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DIY dumb and dumber
Continuing the theme of DIY Disasters...
My home, like hundreds of identical legoland boxes in the 1970's new-town estate, is built around a central stair well. The first six steps lead to a half landing, turn 180 degrees right and take another six steps to the first floor. I had quite envied the way the next door neighbour had built out over the bottom steps, and put cupboards into the reclaimed space. After estimating the size of timbers required to span the space, and the best way to fix them to the party wall, I filed the project on the "maybe-one-day" list. The cupboards were apparently a selling feature when the house changed hands recently, until, that is, the new owner found two lengths of rope knotted through holes in the roof trusses and disappearing through the loft floor. (Yes, by rope I mean half-inch three strand S-laid twisted hemp ideal for towing cars etc.) The new owner, after staring at the rope for a while, decided the best way to find out _why_ they were there was to cut through them and see what happened. (He said afterwards that the hacksaw made them "hum like a guitar") I heard the "what happened" through the party wall: an almighty crash and loud shouts and screams. Resisting the urge to dial 999 straight away I cautiously opened their front door to find the mistress of the house in hysterical tears at the bottom of the stairs, and the DIY 'master' leaning out of the loft hatch in hysterical 'laughter', the two of them separated by the remains of the cupboards. I gave them a hand to clear up the wreckage, but I'm still looking for the courage to tell them that the installer of the "rope lintel" also rewired the whole house ............... keith |
Keith wrote :- My home, like hundreds of identical legoland boxes in the 1970's new-town estate, is built around a central stair well. The first six steps lead to a half landing, turn 180 degrees right and take another six steps to the first floor. I had quite envied the way the next door neighbour had built out over the bottom steps, and put cupboards into the reclaimed space. After estimating the size of timbers required to span the space, and the best way to fix them to the party wall, I filed the project on the "maybe-one-day" list. The cupboards were apparently a selling feature when the house changed hands recently, until, that is, the new owner found two lengths of rope knotted through holes in the roof trusses and disappearing through the loft floor. (Yes, by rope I mean half-inch three strand S-laid twisted hemp ideal for towing cars etc.) The new owner, after staring at the rope for a while, decided the best way to find out _why_ they were there was to cut through them and see what happened. (He said afterwards that the hacksaw made them "hum like a guitar") I heard the "what happened" through the party wall: an almighty crash and loud shouts and screams. Resisting the urge to dial 999 straight away I cautiously opened their front door to find the mistress of the house in hysterical tears at the bottom of the stairs, and the DIY 'master' leaning out of the loft hatch in hysterical 'laughter', the two of them separated by the remains of the cupboards. I gave them a hand to clear up the wreckage, but I'm still looking for the courage to tell them that the installer of the "rope lintel" also rewired the whole house ............... keith This reminds me of the house I used to live in, a 2 up 2 down semi cottage, the girl next door had what looked like a net curtain rod across her front bedroom window that she used to hang clothes on. One evening we heard frantic hacksawing, later in the pub I asked her boyfriend what he'd been doing, and it turns out he'd cut this bar with a junior hacksaw...... he said it went 'twang' and seperated about an inch on the first cut, but he'd got rid of it. I later found the 2 foot metal 'S' buried in the plaster on my side of the party wall . Regards Jeff |
"Keith" wrote in message ... Continuing the theme of DIY Disasters... My home, like hundreds of identical legoland boxes in the 1970's new-town estate, is built around a central stair well. The first six steps lead to a half landing, turn 180 degrees right and take another six steps to the first floor. I had quite envied the way the next door neighbour had built out over the bottom steps, and put cupboards into the reclaimed space. After estimating the size of timbers required to span the space, and the best way to fix them to the party wall, I filed the project on the "maybe-one-day" list. The cupboards were apparently a selling feature when the house changed hands recently, until, that is, the new owner found two lengths of rope knotted through holes in the roof trusses and disappearing through the loft floor. (Yes, by rope I mean half-inch three strand S-laid twisted hemp ideal for towing cars etc.) The new owner, after staring at the rope for a while, decided the best way to find out _why_ they were there was to cut through them and see what happened. (He said afterwards that the hacksaw made them "hum like a guitar") I heard the "what happened" through the party wall: an almighty crash and loud shouts and screams. Resisting the urge to dial 999 straight away I cautiously opened their front door to find the mistress of the house in hysterical tears at the bottom of the stairs, and the DIY 'master' leaning out of the loft hatch in hysterical 'laughter', the two of them separated by the remains of the cupboards. I gave them a hand to clear up the wreckage, but I'm still looking for the courage to tell them that the installer of the "rope lintel" also rewired the whole house ............... I imagine he must have had to take up the slack over time - perhaps he could have used sash cord - and I wonder if it shifted according to atmospheric conditions .... (creaking ship's timbers come to mind) Am I the only one here who has suspended their kitchen wall units and the microwave on 10mm threaded rod fixed to noggins screwed between the joists ? (drylined walls) Been up over 5 years and I do believe it's staying in the forthcoming overhaul .... Jeremy |
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In article ,
Brugnospamsia wrote: Am I the only one here who has suspended their kitchen wall units and the microwave on 10mm threaded rod fixed to noggins screwed between the joists ? Not for long - doing something similar is on my list. My memory on the details is a bit hazy but there was a loss-of-life disaster at a disco/club in the USA (Kansas?) where the designer had supported walkways at different levels on threaded rods from the ceiling. The design was fine, but to make erection easier the contractor changed the one rod with nuts at each level to a series of shorter rods offset at each level, failing to appreciate that this left the topmost nut carrying all the loads from below, not just the one level. | | | | ======== ========== | | | | ======== ========== | | became | | ======== ========== -- Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm |
Rob Morley wrote :- snip Did you tell her? No - we didn't get on, I just kept looking at her outside wall Regards Jeff |
In uk.d-i-y, Tony Bryer wrote:
My memory on the details is a bit hazy but there was a loss-of-life disaster at a disco/club in the USA (Kansas?) where the designer had supported walkways at different levels on threaded rods from the ceiling. The design was fine, but to make erection easier the contractor changed the one rod with nuts at each level to a series of shorter rods offset at each level, failing to appreciate that this left the topmost nut carrying all the loads from below, not just the one level. Your memory is pretty accurate: it was the Hyatt Kansas City. One decent summary is at http://www.glendale-h.schools.nsw.ed...Hyatt_page.htm As that page hints at, the difference between design and implementation wasn't just silliness on the builder's part: the original design was, if not unimplementable, certainly a royal PITA: the uniform-diameter suspension rod would've needed threading for most of its length, so as to be able to spin the nuts up from 2nd-floor-level to 4th-floor... (Analogies to software development - "the bug is in the spec", "no it isn't, it's the way you coded it, and I'm an Analyst-Architect and I get paid more so I must be right" are of course entirely spurious ;-) Stefek |
In article , wrote:
Your memory is pretty accurate: it was the Hyatt Kansas City. One decent summary is at http://www.glendale-h.schools.nsw.ed...Hyatt_page.htm I read accounts in the past but had forgotten it was 114 deaths! -- Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm |
Tony Bryer wrote:
In article , Brugnospamsia wrote: Am I the only one here who has suspended their kitchen wall units and the microwave on 10mm threaded rod fixed to noggins screwed between the joists ? Not for long - doing something similar is on my list. My memory on the details is a bit hazy but there was a loss-of-life disaster at a disco/club in the USA (Kansas?) where the designer had supported walkways at different levels on threaded rods from the ceiling. The design was fine, but to make erection easier the contractor changed the one rod with nuts at each level to a series of shorter rods offset at each level, failing to appreciate that this left the topmost nut carrying all the loads from below, not just the one level. | | | | ======== ========== | | | | ======== ========== | | became | | ======== ========== I remember this. Featured on TV wasn't it? Clasic case of needing in large writing 'DO IT THIS WAY NOT THAT WAY' on the plan... |
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On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 21:39:34 UTC, John Stumbles
wrote: wrote: (Analogies to software development - "the bug is in the spec", "no it isn't, it's the way you coded it, and I'm an Analyst-Architect and I get paid more so I must be right" are of course entirely spurious ;-) Reminds me ... anyone got a (scanned) copy of the classic old joke illustration you used to get in computer centres[1] of 'what the analyst specified' 'what the programmer wrote' 'what systems implemented' etc compared with 'what the client wanted'? Emailed. -- Bob Eager begin a new life...dump Windows! |
On 16 Feb 2005, Jeff wrote
-snip- This reminds me of the house I used to live in, a 2 up 2 down semi cottage, the girl next door had what looked like a net curtain rod across her front bedroom window that she used to hang clothes on. One evening we heard frantic hacksawing, later in the pub I asked her boyfriend what he'd been doing, and it turns out he'd cut this bar with a junior hacksaw...... he said it went 'twang' and seperated about an inch on the first cut, but he'd got rid of it. I later found the 2 foot metal 'S' buried in the plaster on my side of the party wall . That's a super tale; you may be quoted at some point in the future... -- Cheers, Harvey |
On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 22:31:56 -0000, "Jeff" strung
together this: I later found the 2 foot metal 'S' buried in the plaster on my side of the party wall . Woss one 'o them then? -- SJW Please reply to group or use 'usenet' in email subject |
Andy Dingley wrote:
The trick is to use swaged rods in short sections and long tube nuts. The rods have thick ends formed onto them and the threaded portion is thicker than the middle. The nuts only have to be screwed on a foot at at time. Something along those lines occurred to me all by myself as I wrote the previous thingy. All by myself, I tell you: (invent)tm ain't dead here. *Not* obvious to one skilled in the arts, no; and in *no* way influenced by the fixtures on the Clifton Suspension Bridge wot I drive or walk across sereval thymes a day... honest! |
wrote:
In uk.d-i-y, Tony Bryer wrote: My memory on the details is a bit hazy but there was a loss-of-life disaster at a disco/club in the USA (Kansas?) where the designer had supported walkways at different levels on threaded rods from the ceiling. The design was fine, but to make erection easier the contractor changed the one rod with nuts at each level to a series of shorter rods offset at each level, failing to appreciate that this left the topmost nut carrying all the loads from below, not just the one level. Your memory is pretty accurate: it was the Hyatt Kansas City. One decent summary is at http://www.glendale-h.schools.nsw.ed...Hyatt_page.htm As that page hints at, the difference between design and implementation wasn't just silliness on the builder's part: the original design was, if not unimplementable, certainly a royal PITA: the uniform-diameter suspension rod would've needed threading for most of its length, so as to be able to spin the nuts up from 2nd-floor-level to 4th-floor... (Analogies to software development - "the bug is in the spec", "no it isn't, it's the way you coded it, and I'm an Analyst-Architect and I get paid more so I must be right" are of course entirely spurious ;-) Stefek Thats some nut spinning! Builders must not change structural elements without seeking approval, for exactly this reason. NT |
"Lurch" wrote in message ... On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 22:31:56 -0000, "Jeff" strung together this: I later found the 2 foot metal 'S' buried in the plaster on my side of the party wall . Woss one 'o them then? -- If this is a wall tie, why was it running across the window ? Jeremy |
brugnospamsia wrote :- If this is a wall tie, why was it running across the window ? dunno, was approx 6' high and 18" in from window so was probably above the top of the window but could be seen from the ground (esp with clothes hung on it) Definately a wall tie but funny positioning Regards Jeff |
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