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Your biggest DIY cock-up.

  • 09-10-2012 10:44PM
    #1
    Pottler
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,073 ✭✭✭


    What with the whole "Recession" thing, more and more people are turning to DIY(the fastest route to A&E, apparently) to try and save a few squid. Lad at work decided to plumb in a boiler himself leading to a night of chaos and exploding hot-presses plus a massive bill from a proper plumber the next day. Being as I'm a builder I get to see a lot of the aftermaths - floods, drilled wires, blocked drains and collapsed attics. Ever cocked up royally at the DIY(damaged it yourself)?


«13

Comments

  • #2
    Lando Griffin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,952 ✭✭✭Lando Griffin


    Well, where do I start?


  • #3
    alphabeat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 514 ✭✭✭alphabeat


    i thought the whole principle of DIY was not getting a cock up


  • #4
    tomtherobot
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 188 ✭✭tomtherobot


    Biggest DIY cock-up, hmmmm, let me see. Id have to say my 12 inch home made dildo ;)


  • #5
    IM0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,390 ✭✭✭IM0


    Pottler wrote: »
    What with the whole "Recession" thing, more and more people are turning to DIY(the fastest route to A&E, apparently) to try and save a few squid. Lad at work decided to plumb in a boiler himself leading to a night of chaos and exploding hot-presses plus a massive bill from a proper plumber the next day. Being as I'm a builder I get to see a lot of the aftermaths - floods, drilled wires, blocked drains and collapsed attics. Ever cocked up royally at the DIY(damaged it yourself)?

    I laffed :D


  • #6
    Damathon111
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13 ✭Damathon111


    None, personally but my dad built my house and a cowboy builder would've have done a better job.


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  • #7
    Mr. Rager
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,958 ✭✭✭Mr. Rager


    Went a little bit like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bHXMogzEm0


  • #8
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,501 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    I once went about building an epic thread, ended in carnage. Weirdos got locked up and Mary Mc Aleese got away with looking like the back of a Hiace chewing a blue bottle while the mods got High on turps.

    Everybody had a good time


  • #9
    Sparks43
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,074 ✭✭✭Sparks43


    Electrocutions burns cuts explosions

    Just a normal day in my house

    Btw i offer a Pc Repair service quite cheap as well Pm me for details


    :pac:


  • #10
    GreeBo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,518 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    Taking up some floor boards when I was replumbing the house and the genius builder hadnt taken enough out of the joist when he ran the copper, so he notched the floorboard instead. Cue my perfectly set circular saw cutting 2mm through the 3/4" pipe. Fountain of water coming up through the floor board (which was exciting as it was hitting the saw)
    Thankfully I had the wherewithal to drop the saw and close the cold feed in the hotpress before any damage was done.

    I guess that isnt my cock up though...right?

    One that was purely me was as I was moving the shower waste pipe on the outside of the house I accidentally (and without realising) broke the seal with the trap. Next morning most of the water from the newly installed 3 bar pumped shower was raining down onto the kitchen table.
    Had to cut a hole in the (newly plastered) kitchen ceiling to re-attach waste and then reskim & paint...painful.


  • #11
    Pottler
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,073 ✭✭✭Pottler


    Sparks43 wrote: »
    Electrocutions burns cuts explosions

    Just a normal day in my house

    Btw i offer a Pc Repair service quite cheap as well Pm me for details


    :pac:
    Wasn't my angle, but laughed anyway:D Also laughed a lot hearing the tale of the exploded hot-press, seeing as the same lad works side by side with a plumber but was too mean to throw him €20 to do it for him, properly.:)


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  • #12
    eth0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,632 ✭✭✭eth0


    There was a time I tried to lift a bag of horse**** with a 2.5 ton digger (someone got me to do this, thought it was a hairbrained scheme myself). A good solid bag now about one of these. Jaysus to see the thing burst open when I had it lifted a meter or 2 off the ground was priceless. No harm done though.

    First time I used a chainsaw with a brand new chain, was a narrow escape. Block hit me in the leg but that wasnt so bad.


  • #13
    Shryke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,199 ✭✭✭Shryke


    I'm not a towny so I have a bit of sense. Family is full of tradesmen too so some of it rubs off.


  • #14
    Pottler
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,073 ✭✭✭Pottler


    I chucked a block down onto a pile of timbers - a lump of 4*2 shot back up and I stuck my arm up to deflect it - arm broke with a very satisfying crack - much to the hilarity of the rest of the mugs present. Off to the A&E, where I'm on first name terms:D Plaster in the eye- steel in the eye, steel chunks in the hand, severed arteries, smashed fingers, cracked neck vertebrae, electrocution(not fatal Whoopsadasiedoodles).jasus, it's a miracle I'm still here..


  • #15
    Happyman42
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,066 ✭✭✭✭Happyman42


    15/16 yrs of age, decided to buy my mum suprise new lino for the kitchen with the holiday money I was earning.
    Organised it all, got brothers on standby as it had to be fitted when she was off at a meeting.
    Brother 1 was late, so panic ensued, but got it all in place and trimmed, looked fab.
    Panicked putting back of furniture etc, dropped micro wave and bursted a big flap in new lino.
    Dispatch brother 2 to hardware store for new fangled sticky stuff called Super Glue.
    Lash a load of it under flap and tell brother 1 to stand on it until it sets.
    Brother 1's shoe sticks to lino, panic some more, and then a bit more and end up cutting lump of shoe off. Mum's reaction...'God Bless My Soul!'
    1 inch of brother 1's sole still there. :rolleyes:


  • #16
    1ZRed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,293 ✭✭✭1ZRed


    Don't have one myself but Mom and Dad say I'm theirs :(


  • #17
    Sparks43
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,074 ✭✭✭Sparks43


    Pottler wrote: »
    I chucked a block down onto a pile of timbers - a lump of 4*2 shot back up and I stuck my arm up to deflect it - arm broke with a very satisfying crack - much to the hilarity of the rest of the mugs present. Off to the A&E, where I'm on first name terms:D Plaster in the eye- steel in the eye, steel chunks in the hand, severed arteries, smashed fingers, cracked neck vertebrae, electrocution(not fatal Whoopsadasiedoodles).jasus, it's a miracle I'm still here..
    #

    You should look for Paddys Sick note on youtube


  • #18
    Where To
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭Where To


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW4cM68KPbA


  • #19
    keith16
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,061 ✭✭✭keith16


    years and years ago my oldest brother was painting the living room. So not having a roller, he needed step ladder to get the upper parts of the wall obviously enough. The top 'step' on the ladder was a bit bigger and he was using it to rest the bucket of paint.

    I think you can see where this is going.

    So, I was in said living room at the time, lying on the ground naturally enough, watching "Art Attack", with the guy making a huge picture of a dinosaur using old carpets, tyres and boxes of washing powder...whatever he could get his hands on. Essential viewing basically.

    So, of course, the bucket of paint falls off the ladder. And this was a big bucket, not the small tins you get, a big plastic fcuking vat of a thing.

    I get splashed, I jump up and see paint ALL OVER THE NEW FCUKING CARPET! DISASTER.

    So my brother and I decided the best thing to do would be to get the biggest spoons we could find and scoop the paint back into the bucket. Once we had that done, we got a load of old rags trying to get the paint that had soaked into the carpet. We then had to borrow the neighbours carpet cleaner machine (they always had nicer stuff) and it actually wasn't too bad in the end.

    Never got to see the rest of "Art Attack" though.


  • #20
    Mickey H
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,822 ✭✭✭Mickey H


    Pottler wrote: »
    Wasn't my angle, but laughed anyway:D Also laughed a lot hearing the tale of the exploded hot-press, seeing as the same lad works side by side with a plumber but was too mean to throw him €20 to do it for him, properly.:)

    That would go nicely here Pottler. ;)


  • #21
    eth0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,632 ✭✭✭eth0


    One recently I tried to put a bit of woodfiller into a rotten part of a sink. Anyway first had to take all the rotten wood out, so I dug some out with a screwdriver, and some more till I had 2 massive gaps in the bloody thing, could have took out more but wanted to call it a day. Then had to fill up the dried woodfiller with more woodfiller. No end to the shoite, good nobody was around. Patched it up and tis only slightly better than it was when I started.

    Installed a dimmer and forgot the earth, kept getting little shocks off this till I figured it out.

    Years ago the Folks tried to make cider by putting the apples into a petrol driven shredder (still have it, mighty piece of kit). They thought they made a complete hames of it until a few years ago they tasted a bottle of organic cider I got in tesco and they said 'hmm.. tastes a bit like the stuff we used to make and we thought we done it all wrong'

    Tried to power wash the gate one day using an ordinary electric power washer connected to the jenny and siphoning water into it. No disaster it just didn't work. Serves me right for being too stingey to buy a proper petrol one.

    Went for a drive and forgot to tighten the wheel nuts. Nothing bad but some biddy spotted me stopping to tighten them in the middle of the village.

    Cutting the grass one day the mower hit a pebble in the grass, sent it flying and put a hole in the window.

    We had a proper registered everything above board plumber in one day to install a boiler. He made a complete balls of this, thing would only heat the water till it was luke warm and he was fierce surprised the pressure would rise in a closed system after switching it on. If I hadn't copped it the safety (not connected at the time) would have opened and covered the brand new boiler with water. Last plumber we ever left into the place.

    Know a lad who fell through a ceiling more than once.

    Melted the tip off one of them phase tester screwdrivers, back when I was a wee boi


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  • #22
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 98,142 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    It started with a drip from the ceiling :confused: ... :eek:

    Leaking valve on a radiator upstairs. Bit of freeze spray to ice it all up.
    When I unscrewed the valve the lump of ice came out with it. :(

    So put everything back together but it's still leaking, and the kicker is that there isn't a drain valve on the system so I had find one and fit it in between running upstairs to empty the pans.




    Also DIY stores should not be allowed sell handheld circular saws.


  • #23
    Wompa1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,344 ✭✭✭Wompa1


    Nothing big yet. Put together a tv cabinet thingy. The bottom leg is backwards so the wood side is showing forward. Also one of the drawers is off center a bit...


  • #24
    randylonghorn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,509 ✭✭✭✭randylonghorn


    1ZRed wrote: »
    Don't have one myself but Mom and Dad say I'm theirs :(
    I think you'll find that wasn't the result of DIY ... ;)

    ... though a cock-up I'll grant you! :pac:


  • #25
    Man of Aran
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 237 ✭✭Man of Aran


    Pottler wrote: »
    I chucked a block down onto a pile of timbers - a lump of 4*2 shot back up and I stuck my arm up to deflect it - arm broke with a very satisfying crack - much to the hilarity of the rest of the mugs present. Off to the A&E, where I'm on first name terms:D Plaster in the eye- steel in the eye, steel chunks in the hand, severed arteries, smashed fingers, cracked neck vertebrae, electrocution(not fatal Whoopsadasiedoodles).jasus, it's a miracle I'm still here..

    ,,,,,and that was only Monday, wait til I tell ye what happened Tue!

    Jayze Pottler , did yer mates nickname you "Lucky".:D


  • #26
    jugger0
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,453 ✭✭✭jugger0


    Was mixing cement, never heard before that cement causes burns, cue the worst pain i have suffered in quite some time, couldn't wipe my ass for 2 days.


  • #27
    GreeBo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,518 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    jugger0 wrote: »
    Was mixing cement, never heard before that cement causes burns, cue the worst pain i have suffered in quite some time, couldn't wipe my ass for 2 days.

    Yeah thats basically safety rule #1 for mixing cement...dont use your ass.:pac:


  • #28
    danniemcq
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,163 ✭✭✭✭danniemcq


    There was that time i tried to hang up a mirror for my ma in the spare room

    never figured that the hot water pipe runs right above the hot water tap (makes sense now) and drilled through and burst the pipe.

    Queue water everywhere major hassle and no hot water in spare room anymore.

    Happened the day the iraq invasion kicked off so i'll always remember that fecking mirror


  • #29
    Giselle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,540 ✭✭✭Giselle


    I was defrosting a freezer and decided to speed things up with a chisel.

    It didn't end well.


  • #30
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,350 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    Giselle wrote: »
    I was defrosting a freezer and decided to speed things up with a chisel.

    It didn't end well.

    You should change your name to Chiselle in honour of that.:P


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  • #31
    Frynge
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭Frynge


    Tried to fix three doors one day. Ended up costing over €400 and the cieling came down.
    But the cieling was nothing to do with me, just coincidence


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