Never ending story

[Shannow]

Long story short...well long.

Bought out house a fair while ago (around 12 years), of an old bloke who was known around town as a tinker/inventor/do everything type guy. He was missing 4 fingers on one hand, so must have been up to a fair bit. Had an opal mine, and was into lapidiatry.

Sole the house furnished, and asked if I minded him leaving a shed full of tools. (No probs to me, but his son had two visits with a ute prior to contract, and I was left with a few hundred litres of stone dust, some rusty junk, and a heap of rocks (some are neat), opal chips (really pretty), and a town rumour that when we "forced him out", he left behind 10s of thousands of dollars in finished opals...which we've never found.

House is a fibrous cement, made from when real rick fibre was put into the fibro...worst house, best location etc. Fibro not an issue, as it's painted and sealed.

Bathroom was all OK/SO-so, functional, damp, and prone to mould.

One night, 3AM a few months ago, we heard the sound of breaking glass, and a few heavy thuds...thought a burglar.

Worse, tiles had fallen out of the shower, and we knew that a bill was coming.

Got quotes from people to renovate the bathroom. Some stupidly cheap (with riders on everything from plumbing to electrics to "you organise it and we charge you"....through to "we could knock your house down, and you'd get a third of it back up...and still not cover all the incidentals".

Finally settled on a builder, who is licenced for everything, and only outsources the electrics.

Spent time with him this morning going through the "what will you do in those walls are asbestos ?, got little kids, etc."...dude had all the answers, and knew his stuff.

About 9:40 this morning, the boss (minister domestic front) rings up...with good news and bad news.

Bathroom had been done up fairly recently, as the sheeting was non asbestos...excellent news, but had me wondering why it had failed.

Bad news, when it was put together, to cover inadequate frame alignment, corrugated cardboard had been inserted between the frame and the sheeting...cardboard picked up moisture, and carried it around 10 feet up the framing, and kept it wet...timber repairs.

This afternoon's surprise was that the house electrics don't comply (metal conduited, with the conduit as the Earth, and an active/neutral carried therein), with new TPS thrown here and there, and a couple of live bare wires found in a decommissioned fitting...and the whole place needs rewiring...For renovation/addition, the electrician is certifying that the whole installation complies with current regs...that and a local electrician was electrocuted in a roof a few years ago, when a metal conduit was live as the earth connection had failed between them.

Might get the bathroom finished this week, but all the 'lectrics will be sitting there looking pretty until the old wiring can be ripped out.

Looking at post Christmas for the whole thing to be functional.

 

[crinkles]

sorry to hear that mate.

One day, I am going to build my own house. out of concrete.

We have had big jobs held up to allow asbestos (buried 50 years ago) on ex-house blocks to be cleared up. I've had to watch some drilling wearing an asbestos mask in the midst of it all. not fun.

 

[Shannow]

It's no probs, a classic case of you can pay me now or later...could've paid a lot more at the time for a lesser location, or picked the right location...and stumbled across a Maverick for a home owner/renovator...we found the cross off his wife's coffin in a wardrobe over the bed.

The location has probably paid for itself, as we don't drive at all on the weekends, and better half only once per week...everything is near us.

The Asy isn't much of an issue here, as it's all contained in the cement and paint "non friable"...Just don't disturb it, drill it or nail it.

 

[Shannow]

And luckilly I didn't knock down the outside dunny when I planned on it 5 years ago...it and the comfrey have come in handy the last few days.

 

[duaneb9729]

in our part of the world, minneapolis, minnesota. usa

the contractor would only have to bring the bathroom up to the current code.

are you going to have to rewire the whole house before you can use your bathroom?

 

[Shannow]

That used to be the rule down here.

A number of issues later, they made it that the electrician making the final modification of significance was recertifying the whole place...backed by random inspections, the electricians won't chance it.

Builder suggested running a new circuit solely for the bathroom, and electrician wouldn't have a bar of it.

Deal is that the bathroom will be fitted out, finished, and the wires run into the roof until electrics can be fixed up.

We'll still be able to use the bathroom with marginally less functionality than the one that got ripped out.

 

[tdi-rick]

That's funny as our house was all the same, metal conduit, rubber/cotton insulated wiring and the sparky wasn't too fazed. he only fully re-wired at my insistence, reasoning if there was a short it was inside the conduit and would be safe enough. Having worked with the old stuff over the years I absolutely hate it, but it is protected from vermin which is more than can be said for twin and earth just laid across the ceiling.

 

[Vilan]

I thought you were going to reveal that the rumored opal stash had been hidden in the ceiling and had finally fallen through. Paydirt!

 

[mechtech2]

Maybe you'll find the opals with all that digging around.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: tdi-rick
That's funny as our house was all the same, metal conduit, rubber/cotton insulated wiring and the sparky wasn't too fazed. he only fully re-wired at my insistence, reasoning if there was a short it was inside the conduit and would be safe enough. Having worked with the old stuff over the years I absolutely hate it, but it is protected from vermin which is more than can be said for twin and earth just laid across the ceiling.


rick, that's the theory, but if the continuity of the sheath is lost, the whole metal conduit becomes live, floating at 240 volts.

Killed a local electrician here a few years ago, when somebody had modified the system, broken the continuity of the conduit, and he fell across a live "grid" of metal conduit.

 

[moribundman]

Being an electrician can be dangerous sometime.
-S.S.

 

[Shannow]

Electrician came this arvo and decommissioned all of the bathroom electrics. Light fitting was all toasty, and looked/smelled like some of the smoke had started getting out.

Talking to an electrical engineer at work about it, he surveyed his own house shortly after moving in, and found half of his roof live due to a short in a T connector in the same stuff, so it's got to come out IMO.

Builder has been great, knowing that we have small children, in setting up the bath to use tonight. Very rudimentary, and unlined walls, but there's a bath and water.

Typical, I'm financing the show, and ordered a long, deep bath for the 4 or 5 times a year when I grab a good book and drain the hot water service...and everyone in the house has used MY bath before me.

Little bloke has difficulties getting in...it upsets his wedding tackle it's so deep.