DIY Disaster Stories
- Thread starter glenimp617
- Start date
When I was at college the lathes had these spring-loaded perspex shield guards that you moved up and down over the chuck.
The machine wasn't running, and I was changing a tool, the guard fired down and smashed into my hand cutting it quite badly. Always found it pretty ironic it was the safety guard that injured me.
Plastic pipes.
Not always reliable.
Safety guards?
We never had anything like that!
Pah, it's elf n safety gone mad, I tell ya!
My metalwork teacher did go absolutely garrity at me though and I was banned off the lathes for a month.
We were left unsupervised later that term as he was off sick and the woodwork teacher was "keeping an eye on us" from the woodwork shop. So many throwing knives/throwing stars got made in that hour lesson.
Many years ago in our 1st house a 2 up 2 down terraced which had single story extension to the rear I was fitting kitchen wall cabinets it was a pretty low flat roof and I was drilling about 50cm down from the ceiling in to the wall when I heard a loud hiss and could smell gas .
Queue me running thru the house to the gas meter screaming and scaring my wife to death. Reason I was running screaming as 2 meters away the gas hob was on . I rang the emergency gas leak line and they came and turned sealed it off for free , too this day we still cant figure out why a gas pipe was running that high on a wall as it didn't even go to any appliances.
Queue me running thru the house to the gas meter screaming and scaring my wife to death. Reason I was running screaming as 2 meters away the gas hob was on . I rang the emergency gas leak line and they came and turned sealed it off for free , too this day we still cant figure out why a gas pipe was running that high on a wall as it didn't even go to any appliances.
Just remembered a true DIY fail.
Helping my friend install a sub in his car. Had to run the power cable from the boot to the battery, the go-to method to get it through the bulk head into the engine bay was to feed it through the bonnet pull cable rubber grommet. We taped the cable to a bit wire and poked it through the hole. Unknown to us the fuel pipe was directly behind it. The wire poked a number of holes into the fuel line.
This was on a Peugeot 106 GTI, so quite a large engine in a small engine bay. He had to get the car recovered to a garage then the repair involved a lot of the engine and front body work being removed from the car because it was in such a awkward place to get access too. Cost him a couple of grand to repair IIRC.
Daft thing was weeks earlier a friend had taken his car to a car audio place and they charged £20 to drill a hole and fit the cable for him.
Helping my friend install a sub in his car. Had to run the power cable from the boot to the battery, the go-to method to get it through the bulk head into the engine bay was to feed it through the bonnet pull cable rubber grommet. We taped the cable to a bit wire and poked it through the hole. Unknown to us the fuel pipe was directly behind it. The wire poked a number of holes into the fuel line.
This was on a Peugeot 106 GTI, so quite a large engine in a small engine bay. He had to get the car recovered to a garage then the repair involved a lot of the engine and front body work being removed from the car because it was in such a awkward place to get access too. Cost him a couple of grand to repair IIRC.
Daft thing was weeks earlier a friend had taken his car to a car audio place and they charged £20 to drill a hole and fit the cable for him.
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The only one I can think of is drilling through a central heating pipe under a floorboard I was putting down.
It still has a cocktail stick in it.
It still has a cocktail stick in it.
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sanded down some artex ceiling in first house, before ever really learning what it was and that it contained bad stuff. Time will tell how much of a disaster that was 
sanded down some artex ceiling in first house, before ever really learning what it was and that it contained bad stuff. Time will tell how much of a disaster that was
Depends when it was put up.
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yep, fingers crossed and can’t do anything about it anyway. Does make you think more about properly researching before even attempting diy prep work though!
If it was put up after about 2000 you should be ok. Sure it was completely outlawed in 2005.
sanded down some artex ceiling in first house, before ever really learning what it was and that it contained bad stuff. Time will tell how much of a disaster that was
Even if it was Asbestos doing it just the once for a day isn't a death sentence, far from it.
Drilled thru main phone line into the house when I first moved in, necessitating callout from BT, ripping plasterboard off so they could access and buying a cable detector that same weekend.
Also failed to leaktest shower drain, leading to flood, and ruined wall on lower two floors including crackling socket on wall. Another one of the "I've never done it before, but I reckon I know what I'm doing" that turns into a much bigger job.
Four years later put 10 pictures up on a wall, multiple holes no issue whatsoever. Next weekend another picture on a different wall. "Don't put it there move over 1/2 an inch" from the spectator quality control. Cue hot water pishing out at high pressure as I'd hit the radiator pipe dead centre. Stopcock off [eventually, took a while to locate]. Rip plasterboard away. Amalgum tape and cable ties until plumber can attend to fix properly.
Don't do DIY on a Sunday evening.
Also failed to leaktest shower drain, leading to flood, and ruined wall on lower two floors including crackling socket on wall. Another one of the "I've never done it before, but I reckon I know what I'm doing" that turns into a much bigger job.
Four years later put 10 pictures up on a wall, multiple holes no issue whatsoever. Next weekend another picture on a different wall. "Don't put it there move over 1/2 an inch" from the spectator quality control. Cue hot water pishing out at high pressure as I'd hit the radiator pipe dead centre. Stopcock off [eventually, took a while to locate]. Rip plasterboard away. Amalgum tape and cable ties until plumber can attend to fix properly.
Don't do DIY on a Sunday evening.
Learnt a huge amount since we bought our house, prior owners just didn't bother with basic maintenance. I got sick of paying people so started doing it myself. Naturally there were some 'moments of bown pants':
Auwful ceiling fan from the 80s needed to come down. Turned off ground floor lights, the inevitable bang from cutting through live wires scared the **** out of me but seeing a 1mm metal chunk taken out of the pylers was really scary. Fan was powered by another ring. First lesson, got multimeter & electric wand detector.
Next up, nail through central heating pipe hours before carpet dude was due to arrive. Was a great chance to sort of those creaky floorboards. Burst pipe was on first floor directly above consumer box, which was getting soaked with hot water. How does one cut the power to a consumer box in such situations & not die?....plastic sandles, oven gloves & wooden cooking spoon to flick the main switch. I didn't have long to think.
Auwful ceiling fan from the 80s needed to come down. Turned off ground floor lights, the inevitable bang from cutting through live wires scared the **** out of me but seeing a 1mm metal chunk taken out of the pylers was really scary. Fan was powered by another ring. First lesson, got multimeter & electric wand detector.
Next up, nail through central heating pipe hours before carpet dude was due to arrive. Was a great chance to sort of those creaky floorboards. Burst pipe was on first floor directly above consumer box, which was getting soaked with hot water. How does one cut the power to a consumer box in such situations & not die?....plastic sandles, oven gloves & wooden cooking spoon to flick the main switch
. I didn't have long to think.
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Just remembered a corker from my Dad's big book of DIY. We had a tree at the bottom of our garden when i was growing up, the decision was made to take it down and pop in some decking. So he trims the branches, slowly lops down the trunk until he's left with just the stump which Dad starts digging out. It was a fairly stubborn bugger so a pickaxe is employed to attack the roots. About 3 or four strikes in Mum calls out from the house that the TV has gone off, then he notices that all the streetlights (it was early evening) have gone off too, then, with rising dread, it becomes apparent that he can't see any lights in the neighbouring houses.
Yep, he took out the power to half the street.
Yep, he took out the power to half the street.
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