DIY Disaster Stories

Blackjack Davy said:
Oh that reminds of something that happened in college in the metal shop this girl was using the floor standing drill the huge one with the lever you pull down - she'd forgotten to take the chuck key out of it, she switched it on and the key flew across the classroom and whistled past my ear I felt the wind of it - a inch to the right and it would have imbedded itself in my head...
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I did that with the metalwork lathe at school, the chuck key bounced off the lathe bed and narrowly missed my face.

My dad was decorating my bedroom, I was his skivvy. He'd taken the wall light off the wall and was using it as a spotlight, I was the lamp stand, cue my fingers meeting with the live terminals. Lamp got smashed.
 
The outcome was by no means disastrous, but in terms of plain stupidity of action...

When I was very new to owning a house and DIY, one of the units in our kitchen was a bit loosely fixed, so I decided I could make it more secure with some longer screws. All seemed to go well, and I was very pleased with myself.

Until the next time I went up the stairs and saw the two screws sticking two inches out of the wall.

For some reason, my mind hadn't even considered the 'abstract concept' of rooms being next to each other and walls not having infinite thickness.
 
bazzabear said:
The outcome was by no means disastrous, but in terms of plain stupidity of action...

When I was very new to owning a house and DIY, one of the units in our kitchen was a bit loosely fixed, so I decided I could make it more secure with some longer screws. All seemed to go well, and I was very pleased with myself.

Until the next time I went up the stairs and saw the two screws sticking two inches out of the wall.

For some reason, my mind hadn't even considered the 'abstract concept' of rooms being next to each other and walls not having infinite thickness.
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That's 2 jobs in one. Fixed the kitchen unit and got some handy picture hooks at the same time :p
 
bazzabear said:
The outcome was by no means disastrous, but in terms of plain stupidity of action...

When I was very new to owning a house and DIY, one of the units in our kitchen was a bit loosely fixed, so I decided I could make it more secure with some longer screws. All seemed to go well, and I was very pleased with myself.

Until the next time I went up the stairs and saw the two screws sticking two inches out of the wall.

For some reason, my mind hadn't even considered the 'abstract concept' of rooms being next to each other and walls not having infinite thickness.
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haha, how long were the screws?
 
TheOracle said:
haha, how long were the screws?
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Can't remember, this was about 20 years ago. But long enough to go through the fixing, two widths of plasterboard plus the void between, and still out a good couple of inches into the next room. I assume they were just some I had lying around, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that I went out specifically to buy the longest screws I could find without ever considering the simple fact that walls tend to have two sides.
 
I have fond memories of my dad wiring up a dimmer switch for my bedroom about 35 years ago. He pulled the old switch out, threw it away and then, armed with no electrical knowledge at all, took a look at the bundle of identically coloured wires sticking out of the wall. After a few goes and a fair bit of fuse wire from blowing the fuse box on every failed attempt, he got my light dimming nicely and stepped back to admire his work. It was at about this point my mum shouted 'Why are the lights going on and off?' from their bedroom and it turned out he'd wired the switch to dim the whole of upstairs.....

Much faffing, many hours, and a lot more fuse wire later he'd improved matters to the point where the switch dimmed my room and my brother's room, and he gave up on improving things any further. This despite my brother's desperate complaints and his (accurate) forecast of just how much I'd annoy him for the next decade or so with this new weapon of sibling annoyance installed! An electrician was never called to sort his mess out and it was still the same when we moved house around ten years later.

The icing on the cake was when he went to close my door upon finishing and found that because the door was very close to the wall it wouldn't shut past the dimmer. This last problem was resolved by him fetching a saw and cutting a small rectangle out of the edge of my door so it would pass the switch..... I only realised how odd this was many years later!
 
There was a small leak coming from the fresh water supply on the toilet so I thought I'd 'fix' it. I unscrewed it and for some reason used the same washer to tighten it up with.

Everything seemed fine but I didn't realise there was a small leak trickling down the pipe and under the floorboards. Cue me coming down to a completely flooded kitchen the next morning.
 
Only a minor incident comes to mind.
I was decorating my room and was wanting to install some conduit from a socket, so I could spur off. I thought i'd use screws to hold the conduit so proceeded to drill directly below the socket, straight through the cable, tripping the mains.
Thankfully there was enough slack for me to cut out the damaged section and rewire the plug, I never did that spur in the end!
 
Mine have been very small fry in comparison because I've learned my own (very low) limits and will hire someone who knows what they're doing. There have been a few oopsies, though. I painted my bathroom with a good waterproof paint, which worked very well. Some while later, I decided to repaint it. With a cheap water-based paint. The result was streakier than Erica Roe and some puddling of paint on the skirting board and floor. Last week I was doing a wooden window frame with some wood stain when I carelessly knocked the open tin of woodstain onto the carpet. Turns out that wood isn't the only thing it stains :) That would have been bad news but I was intending the replace the carpet in that room anyway so no loss.
 
So far the only one I've had is drilling into a wire in the lighting circuit. It was switched off at the CU but it took more time than I'd care to admit to realise why the light bulbs weren't working when it was all switched back on.
 
None that I can remember, generally try to avoid doing difficult DIY though we should be moving house in next few weeks so might have some soon :)
 
Blue160 said:
I have fond memories of my dad wiring up a dimmer switch for my bedroom about 35 years ago. He pulled the old switch out, threw it away and then, armed with no electrical knowledge at all, took a look at the bundle of identically coloured wires sticking out of the wall. After a few goes and a fair bit of fuse wire from blowing the fuse box on every failed attempt, he got my light dimming nicely and stepped back to admire his work. It was at about this point my mum shouted 'Why are the lights going on and off?' from their bedroom and it turned out he'd wired the switch to dim the whole of upstairs.....

Much faffing, many hours, and a lot more fuse wire later he'd improved matters to the point where the switch dimmed my room and my brother's room, and he gave up on improving things any further. This despite my brother's desperate complaints and his (accurate) forecast of just how much I'd annoy him for the next decade or so with this new weapon of sibling annoyance installed! An electrician was never called to sort his mess out and it was still the same when we moved house around ten years later.

The icing on the cake was when he went to close my door upon finishing and found that because the door was very close to the wall it wouldn't shut past the dimmer. This last problem was resolved by him fetching a saw and cutting a small rectangle out of the edge of my door so it would pass the switch..... I only realised how odd this was many years later!
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That sounds awful. When I was younger my sister needed her light turned on and off about 5 times before she would go to sleep. I can't imagine how irritating that whole situation would have been. Surely someone could have fixed it!
 
Only "major" one I've had was from changing the bath taps to a shower mixer in a 2nd floor flat. Can't remember exactly what the issue was (either I hadn't tightened up the new taps properly, or had knocked the waste loose), but me and the other half were "taking a bath together" when there was an almighty banging at the door and a lot of shouting. I grabbed a dressing gown and went to the door to give the guy some aggro (I assumed he was going to complain about the "noise" :p), but actually it turns out there was water coming through the ceiling *oops*. Quickly turned the water off, grabbed a wrench, and went crawling under the bath to try to find the leak, 2 minutes later, more banging and shouting at the door.

I'm not quite sure how the guy managed to expect me to fix it in probably the time it had taken to go downstairs to his flat and come back up again, but I dutifully answered the door again, wrench in hand, made sure to open the door nice and wide so the guy could see that I had my tools out, and assured him I was working on it. He didn't really have much to say at this point - I'm guessing that was probably because I hadn't bothered to get dressed before trying to fix it, and I'd taken off my dressing gown because it was getting in the way.

A few minutes later and it was all sorted - he didn't even open the door when I went down to knock and ask if the water was still coming through... :D
 
dirtychinchilla said:
That sounds awful. When I was younger my sister needed her light turned on and off about 5 times before she would go to sleep. I can't imagine how irritating that whole situation would have been. Surely someone could have fixed it!
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My dad is both too proud and too tight to get a pro to fix his bodges! We ended up with a similar light switch debacle in the hall after we moved (hall light only worked in conjunction with the kitchen!). The least said about the brick barbecue he built when I was a teenager the better......
 
Blue160 said:
My dad is both too proud and too tight to get a pro to fix his bodges! We ended up with a similar light switch debacle in the hall after we moved (hall light only worked in conjunction with the kitchen!). The least said about the brick barbecue he built when I was a teenager the better......
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What the hell. You would have thought it could have been resolved easily enough! Seems like madness that you and your brother would have to share a light switch.
 
Angilion said:
Mine have been very small fry in comparison because I've learned my own (very low) limits and will hire someone who knows what they're doing. There have been a few oopsies, though. I painted my bathroom with a good waterproof paint, which worked very well. Some while later, I decided to repaint it. With a cheap water-based paint. The result was streakier than Erica Roe and some puddling of paint on the skirting board and floor. Last week I was doing a wooden window frame with some wood stain when I carelessly knocked the open tin of woodstain onto the carpet. Turns out that wood isn't the only thing it stains :) That would have been bad news but I was intending the replace the carpet in that room anyway so no loss.
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Ahh yes - Erica Roe --- I remember Erica Roe and I don't have to look her up. :):):)
 
Well this is the best thread in a long, long time. The dimmer switch one had me laughing hysterically :D :D he cut a hole out of the door hahaha
 
Blue160 said:
I have fond memories of my dad wiring up a dimmer switch for my bedroom about 35 years ago. He pulled the old switch out, threw it away and then, armed with no electrical knowledge at all, took a look at the bundle of identically coloured wires sticking out of the wall. After a few goes and a fair bit of fuse wire from blowing the fuse box on every failed attempt, he got my light dimming nicely and stepped back to admire his work. It was at about this point my mum shouted 'Why are the lights going on and off?' from their bedroom and it turned out he'd wired the switch to dim the whole of upstairs.....

Much faffing, many hours, and a lot more fuse wire later he'd improved matters to the point where the switch dimmed my room and my brother's room, and he gave up on improving things any further. This despite my brother's desperate complaints and his (accurate) forecast of just how much I'd annoy him for the next decade or so with this new weapon of sibling annoyance installed! An electrician was never called to sort his mess out and it was still the same when we moved house around ten years later.

The icing on the cake was when he went to close my door upon finishing and found that because the door was very close to the wall it wouldn't shut past the dimmer. This last problem was resolved by him fetching a saw and cutting a small rectangle out of the edge of my door so it would pass the switch..... I only realised how odd this was many years later!
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This is a brilliant piece of stakeholder management. I've caused an issue in the wife's bedroom, how interested will she be in this problem, very, what is her level of influence, significant. I shall fix the problem!. I have caused a similar issue in my child's bedroom, interest level is high, but influence level is insignificant, i'm safe to go to the pub and toast my DIY and stakeholder management skills!
 
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