Crappy Construction: The Four POs of the Housepocalypse

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Crappy Construction: The Four POs of the Housepocalypse

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Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Bad Munki posted:

To wit: consider an isosceles trapezoid. The diagonals are the same length, but the shape can literally be as far from a square as you like.

Yeah, but you�ll know it�s a trapezoid because the side lengths will be wrong.

If the side lengths all match, it could still be a rhombus, but measuring the diagonals proves it�s not.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2015 21:56

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 14:52

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

sbyers77 posted:

My sister lives in a cul-de-sac where literally every other house does that and drives me nuts.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.462833,-122.847746,3a,72.5y,335.41h,71.7t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1svb6ysv97t0nN9nEuOFydRA!2e0

Meh. Sidewalks in culs‐de‐sac are vestigial.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2015 03:03

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Gounads posted:

Is the meter to tell when the local grid is hosed and you shouldn't turn anything on?

Since it�s a voltmeter, that�s my guess.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2015 15:59

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

canyoneer posted:

View of same fence from neighbor's yard.

That fence is truly a crappy construction. The neighbour gets the good‐looking side, more yard space, and higher ground in court.

# ¿ May 9, 2015 06:40

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

theacox posted:

I don't own any Cree LEDs for my house, but I did buy 2 Cree LED headlamps to use at work a couple months ago. They burn through batteries at a faster rate than my old standard bulb models do, so I'm not sure what all the hype is.

I don�t know how this is possible unless they use different sizes of batteries or the new headlamps are bright as gently caress compared to the old ones.

# ¿ May 12, 2015 02:10

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Anne Whateley posted:

Color is going to be super, super important for a makeup table.

Yeah, that. There aren�t a whole lot of high‐CRI LED bulbs, which is what you want here. That said, in practice, any LED trounces any fluorescent, even at the same or lower CRI.

Globe shape limits your choices further. This Feit is the only product I could find that fits both criteria. I don�t know how powerful the bulbs you�re using now are, so I can�t say how it compares there.

# ¿ May 12, 2015 12:44

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Suspect Bucket posted:

Should I ever find myself needing a half bath, all it's gonna be is a cheerfully lit and decorated closet with this sucker in it.

http://eco-buildingproducts.com/pro...iEbMaAjeg8P8HAQ

Saves water and space. Clever as hell.

You want a prison toilet in your home? :confused:

# ¿ May 21, 2015 19:24

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Ashcans posted:

See if you can spot the problem in this kitchen!

The bare lightbulb.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 11:34

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

kid sinister posted:

That's actually used for modern insulation. Look up what "cellulose insulation" is made from.

Cellulose?

# ¿ Jul 24, 2015 08:04

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

some texas redneck posted:

e: I just noticed those outlets are stamped 15 amp. There's not a single circuit in the restaurant with a breaker under 20 amps; there's several 50 amp breakers though.

There�s nothing wrong with that part.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2015 06:22

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

You might be right about that.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2015 06:46

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

OSU_Matthew posted:

This incandescent bulb has been lit continuously for the last 114 years. It wasn't until the 1920's that all the lightbulb manufacturers banded together and formed a cartel that fined manufacturers if their bulbs lasted more than x hours.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

In an incandescent lamp, if you run the filament cooler, it lasts a long time, but it emits little light per watt. If you run it hotter, it�s more energy efficient, but the filament burns out comparatively quickly.

That 114-year bulb is monstrously inefficient.

Platystemon fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Aug 23, 2015

# ¿ Aug 23, 2015 18:41

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

The question I want an answer to is �how well does a Steelcase desk work at preventing motorbike theft?�

# ¿ Oct 18, 2015 11:11

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

GotLag posted:

I'd agree if I believed anyone had actually done it.

I can confirm that grouted tile countertops exist, and that they should not.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 17:51

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

gvibes posted:

BEHOLD (I guess I was wrong about the pink)

I think the metal rod is half broken off - I think it originally tracked that grey line

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 22:07

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

NancyPants posted:

This gently caress ugly bookcase:

http://imgur.com/gallery/m0k8a

It�s got that �30s hermit shack look.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2015 06:16

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

SynthOrange posted:

Perfect.

Even if the pattern didn�t involve brown splotches, the way the fabrication process stretched them seems like it would make any design look bad.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2015 01:20

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Crappy construction: putting USB ports in wall outlets.

USB outlets should be at counter/table/desktop level.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2015 16:57

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Alereon posted:

One major advantage of induction is that it puts FAR less heat into the air than any other heat source, so is better for cooking in warmer weather. The ideal stove would likely combine gas for the oven and half the burners with induction for the other half.

Why a gas oven? My understanding is that electric ovens are superior because humidity is less controllable in a gas oven.

They sure are cheaper, though.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2015 22:48

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

I rarely need anything stronger than alcohol to clean my glass cooktop. v :shobon:

# ¿ Dec 3, 2015 07:00

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

FISHMANPET posted:

I have to keep my water heater jacked up way high because I think the pipes run through a poorly insulated wall, because in the winter the hot water doesn't last nearly as long as it does in the summer.

Isn�t this mostly because the cold water it�s mixing with is colder?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2015 04:35

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Blue Footed Booby posted:

I've literally never seen one in the US. Most bathrooms have them on separate switches which accomplishes the same general task without leaving you UNABLE to stop the stupid fan.

If they use a spring‐loaded mechanical timer like every U.S. hotel, they can be forced back to 0 to turn the fan off whenever.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 16:12

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Bad Munki posted:

In AK, where stuff takes significantly longer to get to market, I always found that cartons had dates about two weeks further out than jugs. So yeah, we're back to the already-discussed manufacturer dates, but it's something.

I suspect that the difference comes from using different pasteurisation processes (basically, exposed to a very high temperature for a very short time versus being exposed to a sort‐of‐high temperature for a longer period of time).

# ¿ Dec 21, 2015 20:19

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Can stealing those rolling stairs from Home Despot and putting some wood blocks on top be considered �construction�?

some guy on Reddit posted:

Not sure if here's the right place for this but our Landlord has stalled for months to fix stairs, gets 3 weeks while we're in mexico and leaves this garbage

So since like July he's been meaning to fix the stairs because they were to narrow. He asked for about 3 days to a week to work on them and we've been out of the house 2 other times for a week and he wouldn't do it. Now we were gone for 3 weeks and he did nothing because he doesn't want to pay to get it done and he's been doing it himself and we just got back and we have this to use. In the few times I went up and down to get the luggage I almost fell twice on this crap. He asked for 3 more days to finish it but I know he's not gonna do that and it's dangerous for my mom to carry my 8 month old sister down that to take my 3 younger siblings to school every morning. I'm not really sure if I can do anything about it but if there is any help would be great.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2016 22:34

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Arrath posted:

Fire Marshall would be the first guy to call, eh? I wonder if that place has a proper evac route in event of a fire.

OP confirmed that it's the only way into or out of the residence.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 00:11

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

NancyPants posted:

Hope he's got good renters' coverage for staying in a hotel and/or liquid cash, because as soon as the fire marshal sees that poo poo, they can't occupy that building at all anymore. They'll be out on their asses and the landlord doesn't have to do poo poo. They'll be let out of the lease and get their prorated rent back in 30 days. The law doesn't make rear end in a top hat property owners fix anything; your remedy is to get out of the lease.

It would really suck to move all their stuff out, too. Maybe rent a scissor lift and bill the landlord.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 06:42

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

XmasGiftFromWife posted:

How do you turn on the sink?

Foot pedals?

# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 22:24

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Cakefool posted:

What's the sugar for?

It �poisons� the concrete and prevents it from setting as fast or as hard.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2016 20:02

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Geirskogul posted:

You can already get margaritas by the yard.

That�s not a margarita, though.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2016 23:06

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

It�s a structural ladder now.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2016 13:07

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

H110Hawk posted:

Their plugs are all fused iirc, which is cool.

This because the UK has oversized circuits. An appliance can short severely enough to be a fire hazard, but not enough to trip the breaker. Other countries divide buildings into larger numbers of smaller circuits, which limits the potential for shorts like that to cause fires.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2016 08:07

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Nitrox posted:

Why does water need to boil in order to make tea?

It doesn�t, but recommended brewing temperature for black tea is only handful of degrees below boiling. It�s far simpler to just heat it to boiling and let that be your indication that it�s hot enough.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2016 00:47

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Messadiah posted:

Is that wall made of particle board?

Horsehair plaster.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 06:40

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

MrYenko posted:

I'm not, just hoping.

It�s from Reddit, 100% male.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2016 20:51

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

c0ldfuse posted:

Reddit Post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/46xzz3/i_decided_to_destroy_a_wall_with_a_hammer_to_open/

Looks pretty crappy:

quote:

Could you do us all a favour and pull off that ceiling grill and take some shots of the joist space. This is killing me.

The one wall should be load bearing because it appears that there is an exterior wall above it (the wall with the gunslot windows). It's also clear that the doorways have 2x10(probably) headers in it because you cut the stud supporting the cripple out with a sawzall and used a prybar to pull it off.

The other wall seems to have some sort of mezzanine or bridge over it, so it could be possible that the floor is designed to span the whole room, but it could also be possible that there is one beam spanning the room and the joists run between that beam and the wall (short way).

What specifically did your Structural engineer friend say?

It is honestly possible that you created a major future issue with your house doing this. It would be well worth it to pull the drywall off the ceiling and have a look at what you actually just did. If you can't afford a few hundred dollars of drywall then you can't afford the (potentially) thousands it would cost to repair the damage that could result in the coming years.

quote:

Engineer and home remodeler here. Those were absolutely load bearing. I base this on the second to last photo showing the hallway and the upper area. There is no way to frame off the left/right upper areas without needing support here. Whether the entire wall was required or just the columns I can't say. That depends entirely on which direction the joists/rafters are running, what size they are, and what is in that area. (Second floor or roof) but 90% certain both of those walls should not have been taken down. Cracked drywall may not be your only issue here. Load bearing member sizes are calculated not off simply keeping the roof from collapsing but from collapsing with snow piled up there. Add 3-4" of wet snow to any roof and it now weighs more than double what it did in the summer.

Strongly recommend having a REAL structural engineer come in to evaluate. They will need to look at the structure under those two areas to evaluate. Simply walking around saying "yep, them are walls" is not sufficient.

To those in this threa stating the framing indicates load bearing: not always. Bear in mind 1. How much work is done by homeowners (read: those that have bo business doing it) and 2. This is pretty much just the standard way to frame anything off in many regions. The double header just makes it easy to tie a wall into a perpendicular wall by overlapping the upper header. (Source on that- worked with Habitat for Humanity for over a decade now in 3 states)

Side note for anyone wanting to do a job like this in a matter of minutes (the demo part anyway) get yourself a Fubar 3 from Stanley. Absolutely the single greatest demo tool ever made. Only available thru Amazon from what I've found. Firefighters use them to brutally smash thru your house to get your rear end out of there.

Platystemon fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Feb 22, 2016

# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 13:50

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

kid sinister posted:

I'm sure your pallbearers would throw you in the river if you got one that heavy.

They might have to settle for rolling.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 20:19

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

They just don�t make �em like they used to.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2016 10:05

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

RBradbury1920 on reddit.com/r/legaladvice posted:

On the 15th of April I found a yellow post-it note in a handwriting that wasn't mine on my desk reminding me of some errands I had to do, but told literally nobody about. While odd, I chalked it up to something I did in my sleep, thinking maybe in my half-awake state I scrawled it so it didn't appear to be my handwriting. I threw it out and thought little of it.

On the 19th, I found another post it note on the back of my desk chair, in the same handwriting as the previous note, telling me to make sure I "saved my documents". I was freaked out, but there were no other signs of a break-in, so I set up a web-cam in my house aimed at my desk and used a security-cam app for it to record after detecting movement.

On the 28th, I woke up to find another post-it note, this one saying, "Our landlord isn't letting me talk to you, but it's important we do." I immediately checked the webcam's folder on my computer and found nothing from the night before, but my computer's recycling bin had been emptied, which I am certain I did not do recently, indicating someone had noticed the webcam and deleted the files. (They were just saved straight to a folder on my desktop called "Webcam".

Today, on the 1st of May, I found another post it note, this time on the outside of my door, with nothing written on it� and there also appeared to be post-its on many other doors in my apartment complex, all blank, in varying colors.

Do I have any legal recourse here? I have no proof except for the post-its, but those are written by my pen and on my post-it notes, so conceivably I could have faked them. Would contacting the police get me into any trouble, if they can't determine an outside source for this? I just want to make sure I'm not wasting anyone's time.

Should I consult my landlord? Those also living in the complex?

EDIT: I pulled up a letter I received from my landlord back when I moved in, and the handwriting is identical. Could this count as evidence?

Kakkerlak posted:

You seem sincere and this doesn't appear to be the plot of a Ray Bradbury short story.

It's possible that your landlord is leaving notes inside your apartment, but they don't make any sense in the context you're describing them.

It's likely that you are writing the notes yourself, but you are forgetting. Do you use post-it notes as reminders in any other parts of your life or job ?

Yes, this might be a mental health issue. You might be experiencing some sort of dissociative disorder.

Or it might be a physical problem. You mentioned that you have a very unusual narrow bedroom with no windows; is there a chance that you are not getting enough ventilation when you sleep, or that there is a carbon monoxide leak in the building ? A cheap CO detector (which you should have anyway) is a fast way to find out. You'll also have really bad headaches.

You know your own medical and mental history and your other experiences. If you think these incidents might be you, writing notes to yourself, there's no shame in getting somebody qualified to give you an opinion.

RBradbury1920 posted:

Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions and gave advice on how to proceeded� especially to those who recommended a CO detector... because when I plugged one in in the bedroom, it read at 100ppm.

TL;DR: I had CO poisoning and thought my landlord was stalking me.

If it�s poo poo that didn�t happen, they�re at least dedicated.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2016 08:03

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

lol if you don�t have an Enrique to shave you

# ¿ Mar 15, 2016 14:43

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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 14:52

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Darchangel posted:

This just begs to have the fireplace be a counterbalanced concealed door. Not sure how you'd work the chimney, though.
Hmm. Maybe a bookcase door to/on one side of the fireplace?

Go whole hog with the remodel. Fireplaces are silly anyway.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2016 01:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Crappy Construction: The Four POs of the Housepocalypse

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