your worst DIY disasters

[petrefax]

anyone who's done more than slapping the occasional lick of paint on a wall is likely to have had at least one DIY disaster, i know i've had a few. being slighlty clumsy but also having an entire house to renovate, it's inevitable i'd have the occasional cock-up (for example, i am currently typing this with 1 less fingertip than normal on account of jamming my finger whilst hanging a door)

to date, my worst has been whilst re-laying a bathroom floor. I'd taken up the old floorboards, sanded & treated them and was re-laying them to use them as a "feature". to insure agianst splashes etc i'd laid a layer of hardboard onto the beams before re-laying

now, due to the hardboard being there, this concealed the pipework, so i was careful to mark out where the pipes were and avoid these areas when re-laying

all good, except when i got to the last-but-one board & smacked a nail right through a pipe i'd missed when marking out.

cue a hissing noise indicative of water escaping at high pressure, cue me thinking "oh noes" and making it worse by ripping the nail back out, then heading for the stopcock & turning the water pressure up instead of off...basically having a full on coco the clown moment

shortly after this, i learned how to re-plasterboard ceilings

anyone else have any decent DIY horror stories

[Barry]

Years ago while flooring the attic I banged my head on one of the beams and jumped backwards putting my foot through the ceiling then having a even more stupid moment I managed to step forwards and put my whole let through the ceiling, end result was 2 very large whole right above our bedroom, I learnt how to plaster after that

[peterb]

My fingers bear several scars from close encounters with a Stanley knife! Worst accident was stepping off the kitchen worktop (I had been hanging wallpaper) onto a step ladder... and missed! Lucky not to break my leg

[chuckskull]

Always, always double check the rating of the cable you're using to connect your new electric cooker. That was a big bang.

[Funkstar]

I can't think of any proper big disasters.

A few mistakes, close calls and things not done very well but that's about it so far. But with a large house and garden to renovate and landscape there is plenty of scope for accidents and injuries.

[Zak33]

my worst DIY distaster?

The Dog Toilet in the garden? Or maybe the spiked shoes for aerating the lawn while mowing the garden...

the list is nigh on endless, and pains me...

[Knoxville]

I've had my fair share of Stanley knife wounds and a few jolts off the mains but the notable ones that spring to mind include busting a fair few hundred quids worth of mower on a lump of concrete the size of my fist and watching said lump of concrete almost kill a car windscreen were it not for a well placed lamp post. Chasing a run away Ferris half way across a field because I engaged it's cruise control to check the time on my phone and the age old favourite strimming into a pile of dog mess or, if you're in Wolverhampton as I happened to be one afternoon, into a leaf pile FULL of used condoms...

[speardane]

hmmm... a few

had the builders, amongst other things laying a new floor.

Lots of spring in it, had a look there were a line of screws joining the chipboard where it butted up, over a joist that stopped.

so simply screwed it down properly,simple...

hadn't realised the xxxxxxx plumber had relocated the CH pipes along the top of that part of the joist, so got to fix the plumbing and the patch the ceiling (minor).

compounded by one of my sons coming home from uni, concluding the same and very helpfully putting the screws back in...

[Agent]

Not really my fault, but a DIY fail from the previous owners of this property.

Having just moved in and eager to check everything out I grabbed the ladders and headed for the loft.

The catch was stubborn on the hatch and needed a few whacks to open it. Little did I know that there was a large work-light (huge thing with a big metal cage on it) screwed to one of the A frame beams. That would have been fine if it was screwed into the beam, but the last guy had put a screw in, balanced the work-light on the screw and left it like that.

You can guess what happened: The Whacking of the loft hatch moved the light, falling directly onto my head full pelt as the hatch opened. Which caused me to fall off the ladder backwards...catching the radiator on the wall ripping it out of the valve...water everywhere. Half on the floor, half on the stairs with my head bleeding my light that I was planning to take into the loft clouts my eye after falling off the end post of the stair rail.

The first day in my house sucked - A black eye, bleeding head that needed 2 stitches, small scale upstairs flooding and a destroyed loft hatch.

[Funkstar]

I think Agent wins. Time to close the thread

[loading...]

Having a dad who is a professional prevents silly accidents.... I do remember some years back though, my next door neighbour cutting a tree down in his garden only to have it fall on and crush his shed. Could have been much worse though. He actually rested the ladder against the branch he was sawing through!

Agent, that's gonna take some beating.

[jonesg02]

Love the story Agent - thats one of the best to crop up today - I've just been reading similar stories on a site called diydisasters.co.uk

[laddersukdirect]

I was doing a job with a friend tiling a bathroom. I got shown the basics by my friend who thought i was ok to continue what he had started. What i thought was a good job turned out to be horrific.... the tiles id put on were all on the lash.... needless to say he had to redo all my hard work. lol oops

*snip*

[deejayburnout]

I am pretty good round the home so don't have many disasters.

However, I was fitting a new radiator and on my old system, I had to go up the attic and turn off the water. Turned it off and replaced radiator and valves. Went back up and missed my footing and fell through the roof into my kitchen and ontop of the fridge. Worst of all is my legs went either side of the joist.

went from Christopher to Christine.

Luckly the wife wasn't home at the time or she would have laughed at me and took photos.

Still, not as bad as Agents.

[=assassin=]

Not sure why this thread is in the PC Hardware/Storage section

[peterb]

Not sure why this thread is in the PC Hardware/Storage section

Nor me - must have been by accident - so I have moved it back!