Whats the weirdest thing you have found?

Discussion in 'Builders' Talk' started by fostyrob, Feb 20, 2018.

  1. fostyrob

    fostyrob Screwfix Select

    The house we have bought and are renovating has it's fair share of "quirks" and previous bodges but what I found this morning takes the biscuit.

    I removed a bookcase from a wall with the plan to install a fitted wardrobe instead. This bookcase (homemade) was fitted with a couple of electrical sockets which I had planned to relocate to the sides of where the wardrobe will be.

    Cut a hole to fit a backbox in the wall and to my surprise there is a pvc window inside our bedroom wall sandwiched between a piece of plasterboard (bedroom side) and the lathe and plaster on the hall side. The window within the wall abuts the original lathes so will never have been functional...and it only comes up about 50cm from the floor. It looks like there has been some previous fire damage localised to this area but I am struggling to fathom why you would repair said damage with a pvc window pane!

    Pics included.

    I'm only a diy'er and have already come accross a whole multitude of oddities in this house alone so it would be interesting to see what you guys doing this day in day out have encountered!
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Are you sure its pvc? It looks like somebody tried to make a small wall out of glass blocks. A 60's thing ?
     
  3. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    Possible it was orginally a timber frame window,& been replaced, seen same in old houses, some were put in low, so when seated you could see who came to door or walked along passageway below, or see into shop below.

    Wait until you find mummified hands, cats, hagstones, old boots,etc in walls & roofs.:)

    If found,return them to place were found, or some other suitable location,I always made a point of reinterring them into wall, or other suitable place within the house.

    You might even find Hexafoils/ Apotropaia marks on roof timbers & other beams to protect the house & ward off witches & evil.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2018
  4. fostyrob

    fostyrob Screwfix Select

    Pretty sure it has a pvc bead. It is not glass blocks but a textured glass pane as you would normally have in a bathroom etc. The bedroom wall has a section that is new (ish) plasterboard over the top of the window. Presumably this bit of wall was replaced at the time of the small fire. Although it seems like an odd place for a fire as there is nothing in the vicinity to take light.

    I had thought about a low window but it abuts the original lathes and plaster on the hall side so you will never have been able to see through it.

    In this same wall I have already encountered two sparrows both with the head removed and a dead mouse. Maybe time to stop looking in case I find that mummified hand!
     
  5. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    How old is house?
     
  6. fostyrob

    fostyrob Screwfix Select

  7. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    So house has been most likely remodelled, over the last hundred years or so.

    Wait until you find a well,my wellies are still down a 200' well, as was I nearly, that opened up in floor in a kitchen I was working on.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2018
  8. fostyrob

    fostyrob Screwfix Select

    Yeah it was split into two flats at one point then re-converted to one in the 70's. I am still trying to figure out exactly how it was divided and whilst the division does explain why we have a second set or staircases entering our upstairs bathroom it doesn't in anyway explain why the wall in question would have a window within it.
     
  9. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    You might be lucky in finding plans,etc, for your place in your county record office.

    Would also show on the 25" to 1 mile OS maps, Census returns will tell you who lived there.

    Tithe records 1837 to the early 1850s might show earlier building.
     
  10. fostyrob

    fostyrob Screwfix Select

    Unfortunately there are no plans that we have found as of yet...

    No previous buildings on the site and as far as I can tell, all modifications have been internal other than there was a large glasshouse/greenhouse thing attached to the back wall where we now have a conservatory.

    Think we might have a few more surprises along the way!

    Now off to see if I can remove the window from inside the wall as I can't get the back box in! Thought this was going to be an easy job!
     
  11. koolpc

    koolpc Super Member

    Keep the pics coming. Looks interesting.
     
  12. Jord86

    Jord86 Screwfix Select



    Few years ago I was working for a building firm doing extensions, loft conversions, renovations, everything really. Started a job in a nice area, large kitchen extension and downstairs renovation. Me and the bricklayer set out the extension, sprayed the ground with line marker, got the mini digger in, footings dug out, marvellous. Day after, I'm digging by the old patio doors by hand where the digger couldn't get to, got down a couple of feet and the shovel dislodged a lump of earth which disintegrated into dozens of tiny pieces. Bullets, looked at the ground, I was standing on dozens and dozens if not hundreds and hundreds of bullets, various shapes, sizes and calibre. Nearly shat myself at first. They must have been there for decades, all corroded and weathered, seeing as the houses in the street were from the 60's (I think, though could have been 70's) built close to the site of an old munitions factory. Phoned the boss at the time, he shot (haha) over to have a look, gave the people of the house the decision on how to proceed, report it or forget it.

    We ended up burying the lot in a foot of concrete..........
     
  13. fostyrob

    fostyrob Screwfix Select

    That's all you want when digging out foundations! At least it wasn't someones remains!

    Found the tail fins for a mortar in the garden before...makes you wonder exactly how much of this stuff there is in the ground!

    As an update to the window in the wall...it is not a window. It's a bloody pvc door with privacy glass. Decided before I take down the wall surrounding where I had unfortunately decided to site the backbox that I would stick the inspection camera in to see exactly how big it was and how much demolition will be required. Anyway found it the handle and that it runs pretty much the full length height of the door that is next to it. Still no idea why it is there. It abuts the side of the door frame, is screwed into a timber frame and overlies the lathe and plaster on the hall side. As a best guess there is evidence of fire damage. I suspect the studwork was damaged (it has been removed) and they have used whatever was at hand to patch the hole- it just so happened to be a pvc door. They have then put a frame over this and fastened the pasterboard to it.

    Essentially it is not coming out without stripping all plasterboard and redoing the studwork (full extent of which I do not know) as well as possibly damaging the lathe and plaster on the other side leading to another job. Fortunately it is not a load bearing wall and it all seems fairly secure so it is going to stay. Can just get a 25mm box in so can bring the cables up from below so it should be OK.
     
  14. The proud owners sit down in the evening to the relaxing sound of distant gunfire.
     
  15. gadget man

    gadget man Screwfix Select

    Found a skate board under a bath once.:rolleyes:
     
  16. Sparkielev

    Sparkielev Screwfix Select

    I could fill a book with weird stuff from a dead body to stolen jewellery under a bath from jewellers robbery
     
    Jord86 likes this.
  17. sospan

    sospan Screwfix Select

    In one of the cottages I am renovating an old £20 note dropped out from behind the radiator. A few weeks later a €20 note fell out. Then a ring, them we decided to have a look what else was behind there - a pair of rather racy underwear !
     
  18. joinerjohn1

    joinerjohn1 Screwfix Select

    I was on a job when the digger driver ( creating a large soakaway) unearthed a skeleton. Police were called and work stopped for about a week and a half. Tests revealed it to be of mediaeval origin. Dunno what happened to the skeleton after that.
     
  19. Eh?!

    Don't stop there! :eek:
     
  20. Broon

    Broon Active Member

    When I was an apprentice mechanic a woman's car came in and there was a vibrator that plugged in to the cars 12v supply in the glove box.

    so if you see a random woman happy in a traffic jam now you know why.
     
    gadget man likes this.

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