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If you’re a DIY disaster, welcome. You’re not alone. The following stories demonstrate the carnage that happens when usually intelligent people pick up their tools and have a go.
Men and women of the world. Share your shameful, embarrassing and destructive DIY disasters with the world.
Now step away from the tools before you hurt someone.
My sister and brother-in-law have a solarium attached to their home that has been unfinished for 8 years. They have had intentions of renovating it, but I get the impression that the project is overwhelming. It is currently two levels and is enclosed with a glass structure that leaks by the house. The siding on the house is now rotting. The retaining wall and most of the flooring is still concrete. The stairs going outside of the house are still plywood. It is scary because it has turned into a dumpster zone and is quickly becoming a danger zone. Anything they don’t want ends up out there or they don’t have anywhere to store something it goes out there. [click to continue…]
Submitted by Lorrinda.
My girlfriend recently purchased a ride-on, toy dog with wheels as a Christmas present for her one year old niece. The said dog arrived as a box of separate components. I stayed well out of the assembly process, as my flat-pack rage is legendary.
She happily constructed the toy herself, and everything was fine until she had to add the wheels. These required a little ‘brute force’ to press them onto the ends of the axles. I reluctantly fetched my hammer from the garage and proceeded to attach the wheels. Each of them clicked into place without a hitch.
Submitted by Gareth Hanson.
I was outside sanding down some old doors before giving them a lick of paint one afternoon -I was using a belt sander that id hired for the job. All of the sudden the breaker must have tripped and cut the power, so naturally I placed the sander on the patio floor and went to investigate.
I flicked the trip switch back on and made my way back outside, but as I got closer I could hear some increasingly louder noises. It turned out I had left the trigger locked on, so the belt sander was moving from side to side with intent to harm across the patio floor!
Not only had it smashed 2 ceramic plant pots as it knocked them off the edge of the patio, it had also sanded a nice circle shape in the patio floor! Those things can really move!
Submitted by Sean J.
My husband fitted a nice new bathroom cabinet on the wall just above the end of the bath for me… about 3 weeks after, the room must have got too steamy from the shower and one morning the cabinet fell straight off the wall and into the middle of bath – putting a nice little hole in it!
Fortunately there wasn’t any water in it or even me having a bath at the time!
I made sure the next one went on properly!
Submitted by Pauline.
My now husband was doing a favour for a friend of mine that we know from the pub, a few years before we got together, while he was between jobs.
He thought the job was pretty straightforward – re-felt his shed roof and then give the shed a fresh coat of staining while the owner was away for the weekend. Should have taken him a couple of hours for some pocket money.
He did the job during the saturday and was pretty pleased with himself when i met him in the pub that night.
Submitted by Paula.
I recently purchased a bungalow with the sole purpose of renovating it myself and then selling.
To date, my progress has been:
1. Having to replace the entire bathroom after failing to plumb in the taps correctly, outcome of this lead to a scene remininscent of a mini Grand Canyon. This was largely rectified by buying fisherman’s waders for when in the vecinity but I doubt this is a long term solution
2. Failing to plumb in the washing machine correctly – see above for outcome on kitchen area
Submitted by Rob Reeves.
We live in an end terraced early victorian house in wales. my wife bought the house almost 30 years ago and we have been married the last 7 . the bedrooms on the first floor all of basin sinks in them and there has been one tap that has been giving us trouble for some time. i am recently disabled and my wife has been disabled for some time. [click to continue…]
Submitted by jabrunt.
After my first bit of DIY in our new house, I shouted for my wife after attaching a new door handle on our lounge door. She was impressed until she tried to open the door – With all her might she pushed down to try and open the door and failed, so I gave it a go and still nothing. It wasn’t moving! We were stuck!
Just as we were contemplating making our move out of the window I pulled the handle up so it went the other way. It worked. I had put it on upside down and you had to lift it up to get out now! So now the wife likes to tell the story to her friends so I suppose I may as well embrace it and tell the story myself!
Submitted by James Norris.
Frustrated from trying to unclog the kitchen drain one evening, I decided to try something “new”. Usually I would use a empty soda can or something similar to create a slight pressurized force to clear the drain of debris. But I was too tired to move the dirty dishes out of the way to lift up the rack, which partially blocks the drain.
Next to the sink I eyed an a long, grilling skewer that had a wooden handle and a rod 1/4″ thick. The rod was made out of metal with a very, very dull tip on the end. Thinking I won’t even get my hands wet, I swiftly but gently poked the skewer into the drain a few times. I say gently because I really didn’t know how far down the P trap was. Soon I heard the wonderful sound of water running and I was so delighted how clever I was.
Submitted by sammynj.
