Wow... (Ish !!)

[Ratdog68]

A buddy of mine needed a hand for a couple of days. Some poor soul (probably early 60's), living in his mother's basement... in a semi-converted (apartment) in an unfinished basement. Not being mean, but, I don't think this poor soul's elevator reaches the top. The filth/stench of urine is just over powering down there. The kitchen sink drain doesn't work, who knows what's slopped/dried on things? Anything you touch (plumbing) starts leaking.

Some plumbers installed a tub, moved a toilet, and then just left... telling the elderly lady: "No, we don't fix walls and such." So... this new tub needs a surround after the walls are closed back up. We found wiring disasters that we couldn't just "leave it like we found it"...just wouldn't be right. So... we cleaned that up while we were at it. Romex with a plug wired onto it, plugged into an outlet, running over to feed into a junction box (metal), wire insulation rubbing on the bare metal box... wired incorrectly. Just a mess. So, it's all properly wired now, new box, a GFCI outlet (which has resided between the tub/sink) now, new wiring (CORRECTLY) wired to the light fixture (light fixture didn't even work when we got there). No more bare studs in there, all buttoned up/primed and ready to paint.

Only thing left with our phase of repairs is some caulking to do on Monday (once things set up). Of course, NOTHING was plumb/level/square.

To "fit" things, we had to strike a level and a plumb line, and take all our measurements off those two lines to reference back to places we needed to make cut-outs, and scribe edges of material so they'd fit. Each of the three walls we closed/installed surround need the same fitment. No flooring down there, just bare concrete. Good thing too... since the supply line for the toilet started leaking and running across the floor (we never touched that side)... so that needed fixing. The (fairly new) water heater started leaking where the supply line attaches, and where the hot water exits the top of the tank... so, we had to fix that as well.

But.. we enjoyed someone's piano playing today... someone was upstairs banging out old hymns (and doin' a pretty good job of it too) that I haven't heard in a good many years.

 

[Chopperdrvr]

Your a good man RD. I know the trials and tribulations of trying to make someone else's hack job right. My house is like that. Plumbing isn't too bad, but the wiring is scary, and nothing is done to ANY code (not required here).

 

[Jhop]

Good deeds will help you sleep at night, just walking away will leave sleepless!

 

[Brian Shaffer]

You will be repaid, randomly, in the future!

 

[Oso Grande]

You're a good man Charlie Brown.

 

[theblakester]

Sounds like God delivered those people an angel, and he goes by Ratdog. That's awesome stuff man.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

Good Job RD!!!

 

[FrankT]

wow, just wow

 

[Curly Shuffle]

A thank you for helping out some elderly woman AND her son. It is nice to hear some of that still goes around. And a GOOD ON YA!!!! for that.

 

[Ratdog68]

Thank you for the kind words guys. It just amazed me though, and wanted to pass along a reminder that "but by the Grace of God..." . I learned one facet of the history of the condition of the place. The lady has more than one son. One of her sons was down there doing some work, came upstairs and told his mother: "Well, now we need an electrician and a plumber. And, I don't know what to do." He apparently prayed about it and went downstairs to do some more work. So, some of the workmanship we saw was efforts of someone without any knowledge (doing the best he could), but willing to try. Although, some of it was spooky to witness, a guy doesn't mind making corrections. What really appalled me/us though... was the shoddy stuff we saw from the plumbers there before us. Supply connections shouldn't leak from just touching them, or begin to leak all on their own. PEX lines (in a wide open wall) should appear to have some order in their routing, be secured to studs once in a while, and shouldn't just hap-hazardly lay in front of an outlet's face (Yeah, they rough framed a stud wall infront of an existing basement wall, which had an outlet). This was the outlet which had a plug wired to some Romex which led to feed another outlet/switch box, and had wires touching an unprotected access hole on a metal box. Now, yes, PEX isn't too likely to spring a leak, but, if it HAD, it would've done so, directly into this outlet inside the newly framed wall for the tub. We had to pull the PEX away from the face of the box to gain access when we turned that into being only a junction box with wire nut connections inside.

This job was all about getting something done on the cheap, but functional. Two of the walls were covered in the typical paneling found in trailers. Though a "finished" wall, not suitable for a tub/shower. So, here, notched trowel, mastic, and white Formica. The newly framed open wall... it got sheathed with MDO (medium density overlay), basically, plywood, covered with a paper/resin face which is paint grade. More Formica to finish bordering the tub's plumbed wall. We also had to fab a sloped "bench" sort of affair to span the hole between the other end of the tub and the wall. That'll route shower water back into the tub, rather than just onto the concrete floor after bouncing off the wall. Nuttin' fancy, no attempts to make a silk purse from a pig's ear... just make something clean/functional out of something horrific looking/smelling. Plastic molding was used at the ceiling to dress the joint between new wall coverings and the ceiling.

Some jobs are a joy, some are a challenge, some are just best described as "OMG".