Professional Property Maintenance

Mind The Gap!

DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Cowboy Plumbers

We recently moved our clients bathroom from it’s existing location to another room in the house. As we pulled up the old bathroom floor to remove pipe work we found this!

Mind the Gap! The beams holding up this floor were notched to half their original depth of eight inches. Effectively it means that the upstairs is being held up by 4 by 2s! We found more notches like this as we pulled up the floor and although none were as deep they were all notched deeper than allowed under current or even old building regulations.

If you notch a beam by even an inch to allow for pipe work or electrical cables you weaken the whole length of the bean by that inch. It is always better to drill holes through. It takes more work and makes for a hard day but your home remains structurally sound.

Always make sure your builder, plumber or electrician drills holes if possible and stay away from the mad notchers.