AvTek Pulsar Installation PIREP (or "Why I'm Not an A&P")

Mike - Obviously you have a lot of experience that yet may make you
change your mind a little the first time you encounter a stripped
drain plug (who in hell put in that rubber plug?) in that Audi!
NRP

Mike - Obviously you have a lot of experience that yet may make you
change your mind a little the first time you encounter a stripped
drain plug (who in hell put in that rubber plug?) in that Audi!
NRP

Actually, I still do change the oil in all the infernal combustion
engines I own. I have heard so many horror stories about the local oil
monkeys I am afraid to take any of the cars to them. I do the airplane
because it gives me an excuse to poke around under the cowling and look
for anything that may be amiss.

Oh yeah, I own the "House from Hell". The former hillbillies who lived
here did everything on the cheap with "Bubba the carpenter".

So, I do get mired in goofy projects that go wrong because the last
idiot did it the "easy way". The roof "repairs" they did damaged over 80
sheets of decking. I let the roofing pros rip off, resheet, and replace
the entire thing (Bye Bye $18 grand). The thought of 3400 square feet of
exposed roof (and hauling 120 pound rolls of torch down roofing up
there) was enough to make me throw in the towel right away. I knew I had
done the right thing when they hauled away the SECOND 40 foot dumpster
filled to the top with the old tar and gravel. It took 5 24 year olds
over 5 days to do it. Yikes! Probably would have killed me.

Fun stuff,
Mike

Oh yeah, I own the "House from Hell". The former hillbillies who lived
here did everything on the cheap with "Bubba the carpenter".

Sounds like the hotel.

We have spent five years remodeling two 3-story buildings. Mary and I
do most of the work ourselves (I'm a much better carpenter than I am
A&P!), but we're smart enough to farm out stuff like plumbing,
roofing, and (most of all) drywall. I HATE drywall.

I have discovered so many slip-shod, cheapest-possible modifications
and repairs over the years, it's hard to imagine. I'd be willing to
bet that 40% of the work we've done has been directly related to
repairing stuff that was screwed up by previous carpenters/workers/
plumbers/electricians...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Mike Spera wrote:

Oh yeah, I own the "House from Hell". The former hillbillies who lived
here did everything on the cheap with "Bubba the carpenter".



I can sympathize with you Mike. I've also got a HFH....got 99% of the
way through a remodel
that took 5 different contractors 16 months to get to the point that I
tossed them all off the job.
Worked for about four months cleaning up their screwups and poor
workmanship and the huge
punchlist, all to have it flood a month later. Now we are tearing it
all out and getting ready to
completely gut the place to fix all the "Bubba fixes" so that I can
sell it and get us into a better
situation. Probably the funniest of the "Bubba fixes" was from when
the house was built. Two
sinks 3 feet apart in the big bath.....had at least 30 elbows and a
dozen couplings for the water
lines between them. Total piping run for both hot and cold was about 7
feet. Looks like they
built that and other things from the job junkbox. Too cheap to buy the
correct materials, and
way too cheap to have the work done correctly. I figure it will take
me probably six months to
redo everything after I gut the place, just so we can sell it.

Craig C.

Mike Spera wrote:
... Probably the funniest of the "Bubba fixes" was from when
the house was built. Two sinks 3 feet apart in the big bath.....
had at least 30 elbows and a dozen couplings for the water
lines between them. Total piping run for both hot and cold was about 7
feet.

Got a photo of that? I'd love to see it.

O.K. I have a good one. The doorbell mounted high on a soffit overhead
in the kitchen. What could they POSSIBLY screw up?

When I tore down the drywall (ALL 4 LAYERS - the DIP****S just kept
piling it on for the backsplash) I found the wiring for the doorbell.

It was an old 110v system. They used zip cord (brown 18 gauge lamp cord)
STAPLED TO THE 2X4 stud. It was wired into one of the legs to the
electric stove. Big lug with electrical tape around it. This was on a 50
amp circuit breaker. Remember that lamp cord is rated for 8 amps or so.

I found the doorbell shorted, the zipcord completely devoid of the
insulation because the short had cooked it off, and the remaining
strands of wire burned/buried into the scorched and blackened 2X4. I
have no idea how this did not start a fire.

I also found a "new" outlet some bubba installed. 2 pieces of insulated
wire strung between the drywall and studs, around and inside corner to
the new outlet. Real nice.

Finally the topper. They turned the former laundry room into a bathroom,
complete with shower. For an exhaust fan, they plastered in the wrong
sized unit into a big hole high up on a wall (2+ inches of plaster
oozing out the back). Now, the $6000 punchline. Since it was too much
trouble to run the vent hose properly (through a roof vent), they simply
left it hanging IN THE DROP CEILING COLD AIR RETURN. The warm wet air
from the bathroom was being pumped into this drop ceiling where it went
straight into the roof insulation and finally the roof decking. 80+
sheets of rotted decking (an additional $6k for the roof) because Bubba
Jackass did not have the brains to know that you NEVER run a bathroom
vent ANYWHERE but out of the house, preferably out the roof.

What have you guys seen? Don't limit this to your house, this is an
aviation group. I'm sure we have some real winners in the airplane
category...


Can't wait
Mike

What have you guys seen? Don't limit this to your house, this is an
aviation group.

Ha! In 5 years of remodeling at the hotel we have found...

- "Emergency" lighting that had no battery backup
- "Fire alarms" that did nothing. Pull 'em all you want...
- Plumbing that was apparently soldered by my daughter, when she was 8
years old
- Drywall that was GLUED over old drywall
- Balconies painted with sand paint. Walk on 'em and track sand paint
EVERYWHERE throughout the hotel suites.
- No flashing on ANY exterior boards. None, so that the water can
pool on top of every board, and migrate into the buildings...
- Popcorn ceilings applied over un-primered drywall, so that over time
(and with humidity) it simply falls off in sheets
- Unwrapped air conditioning cold water lines that dripped
condensation onto drywall ceilings throughout the hotel, ruining
dozens of sheets of drywall and all the drop ceilings.
- "Window" air conditioners that were "plumbed" with ducting into
other rooms (in multi-bedroom suites) in order to provide cooling to
multiple rooms without buying multiple air conditioners
- Exterior lights that were wired into an individual suite's bathroom
GFI circuit
- Exterior lights that were not wired into ANY circuit with a breaker
on it
- A giant hole in the concrete floor (of a first floor room) that was
filled with sand and covered with an old rug
- 300 pound fire doors held up with 1" screws in the hinges

I could go on, and on, and on. It is just astounding what some
people will do to save a buck that will ultimately cost $100 down the
road...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
What have you guys seen? Don't limit this to your house, this is an
aviation group.

Ha! In 5 years of remodeling at the hotel we have found...
{SNIP}

I could go on, and on, and on. It is just astounding what some
people will do to save a buck that will ultimately cost $100 down the
road...

But it didn't cost THEM $100 down the road it cost YOU $100 down the road.

Mike Spera wrote:
O.K. I have a good one. The doorbell mounted high on a soffit overhead
in the kitchen. What could they POSSIBLY screw up?

When I tore down the drywall (ALL 4 LAYERS - the DIP****S just kept
piling it on for the backsplash) I found the wiring for the doorbell.

It was an old 110v system. They used zip cord (brown 18 gauge lamp cord)
STAPLED TO THE 2X4 stud. It was wired into one of the legs to the
electric stove. Big lug with electrical tape around it. This was on a 50
amp circuit breaker. Remember that lamp cord is rated for 8 amps or so.

I found the doorbell shorted, the zipcord completely devoid of the
insulation because the short had cooked it off, and the remaining
strands of wire burned/buried into the scorched and blackened 2X4. I
have no idea how this did not start a fire.

I also found a "new" outlet some bubba installed. 2 pieces of insulated
wire strung between the drywall and studs, around and inside corner to
the new outlet. Real nice.

Finally the topper. They turned the former laundry room into a bathroom,
complete with shower. For an exhaust fan, they plastered in the wrong
sized unit into a big hole high up on a wall (2+ inches of plaster
oozing out the back). Now, the $6000 punchline. Since it was too much
trouble to run the vent hose properly (through a roof vent), they simply
left it hanging IN THE DROP CEILING COLD AIR RETURN. The warm wet air
from the bathroom was being pumped into this drop ceiling where it went
straight into the roof insulation and finally the roof decking. 80+
sheets of rotted decking (an additional $6k for the roof) because Bubba
Jackass did not have the brains to know that you NEVER run a bathroom
vent ANYWHERE but out of the house, preferably out the roof.

What have you guys seen? Don't limit this to your house, this is an
aviation group. I'm sure we have some real winners in the airplane
category...


Can't wait
Mike
We took out a DG that had a piece of masking tape that said "$5" on it.
Does that count? BTW the system had NO filters, at all.

Margy

Wish I did Jon. At the time I was putting in 12+ hours a day at work
besides the 2.5 hours of
commute time, and at the same time staying one step ahead of the EMT's
and going to the
hospital. I had about 10 minuets of coherent time a day with the
contractor.

Craig C.