Other People's Work

bellerose

Have you come across work other contractors have done and wonder how they even got the job in the first place?

Someone( I know who it was) built a room over the patio and they installed vinyl siding on the ceiling !
I never saw anything so stupid. Of course the homeowner was pissed and threw them off the job.

I saw a chimney that was rebuilt and they did not use step flashing.

I saw a vapor barrier in the attic that was laid on top of the insulation instead of under it.

I saw a set of stairs that were cut with 10 inch risers and 7 inch treads.( He was probably dyslexic)

I have seen sliding patio doors that were installed backwards so the sliding door was on the outside.

#14 gauge wire in the kitchen for recptacles.

Check valves on oil lines installed backwards.

Garbage disposals installed and they forgot to knock out the plactic plug so the sink could drain.

tub surrounds with soap trays installed upside down so you can't put the soap on b/c it slides off.

Locks with the backsets installed backwards.

I saw a concrete driveway being installed and they did not pull up the rebar. They let it lay flat on the ground and poured on top of it.

Gutters pitched the wrong way.

Decks with 2 by 4's for the joists.

Roof fans installed near the eaves instead of closer to the ridge.

A 6 panel interior door installed upside down

etc.....and people want the lowest price ! They get what they deserve then !

bassmaster

Let's see-

I have seen basement bathroom shower piping attached directly to outside foundation wall. They could not figure out why they kept freezing

A full 4x8 sheet of rock held in with 6-screws (4 corners/ 2 in the midddle)

Tape job in 3-yr old house peeling off the walls.

Pvc drain pipe not glued.

Skylight leaking (wrong flashing)

Pergo floor installed butt tight to the wall.

I am sure i have more that I can not think of right now, but that's a start.

Joe Carola

My friend who is also a contractor was telling me a story about this customer who called him and said that here windows were leaking that another contractor put in and asked my friend to try and fix them. He went there and the first thing he saw that there was no drip cap on top of the windows that had factory installed casings.

He gets on his ladder and sees all kinds of caulk up there and starts removing the caulk and sees something that looks like metal and then he removed the layer of cedar shakes and finds cut up pieces of old license plates that the contractor used to try and flash the window.

The customer actually told him that the guy who did the job was the cheapest price and he never returned her phone calls when she left messages saying that the windows were leaking.

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Joe Carola

Pennyroyal's

how about ...roof vents installed and no hole cut in the roof, a kitchen addition with every wire connection having no boxes- bx wire nutted together at every junction, a whole house with no jacks supporting the interior door openings, 1/2" chipboard as roof sheathing on 24" centers, plumbers cutting out all but 1" of floor joist to run a pipe, vent stacks that stop inside the attic space....

GriffDecker

This is my favorite -- 2 layers of 1/2" drywall used as roof sheathing. Also screws into water and drain pipes, kitchen cabinets installed 1 1/2" out of level over an 8 foot span, floor tile laid diagonally running on average 1" away from the baseboards, going up to 1 1/2" (that's some big quarterround).

Aceinstaller

I hope you didn't knock out that plug in the disosal for the sink....because it is for the dishwasher

but I know where you're coming from.

I was just on a basement conversion into a garden unit in which I framed the basement by contract, and the G/C had his drywallers following right behind me! I asked him......... WHERES THE ELECTRICIAN AND THE PLUMBER OR EVEN THE HEATING GUY????

His reply was that it wasn't my business...

If only I had a digital camera.....

We need to band together to get rid of all of these retards that give unmatchable bids stealing work all over the country, making it harder to get reasonable pay for quality work.

If there is a website to post these findings, let me know, I'll buy me a camera and make a callage.

peteduffy

I've seen the following in a brand new McMansion home worth $800k-$1 Million. My first job at this client was the day she was closing on the house.

Breaks my heart to see all this.

Bare hot wire (switch leg for ceiling fan yet to be installed) in all the ceiling fixtures. Not capped, not taped. Hot if the switch is on. This was in all 6 places I installed the fans.

1/4" gap between the wall and window casing at the top of an arched window. Worked out for me, because I had to put up some curtain rods, and just slid the L bracket behind that for a little more clearance to the ceiling.

Beautiful bathroom, but with paint overspray on the tile. Also the sink had a 1/8" caulked space next to the wall (acceptable) at the front of the sink, but it grew to 5/8" over the 2' or so to the rear of the sink.

$10,000 front entry, with solid mahogony double doors, huge circular window, just gorgeous. If only there weren't that 1/8" gap at the bottom between them to let the snow in. And the top of the right one stuck out about 1/4" when closed.

A window was so out of plumb, you could see it just by how much brick was revealed. Large difference between the bottom and top. Didn't need a level. Or maybe the window was plumb and the wall was out of wack.

Electrical boxes with conduit nuts just hanging on the wires. (yep, here in Chicagoland it's all conduit)

Water stains around several windows. These were just painted over, but I could see the bleed through.

Trim that was supposed to be square was angled and caulked.

And this was all in just ONE house, without having to look too hard!

Glasshousebltr

Site hung interior dbl doors, 1" between at the top then he tried to cover with a lath strip. Right top henge set down at 16" left at 8, bottom just as random.

Roof truss set at A OC (any old center), the ridge and tails were not even close to each other, then they cut every sheet of ply.

Used a 4' level to set about 400LF of footing forms.

Nailed T 1 11 off every 2" with 16P patio nails.

Crapper soil line down hill to the dump hole.

Used framing square on floor to plumb new walls.

Removed all base in house because I set it at 3/8" high in carpet areas, then called me the idiot. All I could say was "Just pay me"

Used short stretch of garden hose from mixer to dog ear for shower head, then tiled over it.

Cut drywall with a skill saw until the plumber called me.

Set deck post footings 18" deep on top of 6' of fill.

Poored 9CYs of concrete stoops, steps, landing and walk but forgot to fish wire under for posted light fixture on the other side......That was me.We need an icon with a gun in his mouth.

Bob

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Bob

Nick H

Did some work on a 200 year old cottage being renovated by a "developer".

He tiled the bathroom, starting in the miidle of a wall worked his way round the room until he got back to where he started, only problem he was now 1 1/2 " lower and had a 2 " cut to finish, never mind "it'll be OK".

Mitred the architrave for the door frames by "eye", cut with a bow saw and fixed with 3" nails using the back of a hatchet.

Had the walls rough plastered to give a "cottagey" look, but had the plasterer do it literally with the back of shovel, i'm serious the back of a shovel. Sure got the rough look though.

Finished all the interior woodwork, and the exterior come to think of it, with matt black paint, no filling no sanding just a good thick coat of matt black.

His explanation was always the same, "dont look at the detail its the overall effect that counts".

Thing is he sold the place pretty quick and for top money, go figure.

Nick H

Just remembered another one.

I refitted a bathroom where the previous owner "handyman" had built his own "custom" bathtub.

It was a timber frame lined with polythene and then lined with 3/4 ply. The whole lot was then tiled with 6x6 white tiles. Trouble was it leaked, and had been for quite a while, when we ripped the sides off we found about 2 gallons of black "water" sitting in the polythene lining, YUK, it stank.

Thing is, even if it had been done "properly" i reckon it still would have looked c**p.

nadonailer

A little one, but I just saw it, so it's fresh. Someone repaired the water supply line into the house (with PVC) and ran it smack in front of the only crawlspace opening. I had to smash the screen frame out just to check out the foundation, and now I have to cut and replumb just to get under the house. Jeeez......

Last year an old apartment had romex run around the studs instead of through them and the wallboard smashed on top of the wires. Of course nothing was grounded either, what a surprise! And a white wire coming from one unit was being used as a hot for another, so I got a nice little shock

Pulled up a bathtub to see what was causing the thing to sag and found those old toilet supply hoses used for water suply to tub, leaking like a sieve. Plus it was sitting on particleboard!!!

So much more, we should write a book entitled "You get what you pay for" and sell it at HD. Maybe some homeowners would wise up?

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kenvest

i'd buy that book.....

bellerose

I meant the dishwasher not the sink. Thanks for spotting that.

rino1494

This one mason did the flatwork on a front porch. It had 5" of pitch in 5 ft.

The same mason poured sidewalks. He didn't have any flexible forms for the radius turns, so he used cardboard. Needless to say, he jack hammered those out.

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MinConst

The job I'm on now makes me sick. Original deck no flashing, replaced deck still no flashing. Replace slider onto deck a year ago must have seen the rot under the door, nothing said to customer. Must be 10 tubes of caulk around this slider to "stop the leaks". Now the wall is rotted. And it must have been going on since the original deck 10-12 years. Why don't the kids that get hired to install have to learn something besides screwing in a few screws. HD crew did the windows and door. They all breath cold air when the wind blows.
I run into allot of splices in walls and ceilings not in a box just taped up and hanging there. Must admit I did that once about 25 years ago. I'll always worry about it.
Thats all I can think of right now.

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Paul
Minichillo's Construction
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Zero Punch

My favorite, a 2 1/2 story vaulted load bearing wall running paralell with the joists sitting on 3/4 subfloor half way between two joist. I was running CBU for our tilesetter. There was already 2 in deflection in the subfloor.

Plumber?? Using a chain saw cutting 4 floor joist for soil pipe when he could have run pipe to cabinet soffet with out a cut. I recall him saying elbows were costly

Lamp cord used to pull from one outlet to another. A DIY electrician !

IHI

Excellent idea, but then homies would soon forget as soon as estimates started rolling in with the "cant happen to me attitude" I just got done with a tile job for a ex high school girlfreind that like to talk about how rich her and her husband are, then when I arive starts walking me around the house asking if I could fix this and that as long as I'm there. "We only paid $20 to have this done or $100 to have that done" Once we had the list compiled I asked her if she realized the pattern here?? I shot her the price to tile her backsplach initally and got the "what if we pay you cash, how much can you knock off" bit. Explained the tax guy does not care if I deposit cash or check as it all shows up if I get audited so my price is what it is, if you want this job to turn out like the rest of the house, get somebody cheaper.

Funniest one she wanted a 12"x12" tile replaced in her front door landing area where corner had broken off shortly after it was installed. Cleaned up the grout and after pulling tile up with no problem-litearlly just grabbed it and it came up, found the adjoining tiles were also as loose. They used regular luan for the tile underlayment nailed down with roofing nails. The outside edge of the tiles overhung the luan by 3/4". I called her up after finding this and asked if she wanted it fixed right and told her the cost to tear it up and redo, then she asked if I could just put the new tile down and they'd owrry about it later and what that would cost. LOL, gave her that price with a NO guaruntee for even an hour after I leave and she said to do it that way....this is the common customer I'm plauged by here. Cost is too great to do it right so too settlements are made. All I kept thinking about is "how much money" she kept ttelling me her and her husband make and getting and all of these problems plauging their house. I dont get it, but in order to feed my family I'm forced to do as the customer wishes (pending no code violations) even against strong disapproval.

So yeah, ya get what ya pay for, literally!! and it give me joy to hear the after story once folks have delt with low ballers!! Just hard as helll to get work from these same people since they think your going to try and scerw them too.

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Eric K

I was just in a house today replacing interior doors. This is a house that was just "rehabbed" by a "contractor"........ Doors were the original ones just with 16p nails w/ finish nails angled in to hold the hinges in the jamb. 3" drywall screws poking out of the door angled from the hinge. None of them closed. All new trim that was put in was 1x4 pine cut with what appears to be a drunken jigsawer and drywall screwed in. Everything was textured meaning edges of doors, existing trim, lights.... New interior doors that were fit in w/ again what appears to be a drunkin jigsawer, windows with about 4 tubes of caulking around them. I can go on for ever with things we saw in this house today those are just some of my favorites, made me forget some of the other unforgettables that I saw.