# What have you found when doing demolition?



## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

Plenty of old newspapers, Lots of old pennies in walls,mostly "wheat" a couple of indian head.
The weirdest was opening up the front of a stone veneer garage.
Tore the celotex off one of the returns next to the OHD, and it was *packed* with mouse skulls 3 feet deep, like a single petrified mass.
Very strange all those blank little eye sockets staring out of the little bleached heads.:blink:


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## oldfrt (Oct 10, 2007)

I don't know for sure if this is true or not,but I was told that the old timers used to put a couple of coins over the front door of a new house for good luck to the owners.

When working on my circa 1800's house,I looked and found a couple of francs,only later to discover that they had slipped down in the old balloon framing from the attic.Something my father had brought back from the war.

Has anyone heard of this being done?


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## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

The most fascinating thing that I ever found was an old .303 British Enfield rifle that had been buried over a header. Construction was wood lath and horsehair plaster. I sold it but was always curious as to how it got there.


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## Michaeljp86 (Apr 10, 2007)

In TOH magazine there was a article on this same subject. One guy found a picture of the original owner to the house wich I think was around 150 years old. I guess the guy in the picture looked exactly like him. That would be strange to find, a picture of yourself from 100 years ago.


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## oldfrt (Oct 10, 2007)

He would be the only one to know where to look for it!!!


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## Patrick (Apr 12, 2006)

Anyone here leave anything behind when working? We usually put our name on the wall near the door under the siding


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## oldfrt (Oct 10, 2007)

I left my name and address on a lot of houses I helped build on the Texas coast.
The inspectors never came around,so the builders skipped on the hurricane straps.Now I'm afraid they'll be looking for me when all those roofs get blown off.


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## Patrick (Apr 12, 2006)

My guys also have a habit of writing nasty notes to each other on the walls and roof underlays


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## A W Smith (Oct 14, 2007)

Patrick said:


> *Anyone here leave anything behind when working*? We usually put our name on the wall near the door under the siding


I pinched a loaf in a spackle bucket back in 1979 that our laborer made the mistake of opening a week later.


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## arturjhawk (Mar 7, 2007)

porn


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## A W Smith (Oct 14, 2007)

arturjhawk said:


> porn


Oh that reminds me. My childhood friend next door neighbor is an alarm system contractor. Many years ago while doing a job he found a whole bunch of audio tapes with porn labels on them so he took some samples home. They were obviously home made and embarrassingly armature and painful to listen to. As if you went to a church bake sale and asked a random older lady and older man to read from a porn script.


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## Michaeljp86 (Apr 10, 2007)

I always put the date and my name. 

One time when I was a kid I helped frame in a office in a garge where my dad and his friend were starting a business and were going to become millionaires. My sister went over the day he closed up the walls so now where I wrote my name it says michael stinks.


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## RLGC (Mar 4, 2007)

I found a Baretta 22 cal. pistol in its box, A sewing box with glasses at least 100 years old. News papers from 1917 1941, old silver dollars in a vent, old bottles in a yard. and an old world war II issue green Lucky Strike cigarette pack. I also fount a baseball card in an attic. (Monte Irving, New York Giants.


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## daArch (Jun 8, 2007)

paper hangers are known to sign and date their work. I do it all the time.

jackrabbit5 has posted pictures on other forums where his uncle's name is under paper he has stripped. Pretty cool, huh ? I hope he will join in and complete the story.

When I was still painting in 1979ish we found a date of 1689 penciled on the back of a clapboard that was being refitted.


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## JohnJ0906 (Jan 7, 2007)

I was doing a kitchen remodel, and as I was running feeds across the attic, I found a stash box.Rolling papers, seeds, etc.

The house belonged to a builder, and his son was the sales guy. When the son stopped by, I showed it to him, and he tossed it in the trash. "I forgot about that. My dad didn't see that, did he?" :whistling


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## Frankawitz (Jun 17, 2006)

Being that I do plaster work and most of the homes are 80 to 150 years old I have found things like a slide from the silent picture days showing a triple wing airplane that was advertising Air Mail by the US Post Office, I have found Mercury head dimes, Liberty Half Dollars, I have all kinds of bottles some dating back to the early 1800's, also have nails from the late 1700's I found in a house built in 1834. In my house I found newspapers from the Detroit Post I think it was called from the 1920's and 1930's I have full newspaper with pictures of Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Ty Cobb, also found a game book from 1927 Detroit Tigers, It lists all the batting averages of the players. I found a 1968 World Series Ball signed by all the Tigers in the trash can at a house that this Realtor bought and had me and my Dad clean it out to paint, I started digging through the boxes that we put out to the trash and that's when I found the Baseball. People told me to sell it, I still have it and I found it back in 1980. The coolest thing is a print of a painting of "The Battle at Bunkerhill" I also have newspapers from the Korean War with pictures of MacArthur. I still haven't found the big cash stash but who knows maybe some day.


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## silvertree (Jul 22, 2007)

I found a family of six little people who claimed to be from Ireland. I didn't believe them because they had French accents. They seemed quite comfortable in the floor joist space and I just worked around them.


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## stacker (Jan 31, 2006)

when we were demoing an old hotel here,i found an old trojan rubber tin.looked like a bayer asprin tin but it help a rubber.i think the price was a nickle,for all the cheap f%$kers.:laughing:
also once i found a plaque about 3x6 with a lead carving of hitler's head.it came from our pow camp here.prisons would save lead and melt it down and make these busts.a few years back a couple was remodeling one of the old barracks from the camp and found a bunch of paintings inside the walls,all down by german prisoners.


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## Michaeljp86 (Apr 10, 2007)

silvertree said:


> I found a family of six little people who claimed to be from Ireland. I didn't believe them because they had French accents. They seemed quite comfortable in the floor joist space and I just worked around them.


That sounds like something they would have on family guy :laughing:


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## Wolf (Mar 24, 2006)

I've found some cool old bottles. Dated back to the gold rush! Also got a piece of a gold rush ship that was burned and buried under the present day streets of san francisco. they didn't want me to keep any pieces of it, but I did. very cool.


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