Yep, of the old work plumbing and electrical (new work is fine - no sheetrock in the way, can route things however you like, and you don't have to mess with whatever some idiot electrician/plumber did stupidly), sewage is the worst. Our last project, of just installing another light above a stairwell has now expanded into replacing the whole downstairs ceiling, adding a stub wall to house a closet, replacing all the downstairs lighting, rerouting every wire, and duct down there (no pipes in this section), and rearranging everything in the room. Now, we were going to do this at some point, but it was going to be later on down the road (ie when we could afford it), as we hate the suspended ceiling, but while installing a $12 light, we had to rip down the whole ceiling to start trailing wires, as when we started wiggling something, it shorted, but tripped something before it got to the breaker. We had to follow wires to find what had cut out. Turned out to be a GFCI plug in a bathroom on the other side of the house.
Then, last week, we had to get a plumber in here, because dad wasn't interested in renting a power rooter to try to free up a clog. He was here for 4 hours cleaning kitchen grease from the pipes below the basement. Of course, the cleanout is in my room. He says the kitchen grease from the disposal, especially from pasta, will stick to the pipes, decreasing the flow. Spaghetti down a disposal is a definite no no.
Yep, sewage is probably the worst, but for the most part, it is straight forward. This electrical crap in this current house is probably the biggest pain in the arse. While the ceiling is down, we are pulling out miles of wire that had no reason to be up there, and still trying to figure out what these idiots did down here. When faced with the dilemma of having 2 switches control one light, they really got confused, and solved that by running more wires back and forth than should ever pretend to be run to and from a 3 way switch. Here is what they did when they screwed up and ran the ducts one joist over from where they were supposed to be, to line up with the suspended ceiling grid.
Yep, they did that on 3 of them, and all 3 are split like that. Now we have to sister a piece to it to fix it.
I guess I am just to much of a perfectionist to make it as a professional builder of sorts. Wouldn't be able to make any money. :roll: