I gutted one upstairs bathroom completely and today the floor in the second upstairs bathroom was partly removed to expose the old drains.

I also removed a major HVAC duct that fed both bathrooms and part of the third floor. All of the plumbing, electrical and HVAC were crammed in one chase.
Yesterday and today the stack and roof drain were cut out of the house and are being replaced and reconfigured.

Archeology: the hall bath had been yellow and black porcelain on the floor with white and gold speckled 4x4 walls (told you this before).

In the three quarter bath I determined this was the second remodel and the first had been done in 1985-86.

1) originally it had been a soft pink tile. It's academic now, but I would have preferred that to the almond replacement of 85-86 or the subway/beadboard of 2011.

2) one joist was completely cut through except for one inch and another was riddled with enough holes, twice as many as they used, that they might as well as cut it.

3) in the hall bath there was a large rotten area of subfloor that they threw more wire mesh and mortar into rather than repairing the problem. In the 3/4 a large area of tile was mastic-ed to the oak strip flooring.

4) the medicine cabinet was installed into the HVAC duct blocking most of it off.

5) the electrical is actually dangerous with buried splices and wiring snaked around and not attached to anything, and junction boxes and lighting not anchored to anything

6) neither ventilation fan was hooked up to the exhaust duct. They were there, the duct was there but they weren't connected.

How do I know the powder room was first renovated in 1986? Because what ever fell out of the medicine cabinet and into the open floor was left behind and covered over. Toothpaste that expired in 1986, antiperspirant, tooth brushes, razors, the hang tags from a pair of Polo pants.

This was all mixed in with all the broken up debris from the demos that was never cleaned out of the ceiling spaces down below, including bits of black, yellow, and pink tile.

I am sure the previous homeowners did not intentionally allow such substandard work, but they obviously never looked at the progress either. They obviously chose the cheapest estimate, too. And with that, I think, you need to pay more attention.

I would recommend adding clean up of All Debris to the scope of work. My current plumber says this is a very common finding.

I suppose it could have been worse. I did a project where the homeowners had to give the contractors (who I did not like working with at all) a stern talking to about not walling up smoked cigarette butts, soda cans and *take out food containers with food still in them* under floors and behind drywall. Yep,