Ahh the little "why would someone do this" questions when owning your own home.
The bathroom extractor fan started playing up recently. Bought a replacement and started taking the old one out only to find that, despite having mounting points for screws it, they have not been used. Instead it was GLUED INTO THE WALL. Why???
Now it's pulled part of the plaster away. It feels such a weird thing to do rather than just drilling the mounting holes and screwing it in place.
New extractor fan fitted!
We found out why the previous fan was glued in; because the previous owner had bought a fan too small for the hole that he'd made in the plasterboard (there's a wooden frame inside for the fan to screw into) and decided to just glue the one he'd bought in place.
Thankfully the one I bought was big enough to screw into the frame and is working much better at extracting. :)
@renbymon Mine too! Why are there two flex cables running from the vicinity of the breaker box to the living room? I'unno! (probably for an old backboiler which was removed eons ago).
What about the odd PVC pipe coming out of the side of the house and heading towards the living room, what does it do? (answer there was, "nothing, it just ends, it's not even capped off"!)
A lot of the bodges in this place scare me.
@philpem We've got loads of light switches that don't seem to do anything and that does worry me a bit.
@renbymon That is a very familiar situation to me too. I must have pulled out about 30 metres of 'dead' cable which was attached at one end and 'live under certain circumstances'.
Oh, and repairing the hallway wall after the dog's dinner the electrician made of it, shattering the plaster because he hammered in a wallbox instead of marking and enlarging the hole.
@philpem Seems to be a lot of work like that "fuck it, I'm not coming back here and no one will notice for 10+ years
@renbymon @philpem They turn the statue around : https://youtu.be/iiD9qn5q4RY
@renbymon Hopefully it didn't pull too much away... I had to deal with similar recently, but neither the glue nor plaster wanted to give. I ended up using a Stanley knife and a jabsaw to remove some of the glue, then levered it away and repaired the plasterboard.
The other sin which drives me up the wall - cheap woodscrews and even worse, cheap Rawlplugs!
@philpem Yeah thankfully it hasn't pulled too much away but I am going to have to go at the glue with a knife because the twin and earth used to wire in the goes through the glue. Push comes to shove I can probably cut it short and splice in some more with choc block but I'd rather just use the existing flex.
@renbymon What sort of glue is it, silicone? White spirit might loosen it, but I don't know what it'll do to PVC, and it can be quite slippy. I'd cut into the glue with a bare Stanley 99 blade (put some gaffer tape on the end) held flat against the cable. If there's some play in it, a tug and a wiggle should break the glue.
@philpem It's rock solid, like a resin, and white. Doesn't seem to have any play in jt at all
@renbymon That sounds like cheap Araldite. My method would be a small wood chisel and a smallish hammer (engineer's hammer). Tap gently and check often, and go around the cable or away from it (up or down the wall). If the glue's brittle, it should crack and a tug on the cable should loosen it.
@philpem Ooh ta! Will have a go at it when I get home from work. :)
@philpem Managed to get the flex out of this and it totally does just feel like resin splodged into the gap.
@renbymon Looks like it's been squirted in with a cartridge gun... If it's definitely not silicone (which can set pretty hard) then I would guess something like CT1, Gripfill or "Sticks Like Sh*t" (not even joking, that's what Evostik call it, and it absolutely does - gloves and wipes are mandatory).
@renbymon There are times I think that mastic guns should be licensed! Silicone sealant is like the landlord equivalent of gaffer tape, I'm sure of it :)
@fatedfox I'll take a photo when I get home but I think it's actually some kinda resin; it's rock solid and doesn't react to touch the way silicone does.
Thankfully it's not done any major damage, it's just such a baffling way of mounting the fan when it has screw mounting points.
@renbymon SUCKY SUCKY!!!!!
@renbymon That is so absurdly jank...Glad your new one fits better! It looks good, I had no idea Bosch made extractor fans.
Our house is full of questions like this. Why was our old boiler wired directly into the downstairs lighting circuit without a cut off switch? No idea but it's now been made safe and compliant.