken from the upstairs bedroom sockets immediately above but rather than cut the cable to fit it was looped around the wall behind the brickwork , I'm talking about an extra 3 meters not a few inches , he had used concrete reinforced re-bar for the mantelpiece and moved the hole that should have been in the Center of the chimney breast about 2 ft to the right , made false vertical beams on the walls from concrete as well, I could go on forever as this is just one room I have listed so far , beware anybody thinking of buying an ex LHA property ! We took two 6 yard ships worth of concrete , bricks and plasterboard from the front room when we rebuilt it not including the raised flooring bodge

jc808

kaya wrote: »

We brought our ex council mid terrace 6 years ago, the guy who lived here before was apparently a site labourer who was thrown off of every site he worked on, we had scaffold boards cut up and fitted to the ceiling as mock Tudor timber things, instead of artex we found a 3 inch layer of swirled plaster between the beams , they obviously wanted a cottage feel and I'm assuming the guy didn't know how to put in a false ceiling so he has
Poured about 8 inches of concrete over the entire ground floor of the house to raise it , I'm 5"7 and I can touch the ceiling easily, he took the walls back to brick in the lounge and covered them with ornamental brickwork which all fell down in one big dangerous peice , the wiring for the sockets in the lounge had been taken from the upstairs bedroom sockets immediately above but rather than cut the cable to fit it was looped around the wall behind the brickwork , I'm talking about an extra 3 meters not a few inches , he had used concrete reinforced re-bar for the mantelpiece and moved the hole that should have been in the Center of the chimney breast about 2 ft to the right , made false vertical beams on the walls from concrete as well, I could go on forever as this is just one room I have listed so far , beware anybody thinking of buying an ex LHA property ! We took two 6 yard ships worth of concrete , bricks and plasterboard from the front room when we rebuilt it not including the raised flooring bodge

wow :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

olibrofiz

Ahhhh, all these things that give a house 'character' :rotfl:

Last house

• the previous owner had done the electrics himself. The whole side of the house was 'live' - I wondered why the dog wouldn't eat it's dinner when the metal bowl was touching the wall!!
• toilet cistern held up by two, large, screws underneath
• shed in the garden that was 1 foot from next doors fence, ok except that was where the shed door was ??
• 12' by 8' dog kennel in the garden (handy as I couldn't get the lawnmower in the shed)
• some dodgy repairs to the bay window that meant everytime it rained water poured down the inside of the windows
• mingin carpet in the kitchen that the dog wouldn't eat anything off

This house

• a decorative air brick that did nothing
• damp proof that was 1 foot too high up the wall

so not too bad with this one