Wednesday Worsts...Home Repair Nightmare

[soflagator]

I was waiting for this one

Yes, that one is the one I remember.

 

[Nalt]

Back in the '90s I was working part-time with my FIL who was a General Contractor. He had teamed up with an old friend at the time and had gotten a job remodeling a house for a woman who, it turned out, was a lesbian. Now, I don't care how anyone chooses to live their life. I really don't. But this was back BEFORE that was universally accepted. Anyways, as we were moving things out of the house and tearing down walls, there was an antique mirror that the woman told us to be very careful with as it was a family heirloom and she would be really upset if it got broken. So my BIL and I carefully took it outside and put it in the detached garage where it would be safe.
A few days later, for some unknown reason, that mirror was back in the house and yep, it had gotten broken. My BIL and I knew that trouble was coming...
Now, pause on this story for a bit of information that may or not have contributed to what happened: My FIL and his friend were bad to drink too much. It is MY feeling that their drinking had something to do with the mirror getting broken but I have no proof.

Ok, so back to the story.

The next morning, we are driving to work on that house again and I am expecting that at some point that day the owner would show up and chew everyone out and possibly fire the whole team.

Nope! We get to her house and there was nothing left but ashes. The entire house burned to the ground in the middle of the night. Weird and unexplainable coincidence IMO.

I suppose the sad part is that the antique mirror was no where to be found in the detached garage so it must have perished in the fire...

 

[AlexDaGator]

After my misadventures with my Mom's hurricane-damaged roof, I added "amateur roofer" to my resume as I was interviewing about a year after all that happened.

Every single interviewer asked about it.



Alex.

 

[soflagator]

Our house in Jupiter was only like 15 years old but had been neglected and was a giant project. We had a two year old and a second child just a few months out. So the whole idea of buying a house that needed a lot of help already made just a ton of sense. But needless to say, I spent most of the weekends the first year doing random things that I could manage on the house, but mostly landscaping the backyard. And any time my wife would hear a bang or yell, she’d come running out. I finally told her I could handle the constant interruptions and that I needed to be left alone. Of course, that was always going to backfire. So one day I was trying to sweep off pine needles from some of the roof tiles. I shouldn’t have even been up there because I’d just hurt my knee, but wanted to knock out a simple task and get down before the AFC championship game. Yada yada yada the ladder fell and I didn’t want to jump given the knee situation. So this time I do actually yell for my wife, bang on the skylight, speak through the pipes, etc, and of course she decides to finally honor my request and ignores it. I sat up there for like 2 hours, missing most of the game. Worse, some neighbors had the game playing and had a patio door open, so I could hear just enough of it to know things were happening but not enough to know what it was. She comes out with headphones on listening to bachata expecting me to be so pleased that I’d had like 3 straight hours of peace.

When we sold a few years later, our broker held an open house for other brokers to see the home before they showed it, and asked to give feedback. One of the comments was that the hime looked like it had been owned by a “do-it-yourself’er” that didn’t know how to do it themselves. Stung a bit. Everyone loved the backyard and landscaping though. Beast of a landscaper I am.

 

[bradgator2]

Not really a home repair, but this story might have started the thread home repair forum.

I was trimming a tree and the giant branch fell on my truck. The end.

 

[soflagator]

Not really a home repair, but this story might have started the thread home repair forum.

I was trimming a tree and the giant branch fell on my truck. The end.

 

[Altitude Gator]

I live in a home we bought at short sale in 2006. Complete remodel inside and out. I did most of the work...and most of it is done right - but a bit unfinished. I am like Tin Cup - some say it's 'cause I never finish anything in my life. My wife still likes to point out that 17 years later there is trim that needs installed or grouting on the kitchen tile kick boards!

My best story though comes from my time in California in the navy. Myself, my dad and two of my shipmates decided to rent a place in Ranch Penasquitas north of San Diego. When my dad left to start Chiropractic school, we invited another shipmate to jump in. He was an unrepentant drunk who grew up in Detroit (proper - not some suburb) in the 70s. Great stories...even a bit scary. His name is Dave. Dave loved the kegerator we had!

Dave was on leave for a week when our landlord hired a painter to paint the interior of the house. We would get home each day and find that Dave and the painter had put down some serious beer and the painter had done a little painting. The family room had a nice high vaulted ceiling with a fireplace that had rough out lumber to the ceiling above the brickwork and mantle. We got home the last day he was supposed to be there and he wasn't quite finished - couldn't reach the top of the vaulted ceiling and wall by the fireplace for trimming with the extension ladder he had. So he decided to improvise a ladder stand from a 5 gallon paint bucket. Mind you, not a nice heavy full bucket, but one that was almost empty. Everyone of us except Dave agreed this was a BAD IDEA. Dave and the painter figured it would be fine as long as Dave held the ladder. The rest of us, including a bunch of other shipmates that had come over to the evening to have some beers, stood WAY back!

Needless to say, Dave wasn't strong enough to hold the ladder in place when the bucket started tipping. The painter was almost to to the ceiling when it went over with him and his gallon bucket of paint he was going to use to trim the corners. Down he came - landed right on Dave. Broke Dave's arm and the painters hand. Paint flew everywhere, but he was diligent with drop cloths. However, the brick fireplace and rough out lumber got white paint all over them. The painter proceeded to paint both white. Looked like crap!

A couple months later, the landlord did a property inspection and freaked out. Tried to blame us for white washing the fireplace. We told them it was the painter and we assumed that was what he was supposed to do - we didn't feel it was our place to interfere with his contractor.

 

[cover2]

I was waiting for this one

Same. This was an @crosscreekcooter instructional as I recall I sure miss him talking about construction, gardening, and big women.

 

[MJMGator]

Same. This was an @crosscreekcooter instructional as I recall I sure miss him talking about construction, gardening, and big women.

I miss that fucher daily. He was the salt of the earth and had a phenomenal sense of humor.

 

[Gator By Marriage]

About the worst experience I’ve had (and most infuriated) was when the wife and I moved into her grandmother’s house next door to the in-laws. Had to do quite a bit of renovations, particularly the bathroom. We sold our house in town to be near the wife’s mother who’s health was failing (wife wound up taking care of her for the remainder of her life). Her father couldn’t rest until he was in the middle of the renovation projects and let me just say that his carpentry skills were on the line of making finish cuts with a chain saw.

I had stripped the old plaster from the bathroom walls and the plan was to sheetrock it, Wainscot the bottom, then wallpaper the top. I came home to find my FIL had put up cement board with not a tight joint anywhere. I had to bite my lip and make the best of it and it was HELL getting everything mudded, taped, and sanded smooth. But the wife and I got the wallpaper up and I installed the Wainscot and molding, got it painted, and it looked better than I was afraid it would.

Then I came home a few weeks later to find my FIL with the help of my BIL had decided to do some leveling on the floor from underneath. He’d come across some jacks, cut a bunch of shims, “eyeballed” it, and in turn separated the top corners in the den, the front bedroom, and the bathroom. Ruined the wallpapering and the mud joints beneath. I was ready to commit capital murder, but the wife and a lot of beer talked me off the ledge.

FIL passed away from Covid and we’ve started some of the redos. I’ve gotten the front steps done with nobody coming behind to “F” it up. I might actually live long enough now to both finish and enjoy the remodeling.

“Finish cuts with a chainsaw.”

I’m stealing that line.

 

[Bushmaster]

The 4 hurricane summer back in '04. Three of them (Charley, Frances, and Jean) hit my Mom's house which was yards from the beach.

I was living in Orlando at the time and got hit by the same 3 storms (and didn't have any power myself).

I drove out to Mom's to see if she was OK and assess the situation. I didn't bring any special tools or supplies with me. The house was pretty solid.

She was fine, no power, no phone, but fine.

The house had an old roof, but it held together until that last storm finally did it in. It ripped off large swathes of shingles and tar paper down to the plywood.

Of course everything was closed and even if something was open, you weren't able to get any roofing supplies because it was all sold out (this was after the last storm).

The storm had just passed and it was still windy and rainy.

I had to try to secure the roof before leaving to head back to Orlando. My Father had passed away years earlier and it's not like there were tools and supplies organized in the garage. It was a giant mess. There was no asking neighbors for help either. The beachside was under mandatory evacuation and the area was deserted.

I collected all the shingles I could find around the house (some of which were ours, others weren't). I found a hammer and a bunch of finishing nails. Then my cousin showed up and offered to help. There wasn't a second hammer to be found and he didn't load his car with special tools or supplies either. I found a giant monkey wrench. I gave my cousin the hammer and resolved to use the monkey wrench as a hammer. Basically, we tried to nail the random shingles over the exposed areas of roof decking.

I want you to imagine trying to hammer a finishing nail (which has no head to speak of) using one of these. Needless to say, I was destroying the fingers of my right hand as the fcuking thing would slide off the nail and smash my hand...over and over and over and over again. I'd get the nail about 3/4 of the way in, then bend the rest over to hold it down.

We soon ran out of shingles. I scrounged around for anything that seemed waterproof. I found random pieces of aluminum siding in the yard. Nailed those to the roof. My mom had some old shower curtains that had been used as drop cloths for painting. Nailed those to the roof. Finally, there was no usable debris left in the yard. I scoured the house and found a box of large, heavy-weight garbage bags. Nailed those to the roof. I was bruised, battered and beaten, but finally, all the exposed wood was covered.

I knew it was going to probably be a while before we could get real roofers to fix it.

I went back to Orlando and tried to find roofing supplies. I was able to find 2 rolls of felt and a 5 gallon bucket of that black latex roofing patch stuff that looks like tar. Oh, and a big box of real roofing nails with large diameter nail heads!

I took the stuff back to my Mom's a couple of days later and rolled roof felt over the BS repairs I had made that first day. I securely nailed it down and then and sealed all around the perimeter of the rolled areas with the black latex goop.

It was almost a year before my Mom got the roof professionally replaced. That patch job worked perfectly. Zero leaks all that time. I was finally able to laugh about it when I spoke to the roofers and they talked about all the insane things they discovered in demo-ing the old roof and patch job

My hand still hurts thinking about being up on that roof in the gusty wind and mist and smashing my hand over and over and over and over...



Alex.

Its funny, way back in 2004 a family member of mine was roofing down in SFla was telling me about this crazy ass lawyer who tried patching a house with scrap shingles and finishing nails and then covered it up with black tar and roofing paper. Said the guy was a little screwy and all he talked about was trying hammer finishing nails with a pipe wrench and kept massaging his hand like a phantom hurt or something.

Wasn't you by chance was it?

 

[wrpgator]

Bought my first house off a foreclosure during the bottom of the housing slump right around 2013--it had sat vacant for about 2 years prior to that, so there was significant remodeling work needed and the bank had a few prior buyers walk away in those two years, so I got it for a steal, but knew there were things I'd need to repair. Over the years, gradually went from one remodeling project to the next (my ex was an interior designer and loved doing that kind of thing), renovated the bathrooms, kitchen, bar, fireplace, outside patio, etc.

Have since turned it into a rental property...and the renters themselves have been there for awhile without much issues. This year, one of the bathroom toilets would run and overflow, flooding the carpet on the back bedrooms area of the house. Called one plumber, who snaked the sewer line and pulled out a ton of disposable wipes (which aren't nearly as disposable as they claim to be). Told the guys to tell whichever girls they've been inviting over: don't flush wipes.

Two weeks later, toilet backs up again. Called the same plumber, he snakes it again, couldn't figure out what was wrong. Recommended I call another plumber...who came out and said I had a septic tank buried in the front yard that I had no idea I had. Told him "when I bought the place, it said I had sewer access and the prior plumber was able to snake the line out to the main sewer." He acknowledged that, but said sewer was likely added later on and showed me where he thought the septic was and said he'd need to dig up part of my yard to look at the pipes and essentially drain the septic/seal it off. Annoying, but ok.

Sure enough, the guy was right...and it turned into a much bigger problem when he saw that the septic tank had been punctured by the oak trees in the front lawn and said if we didn't remove the tank itself, all the refuse would start leaking into the lawn and/or continuing to cause backflows into the house

Got it all done and had to resod a large portion of the front lawn. Between the plumbers and the sod replacement, it's cost a significant amount.

I'm mulling over whether I want to go after the bank for fraud since I double-checked the mortgage docs sure enough, it says "sewer access" without mentioning the septic whatsoever.

I had an issue years ago involving a lot I purchased to build a spec house on. Standard offer would include reviewing perc test supplied by seller. Perc test looked good, sand all the way down to water table. Closed on the lot, built the structure but when we installed the septic system we hit solid rock. Cap rock everywhere.

When we were building the house I'd hired a framer (who is top notch and has helped with other projects) and he had just purchased a brand new phone. He was on a ladder in a section where the basement section of the house meets the garage. The rock had been laid and the concrete pad was already poured for the garage. We had a French drain with the tube sticking up that would eventually drain out into the yard. The framer got a phone call while he was on the ladder and bobbled his phone knocking it perfectly down the tube. He tried desperately to get it out but couldn't reach it. Eventually his only solution was to dig with the backhoe, cut the tube and get it out. This caused the rock that was under the poured concrete pad to come pouring out.

Flash forward 15 years and that corner of the garage was sinking making the brick mortar separate. We had to hire a company to raise and stabilize the corner of the garage.

The repair was done well but the mortar bugs me.

View attachment 68482

The “stairstep” in the brick will always show but the mortar stain on the brick can be washed away with a light acid bath, scrub brush and water rinse.

 

[TLB]

So one day I was trying to sweep off pine needles from some of the roof tiles. I shouldn’t have even been up there

Reminds me of two stories as a yoot. First was after a hurricane when I was about 8yo. I used to scramble up the trees in the backyard and crawl out the branches and onto the roof, as natural as a monkey. So, after the hurricane left downed branches everywhere, I carefully crawled up on the roof to see how I could help by throwing debris off. I grabbed a branch a little bit bigger than my 8yo butt and walked backward with it to get it out from the other branches then over to the edge to toss. In my journey backwards, I stepped squarely into our skylight - one of those 70's bubble monstrosities the size of a small door. One leg went thru while the rest of me straddled the opening so I didn't fall completely into the bathroom. I think my dad realized this was out of his league and hired someone to seal over that spot in the roof, no more skylight.

By the time I was 12, still visiting the roof of our ranch house, I discovered a pair of pine tree seedlings growing in the muck of the rain gutter. I gingerly unearthed each baby tree and planted them in our front yard. I moved out when I was 17 and the trees had almost reached my height. Whenever I'm back in town I drive past the house for old memories. It was perhaps a few decades later as the trees had grown over 30' tall with no end in sight that I realized the smaller one was too close to the curb and would easily fall on any car parked there should it ever get weak and break, or if it dropped a limb. Worse, the bigger one had been planted about 10' from my childhood bedroom window, meaning if it falls it takes out 1-2 bedrooms of the house. Hindsight is a great thing.

 

[TLB]

While we're on the subject of home repairs, I'd like to pause and ask for your level of confidence with these endeavors, and how you came by it. For many, I suspect it would be a matter of having a father figure who did such work and brought you along so you picked it up by osmosis.

For myself, my dad would encourage me to watch him do things but rarely asked me to step in and use my own hands. The key moment for me was when I was about 14-15yo and he installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms. I was just entering the 'my parents are idiots' phase of life, and through observing him in this effort I was irreversibly convinced that if this idiot could do that, I could do nearly anything in the house. Before internet, I'd just tear something apart and put it back together. With the internet years later, you can look up more of how to do things. Confidence has never been an issue for me, but actually doing something correctly...that sometimes eludes me to where I may try a home fix once, come back and fix my fix, then eventually hire a pro for the few things that are still non-functioning. To date, I've replaced 4 toilets - a fact I am simultaneously proud of, and also embarassed by. The drawback here is that with my own family I have had weeks straight where upon entering the front door there is ALWAYS something needing fixing from lightbulbs to overflowing toilets to various objects breaking or simply not working. I've more recently developed a list of my own, trying to prioritize what to address first (like the drawer missing it's front face/handle because someone threw a temper tantrum slamming them shut, not naming names but he looks about my age). I've explained to the family - these are my priorities, please don't try and add anything to Dad's 'to do' list until I get these done. That drawer would take 5min to fix...and has remained broken for 7 months so far.

 

[wrpgator]

I had an issue years ago involving a lot I purchased to build a spec house on. Standard offer would include reviewing perc test supplied by seller. Perc test looked good, sand all the way down to water table. Closed on the lot, built the structure but when we installed the septic system we hit solid rock. Cap rock everywhere.

The “stairstep” in the brick will always show but the mortar stain on the brick can be washed away with a light acid bath, scrub brush and water rinse.
View attachment 68503

Oops that unrelated cap rock / septic thing was a draft i never finished yesterday…

 

[Nalt]

Reminds me of two stories as a yoot. First was after a hurricane when I was about 8yo. I used to scramble up the trees in the backyard and crawl out the branches and onto the roof, as natural as a monkey. So, after the hurricane left downed branches everywhere, I carefully crawled up on the roof to see how I could help by throwing debris off. I grabbed a branch a little bit bigger than my 8yo butt and walked backward with it to get it out from the other branches then over to the edge to toss. In my journey backwards, I stepped squarely into our skylight - one of those 70's bubble monstrosities the size of a small door. One leg went thru while the rest of me straddled the opening so I didn't fall completely into the bathroom. I think my dad realized this was out of his league and hired someone to seal over that spot in the roof, no more skylight.

By the time I was 12, still visiting the roof of our ranch house, I discovered a pair of pine tree seedlings growing in the muck of the rain gutter. I gingerly unearthed each baby tree and planted them in our front yard. I moved out when I was 17 and the trees had almost reached my height. Whenever I'm back in town I drive past the house for old memories. It was perhaps a few decades later as the trees had grown over 30' tall with no end in sight that I realized the smaller one was too close to the curb and would easily fall on any car parked there should it ever get weak and break, or if it dropped a limb. Worse, the bigger one had been planted about 10' from my childhood bedroom window, meaning if it falls it takes out 1-2 bedrooms of the house. Hindsight is a great thing.

I remember this scene from the movie but I've never experienced anyone actually use the word "yoot" until now...

 

[TLB]

I remember this scene from the movie but I've never experienced anyone actually use the word "yoot" until now...

I don't think anyone actually does. My use was a nod to the film.