I finally figured out why that attic run in the old Victorian took me all day

Honestly, I thought it was a simple drop from the second floor to the living room. The wall was open on both ends, so I figured maybe an hour tops. The problem was the house had been remodeled in the 80s and they put in a weird fire block right in the middle of the stud bay, but only for about a foot of space. My fish tape kept hitting it and I couldn't see it with my inspection cam from either hole. I must have spent three hours just trying different angles before I finally cut a small access hole in the closet on the other side of the wall and saw the block. After that it was just a few minutes to drill through it and finish the run. Total time was like four and a half hours for one cable. Anyone else run into hidden blocks in old houses that just eat your whole morning?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan_owens1424d ago

Heard a guy on a forum talk about finding a whole extra subfloor under the carpet in his 1920s bungalow. Said it was like a secret layer of plywood just sitting there, no reason for it. Makes you wonder what else is hiding in plain sight. Your fire block story is exactly the kind of weird junk they leave behind. Old houses are full of those little time traps.

keith26424d ago

But what if that extra layer actually had a purpose back then? Maybe it was for sound or extra support that just got covered up over time. I feel like @logan_owens14 is calling it junk, but sometimes that weird stuff was the builder's fix for a problem we don't even see. Old houses might not be full of traps, just solutions from a different time that we don't get anymore.

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evan_jenkins4d ago

Exactly, @logan_owens14 just found old solutions.