Finding Objects in the Walls? - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Old North · 02-21-2009, 02:16 PM

Would anyone like to share stories of things you've found in the walls or elsewhere when remodeling? For instance, I've found wartime newspapers under linoleum (used as padding) in perfect condition, front page Daily News reporting the death of Franklin Roosevelt...for starters

Heritage · 02-21-2009, 02:23 PM

I'm still waiting for my bag of loot.

The only thing I found once was an axe that looked like it was from the bronze age when gutting a bathroom. Woop-dee

No such luck.

WisePainter · 02-21-2009, 02:29 PM

Old school wooden handle screwdriver inside a wall.

Antiques Roadshow here I come!!!

Bkessler · 02-21-2009, 02:30 PM

Dead animals in walls but just about everything above a suspended ceiling.

**loneframer** · 02-21-2009, 02:30 PM

Found an old WW II movie poster in an old theater, can't remember the movie but it was starring " Richard Montalban" I guess Ricardo wasn't acceptable for some reason?

SDC · 02-21-2009, 02:33 PM

These

480sparky · 02-21-2009, 02:35 PM

I found a newspaper from the late 50's used for insulation. On page 4 is an article about Jackie Kennedy. On page 11 is another article about Lee Harvey Oswald...........

If you find something valuable in someone else's home, just be careful what you do with it.

ChainsawCharlie · 02-21-2009, 02:52 PM

Old newspaper stuffed into the hollow tile. Removed the old newspaper to reveal....

10 sticks of decomposing dynamite. Made the local paper. I'll have to scan the article. It was in there since the 40's. This was back in '85-'86. So 40 year old dynamite in the walls!

mrmike · 02-21-2009, 02:58 PM

I was once running a wire in some old plaster & lathe & I felt something in the wall towards the attic & I kept tugging on it & it come out in my hand & to my surprise it was an old screen mask almost like this one. They were made in the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundred. It was so weird to have this face looking at me????!!!!. Anyhow too bad I ripped it some as this one here is buy it now for $300 on ebay.
I also tore a linoleum off a floor in the 70's (god I'm getting old) & it was loaded with baseball cards underneath & me, being in a big yank, thru them all out. Duh ??

WisePainter · 02-21-2009, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChainsawCharlie

Old newspaper stuffed into the hollow tile. Removed the old newspaper to reveal....

10 sticks of decomposing dynamite. Made the local paper. I'll have to scan the article. It was in there since the 40's. This was back in '85-'86. So 40 year old dynamite in the walls!

Don't you mean nitroglycerine?

Aggie67 · 02-21-2009, 03:06 PM

I wasn't there, but my former business partner's grandfather was a handyman during the depression and took barter sometimes for payment. He found a rifle inside a wall on a job in central NJ way back when, and kept it as an offer of payment. My partner remembered playing with it when he was growing up. It originally had all its pieces, but over the decades some were lost.

A few years ago we were having dinner with them, and I asked to look at it. Under the grime I found a stamping, "Oct. 16, 1860". It was a Henry, serial number 3714. I hooked his family up with the arms guy from Antique Roadshow, Chris Mitchell, and the guy actually drove out to Jersey and met us, and eventually bought it from them for something like $12k. He said a complete rifle in that condition would be have been worth 5 times that. It's not my personal finding-something-behind-a-wall story, but it was interesting.

ChainsawCharlie · 02-21-2009, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WisePainter

Don't you mean nitroglycerine?

It was still fairly intact. Kinda crumbly. The FD came, took it to a park and burned it. No explosions....

neolitic · 02-21-2009, 04:12 PM

I found this.......
http://www.contractortalk.com/f18/wh...gs+found+walls

superiordezign · 02-21-2009, 06:45 PM

Last summer we were remodeling a basement, and when we removed the old floor boards to pour concrete, we discovered and entire skeliton of a horse while shifting dirt around to level the floor! the house was built in the sixties> who buries a horse under there house!!??

ChainsawCharlie · 02-21-2009, 08:26 PM

I've dug up a few cat skeletons on one property I was installing irrigation. I was warned..."We have pets buried all over the property".

Titodbuilder · 02-21-2009, 10:18 PM

I will not hijack the thread, but will reverse it and ask what have you left inside a wall or under a floor for other to find as your toothless self sucks on mango juice in Cabo after retirement? Perhaps we should start leaving special CT pins or Obama "Hope" posters before closing a wall and see who gets it 40 years from now....they will probably get CT but will wonder who the hell is Obama...

High Landrons · 02-21-2009, 10:34 PM

When my wife and I bought our first house in 1980, we remodeled the kitchen ourselves. The house was built around 1904, and we bought it as estate sale - both of the owners were deceased.

There was a wooden spacer board at the end of the metal cabinets. My wife pulled it out so we could repaint it, and saw something stuffed in the gap. She reached in and pulled out a large black handbag. She opened it and found it was STUFFED WITH MONEY!! Inside were rolls of 5, 10, and 20 dollar bills, and wads of bills stuffed into small change purses. After counting it, there was almost $5500! Since the owners were deceased, we figured we were now the rightful owners.

Old North · 02-21-2009, 10:35 PM

Here's a few:

Cut a hole in the wall of my house for a window, inside the wall was written "July 11, 1876" with the builders signature and business card.

My electrician, cutting a channel down an old lath & plaster wall, came across a mummified bird halfway down...kept going and found the mummified cat that had chased it there

pulled down some paneling, out fluttered a football collector's card from 1976: "OJ Simpson"

sweeping up, found a 1903 silver Panamanian dime, 1896 penny

tin soldiers, 1903 hymm book and datebook

1911 love letters from the owner of a boarding house we renovated...met his great granddaughter and gave them to her

THE WEIRDEST: I was working with my friend Aaron James, demo-ing same boarding house, out from behind the paneling fluttered another sports collectors card. The name of the player: "Aaron James" ! He got to keep it...

Lots of newspapers 1890-1940's

The Red · 02-21-2009, 10:51 PM

I have a 1777 year old house in deerfield mass. when we bought the house we started to remodle. We found a beehive oven in the wall of the kitchen. It was such a good find. The chimney was cut off on the second floor so we did some restorations to it and it works great. I have not backed bread in it yet. lol

billderboots · 02-21-2009, 10:54 PM

was working on a mountain cabin built in the early 1800's. removing the old windows i found a tarnished silver cylindrical object about 3/4" x 8" with a plunger rod and leather plunger on it. I had no idea what the heck it was.. I knew it was silver so i carried it to an antique dealer, turns out it was early model douche syringe! imagine my embarrasment the dealer was a lady. oh well
on another note i lost my 16oz estwing hammer in a wall this past fall. did not feel like tearing the wall out with the finished cabinetry below. tried a magnet was caught on wiring, if you find it let me know. lol