AlexW wrote:
A recent thread damp reminded me of some tanking to the single skin
"lean to kitchen" (now demolished) that a previous owner of my house had
installed.

They had used cloth potato sacks all around the bottom of the kitchen
wall behind the dry lining ... neat, I wish I'd taken a picture.

Other choice work was the woodwork treatment ... pasted newspaper to old
oak beams ... or maybe they just liked the effect ... it seemed to keep
the buggers in though.

And also a small section of medium density blockwork (say 1 m2) repair
(above a window) to a 18" rubble filled wall supported on a small timber
lintel nailed to another small one nailed to the nearest rotten floor
joist. The lintels had no support at either end. Unsurprisingly it all
fell down with a a little "coaxing".

Any one else care to share some bodges found?

TIA,

Alex.

I am ashamed to admit that I actually perpetrated this bodge but it was
many years ago and I was in a big hurry at the time...

My parents house had a separate toilet and bathroom next to one another
upstairs - it wasted an enormous amount of space so we decided to knock
them together. We (my father and I) took the joining stud wall down and
refitted the bathroom, tiled etc etc. The job was going really well.
Then his job moved and it was suddenly a rush to sell up and move. We
sold the place quickly and, of course, finishing the bathroom was a
clause. I was tasked with turning the spare door that used to go to the
toilet into a section of wall. How hard can it be I thought. Just rip
the door trim off, nail the door shut, nail some battens off to the
recessed side and then nail plaster board over the top. Once skimmed no
one will know )

Well I ripped off the door trim and nailed the door shut fine. I was
feeling really proud of myself )

I nailed some battens round the edge of the recessed side of the door. I
wanted to make sure my battens wouldn't move so I chose the biggest
(bent, 8 times used, rusty) nails we had and started hammering away.
After a particularly large swing of the hammer I heard a crash and
tinkle from somewhere and assumed someone had dropped something. I later
found out that I had managed to knock a wall ornament off a wall down
stairs. Parentage was not amused |

Anyway that was only a minor set back so I continued. I grabbed the
plaster board and nailed it to the flat side of the door and ended up
with something that looked like a wall ). I then went round to the
recessed side and nailed some plaster board to that (up to about chest
height). It looked good but I was a little concerned about the gap
between the plasterboard and the door (about 4 inches). I pushed gently
on the board - it flexed. Oh dear. I knew I should have fixed battens
across as well as probably a vertical up the middle. Well, it was late,
and I had no more plasterboard so taking it down to fit battens wasn't
an option. I decided to perform the biggest bodge I have ever done. I
went and got some news papers. I took a page at a time, screwed it up
and stuffed it down the gap. Page after page after page went down that
gap. As it filled up I stuffed them down. Eventually after about 20
newspapers worth I tested the board again. It was rock solid. I could
lean on it and it didn't flex (well I don't think it did). I then fitted
cross battens to the top half of the door and finished the job properly.

The only problem came when I had to nail the skirting to it. I ended up
glueing it. We sold the house like that. I wonder sometimes if it has
ever broken and been done properly. I vowed then never to bodge another job.