I hate bodges

[Grumpy Northener]

With the exception of the get you home / get you out of a deep hole fix that can be sorted the following day or as soon as the right bits become available - I detest bodges of any degree or type - more times than enough the bodge is normally driven by the fact someone chooses not to go to the expense of doing the job properly in the first case but bodges can just be down to the simple fact that the said bodger is lazy or too arrogant to research the correct way of doing the job in the first place.

Case in point currently is our kitchen & utility which I am just prepping for a major refit - new boiler / floor / rewire / window restoration / kitchen units / appliances etc - upon taking some of the units out it became evident that we had damp creeping up the walls

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The property was converted from a chapel 20 years ago - long before we owned it and being built 140 years ago so long before damp proof courses were fitted to properties - so after digging the screed up / removing the insulation - I find that they have returned the damp proof membrane over the top of the concrete slab and folded it under the insulation & screed

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Net effect being that with leaving the plaster / brickwork to to bridge the damp proof membrane - All that they had to do was return the membrane up the wall above the finish height of the screed or better still return it back into wall and form a cut off to any damp

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So for the last few days I have been working my way around the room digging up the screed / exposing the DPC then chasing a brickwork course out of the wall to which I have returned the DPC - added a further membrane and then made good the brickwork - but If only I could locate the bodger that did it in the first place

[tractorman]

My late mother had new windows fitted in 2002 by a well known company. She paid a small fortune for aluminium frames (£14,500) and got a botch job. I suspect they realised she was just starting with the Alzheimer's at that time, but I had words with the rep last year and he insisted that wasn't the case (they rang and asked if all was well and got told what I thought in no uncertain terms, so they sent the rep to see for himself).

I hadn't realised how bad the job was until I decided to sort the weird kitchen windowsill that was made from two bits of the side "cladding", one on top of another to make up the width. The bottom of the window is at least an inch too high - my window-fitter friend says that this firm always make the windows too small and pack them with wood!

This is after I have sorted it:



The montage shows the gap between the metal window frame and the sill on both the kitchen and dining room windows and the cladding that they used for the sill - and the bodges that they used to pack it to fit. The top RH of the montage shows the dining room window sill and cladding. The sill looks as if it was upside down - there are still saw marks on it from when it was made and not planed properly. I sanded about 2mm off it to make it look half decent!



As an aside, the holes in the new cupboard doors are where I intend to make "handles" - I haven't got any further with them yet as I am still working on them (I made the doors a year ago and one has warped while it was "in storage" so needs a replacement making - and I haven't got any wood at the moment).

[rich.]

i like other peoples bodges, it keeps me in work putting things right

[JPB]

i like other peoples bodges, it keeps me in work putting things right

[rich.]

heres one i repaired a few years ago.. i had to dig out 16 metres by hand replace everything & when i got to the end of the trench i found this.. it was done by the previous owner to improve the earthing on the house.. my client was not a very happy person when i showed her the bodge..



yes, it is the soil pipe... thats why it was blocked all the time

[Grumpy Northener]

Still wrangling with the DPC bodges - heres the latest one - this would have originally been the rear door to the chapel - when they did the conversion they added a rear extension which became the utility / boot room

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They were obviously too lazy to lift / remove what was the stone rear door step so they just screeded straight over the top of it

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In doing so this completely bridged the DPC - no insulation either - DPC sorted and insulation installed + feed & return pipes laid to the new kitchen radiator

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Finally with the screed placed that is this bodge sorted - reward for all my hard slog ?? (apart from knowing that the DPC / insulation is now sorted in the doorway) A nice reclaimed stone step that I should find a use for in the garden