[Closed] What's this then? Old house brickwork stuff.

With the caveat of I have no actual idea

a thin metal (& rusty) lintel

To date I have only seen these over a fireplace.

Is all your wiring bodged to that standard?

Coal store?

Freaks me out when I see diagonal wiring in the walls.

How old is the house? Old enough to have had a coal fired oven in there originally?

https://www.1900s.org.uk/1900s-cooking-range.htm

Whole house was bodged to this standard, hence 7 years rectifying before getting to kitchen.

Here's a better picture of the mysterious hole. Just excuse me for a minute whilst I cough my guts up...

[img] [/img]

Edit: House is 100 years old, but I'm fairly sure the coal store was further long as there's an outside lintel visible there and the floor/store is backfilled with concrete (hence having to replace whole floor as that's just a damp misery as it) and might as well sort the whole lot out.

Where the mystery hole is, is just a normal timber floor but wonky as hell.

Yes I'm tempted to say it was the top of the kitchen range

It’s the end of level boss. Defeat this and it unlocks 7 more rooms for you to refurb.

The hole outside 😕 Are there any more signs of workings,supports etc above that, that could indicate a chimney pipe or such leading to the roof

Coal scuttle or coal chute is my guess.

Wiring needs starting over really

Lived in an old house and what you show looks like a small coal boiler set int the wall to save space and the hole will be for a small brick shaped item with 2 vent holes each side and a small slopimg roof about the size or smaller than an a5 sheet of paper.

Oh and love diagonal cables as wehen i drill through them there is a huge flash and a bang and all the power is lost followed by a chant what the f..k have you done, followed by me saying cable was run in accordance to wiring regs.

I can see Homer Simpson in your plasterwork

Possibly where the old kitchen range went?
Lived in an Edwardian house that had a small fireplace opening in room that would originally have been the downstairs kitchen. Took out the fireplace and fireback and about a half-ton of rubble followed - Mrs DB thought the house was about to fall down! The range fireplace was about 3 foot wide and a couple of feet deep.

Range. We put a range back in our last house, never did the heat box properly as it was an eBay job and the ducts were rotten, but was still good enough for warming stuff/plates, nice thing to have. You should fit one, just to add your job list.

Are you starting from fresh with that wall BN?
It looks like it should go back to barre brick and starting again.

Oh and love diagonal cables as wehen i drill through them there is a huge flash and a bang and all the power is lost followed by a chant what the f..k have you done, followed by me saying cable was run in accordance to wiring regs.

Do you check for cables / pipes before drilling? Pretty standard practice in old houses, you never know what's behind the plaster...

Do you check for cables / pipes before drilling? Pretty standard practice in old houses, you never know what’s behind the plaste

I've got the blue bosch one of those. I recon its accurate maybe 60% of the time.

I can see Homer Simpson in your plasterwork

I think Homer Simpson did the plasterwork

Is all your wiring bodged to that standard?

im glad everyone else was thinking this. My mate has just had to dog a trench out in his kitchen to bring a new main in - found wiring going diagnoally across the floor - so i said break it, and bury it properly whilst you've got a massive hole dug.

Also - im going with coal scullery or small fire - it looks like it's had a renderaround it??

Thanks for replies and, yes, it's a total bodge everywhere - as have other rooms been. The swear words that my wild-haired Scottish electrician throws about when he uncovers stuff would make you blush. Great guy though.

And yes, like every other room this will be back to brick.

So the hole was the fire bit for an old fashioned range? Can anyone explain more? It's only 1 brick deep, so what was the bodged exit hole for?

What was the metal bit then? Sorry - still doesn't make sense!

Thanks for your patience 🙂

Edit: New joists, floor, RSJs, ceiling, plasterboard, electrics (cooking running of a bodged junction box in the landing) and new extension windows & subframe because the ones in are are wrong height to work with kitchen units - just to fix what's **** before I even think about the cost of a new kitchen.

Just to make level clear the level of bodge.

Do you check for cables / pipes before drilling? Pretty standard practice in old houses, you never know what’s behind the plaster…

On even in the plaster!. I striped down my brother's kitchen in preparation for moving a partition wall - a victorian townhouse that had been converted to flats in the 50s. Instead of junction boxes the cables had been joined by twisting the bare ends together and setting them in the plaster. 🙂

..and why's my name showing as "Rich" on the forum overview page? (I mean that's my name, but I appear to be alone in this new feature)

Pretty standard practice in old houses, you never know what’s behind the plaster…

Those things are sometimes good for confirming something is there but hopeless for confirming something isn't there.

Quite an accurate description was given in the last episode of taskmaster.

I’ve got the blue bosch one of those. I recon its accurate maybe 60% of the time.

I've got coverts drill.. accurate 100% of the time. Knows where all the wires are 🙂

Instead of junction boxes the cables had been joined by twisting the bare ends together and setting them in the plaster.

We had them in our current house. 5 different circuits. Some lights, some socket circuits. All placed in a small hole in the wall at head level taped with yellow and green earth tape, and left for me to pull off the plasterboard 30 years later...

Those things are sometimes good for confirming something is there but hopeless for confirming something isn’t there.

I normally test it out on a known cable in the same wall / room so I get the sensitivity right and convince myself it's actually working OK. It's never going to be 100%, but better than nothing. I do feel glad we don't have drills with cast metal bodies anymore, with plastic casing you're not going to get a shock, but still have the problem of having to fix the broken cable afterwards - which would be an epic PITA.

All placed in a small hole in the wall at head level taped with yellow and green earth tape

tape? very posh.

I can see Homer Simpson in your plasterwork

I see him, hands on hips staring on that double socket and diagonal wiring, with a donut in his mind.

I’ve got coverts drill.. accurate 100% of the time. Knows where all the wires are 🙂

Well, I laughed.

I do feel glad we don’t have drills with cast metal bodies anymore, with plastic casing you’re not going to get a shock, but still have the problem of having to fix the broken cable afterwards – which would be an epic PITA.

If the body is earthed you don't get a shock either. The question is - which is worse - hitting a power cable or a water pipe... my brother's insurers will say the water pipe did a lot more damage!

Whether it's a fireplace, coal boiler etc, the top lintel is the builders lintel, then they infill the area below to close the opening down to the fireplace or appliance, with a smaller lintel over the finished opening.

I guess there is no sign of the chimney in the cavity, if there is it normally needs a vent top and bottom to allow a little airflow to dry any rain or moisture that gets in.

Well, I laughed.

It might have been funnier if autocorrect hadn't thwarted me.

Clearly it's not some chap called covert it's projects drill I have