Do It Yourself

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Make it, Fix it, Renovate it, Rehabilitate it - as long as you’ve done some part of it yourself, share!

Especially for gardening related or specific do-it-yourself projects, see also the Nature and Gardening community. For more creative-minded projects, see also the Creative community.

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Older houses are fun to renovate (beehaw.org)

submitted 10 months ago by LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org to c/diy@beehaw.org

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I appreciate a creative use of scrap lumber as much as the next person, but jeez. I'm getting tired of floating sistered joists and framing.

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[–] Etienne_Dahu@jlai.lu 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I feel you man. Let's not forget about hacked up electricity, shoddy repairs from the previous owners, lower building standards back then and other surprises that make a somewhat doable project turn full teardown.

Yeah, I also bought an older place recently.

[–] LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Please please please go through and double check wiring and housing for your light fixtures if you haven't. We've been here a while and have been renovating as we're able to afford to (there's a reason we bought an older house) but that was one of the first things we did and there were nightmares hidden in the ceiling

[–] The_Sasswagon@beehaw.org 5 points 10 months ago

We had a mold issue stemming from a shower vent not connecting to the roof and just dumping humid air into the attic so we wanted to fix that. Found rotten newspaper from the late 40s as insulation mixed with vermiculite under a thin layer of cellulose, which we treated as asbestos and had that professionally removed. Under that found a whole spiderweb of live knob and tube which wasn't connected to any devices, was disconnected from many of its knobs, and was missing insulation in many places while it was draped loosely over some metal plumbing up there.

The project started as a disconnected shower vent causing mold, and ended up with a whole rewire of the lighting and outlet circuits in the house. Wild stuff.

We were also swapping out the breakers for ones up to code since we had messed with the circuits, and one a/gfci breaker just kept tripping. Found a light fixture that had evidentially been sparking away up there for who knows how long.

Feels really good to have had eyes on every box in the house and know that what's there now is leagues safer than what was there before.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

One of our friends found that wall severely browned and crisped behind the oven after it was improperly installed for decades, lol. Terrifying wiring mistakes too, the type that make your hair stand on end. They were remodeling after bad water damage and found all sorts of terrible surprises.

[–] LallyLuckFarm@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm glad they found that and (hopefully) rectified it! Surprise reno and remodels are never much fun.

Terrifying wiring mistakes too, the type that make your hair stand on end

This particular turn of phrase has me in stitches, well done!

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Omg, haha. I didn't even realize the unintended pun xD

And yes, they are now properly wiring and insulating their house and oven :)