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What's the worst "repair" you've seen?
Unless your old house was in pristine condition when you bought it (in which case you probably wouldn't be seeking advice on this site!), you've probably had to deal with your fair share of well-intentioned but poorly executed "repairs" inflicted on the building by previous owners. What's the worst mistake you encountered once you started working on your old house? Share all the gory details here! (And to sidestep errors in the future, be sure to check out our story on the top 10 restoration mistakes and how to avoid them.)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sean Maher on -
I had several broken window panes and a previous owner used roofing tar and plaster to seal up the gaps. What a mess to remove.
sean
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Permalink Reply by Red Queen on -
Someone had vented the gas powered, forced-air furnace in the attic into an unused, unlined chimney flue. And bricks had caved into the flue at the top of the chimney. The flue also went clear down to an old coal-burning fireplace in the parlor and continued down into the basement, where there is a coal cleanout door. No carbon monoxide detectors were in the house. It's a wonder the former owners and their kids woke up every morning.
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Permalink Reply by LoriMae Reynolds on -
Several years before we purchased our home, the previous owners "fixed" the exterior brick. The softer brick of the NW corner of our home was being damaged by runoff from a downspout that was put in improperly. First, they sprayed the exterior with some kind of silver paint. Second, they ran a coating of cement over the corner that was damaged the most. This past winter, high winds and snow pulled the downspout from the house and large chuncks of the "repair" area with it. We now have water inside the house where the bricks are damaged. Unfortunately, no one in this area seems to know how we can repair the damage.
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Permalink Reply by Ken Lay on -
When I met my wife, she lived in a house that she had bought from a completely incompetent, yet very prolific "handyman." There were many fine examples of his (ahem) "workmanship" throughout the house, but the one that sums it up best was a light switch that was secured to the wall with... chewing gum.
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Permalink Reply by KansasKate on -
In an 1880's 2-story commercial building (retail down, loft up) a suspended ceiling was hung about 3 ft below the real ceiling in the loft. A leaking roof was "fixed" in the following manner: Large plastic storage boxes were placed above the suspended ceiling to catch the water. In each box, a hole was cut and a tube was connected. These tubes came down through holes cut in the suspended ceiling tiles and ran down into large decorative vases, which were emptied as needed.
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Permalink Reply by Emily Roache on -
I guess that might come in handy if you had a problem remembering to water your plants... I wonder why that repair ever even seemed like a good idea?
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Permalink Reply by KansasKate on
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I'm sure he was proud of having figured out a "solution" that was cheaper than a new roof.
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Permalink Reply by Donald Mitchell on -
VInyl siding was our plague, or I should say poor maintinence and vinyl siding, a common ailment in todays society. Ours had been covered about 20yr ago and places where roof flashing failed and started water migrating behind the siding had took is toll in some places. Our foyer has two pocket doors and one of them was very drafty inthe winter. I found that there was a hole inthe wall big enough for a dog to crawl thru. When I started removing the vinyl I found some scary stuff. I would never buy a house with vinyl again without having an inspector remove parts of it all around the house to know whats underneath ( or not underneath).
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Permalink Reply by Martin on -
Wow where to begin... Well our house was a rental for a long time.. so former people "fixed" things in some creative ways. For instance, we have built in gutters that are lined in steel. Instead of either putting new metal in, or maybe putting in rubber roofing (which I eventually did) this is what happened. If there was a SMALL hole, silicone caulking was used to fill in the hole. Ok, I guess that isn't TOOO bad. If the hole was BIG or entire piece of the gutter was rusted out, duct tape was used to cover the area, then a LOT of tar,then more silicon caulk... from the ground you really couldn't tell, but up on the scaffolding, it was another story. It was no wonder water was leaking into the house.
Now over the original bathroom there is a flat roof. The gutters were leaking here too, and the flat roof was covered in metal (I fixed it with rubber roofing as well). The flat roof was pretty much leaking all over, due to age and bad seams. Well it was leaking water into the bathroom ceiling. Well, long ago it was sorta "fixed" with caulk or tar on the flat roof/gutters.. but it would eventually leak. So instead of really fixing the leak, someone put drywall over the original plaster ceiling. Well, after awhile.... the leak was still there (imagine that). So when the new drywall started to look bad, they just added another sheet. Tearing that mess out was one of the WORST jobs I have done on the house. Mold everywhere above the original ceiling.. not to mention the water leaked onto the floor (rotting out the orig floor long ago in the bathroom), made water stains on the downstairs ceilings, pretty much destoryed the original butlers pantry (which is why it was taken out long ago), and destoyed a lot of the plaster walls in the basement.. I am glad joists didn't rot out or anything like that.
Another quick "fix" was adding a more "modern" tub to the old bathroom. The clawfoot tub was removed, and a traditional fiberglass one put in its place.. that didn't fit wall to wall. So using green board (I am not making this stuff up) they built out the wall, covered it with wood bead board, and linoleum scraps.. I am glad the water wasn't hooked up when I removed it all.. the shut offs for the hot/cold were BEHIND the area they built out. There was no way to get to them, unless you beat a hole in the wall with a hammer lol!!
I can go on, but I will save that for another post lol.. Check out the pictures of the gutters after I removed the duct tape and 2 lbs of tar, moldy bathroom, and what the bathroom looked like when I got the house (it is now a laundry room). Where the tub ends on the left, under the 2x4s and drywall is where the shut offs were located. I didn't know they existed until I gutted the room. - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Phil on -
The columns on our front porch had suffered ant damage at their base. Rather than just replace the affected wood, a carpenter (I think in the 1950s or 60s) just cased the columns in 1" flat boards. The photo below shows the discovery of the old columns by us. The second photo shows the restored porch. The columns are an exact match to the porch spindles. The bases were replaced and the second photo shows the "after.
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Permalink Reply by Lair Tienter on -
Having done over 40 homes I could write a book on this subject. One of the most dangerous was this 1902 Four square with 4 bedrooms upstairs. The second floor had no plug-ins and the lights were ceiling lights were original knob and tube wiring. This clever owner had taken brass cup hooks and placed them around the ceiling with a series of extension cords running from the light through the hooks and hanging down. It created a spider web effect overhead. Years had taken it's toll on the cord insulation and bare wires were in contact with the cup hooks. When you turned on a light there was occasionally a snap sound and sometimes a little fireworks. Thinking about this I wondered why the fuses hadn't blown. I checked the fuse box and found my answer. Each fuse had been removed and the base threads carefully wrapped with 2 layers of aluminum foil. Any foil above the threads was trimmed with a razor blade so when screwing the fuse in you wouldn't get a shock if you touched it. Wouldn't want anyone getting hurt you know.
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Permalink Reply by jane on -
Not the worst, but the one that made us watch out for all the others, since it became clear the previous owner knew nothing about construction.
When the upstairs bathroom fixtures leaked and spread black mold across the ceiling in the room below, the previous owner simply covered it with another layer of sheet rock. Our first year we watched the mold grow across the newest ceiling. When we investigated we removed 3 layers of sheet rock - all of them moldy - before we got to the original lathe and plaster and the leak.
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