Post Items You Found During Remodels

vwovw

they don't have to be things that you kept. But items that you found. pics or not




found these whiskey bottles laying on their side. did a google search on the bottle maker and they were out of Peoria Ill. and they went out of business a year after prohibition ended.

mikesewell

About 4721 rusty razor blades that fell all over me and down in my shirt, when I ripped a ceiling out underneath a wall with a vent stack in it. Most of you aren't old enough to remember the razor blade slots that we used to install in bathroom walls (except for Teetor, LOL).

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Commercial construction

Sewell Construction

A.W.Davis

do rat turds count?

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roofwiz74

tearing off roofs I've found all kinds of things.old chew cans,cig packs,soda cans,knives,a hammer a couple times.
did a couple drywall repairs in a house we rented and found a wall full of garbage,great stuff and mud.
I used to do alot of flooring in the winter and I've found all kinds of jewlery and coins in the edges when I tear up carpet.
I tore off the siding on a house before and it had some foul language painted on it.

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Mud Master

Did alot of renovations in strip malls and restaraunts. Used to find old beer cans alot. One time I was tearing the drop ceiling out of a hair salon and found 10 kilo's of cocaine. Had to call the cops and everything. I used to find ALOT of drugs in restarunts, the waiters or bus boys would stand up on the urinal and hide them above the ceiling in the bathroom and than I guess the guy they sold it to would go in and get it. Found a really authentic Coke bottle,cleaned it up and kept it. Found old 1930's **** mags,found a DVD player one time. Musta been hot and they proboly got above the ceiling and threw it between the walls.Sneakers,boots,old beer mug,phones. Always seem to stumble upon something when doing commercial renovations. Don't do 'em much anymore with all the new work I got, which kinda sucks cause I liked to keep adding to my collection.

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vwovw

WINNER thats funny and that must have been a lot of cocaine. i could see the cops saying..... right buddy just turn around slowly...

Wolf

anybody ever come across any cool stuff while doing demolition of old houses or buildings? Let's hear some stories, guys.

Mud Master

I had to stop production for a week. I remember the ceiling tile felt heavy, but people always leave old tiles,insulation,HVAC materials,old pipes,anything up in the ceiling so I didn't think anything of it. Than the bag fell on my head, and I knew it wasn't sugar, so I had to ring up the black and blue. There were at least 12 BIG bags, that I saw, proboly more, spread out across the ceiling. They had drug sniffin' dogs in there, CSI's which I thought was really wierd since it really wasn't a "crime". Took prints of me and all my guys, my plumber, my electrician, anyone who had done any work in there. They also took me in for questioning, felt like I was in a crappy version of Law and Order.

Felt like yelling out "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!"

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NickofTime

Renovating older homes, I find a lot of old newspapers used for wind-barrier/insulation. Circa 1930.

Worked on a customer's bathroom recently and found an old urn she had been looking for for years which some other renovators decided to put behind the drywall the last time she had work done on the house.

stacker

found an old trojan rubber tin once while demo ing an old hotel.looked like a bayer asprin tin.
also found a bust of hitler when i was working on an old pow barrack here in my home town.the prisoners would take lead from the pipes and melt them down and make things from the lead.
i didnt find them but a couple remodeling a pow barrack for their house found all sorts of paintings between the studs that the ss troops had painted while imprisoned in no where oklahoma.

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vwovw

yes that sounds bettersometimes i wonder about myself

wackman

When I was a teen I was helping my dad on a remodel of a house and the upstairs was a sex dungeon, creeped me out bad.

My cousin was flipping homes a few years ago and his plumbers found a big bag of fully automatic guns buried in the dirt of the basement. Cops took them in then asked him if he wanted the guns back He had a warrent at the time and thought it was a trick so he said no.

win4win

Uh huh....righhht....and by the time the cops got there.....it was only 10.





Hahahaa that's wild.

K2

Black hills gold ring in a p-trap, Land sales map, Union pacific RR circa 1888 Limon Colorado, Soda pop sign , off brand, circa 1900, grape nuts sign circa 1920, lead top lighter fluid can, c 1940.

Mud Master

Nah. I wouldn't have taken any...my plumber was eyeing them up pretty hard though. It was wild, I was more scared than anything. I had only been in business for 8 or 9 months, and Thats the last thing I wanted was word to get around that my company had anything to do with the cocaine, other than finding it and calling the proper authorities. It was in a mall, so they took it out in big black bags, and while a couple of cops were taking it out, a drug sniffing dog was coming in. The dog smelt it and tore it outta the cops hand and started ripping it apart, which caused even more of a scene. It made the news..but I requested they keep my name out of it, for obvious reasons. So they just said "a contractor was working at White Marsh Mall today when to his suprise he found cocaine above the ceiling. Cops arrived on scene with a narcotics unit and K-9 unit, and uncovered more bags as thier search continued. It is still unsure of how much was actually found and taken out of the mall." It was a S**t load though. They wanted an interview but I declined. That was proboly the craziest thing I have seen or been involved with in my years in construction.

I have it on tape, I wish Nathan could put a video program on here. It would be great for instructional video's as well, or other construction related material.

Not that a drug bust relates to construction but still.

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StormTech

lol..being a general contractor for hurricane repairs the list of things goes on and on. I have found lots of old guns, drugs, 100's of dead animals and one unfortunate dead person during an assignment on Katrina. One of my jobs was behind military lines south of the tracks in Mississippi. Then of course just the incredibly gross slime and mold you have to deal with on occasion. Wish I had some good memory stories like above people had. Just a quick thank you to the many I have gotten good advice from on this site. I joined it today finally and putting in my two cents here and there.

Boogga

lots of newspapers and old magazines. And heaps and heaps of dirty bad dust.

I found some old scanlen cards of chitty chitty bang bang. Sold them on Ebay, so that shows someone wanted them!

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boman47k

Various repair/replacements - circa 1947 pepsi bottle, the razor blades that had been dropped in slotted med cab's, hidden reports cards of ppl I know before I knew them (LOL) and old Sears paper used for wind breaker. Lost two pokets knives while working on same house years apart. One of my houses with in-laws. One knife showed up years later when wife's cousin showed up to pawn me "daddy's" knife. So it was one of my suspects. I didn't have the heart to keep it though. I did take in pawn with no interest and let him have it back a good while later.

vwovw

i found some calendars from the 40's that i sold on ebay as well.

sutton82

Found of some of the nastiest **** known to man in a house that had to be demo'd. The owner had been using it as a rental, but nobody ever paid so he just wanted it torn down. The last renter took all the doors, counters, sinks, and toilets, but left behind his **** and two large hogs.