Do all electricians put rubbish under flooring?

fluff29 · 1 Jul 2009

Hi there

Looking for some advice. The electrician that we have in doing a rewire is putting all the bit of old wood from lifting the floorboards plus all the old rubble where he has cut out the walls for new sockets. Is this standard practice for tradesmen?

Many thanks

Fluff

ban-all-sheds · 1 Jul 2009

Judging by what I find under my floorboards it's standard practice for plumbers, electricians, the original builders, DIYers etc - basically everybody who has ever done anything to the house since they started grubbing out the trees that once stood on the site.

JohnD · 1 Jul 2009

if you want it to be clean, you could try offering him a bin, maybe even a dustpan and brush. He is doing that to save effort and time.

If you want it any cleaner you will have to do it yourself. Nobody cares about your house as much as you do

I pick the rubbish out and use a vac under my floors when I'm working on them

View media item 4499

Synapse · 1 Jul 2009

I've recently been redoing some telephone wiring in my house and I was crawling around under the floorboards. You would not believe the amount of rubbish I found under there.

I decided to give it a bit of a clean while I was on, there was loads of old plastic bags that once contained sand, loads of flooring offcuts, sections of copper pipe, old plumbing fittings and worst of all an old asbestos and concrete pipe that was left during the house build that is now impossible to get out.

Along with this is a load of the old plumbing and electric systems that various tradesmen have cut off above and shoved down into the floor below just because it's too much hassle for them to go under and remove them fully. Which means I have to crawl around in the muck to remove everything.

ban-all-sheds · 1 Jul 2009

Many years ago I worked for a local authority, and they had fun with a small block of flats (2 floors) that they had bought from a builder who had put them up on spec and got into financial difficulties so had to sell the whole block.

They put tenants in, and before long the ones on the ground floor were complaining of damp coming through the walls.

After some investigation they found that the cavity was full of rubbish - broken bricks, unused sand. cement, mortar, bits of wood, empty B&H packets, copies of The Sun etc etc. So they took the tenants out and told the builder he had to sort it.

The builder sent in his finest labourers, who took out 2-3 courses of blocks from the inner leaf, in huge great sections, and started clearing out the debris. The next morning, or soon after, they turned up to find (what a surprise) big cracks in the walls, ceilings dropping etc.

They tried jacking things back up with Acro props, but left in a hurry when big slabs of the inner leaf started falling off. In the end the block had to be demolished.

stunlawless · 1 Jul 2009

As well as all the usual rubbish, I found the skeleton of a frog under the first storey floor boards.

No idea how it got there - can't possibly have jumped there. can it ?

fluff29 · 1 Jul 2009

Thanks guys.

I have supplied a bin, and we have disposed of all the old wiring, etc for him already. I had put in my spec that all waste material should be removed from house, but I think he may think we mean old wiring, not the rubble that he has taken out of the walls. Didn't think I would have to go into that much detail and didn't know tradesmen tended to hid old junk under floorboards. You learn something new all the time.

Thanks

Fluff

EddieM · 1 Jul 2009

JohnD said:
if you want it to be clean, you could try offering him a bin, maybe even a dustpan and brush. He is doing that to save effort and time.

If you want it any cleaner you will have to do it yourself. Nobody cares about your house as much as you do I pick the rubbish out and use a vac under my floors when I'm working on them

View media item 4499

That black conduit / pipe looks a little proud of the joists

JohnD · 1 Jul 2009

iron gas pipe, notched in, below the top of the joists.

not done by me

I have drawn its outline in red marker on the new floor (it is under kitchen units and appliances)

ban-all-sheds · 1 Jul 2009

JohnD said:
View media item 4499

For future reference, 2" cable tray sits perfectly on mini-joist hangers. You can cut lengths of tray, nail hangers to the joists, and have the cables sitting on tray rather than dangling in the air.

EddieM · 1 Jul 2009

JohnD said:
iron gas pipe, notched in, below the top of the joists.

not done by me

I have drawn its outline in red marker on the new floor (it is under kitchen units and appliances)

Yeah, had a harder squint at the photo, it below the joists, it's my eyes, aint what they used to be. Mind you the cable chases don't look deep enough

VanSolo · 1 Jul 2009

You find some great old stuff under floorboards. Interesting to see how much packaging has changed over the years on fag packets, crisps, etc.
I found these. View media item 12620

wingcoax · 1 Jul 2009

They look in good nick, any power left in them?

Steve · 1 Jul 2009

I found an old copy of the Doncaster Free Press (1955) in our loft one day. The odd thing is, we've been here 20 years, in and out of the loft every few months, and this time we went up, this old paper was just sticking out of the insulation about 2 foot from the hatch.

We'd never seen it before.

It must have been one of the roofers having his break. I can imagine him now, sitting on a purlin supping tea and eating his sandwiches over our incomplete roof.

Then he put his paper down and carried on work, went home empty handed. And we were the next people to handle that very paper after sitting in a loft for 50 years. It was in a poor state, but could read quite a bit of it. Very interesting.

JohnD · 1 Jul 2009

Under one of my old mum's floors I found a newspaper from the 1930s with an article about Prime Minister Chamberlain in it. (I thought I stored a pic but can't find it)

It was also quiite poignant to think I was taking up boards using the same cuts and screws that my old dad had done more than 30 years before.

diynot

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.

Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

Do all electricians put rubbish under flooring?

EddieM

EddieM

Similar threads