Your worst DIY disasters

The Mighty Quinn

Inspired by the motoring forum, thought it could be fun in a wider senses around the house and not just cars.

I haven't had many disasters, but anything I've attempted usually costs way more than it should because I haven't got many tools and need something specific to attempt the job.

It usually takes me twice or three times as long as a competent person and its usually an acceptable looking amateur solution rather than a tidy job.

Curtain poles put up at an angle, badly fitted towel rails in studwork, but missing studs, in the plasterboard etc

Fr Tod Umptious

I'm exactly like that op.
Whatever gets done looks shoddy at best.

When we first bought a house about 16 years ago I thought I'd be a great man for doing DIY stuff.

After a few years later I decided I was not and have never looked back.

Recently my wife asked if I could put up a bathroom cabinet she bought.
I said of course but only with help from her brother in law.
The cabinet is up, the brother in law did most of the work, I just handed him the tools.

Everyone is happy.

As for disasters, I did a car maintenance course and decided I could change the oil on my own car.
When trying to open the sump cap I tore the threads off the cap.
Luckily I was able to drive it to a garage before the whole tank emptied.

Never tried it since.

TheValeyard

Tried to build a swimming pool but it somehow turned into a barn.

PatrickSmithUS

The curtain rails that I put up four years ago are like a tribute to the leaning tower of Pisa.

I've actually learned to use my drill no so will be addressing this once the creches reopen.

theteal

No disasters yet thankfully but I've only been a home owner for 3 years (in 5 days time) so plenty of time to contribute to this thread properly. I've gutted 3 bedrooms in the last year and done quite a good job (if I say so myself) on the refurbs but that's not to say each doesn't have it's little annoyances left over e.g. floors not level so skirting gaps :mad:

All my curtain poles and shelving has gone well.

The job looking at me is to wall mount a new TV in the back room. I've done the living room with no issue but this wall, while I think the area I'm looking at is fine, does hide some pipework and there's a socket and light switch right beside. . . .been procrastinating on that one a couple of weeks now

I invested a lot of time effort and money in a Tree House recently enough. I was joining forums and more stealing ideas and tricks for putting hidden functions and features into it. Hidden exits and storage. Retractable ladders. Even a kind of Nerf Cannon and a zip line exit. This thing was every kids dream tree house. I was reliving my child hood building it as I was totally into the hidden HQ the "Three Investigators" had under a rubbish heap in a junk yard. I was channeling the spirit of that.

When it was complete - got a couple of crates of beer in to get all my mates over to show the thing off. Only to have a tree surgeon friend of mine point out the tree was in a dire state of rot and had to come down soon before it simply fell over of it's own accord.

I consider it my "Great Googly Moogly" moment.

Mr. CooL ICE

Was living in a house share a few years back and the power switch for the shower broke. Landlord always took forever to fix things so I went off to Woodies, bought a replacement switch and fixed it myself. Worked a charm... for a few weeks. Was in the middle of a shower when the power went off. Looked out the door and saw smoke billowing out of the switch on the wall. Ran bollock naked across the house to the trip switch panel and turned everything off. Decided to never touch anything electrical since then and always get a professional.

My house had a crack in the kitchen ceiling. After plenty of youtube, took it upon myself to remove the affected area of the ceiling, apply plasterboard and plaster the whole ceiling. After 3 days of making absolute sh1te of it, got a professional plasterer in.

Ubbquittious

I replaced a broken tile and did some other job on the wall immediately after. When I finished that job I dropped the hammer and broke same tile again

Gregor Samsa

I fitted my own kitchen in 2006. The wall cabinets came with this hanging system where you put a plate on the wall with a protrusion, and a bracket on the back of the cabinet, and hung it on the wall. Made it quite easy to do on my own.

Two years later, on Patrick's day 2008, my wife was heading out for a walk with the baby in the pram. She opened the front door, and then stood in it to ask me something. I had the back door open. A gust of wind went though the house, and slammed the door between the kitchen and dining room.

The cabinet on the wall right beside this door hopped off it's brackets with the bang, and fell onto the counter and then onto the floor. It had glass panelled doors, a glass shelf and contained nothing but drinking glasses. All our drinking glasses. I remember the whole thing happening in slow motion before my eyes (I was standing right beside it). Everything just crashing and smashing on the ground. The only thing to survive was a small, fragile sherry glass my wife had inherited from her grandmother - ironically (given it was Paddy's day) decorated with shamrocks.



Obviously, after I cleaned up the mess, bought a new cabinet and a full supply of new glasses, I screwed it fast to a baton on the wall, the traditional way.

NickNickleby

When I was first married, money was tight. I decided to test the phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

Installed my own back boiler and central heating.
Didn't explode, but was forever finding leaks and trying to get the radiator in the front bedroom to work. When it was first installed, and filled and those forgotten about joints tightened up again, it was time to light. Mrs Nick called her friend round for the celebration of the inaugural lighting of the fire. Said friend was in stitches - I had put 4 Zip firelighters and about 8 pieces of coal in. I was terrified of blowing us all up (this was around the time the man in Rathfarnham was killed when his DIY back boiler exploded). Anyway, after adding on lump of coal every ten minutes, by the end of the evening we had a warm house. Mrs Nick was delighted - it had taken 6 months from the first cut of a floorboard.

higster

65” TV to wall bracket. Used all right equipment and was 110% sure was level before last screws went in and before put the tv up. Putting the tv up was a nightmare. All done and has a slope...haven’t had courage as year later to redo (just see tv falling to ground).

That was last diy I’ve done. Had attempted other small jobs (blinds, curtains, cabinets) and all were reasonable but always something slightly not right...always. Anyway Professionals since then.

NickNickleby

Now that the house was comfortable, it was time to get wardrobes. Waited for a sale in some DIY place and bought flat pack wardrobes - the ones with the mirrors cause we're sophisticated.

Got the first double assembled and located it facing the end of the bed. Grand stuff. Tight against the wall, plenty of room to move past it.
OK Nick, impress the Mrs, put the mirrors on it.
Done! Pose in front of mirrors... nice one!
Hmm, will the doors open fully given the proximity to the bed??

Nowadays, IKEA sell you these special brackets to affix your chest of drawers to the wall, pffft nanny store.

Open wardrobe door aaaahhhhhhh. The whole lot falls forward and pins me to the bed. Mrs Nick arrives up the stairs, taking them three at a time , no doubt. She ran into the bedroom, and I thought she was having an asthma attack. Nope, she was just laughing hysterically.

Ohhh, there are many more like that. Remember when Flander's's's house was burned down? And the Simpsons et al rebuilt it. I have a house like that :eek::eek::eek: (na, not really. Over the years I've learned to do things properly. Well, 40 years.)

Gregor Samsa

This one wasn't necessarily my fault.

When we moved into the house, there was a shower and shower tray fitted in the en-suite. We couldn't use it until the room was tiled, and that room ended up being the last thing we did (just used the shower in main bathroom).

Finally got around to getting someone to tile the room (tiling is the one DIY task I don't do), so I uninstalled the electric shower. Then when the tiling was done, I fitted it back myself. All went well - checked for leaks at the shower connection by running the shower and it was bone dry. Next thing my wife starts screaming from downstairs that there's water pouring though the celling. I can't understand it - there's no water coming out the back of the shower at all.

Turn everything off and get a plumber in. He has to take up one of the brand new floor tiles and cut through the floor boards to investigate. Turns out out builders didn't connect the waste pipe for the shower tray to anything! it was just pouring straight into the celling below. And as this was under the fitted shower tray, it was impossible to notice (unless you ran the shower). Dufus who did the snag list hadn't spotted it either.

Tried to get satisfaction from the builders, but since about a year had passed since we took occupancy, they just shrugged their shoulders and said "sure anyone could have disconnected that" - as if that's something people do when they move into a house.

NickNickleby

Last one for today.......

Having turned previous house from shell to mansion, decided to up sticks.

Moved into house that required much updating. There was an old central heating cupboard in the kitchen, one of those things like a giant clothes dryer. It was redundant because back boiler heating (again!!) had been installed.

This cupboard was a block built 'room' in the corner of the kitchen. Emptied it completely, and thought "hmmm, look how much bigger this kitchen would be if we knocked down those two walls. (well, it was one wall, and a door with a big frame to fill out the space). The ceiling joists were visible inside this cupboard, and not knowing the importance or otherwise of this fact, I decided to get the mate's Dad in. With him being a sort of handyman all his life, sure he'd know what's what. So, he lays into it, and later that day we have a big extra space in our kitchen, about 1m square. with corresponding holes in the floor and ceiling. So, says he, I'll be back tomorrow to put up some plaster board and fit floorboards. Grand. That evening after dinner, me and Mrs Nick survey our greatly expanded kitchen and plan how to fill it. Off to bed.

uh oh. Bedroom door wont open. Okay, we'll sleep in the other room, just in case the door is holding the house up. Mate's father arrives back next day. Acro's rented and joists reinforced with additional long pieces and coach bolts, apparently the best fix known to man. And sure enough, it seemed to be. I went upstairs and jumped around the place to see if there was any movement. All good. But just to be sure, we moved ourselves to the front bedroom for a while. Not that we had any doubts about your man's abilities or anything....

A week or two later, lying in bed listening to Ronan Collins on the breakfast show. Suddenly, the wardrobe doors start rattling, the radiator on the bedroom wall starts clanging and the bed shifts violently to one side - well it felt that way, but i don't think it actually moved across the floor. MrsNick is paralyzed in the bed, and I'm waiting for the rest of the house to collapse, because I knew it had come to pass, the coach bolts had failed and the back bedroom was now in the kitchen. I instructed Mrs N to remain in place, while I slip off the bed onto all fours and gingerely made my way to the landing. Peaking out the door, I was amazed to see the landing where we left it last night. So I stood up and walked out onto it, and lo and behold, the bathroom and bedroom doors were still there. Went downstairs and everything was ok. Then Ronan says "we're hearing reports from Dublin of an earthquake...."
oh, how we laughed.... a few years later I had that section of wall reinstated, just to alleviate the nightmares. In fairness, nothing ever happened, so the coach bolts had done their job.

GreeBo

TheValeyard wrote: »

Tried to build a swimming pool but it somehow turned into a barn.

Ah, you just installed it upside down.

Gregor Samsa

Drive belt went on the tumble dryer once. The wife had gone out, and I was just at home by myself. Had a few beers and watched a movie, but got bored, and decided to investigate the tumble dryer, and see what was what. Plan was to take it apart, take out the snapped belt, get a replacement the next day and be a hero.

Took the dryer apart in the middle of the kitchen. Got the belt out. Then, started putting it back together again so that it wasn't just a big pile in the middle of the floor.

Like I said, I'd had a few beers. Every time I'd get one side lined up, the other side would fall off. Then I'd get both sides up, and try to fit the back, and both sides would fall off. I was getting more and more frustrated, banging, pushing forcing. The sides, the back the top were getting dinged and bent. After an hour or so, I realised I'd made such a hames of it that it wasn't actually possible to put it back together any more - everything was warped, screws had stripped and lost, clips were broken.

So I just left it in a pile in the middle of the floor and got another beer.

A little later, as I was heading up to bed, herself came in just as I was walking out of the kitchen. "We'll have to go tumble-dryer shopping tomorrow. Goodnight." I said as I walked past. She just laughed.

So did the guys who delivered the new dryer, and had to take a pile of dryer parts and bits away, strapped together with duct tape, as WEEE.

chuck eastwood

About ten years ago i was cleaning up the back yard when had 3 10 foot sheets of asbestos against a wall which were left over from the previous owners attempt at re roofing a garage many years earlier. I had already been in touch with a specialist removal crew but it was a pricey job and I put it off for a few months until I got enough cash together to re roof the garage and pay for disposal.
Anyway I put the 3 spare sheets up on the flat asbestos roof with a couple of 9 inch solids to keep them from moving. Fast forward to 8am the next morning, neighbor rings the door bell and asks me to follow him, I knew this was going to be bad. Mother of all storms during the night had lifted the three sheets up into the air and landed them straight through his garage roof. Long story short my bank account was about €6500 lighter a week later

Papa_Bear

TheValeyard wrote: »

Tried to build a swimming pool but it somehow turned into a barn.

Is it a pool yet?

Purgative

Not so much a disaster more a matter of really bad taste.


In our first flat (new from the builders). it was done out in various shades of grey. Light grey walls, dark grey doors and skirting. Anyhoo we watched one of these stupid make over programs and jointly came to the idea of painting the walls pink and all the woodwork dark green.


It was awful. Thankfully we sold up and moved to a house shortly after. We didn't feck about with the new place, just stuck to various shades of magnolia.

aj89

I'm always willing to give any DIY in the house a go, and haven't had any real issues except...........

hanging paintings/pictures. I can guarantee behind every painting/picture there is a hole or four from me messing up the measuring!

griffin100

I’m crap at DIY, my house is held together with No More Nails and Silicone runner.

My worst disaster was a few years ago when sanding wooden floors with a hired industrial sander and I sliced through the water pipe feeding a radiator. Oops.

Nigel Fairservice

I took out an in built corner unit in parents living room. They had a new one made and it was to be fitted the following day. The day before I took out the corner unit my parents had a lovely new mahogany fireplace fitted. The fireplace and corner unit were next to each other. I was standing on a stool when I took out the sliding glass from the corner unit...and then dropped it on the new mantelpiece. The corner of the glass hit the mantelpiece first and took a really nice chunk out of it. We didn't even have the fireplace 24 hours before I managed to ruin it.

simongurnick

My rule of thumb is if it can electrocute me or flood the house, I won't touch it.

My father in law is very handy, but has a habit of injuring himself. Came over once to fix something, I can't even remember what. And proceeded to stick a nail in his thumb with a nail gun. Sore dose!

GreeBo

At what point do we start banning posters from the DIY forum?

Gregor Samsa

GreeBo wrote: »

At what point do we start banning posters from the DIY forum?

Maybe some of us wouldn't have had the disasters if we went there in the first place

curiousb

Swapping out a free standing cooker a fair few years ago for a 2nd hand one we got from the sister-in-law.

First of all I disconnected the old wires from the sister-in-laws cooker as they had just snipped the cable. Then pulled out the old cooker and proceeded to disconnect the wiring at the back of it.

You can guess what happened... screwdriver touched pos and neg and I got thrown across the kitchen floor! I had forgotten to turn off the electricity. Luckily I was ok and never made the same mistake again.

NickNickleby

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Maybe some of us wouldn't have had the disasters if we went there in the first place

I find some of the forums on here excellent for getting information on all sorts of DIY such as plumbing/elec/building type stuff.

Youtube is also very helpful, and of course Google finds them for you.

I've never had a problem revealing any 'disasters' I've caused, someone learns from them - especially me.

fryup

Removing thatch & bramble from the front of the house many moons back,

swiping away with a spade i was, and then..gush! i hit a underground plastic water pipe that goes to the outdoor tap

so there i was soaked with an unintended fountain in my front garden, to make matters worse i couldn't find the water meter to switch off the water supply i knew it was somewhere near the road but couldn't locate it, so i had to phone the local council..a few hours later they sent out a guy with a metal detector to find it, in the meantime my front garden was like a mississippi swamp

a simple & straightforward job turned into a nightmare!

ah well you live & learn as they say,

silliussoddius

Deleted User wrote: »

I invested a lot of time effort and money in a Tree House recently enough. I was joining forums and more stealing ideas and tricks for putting hidden functions and features into it. Hidden exits and storage. Retractable ladders. Even a kind of Nerf Cannon and a zip line exit. This thing was every kids dream tree house. I was reliving my child hood building it as I was totally into the hidden HQ the "Three Investigators" had under a rubbish heap in a junk yard. I was channeling the spirit of that.

When it was complete - got a couple of crates of beer in to get all my mates over to show the thing off. Only to have a tree surgeon friend of mine point out the tree was in a dire state of rot and had to come down soon before it simply fell over of it's own accord.

I consider it my "Great Googly Moogly" moment.

I was thinking of building one last year, around the same time I saw this article which I thought was fitting.
https://local.theonion.com/area-dad-just-sort-of-assumed-he-could-build-treehouse-1845185186

Ubbquittious

I know someone who casually sunk an angle grinder into a copper gas pipe. A fierce lucky escape that it didnt catch fire

Aongus Von Bismarck

DIY is yet another false economy. The country is filled with atrocious tiling jobs, badly fitted carpet, and crooked radiators.

Get a professional to do it.