this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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First time homeowner here. The house was previously owned by an investment firm who cut a lot of corners on renovations at some point. Does anyone have a good resource for fixing botch jobs? A lot of tutorials cover fixing or replacing things that were done properly before hand, and I don't want to spam forums with "How the he'll do I fix this monstrosity??"

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[โ€“] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I, too, have one of these "landlord special" properties.

I predict really the only thing you're going to have much trouble with is plumbing. Everything you find will be rigged, or leaks "fixed" with gobs of silicone rather than actually replacing the fitting, shut off valves omitted to save costs, etc.

Don't go crazy buying tools just yet, but be prepared for the fact that you will, over time, wind up having to invest in quality plumbing tools probably including some specialty stuff like broken stub extractors, short-throw tubing cutters, faucet seat wrenches, etc.

Dealing with a landlord special myself, and the electrical was just as bad as the plumbing - found outlets that weren't grounded and a breaker box from the 70s that needed replacing asap after our first power outage exposed more issues than we bargined for, definitely recommend keeping a portable power station around for these discoveries (you can compare options on gearscouts.com to find the best wh value for emergency backup).