ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What's in the walls?

we found a pack of old trojans during a renovation once, the older version that actually came in a tin enclosure

we really razed the owner about it too, he already had 7 kids....

I have been at this for more than 28 years and have found all kinds of old bottles,45 records, tools, and newspapers that date back to the '30s. Two stories stick out though.
We were doing a kitchen remodel. The owner had two cats that were a pain in the ... The ceiling was opened only on one side of the kitchen to make fishing the cable easier without damaging the rest of the ceiling. Well as these jobs go, one of the cats disappeared, and the owner was really peeved and blamed us. Two weeks later the owner calls me and says the recessed light is making a very strange sound, as this is the first time I had heard that, I went to investigate. Long story short, the cat had crawled up into the ceiling and was laying (just about dead) by one of the high hats, and as the fixture heated up the cat would make this horrendous sound. The cat lived.

On another job, we were doing demo and the carpenter said that the 'jerk' who worked there before used too many nails to put the job together and it made his job hell. In the walls there was a name and date of the work. It was 1959, and my fathers name. It was very cool!!!

Pierre

I was working in a casino boxing arena ceiling, where a guy I was working with found a rat carcass suspended in mid-air in a spider web. He sure got wigged out over the gnarly spider webs between two huge ducts over his head, I thought the guy was going to panic and hurt himself trying to get out of there!

I'm so glad this story had a happy ending. I know from my own cat just how inquisitive they can be about places which are not normally accessible.

I've been given boxes of old records that I've come across in attics, which is great for an avid collector like myself. I also discovered an old 9-inch 1940s TV abandoned in an atiic some years ago -- Again a great find for a vintage equipment enthusiast!

Last year I found some dusty pages from a late 1940s newspaper, which made some interesting reading over my lunchtime sandwiches. One column was a story which had just emerged about a serviceman's bravery during WWII. Fascinating reading.

Less pleasant finds include tracing a horrible smell to the remains of a large rat, its jaws still around the 240V cable into which it had apparently bitten.

lol Pierre ! a catastrophy

Free stuff is always good.

So Paul, did you get the TV set working?

Afraid not, in this case. There had been too much damage to it to make it worth trying to do a full repair, but at least I salvaged some hard-to-find parts to keep other vintage equipment going.

In a bedroom remodel the wall common with the bathroom I found an old medicine bottle in the wall cavity. No idea how it got there. It was the kind with a cork and a hand written label with a fountain pen and it was half full.

You know how in old houses they used area linoleum on the floors. They use alot of newspaper underneath for insulation and sound. This keeps the papers nice and flat and also clean. I found tons of NY Times and others from the late 1800's through the 30's. I found the cover story of the Hindenburgh disaster. It was so cool and eerie at the same time. I still have it.

Just did a walk thru on an old house that is bieng remodeled. Former owner lost house after bieng arrested for drug dealing. We had to call the cops back when we found more bags of white powders and green leaves-- over 50 when I left. The cops were still there and the drug dog was still going nuts.
Looks like this job will delayed.

A loaded "RG 22" pistol (a cheap cast aluminum revolver that sprayed as much lead out the cylinder to forcing cone gap as went out the barrel) wrapped in a shop rag in a wall with no access.
"#10 Downing Street" (the address of the British Prime Minister) written in 2' high letters inside a wall.
A hollowed out elephant's foot (complete with toenails) in an attic. Everyone should have one of these ...S