Ever install something too well?

[nickao]

I just came from the old house. I intended on taking a combination mirror cork board off the wall in my daughters room. Sounds simple right. Well I put it up when they were toddlers and I was paranoid it would fall on them so I really put it up there. I used 4 - 1/4" x 3" lags or so I thought! I puttied up the holes so well I forgot I had used 8 lags! After I dug the putty out those darn things were so tight to the framing I stripped them with the cordless! What the heck was I thinking!

I thought this thread could be horror stories about something you installed "to well" or maybe something you came across in a remodel etc, that you just could not get uninstalled. I have seen some crazy stuff and now I know I am just as crazy! I have to go back with the tool arsenal and probably slip in a sawzall and cut the lags from behind, what a hassle. Of course I said no problem honey it will take only 5 minutes! Two trips and 2 hours later, hehe.

 

[Wood_Junkie]

Could you use a plug cutter, and cut around the screws?  That'd let you remove the board (leaving the screws and "plugs" behind).
Then you can get some vise grips or channel locks onto the plug and head and back the screw out.  (DAMHIK)

 

[nickao]

Since the holes are so big from me messing with it its worth a try, of course when I went I just had a cordless. I'll go back with pliers, channel locks, vise grips and everything else.

 

[BobKovacs]

When we bought our house in NJ, it needed a complete reno- kitchen, bath, floors, walls, plumbing, electrical, etc.    In the process of demolishing the kitchen, I had to take out a built-in seating nook the previous owner had built.  After tearing off the plywood facing, I found it was built with 2x framing that was lagged together with the old square-head lag screws.  Thank God that I had an 8-point socket that fit them, because he used a total of 80+ lags to hold this thing together, and they were anywhere from 5-8" long, depending on what they were holding up.  I think the hardware weighed more than the framing....

He also used these lags to attach simple things like electrical boxes- one 4"x4" box had four 1/4"x 4" lags holding it to a girder in the basement....

 

[nickao]

Holy Toledo!

 

[Tinker]

I contracted to rebuild a huge chimney from roof up.  We first had to build a scaffold sloping ramp about 3/4 of the way around the house so we could wheel old debris down tto dump into my truck.  then extend scaffold further out onto driveway to wheel new materials up to the chimney.  all scaffolding had to be designed so NO debris ended up on lawn and we could not hinder daily household operations during construction.  We spent an entire day just constructing the scaffolding and nearly a day for the removal after all demo and construction operations completed. The flashing, because chimney came up thru a valley, took nearly two days to construct.  I built form at top of brickwork and poured concrete cap using a very strong mix and used a vibrator to settle the concrete for an exceptionally strong cap.  Needless to say, the whole job cost far more than just a run of the mill type construction.

Exactly a year later, the owners decided to raise their roof to add another floor to that part of the house.  We had to build a higher ramp scaffolding and take my last years work down to flashing level.  I sent three men with a jack hammer to demolish the top (concrete>remember?).  It took then two days to break it up and another day to demolish the very solid brickwork.  By the time the job was finished, we had gone many $$$ over budget because the original work had been built so strong.  Oh yes, the new cap was also put in using vibrator.  I don't think that chimney will ever come down by accident or from old age.

That was the last time i put a cap on chimney using a vibrator. 
Tinker