Whats the most stupid DIY disaster you have had
11 March 2006, 10:13 PM
#1
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Whats the most stupid DIY disaster you have had
I was just readin the "Whats the most idiotic/stupid thing you have ever done while working on a car" thread so I thought i would ask a simlar question...!
"Whats the most stupid DIY disaster you have had"
I have just moved into my 1st house and I am trying all of those DIY jobs my dad always cocked up for myself and it looks like we share somethin in common !!!
I got my jigsaw out (for the 1st time) because i needed to cut a small hole into the chip-board floor (don't ask:-) checked there were no pipes under the floor with the "beepy thing" thats checks for pipes:-) and there were no beeps so i drilled a pilot hole and went straight through a water pipe !!!! I had forgot to put battries in the "beepy thing" !! :-) it was a real "doh" moment followed by a crazed run round my new home to shut the water of.
So any one else done anythin as stupid !!!
"Whats the most stupid DIY disaster you have had"
I have just moved into my 1st house and I am trying all of those DIY jobs my dad always cocked up for myself and it looks like we share somethin in common !!!
I got my jigsaw out (for the 1st time) because i needed to cut a small hole into the chip-board floor (don't ask:-) checked there were no pipes under the floor with the "beepy thing" thats checks for pipes:-) and there were no beeps so i drilled a pilot hole and went straight through a water pipe !!!! I had forgot to put battries in the "beepy thing" !! :-) it was a real "doh" moment followed by a crazed run round my new home to shut the water of.
So any one else done anythin as stupid !!!
12 March 2006, 08:01 AM
#2
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The list of catastrophes in my house is growing month by month!!! 
We bought the house that "Jack" built.
But there was enough + points to warrant doing it up.
Two which spring to mind from the previous owner are -
1. Plumbing in a gas fire with rubber tubing (the stuff used in Chemistry classes at school! The fire actually moved!! No wonder we used to get sleepy when watching TV with the fire on
2. The gas main coming into the house wasn't actually soldered to the connecting pipe - it came off in the installer's hand
This was situated above the cooker
3. The overflow from the toilet isn't actually connected to the outside of the house. It overflows into the kitchen.
My main two blunders have been following on from the repair work necessitated by the above previous blunders - a total rewire and install of heating, fire and Combi-boiler.
1. After everything was done, I was left to put back down the floorboards - all was going well until a central-heating pipe forced its way into the path of my floorboard screw!!!
Thankfully, it was a sealed system, so the contents of the central heating leaked all over my sofa and hifi (thankyou insurance!!)
2. Built a shed at the bottom of the garden - was having a row with the wife, so we weren't talking. The instructions said you would need two people. I should have listened!!
I managed to install the base, then the sides and back. The it came to the front bit. The bit with the door. I had to screw it from the inside, so put it in place and screwed it all in. "Yes!", I thought to myself.
Then "****"...... couldn't open the door. Now in transport, the door is screwed shut into place (shut). I didn't know this.
I had created my own prison!!! I had to eat a BIG slice of humble pie, and shout for the wife to come and unscrew the door!!
Talk about an ice-breaker. She p1ssed herself laughing, and to this day, it is brought up at parties and virtually any public occasions where she can cause me embarrassment Mind you it's normally me causing her embarrassment!!!!
Sigh......
Dan
We bought the house that "Jack" built.
But there was enough + points to warrant doing it up.Two which spring to mind from the previous owner are -
1. Plumbing in a gas fire with rubber tubing (the stuff used in Chemistry classes at school! The fire actually moved!! No wonder we used to get sleepy when watching TV with the fire on
2. The gas main coming into the house wasn't actually soldered to the connecting pipe - it came off in the installer's hand
This was situated above the cooker 3. The overflow from the toilet isn't actually connected to the outside of the house. It overflows into the kitchen.
My main two blunders have been following on from the repair work necessitated by the above previous blunders - a total rewire and install of heating, fire and Combi-boiler.
1. After everything was done, I was left to put back down the floorboards - all was going well until a central-heating pipe forced its way into the path of my floorboard screw!!!
Thankfully, it was a sealed system, so the contents of the central heating leaked all over my sofa and hifi (thankyou insurance!!
)2. Built a shed at the bottom of the garden - was having a row with the wife, so we weren't talking. The instructions said you would need two people. I should have listened!!
I managed to install the base, then the sides and back. The it came to the front bit. The bit with the door. I had to screw it from the inside, so put it in place and screwed it all in. "Yes!", I thought to myself.
Then "****"...... couldn't open the door. Now in transport, the door is screwed shut into place (shut). I didn't know this.
I had created my own prison!!!
I had to eat a BIG slice of humble pie, and shout for the wife to come and unscrew the door!!Talk about an ice-breaker. She p1ssed herself laughing, and to this day, it is brought up at parties and virtually any public occasions where she can cause me embarrassment
Mind you it's normally me causing her embarrassment!!!! Sigh......
Dan
12 March 2006, 08:13 AM
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Originally Posted by ScoobyDoo555
The list of catastrophes in my house is growing month by month!!!
We bought the house that "Jack" built. But there was enough + points to warrant doing it up.
Two which spring to mind from the previous owner are -
1. Plumbing in a gas fire with rubber tubing (the stuff used in Chemistry classes at school! The fire actually moved!! No wonder we used to get sleepy when watching TV with the fire on
2. The gas main coming into the house wasn't actually soldered to the connecting pipe - it came off in the installer's hand This was situated above the cooker
3. The overflow from the toilet isn't actually connected to the outside of the house. It overflows into the kitchen.
My main two blunders have been following on from the repair work necessitated by the above previous blunders - a total rewire and install of heating, fire and Combi-boiler.
1. After everything was done, I was left to put back down the floorboards - all was going well until a central-heating pipe forced its way into the path of my floorboard screw!!!
Thankfully, it was a sealed system, so the contents of the central heating leaked all over my sofa and hifi (thankyou insurance!!)
2. Built a shed at the bottom of the garden - was having a row with the wife, so we weren't talking. The instructions said you would need two people. I should have listened!!
I managed to install the base, then the sides and back. The it came to the front bit. The bit with the door. I had to screw it from the inside, so put it in place and screwed it all in. "Yes!", I thought to myself.
Then "****"...... couldn't open the door. Now in transport, the door is screwed shut into place (shut). I didn't know this.
I had created my own prison!!! I had to eat a BIG slice of humble pie, and shout for the wife to come and unscrew the door!!
Talk about an ice-breaker. She p1ssed herself laughing, and to this day, it is brought up at parties and virtually any public occasions where she can cause me embarrassment Mind you it's normally me causing her embarrassment!!!!
Sigh......
Dan
We bought the house that "Jack" built.
But there was enough + points to warrant doing it up.Two which spring to mind from the previous owner are -
1. Plumbing in a gas fire with rubber tubing (the stuff used in Chemistry classes at school! The fire actually moved!! No wonder we used to get sleepy when watching TV with the fire on
2. The gas main coming into the house wasn't actually soldered to the connecting pipe - it came off in the installer's hand
This was situated above the cooker 3. The overflow from the toilet isn't actually connected to the outside of the house. It overflows into the kitchen.
My main two blunders have been following on from the repair work necessitated by the above previous blunders - a total rewire and install of heating, fire and Combi-boiler.
1. After everything was done, I was left to put back down the floorboards - all was going well until a central-heating pipe forced its way into the path of my floorboard screw!!!
Thankfully, it was a sealed system, so the contents of the central heating leaked all over my sofa and hifi (thankyou insurance!!
)2. Built a shed at the bottom of the garden - was having a row with the wife, so we weren't talking. The instructions said you would need two people. I should have listened!!
I managed to install the base, then the sides and back. The it came to the front bit. The bit with the door. I had to screw it from the inside, so put it in place and screwed it all in. "Yes!", I thought to myself.
Then "****"...... couldn't open the door. Now in transport, the door is screwed shut into place (shut). I didn't know this.
I had created my own prison!!!
I had to eat a BIG slice of humble pie, and shout for the wife to come and unscrew the door!!Talk about an ice-breaker. She p1ssed herself laughing, and to this day, it is brought up at parties and virtually any public occasions where she can cause me embarrassment
Mind you it's normally me causing her embarrassment!!!! Sigh......
Dan
12 March 2006, 08:18 AM
#4
Minor one compared to building yourself inside a shed
Stripped everything out of my bathroom for a clean start, leaving water pipes coming out of the floor. I capped them all with solder fittings, temporarily.
Went down and turned the water on, went back up to start, what's that hissing noise?
It sems to be coming from one of the end caps I soldered in place, but no water is coming out, what can it be?
Cue pressure build up in pipe to blow the cap I forgot to solder on, THROUGH the bathroom ceiling, while I ran downstairs to the stop tap........
Alcazar
Stripped everything out of my bathroom for a clean start, leaving water pipes coming out of the floor. I capped them all with solder fittings, temporarily.
Went down and turned the water on, went back up to start, what's that hissing noise?
It sems to be coming from one of the end caps I soldered in place, but no water is coming out, what can it be?
Cue pressure build up in pipe to blow the cap I forgot to solder on, THROUGH the bathroom ceiling, while I ran downstairs to the stop tap........
Alcazar
12 March 2006, 09:31 AM
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Great bit of advice.
Originally Posted by ScoobyDoo555
2. Built a shed at the bottom of the garden - was having a row with the wife, so we weren't talking. The instructions said you would need two people. I should have listened!!
I managed to install the base, then the sides and back. The it came to the front bit. The bit with the door. I had to screw it from the inside, so put it in place and screwed it all in. "Yes!", I thought to myself.
Then "****"...... couldn't open the door. Now in transport, the door is screwed shut into place (shut). I didn't know this.
I had created my own prison!!!
I had to eat a BIG slice of humble pie, and shout for the wife to come and unscrew the door!!Talk about an ice-breaker. She p1ssed herself laughing, and to this day, it is brought up at parties and virtually any public occasions where she can cause me embarrassment
Mind you it's normally me causing her embarrassment!!!! Sigh......
Dan
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12 March 2006, 10:01 AM
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I moved into my new flat and was trying to get it ready for Christmas. The last job was really to tidy up the radiators. So all was going well until the last radiator in the bathroom which when I took it off despite shutting the valve shot water everywhere.
I could not work out what to do and being Christmas eve really didnlt want to call a plumber out but had no choice. So after some ringingin around find someone who can get there in an hour but have to pay £100 call out fee. SO iun the meantime I'm chukcing buckets of water down the loo and bath as they fill up.
Plumber turns up, asks for his £100 call out which I give him and he prompty gets out a big spanner, looks at the pipe and says something about dislodging an olive and 30 seconds later tha damn thing is fixed with me being £100 lighter. Felt like a right idiot.
What the hell is an olive anyway apart from the obvious food related answer ?
AllanB
I could not work out what to do and being Christmas eve really didnlt want to call a plumber out but had no choice. So after some ringingin around find someone who can get there in an hour but have to pay £100 call out fee. SO iun the meantime I'm chukcing buckets of water down the loo and bath as they fill up.
Plumber turns up, asks for his £100 call out which I give him and he prompty gets out a big spanner, looks at the pipe and says something about dislodging an olive and 30 seconds later tha damn thing is fixed with me being £100 lighter. Felt like a right idiot.
What the hell is an olive anyway apart from the obvious food related answer ?
AllanB
12 March 2006, 10:46 AM
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All i can say is if you dont know what you are doing leave well alone.
When i get a call to go round to someones house after they have tried to do some thing in there own home and its all gone tit$ up,i get to the van and pi$$ my self laughing.
JIM
When i get a call to go round to someones house after they have tried to do some thing in there own home and its all gone tit$ up,i get to the van and pi$$ my self laughing.
JIM
12 March 2006, 11:08 AM
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LOL that would be boring, its all part of the home owning fun.
Originally Posted by jimi
All i can say is if you dont know what you are doing leave well alone.
When i get a call to go round to someones house after they have tried to do some thing in there own home and its all gone tit$ up,i get to the van and pi$$ my self laughing.
JIM
When i get a call to go round to someones house after they have tried to do some thing in there own home and its all gone tit$ up,i get to the van and pi$$ my self laughing.
JIM
12 March 2006, 12:44 PM
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My other half didnt even have any tools when i moved in, not even a screwdriver!!! After a week i broke the toilet handle and he had to fit a new ciphon. I did volunteer to help but he insisted he knew what he was doing....ended up breaking the feeder pipe, water gushing everywhere, he didnt know where water stop tap was, and when he found it in the kitchen cupboard it was too tight to turn!
Water was dripping through into the kitchen until he rang a friend who told him to turn the kitchen tap on which diverted the water, until friend came to put right his worngs!!
Water was dripping through into the kitchen until he rang a friend who told him to turn the kitchen tap on which diverted the water, until friend came to put right his worngs!!
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