"What Sherlock did this?"

Posted by stan on July 5, 2009, 2:38 pm

> Two stand out for me.
> Back in 1976 (in the days before most people did home inspections as a
> part of the buying process), my parents bought a "handyman special"
> and it was a treat. There was a window a/c unit in the family room
> plugged into an outlet we thought was running 220v. The a/c unit
> didn't work, so we went to trace the wire to see what circuit it was
> on and discovered they'd daisy-chained a couple of household extension
> cords from the breaker box through the crawlspace and up behind the
> baseboard radiator, cut off the multi-outlet block at the end of the
> second cord and attached a 220 box.
> In 2005 my wife and I bought a row house in our neighborhood to fix up
> and rent out. In the basement the owner had put up a wall to divide
> the back part (workroom, weirdly large powder room) from the front.
> He'd used 2x4s to frame the wall, but then instead of putting up
> drywall he'd just stapled that corrugated paper brick up - you know,
> the type of stuff they used to use in the cheesy fake fireplace
> Christmas decorations.

My 'most dangerous' was visiting to repair a TV in an extension built
on back of a small house at end of this street. Next to the graveyard.
It contained two children's bunk beds. The only heat in the cramped,
congested and uninsulated space was an open glowing electric heater,
probably a kilowatt or so. It was fed with a rickety taped up
extension cord that also fed the TV. There was one tiny window that I
don't think even a small child could have exited. I told them the
whole thing was completely unsafe.
Strange thing is that another son afterwards acquired the very small
piece of land no room for anything except a house, and has built the
biggest residence on the street; two people living in (for this area)
a giant of a house. No trees, house occupies most of the land!
Anyway along with all the trees the rest of us have grown, that house
makes a nice windbreak! During some heavy wind a year after it was
built some vinyl siding blew off that house while we were nice and
snug and had no problems!
Anyway back to scraping paint on my low singel storey bungalow!

Posted by Eric on July 6, 2009, 9:14 am

>I thought it might be entertaining to see posts of your favorite
> experience with someone else's "Handiwork."
> Two of my favorites.
> 1. My brother and I found voltages of 33 and 66 volts at a house that
> someone was fixing up to sell.
> 2. Telephone wire used to wire up a fluorescent light in a restaurant.
> Andy

Not a safety issue but nevertheless pretty stupid...

Scenario: you're an HVAC "professional" installing a 2-zone heat + A/C system in
a new house. You
get to the part where you're wiring the downstairs thermostat to the zone
controller. The
connection requires cable with 6 wires. You only have 5-wire cable in your
truck. Do you:
1) Go get some 7-wire cable, available almost anywhere (this is in MA, there
have to be 10 HVAC
supply houses within 5 miles), and wire it correctly.

2) Kludge it with 5-wire cable, scribbling instructions on the zone
controller for the homeowner
to move wires and jumpers around inside the controller to switch from heating to
cooling mode.

Guess which option the guy chose?

Eric Law

PS Don't know if it was the same guy, but the house had an oil-fired water
heater in addition to the
furnace, and a power vent. When both operated at the same time, the power vent
wiring bridged two
branch circuits together. I found this out the hard way when I moved one
circuit to a breaker that
was on the opposite phase ;^)

Posted by WhiteTea on July 7, 2009, 8:55 am

> >I thought it might be entertaining to see posts of your favorite
> > experience with someone else's "Handiwork."
> > Two of my favorites.
> > 1. My brother and I found voltages of 33 and 66 volts at a house that
> > someone was fixing up to sell.
> > 2. Telephone wire used to wire up a fluorescent light in a restaurant.
> > Andy

> Not a safety issue but nevertheless pretty stupid...
> Scenario: you're an HVAC "professional" installing a 2-zone heat + A/C sy=

stem in a new house. =A0You

> get to the part where you're wiring the downstairs thermostat to the zone=

controller. =A0The

> connection requires cable with 6 wires. =A0You only have 5-wire cable in =

your truck. =A0Do you:

> =A0 =A0 1) Go get some 7-wire cable, available almost anywhere (this is i=

n MA, there have to be 10 HVAC

> supply houses within 5 miles), and wire it correctly.
> =A0 =A0 2) Kludge it with 5-wire cable, scribbling instructions on the zo=

ne controller for the homeowner

> to move wires and jumpers around inside the controller to switch from hea=

ting to cooling mode.

> Guess which option the guy chose?
> =A0 =A0 Eric Law

I guess the "Professional" did not get a Christmas card from you. :-)

A company did a roofing job for my mother.

They agreed to:

1. Re-roof the garage
2. Replace some rotted trim.

They did 1 but not 2.

Maybe they think their reputation is not all that important or
that they will always be able to find new customers.

I think they way underbid the job, but it was their mistake.

Andy

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