The Investor Renovator From Hell

[chromis]

We purchased and old house in February and before we signed the papers we met with the renovator to show us around. Nice enough guy and very proud of the fact he had done the work himself.

I was a bit dubious of some of the work but didn’t want make any comments about the quality of the job and burst his bubble.
<O
For example:
<O
The pine deck soaked in “so much treatment it’s not going anywhere for years”

The spa bath: “I put so much concrete in there don’t call me if you want it taken out”

<O</OThe “Garden Retreat” which in reality was a bamboo screen. Concreted in with so much cement I still haven’t wanted to tackle the removal of it.

<O
In the first two weeks the oven blew up. Sorry I don’t know the technical term for blue and yellow bursts of light and a big POP sound. I just say it blew up.
<O
In six months the deck has buckled because he didn’t leave any gaps between the joints and some of the deck is in the elements. Which leads me to think that all that chemical is being leached into the soil below.
<O
The bathroom extractor fan died a cruel death.
<O
Recently the laminate on the benches started bubbling
<O
Oh and yesterday was the cherry on the cake. There’s a dishwasher he installed. Now I’m not very fond of dishwashers so I’ve never cranked it up. But was having a convo with my partner about the fact we had never used it and maybe it would be handy when having a party. So I opened the door and a rush of water came out. I’m talking like the whole of the swan river was redirected via my dishwasher onto the kitchen floor and down the hall.
<O
Over the months it must have been leaking water into the dishwasher and obviously because they are supposed to hold water we had no idea this was happening.
<O
Later on that day (after the clean up and much gnashing of teeth) I walked (or stomped) out onto the deck and stood on a raised nail which imbeds itself into my foot.
<O
Just about every job that he did needs fixing, modifying or replacing.
<O
<OLike the old saying goes if you dont laugh you cry...! </O

[Ivan in Oz]

Like the old saying goes if you dont laugh you cry...!

No!!
Isn't it something like
If it doesn't kill you now:eek:

It will kill you later

Forget the making you stronger,
It'll get you:eek: :eek:

Did you get the Nail out?
You might use the "Splinter Removal" thread elsewhere here

[Clinton1]

You are not alone mate. I'm seriously thinking that next time I'll get an unreno'd house. Just bare bones as it was originally built.

Anyway, it could be worse - he could have done an extension and saved on building up the footings and lowering the area around the slab. Hmmm, paving that is level with the waterproofing that lies on the slab, and no drainage for the paving. Fun.

[Ashore]

<OLike the old saying goes if you dont laugh you cry...! </O

How about " A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" meaning the renovator of course

unfortunately there are lots of these cowboys about , guess you'll be better prepared the next time


Rgds

[chromis]

I have the occasional moan about it, but really I knew most of the reno wasnt really what I wanted so it would be replaced at some point.

Although the dishwasher saga was a bit of a surprise.

BitingMidge will like this one...The gutters are bright RED. All the fasicas, downpipes and verandah posts. Easy when you are trying to direct visitors to the house but not really my idea of an ideal colour for gutters.

[markharrison]

I wondered where the previous owner of my house moved!

Absolutely nothing this clown did was any good either. Even technically simple jobs were bodges. I had the driveway taken up recently (it was all over the map with both concrete, bricks and pavers of different sizes etc). The concrete contained absolutely no reinforcing at all.

He wired up the downstairs of the house. He decided that four foot flouros were not big enough. Instead of buying eight foot flouro fittings, he merely rewired the fittings by pulling the ends out and putting in more wire to the ends. And on it gos. The list is too long and gives me a headache to think about.

I will finally have it all sorted for when I move shortly (I'm going to Brisbane)!

[Harry72]

Yup my house had a regular Mcguyver, it wasnt that he renovated... he just added a few idea's of his own... He was a bird nut so in the first week after buying the house all I did was rip out all these bird cages that were inter connected by "chicken wire tunnels" which one of actualy come into the house where he would feed them!(yes there was a large bird cage inside the house)
He installed a second hand ducted evap aircon that had a out of balance cage fan... which wobbled the whole roof... every nail on the roof(corro roof) had elongated its hole in the tin and then scratched off all the galv which rusted within 6mths... had to replace the whole lot! One of the ducts that went to the rear of the house needed to be boxed over a few beams that run across the whole house(they kept the roof rafters in place to keep them from spreading)... No he couldnt just make up a box duct to go over the beams... he just cut right through them, this took away the structual strenght of the roof... which made the wobbling from the out of balance aircon even worse!
And the door bell Oh how it made me and everyone laugh, he had one of those pushbike air horns you know those honk honk ones with the rubber ball thing that you would squeze... he cut a small hole in the kitchen ceiling and installed the metal bit of the horn, which he connected 13mm poly pipe then ran this to the front door... he tried numerous time to drill a hole through the bricks and couldnt get through so he just drilled through the door frame completey ruining it. He put the pipe through the hole and then attached the rubber ball thingy, so to ring the door bell you'd give the ball a squeze... honk honk!

[JDub]

And the door bell Oh how it made me and everyone laugh, he had one of those pushbike air horns you know those honk honk ones with the rubber ball thing that you would squeze... he cut a small hole in the kitchen ceiling and installed the metal bit of the horn, which he connected 13mm poly pipe then ran this to the front door... he tried numerous time to drill a hole through the bricks and couldnt get through so he just drilled through the door frame completey ruining it. He put the pipe through the hole and then attached the rubber ball thingy, so to ring the door bell you'd give the ball a squeze... honk honk!

LOL, thats gold :eek:

Some people are just plain freaks LOL

[chromis]

Harry that story is an absolute classic. I feel a lot better now, at your expense though

Wish I could top that one but I just cant damn it!

[Groggy]

Some of these are gold! )

When I bought my first house I needed to relevel all the footpaths and carport concrete. It had been laid sloping in every direction, with swirl marks. Most of the slopes went back towards the house, turning it into a castle with moat during the winter (with mozzies in summer).
It turned out fairly easy to fix, I just dug holes in it with my booted heel then lifted great chunks out. I figure his mix was about 1:30, if that. By the time I had driven the waste to the tip most of it had returned to sand.

[chromis]

Sand you say? Well now I got an idea how you can get rid of that without going to the tip. Save yaself time and money

What ya do is get all your rubble, excess render and waste, pile it up about a half metre high along the fence line. Get ya sand and pile it on top. Then ya get yourself some nice orange Darling Scarp bolders to hold it all in, plonk an old rosemarie and few roo paws in there and nobody will ever know.

Well maybe until the next home owner who thinks maybe piling sand againts the fence isnt a good idea and attempts to remove it.