re: Odd things you've come across while doing home repairs/renovations

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Stud wall that was actually 2" x 4"

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What’s wrong with that?

As far as odd with electrical, the only thing I recall was a miswiring of a 3 way switch and two lights.
I can't remember the details now, other than I had to add a runner, but somehow the two lights were run in "series" with each other, making both of them appear dim lighted. If you put a higher wattage bulb in one of them, it made the other light brighter.

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Stud wall that was actually 2" x 4".

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My house was built in 1968 and has true lumber. The joists are 2x8, the studs and plates are 2x4, and the rafters are 2x6.

It is great except when you want to use a modern joist hanger made for 1.75 inch beams on a true 2 inch joist.

An OLD home we demoed in Plaquemine parish had corn cobs in the wall for insulation. Old school river shack that served as a home for many generations.

Interior remodel of house from the 50's. Load bearing gable wall in the kitchen area on pier and beam. Plan was to take it studs, update wiring/insulation/new sheet rock. Started demo – first layer was ¼” mobile home sheet rock, interesting. Second layer was wood paneling that had been “updated” with some sort of fibrous wall paper, more interesting. Third layer was wood tongue and groove, pretty common for that era. When I ripped the first course of T&G off I noticed the “studs” were random spacing and maybe 1.5X1.5, hmmm. Ripped second course off and noticed not a single “stud” went from floor to ceiling. It was randomly piece milled together. It became obvious the short pieces of "studs" were ripped scrap lumber, yikes. As I pondered wtf I was going to do to fix this the wall began to buckle. Ran outside, wedged 2x12's between truck bed and the exterior wall to keep the side of the house from collapsing. Ended up having to custom rip all new “studs” which resulted in an almost solid wood wall in order to carry the load. Fun project.

I've run into lots of shoddy work over the years but one that stands out was one that was supposed to be a relatively simple job of hanging a large framed mirror in the entry area of an older house. The wall was the backside of a staircase that split the entry from the formal living room and dining room, with a storage closet under the stairs. The closet was unfinished inside so I could see the back of the studs and drywall for the wall were the mirror was going, but neither my stud detector nor strong magnets could help me locate the studs. I measured over on both sides and knew there were studs, but couldn't detect them. I looked at the base boards and there were no nail marks were they were shot off to the studs either, which should have been more concerning to me than it was at the time. Finally drilled a 1/16th inch hole where I figure a stud would be and would be covered by the mirror, only to have the bit stop hard like I'd hit a metal plate. Except it wasn't metal, it was a 10' tall mirror that the homeowners had neglected to mention that had been covered over with drywall that had been glued to the glass. I was now mounting a 75lb framed mirror to a wall that, at some point in the past, was a giant mirror itself.

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Bois d'arc is pretty damn durable.

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Yea, I know it was pretty common back then. But actually seeing one is kind of like seeing bigfoot. You hear about them and know they are out there but.....

In an old apartment I lived in when I was younger, I was replacing a light switch in the kitchen and was having some issues killing the power to the switch panel. I had turned off all the breakers in the apartment but my volt meter was still reading that the circuit was hot at the switch.

Double checked all of the breakers again and confirmed they were all turned to off. Eventually figured out that a light switch on the other side of kitchen that was rarely ever turned off actually killed the power for the entire kitchen.

That switch when traced back went next door to my buddies apartment at the time. Turned out that to completely kill the circuit, a breaker in his apartment had to be turned off.

That setup was a good way to get hurt if you just trusted that flipping the breakers off was safe enough. The apartments were old though, they were originally built in the 30's and no telling what kind of remodels had been done in their history.

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assume this means 2"x4" as rough cut lumber, not 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 finished lumber

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Ah I didn't think of it that way. Yea, that would be odd.

I owned a farmhouse built around 1910 in Montana. During renovations we pulled the plaster laths and found some of the voids insulated with period newspapers, many of them socialist in political bent. Out of curiosity I did a little research. Montana in the early 20th century was a hotbed of political unrest.