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Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:31 pm
by ponch37300
Thought you guys might get a nice laugh out of this. A friend of mine asked if any trailers were for sale in the park. After talking to the office manager she gave me some lot numbers and prices. Called him back and told him which ones were for sale and told him to get a hold of the office manager to look at them. We have an office lady that does the paperwork and a "maintenance" guy that handles the maintenance stuff. I use the word "maintenance" very loosely. I have already had to fix a bunch of stuff he did wrong and calling the guy a hack would be giving him too much credit. The office manager told me that the maintenance manager was looking to sell his trailer also. I didn't tell my friend about his trailer since I knew his quality of work and didn't even want to look at his trailer. Guess when my friend came to look at the trailers the office manager showed him the other manager's trailer as well. Long story short he ended up buying it.

He called me after he bought it to come take a look. I couldn't believe what I saw. I've seen some bad trailers but this one takes the cake and then some. Keep in mind this guy was the park's "handyman" and in the monthly newsletter he was always offering his fix it services.

The floor has many spots that are rotten which were all covered up by furniture and rugs and my friend isn't a handyman so he didn't really know what to look for. The kitchen sink was painted and when he scrubbed it the paint all came off. The stove originally had a gas hook up and he must have gotten a good deal on an electric one. So to wire it up he drilled a hole right through the side of the trailer and ran a wire hardwired to the stove out the hole and put a plug on it and plugged it into the 50 amp outlet on the main meter panel. Our meter panels have the main 100 amp breaker for the trailer hook up but they also have a 50 amp camper hook up and a 120 outlet. So the stove has no means of disconnect inside the house. The kitchen countertops are painted black. The sink drain is sloped uphill by about 2"!!! He hooked up a dishwasher by using the tail piece adapter but he didn't use an air gap and the drain hose is just laying on the ground so it has to be draining dirty water back into the dishwasher. And the kicker, there must be some leaks on the drains so he used what looks to be 3-4 containers of plumber's putty to try and stop the leaks. Absolutely unreal. The bathroom he build his own vanity, used two kitchen 12" wide cabinets, one on each end. The put a laminate countertop on them. Then in between the cabinets he just put a couple 1x4s for shelves and a sheet of 1/4" faced ply to cover up the hole. I can't wait to open that up. He has 12" peel and stick tiles on the whole trailer, I personally can't stand those things because every single time I see them there are gaps and it just looks bad. There's a lot more and we haven't even looked under the trailer or at the flat roof yet. Also there are cockroaches in the trailer. It was just nasty dirty.

I don't know what he looked at when he went to look at the trailer. I know his lease is up at the end of the month and he wanted to buy a trailer instead of renting another year. So I don't know if he just jumped on it since he was running out of time or what. He did call me to look at it but it was after he already signed papers and I told him I didn't really want to get in the middle of that since it is our park manager and he could make my life difficult if he wanted. But I told him I would run away from it but guess it was too late. Now the fun of fixing this hack's work starts. Went and picked up a new sink and plumbing today, going to start there and then start digging into the floors this weekend.

I'll post up more pics as I take them.

Sorry forgot the image uploading part of this forum is no good. Here is the picture.

Image

Re: Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:57 pm
by Greg
Ponch, When did you move into the park I used to live in???

Greg

Re: Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 7:28 pm
by ponch37300
I've been in a bunch of the trailers in our park to do various repairs and most are in decent shape, all trailers could use a little TLC here and there but most of them I've seen are very livable. But this one is just filthy and a mess. I guess because this guy had the title of manager people trusted him that he knew how to fix things. I've had more then a few people call me to come look at his work and redo it because it was crap. I had been spreading the word about his work and think it got around to most in the park. He was the park manager but he also advertised handyman work but that had nothing to do with the park, he did that on the side. So I think his handyman business income dried up. Oh well he is gone now. Guess we have a new maintenance manager so we'll see how that goes. The owner called me again to see if I would reconsider taking the job but it just isn't worth it to me. I just feel sorry for all these people that don't know better and get taken by these hacks, especially the older people in the park that don't have a lot of money. I end up doing a lot of very discounted projects just to help them out since they already paid one guy to do it wrong.

Not sure why but the link cut off the other side of the sink.

Re: Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 9:00 pm
by yakima4$
I believe the word almost free comes to mind.. That was probably the asking price.
You are correct, there are allot of hacks out there. All you can hope for is that the elderly have a home inspector or a good son or daughter that points them in the write direction.

Re: Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 4:49 pm
by Greg
Scott Just a reminder, If there are creepy crawlers in there be VERY careful. You really don't want to bring them home. I used to get undressed just inside the door and throw the clothes in washer (HOT water) as soon as I got home.

As far as the Maintenance job goes, throw them a price but make it worth your time. free rent also.

Greg

Re: Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:28 pm
by ponch37300
I have been getting undressed outside the door down to my shorts and then coming in and showering right away. I still feel like I have things crawling on me hours after I leave. He has had an exterminator out twice now and they seem to be mostly gone. Guess the park owner felt bad for him since he bought it from the now ex park manager so the park has paid for the exterminator.

Been working there one or two nights a week now. Got the kitchen mostly fixed up. Last week I cut out the living room floor and put in bracing and new subfloor. Picked up carpet on Monday. I have been doing more and more carpet in the last couple years and got tired of renting a stretcher so decided it was time to spend the money on one and will have a nice shinny Roberts Power Lok with the swivel head and the extra case of tubes. I hate renting things and usually buy whatever I need to do a job but just haven't been able to justify a carpet stretcher that I will only use once or twice a year. But this year I've needed one 3 times so far and it was time to have one to use whenever I needed it. Will put that carpet in next Tuesday. Then have a few more spots to do but he wants to do a little at a time.

As for the manager position the owner didn't offer much. She said she pays 13 dollars an hour through a temp agency so they take care of the taxes and stuff. So maybe 9-10 bucks after taxes. She said she pays 3 hours a week, to cover my cell phone. So I have to give out my number to everyone to call anytime there is a problem and pretty much be on call for maybe 30 bucks a week. Then if I have to do any work for her I can fill out a time card for the hours I work. I'm sure there are things to do but honestly it's mainly "projects" if she decides to do something. Like last year the old guy rebuilt the swingset and put mulch down. Painted a fence. Bunch of piddly stuff but he would milk it out to make extra money. Again, it's basically a sit and wait game to see if you might get paid. And no free rent. I would need free rent and a guaranty of so much work a week. That's pretty tough since there really isn't much the park is responsible for and the stuff it is responsible for are things like water mains and sewers and roads so they call in the big guys for that stuff. So basically I get maybe 30 bucks a week, or 1560 a year to be on call 365 days a year. And the people in the park are always calling the manager for this and that and the manager really is a punching bag sometimes. Sounds like a one way deal to me and she thinks it's a fair deal. I said no thank you. I would have to find all sorts of problems that needed fixing in order to get some hours and I'm not that kind of person. I'll stay busy working for people that have an actual job for me to do and pay for it.

Re: Some interesting repair pictures

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 7:53 pm
by Greg
...so she's your basic slum lord. Are you sure you don't live in my old park??