Tell us about your self-inflicted DIY cock-ups

[Jamescrs]

My worst one was in my loft space of my first house I was doing some work, I don't recall exactly what but my foot slipped between joists and I went straight through onto the landing below narrowly avoiding falling down the stairs too.

Had to get the whole landing ceiling re-boarded and plastered

[fiatpower]

Jamescrs said:

My worst one was in my loft space of my first house I was doing some work, I don't recall exactly what but my foot slipped between joists and I went straight through onto the landing below narrowly avoiding falling down the stairs too.

Had to get the whole landing ceiling re-boarded and plastered

My wife nearly did that. I'd ripped up the bathroom subfloor as it was rotten. She came to have a look and proceeded to start stepping down onto the kitchen ceiling board. Fortunately I stopped her before she put all her weight down

[Harpoon]

I measured our smallest bedroom for a new carpet after re-decorating it. Ordered new carpet from the shop but when the fitters arrived, they looked very puzzled as somehow my measurements only covered about half the room

It's not even a big room - only 3.3m x 2.1m!

[OldPal]

Not a diy job but when I was an apprentice I accidentally clipped a radiator pipe while using a durostripper, it was so loud and vibrated that much I didn’t notice until a soaking wet man ran from downstairs flew up informing us

My only saving grace was that it was a plumbase and there was about 10 plumbers in getting materials at the time so one came up and rapidly fixed it.

The manager in the place laughed when he saw the damage and told me not to worry as I was full on stting myself which was really good of him!

[Simpo Two]

I'm going for second place as well as first...

Needed to cut some worktop in half, but I only had a jigsaw. Jigsaws need a space underneath the work for the blade to operate. So to create some space underneath I propped up one end of the worktop on a dining chair - then knelt in the middle of the now-sloping worktop and proceeded to cut it in half... which resulted in a short plummet when there was still 2" left to go...!

[Pitre]

A very, very long time ago (I was about 15) I didn't know you had to turn off the mains to fit a replacement wall light. No expert parent or older relatives around. Got the new one mounted after being thrown across the room. Twice.

When I first got married the very first job I did in our brand new house was to put up a curtain pole in the lounge. Managed to put my knee through the big window. Much hilarity for everyone except me.

Holding two bits of wood together managed to put a big screw into my finger using electric drill as screwdriver.

Stepped on a loose paving slab on top of a piece of terracotta flue, it slipped and flipped over and ripped open my shin. 30 staples needed.

Lifting a smallish lump of plasterboard into position I managed to rupture my tendon in my forearm, in hospital for emergency op then plaster for four months.

Fell off a scaffold tower. Ambewlans , X-ray and MRI scan later and they still didn't find any common sense.

I don't do much DIY any more... You do live and learn, just slowly in my case.

[QuartzDad]

Another just married, first house story. First DIY was to put up a towel rail in the bathroom. What I failed to realise was how thin stud walls were and that we had two new coat hooks in the bedroom.

[STe_rsv4]

DickyC said:

Two walls and a slight return on a third wall in the kitchen were tiled up 18 inches from the worktop. When we moved in 20 years ago I tiled over existing tiles. Refurbishing the kitchen this time, I decided not to add a third layer, I'd take them off and start again. Oh, my good gawd. The walls had originally been plastered. Some of the plaster jumped off, some of it didn't. I was left with, politely, a bit of a mess. Some sound plaster, some bare wall. What I should have done, I now realise, was to have stripped off all the old plaster and started again. Oh, no, I said to myself, a couple of tubs of Polyfilla Deep Fill will sort that out.

Sigh.

Yes, I see I could have said to myself it wasn't working but I didn't. I kept going back for another tub or two of Deep Fill.

The reparations are nearly finished, ready for tiling. I may have to go back and buy one more tub. It will be the 14th. The price averages out between suppliers - none of whom stock much at a time - at about £10 a go. So far I have spent £130 on a five quid job.

Ive done exactly the same as this before! yo learn experience, next time I tiled, just tiled straight over the top of the old ones. Never take tiles back off the wall haha

And I should point out that I left the tiles under the cupboards on one wall in place. This self-inflicted cock-up was on one wall and the short return.

Robert Dyas want £15 a tub. They did not have my custom.

[Drawweight]

Putting up a shelf in the toilet, straight through the pipe.

I was surprised by the pressure, after I got blasted full in the face the jet went the full length of the toilet.

Luckily the stop cock was easily reached and the local gas engineer fixed it for 20 quid as he was in the area. a lot easier and quicker than me hunting round for bits.

[essayer]

I thought these were like chocblocks I.e. 3 two-way connectors

[Chris Stott]

essayer said:

I thought these were like chocblocks I.e. 3 two-way connectors

[ferret50]

Reading some of these tales of foolishness and stupidity it is little wonder that A and E departments dread Bank Holidays!

[shtu]

When fitting a small kitchen a long time ago, I saved time by building a corner unit out in the hall.

Then dismantled it to get it through the door.

Then rebuilt it in the kitchen.

Then found the walls were too far off-square to be able to use it.

At that point I took a hammer to it.

[fat80b]

fiatpower said:

Jamescrs said:

My worst one was in my loft space of my first house I was doing some work, I don't recall exactly what but my foot slipped between joists and I went straight through onto the landing below narrowly avoiding falling down the stairs too.

Had to get the whole landing ceiling re-boarded and plastered

My wife nearly did that. I'd ripped up the bathroom subfloor as it was rotten. She came to have a look and proceeded to start stepping down onto the kitchen ceiling board. Fortunately I stopped her before she put all her weight down

That's great - Mostly because that's almost exactly what happened to us.

In my case, it was my then girlfriend (now wife) staying over for the first time who managed to put her foot through the bathroom floor into the kitchen below.......I'd temporarily covered the hole in the bathroom floor with a small bit of plywood and it moved.......

[Bob_The_Builder]

There is drilling into a mains water pipe, then there is doing it so an entire road in Westminster has to have their water supply shut off while we do repairs. Oops

[Chris Stott]

fat80b said:

fiatpower said:

Jamescrs said:

My worst one was in my loft space of my first house I was doing some work, I don't recall exactly what but my foot slipped between joists and I went straight through onto the landing below narrowly avoiding falling down the stairs too.

Had to get the whole landing ceiling re-boarded and plastered

My wife nearly did that. I'd ripped up the bathroom subfloor as it was rotten. She came to have a look and proceeded to start stepping down onto the kitchen ceiling board. Fortunately I stopped her before she put all her weight down

That's great - Mostly because that's almost exactly what happened to us.

In my case, it was my then girlfriend (now wife) staying over for the first time who managed to put her foot through the bathroom floor into the kitchen below.......I'd temporarily covered the hole in the bathroom floor with a small bit of plywood and it moved.......

This wasn't a DIY cockup, but a proper tradesman...

When I was in my teens I used to go help my dad and his mate on Saturday mornings for some extra pocket money... they were sparkies, and, starting at 8am, they could fully rewire a standard 2 up 2 down council terrace by early afternoon... a days work for most teams, and they'd get paid time and half for Saturdays.

I was stripping out in the front bedroom one morning, there's a god almighty crash, and my dad's mate comes through the ceiling. The joists saved him from a full fall, but his waist was where the ceiling had previously been with his legs dangling in mid air... these were old houses, with years of coal fired soot in the lofts... the black dust was absolutely everywhere... which of course I had to clean up.

The piss taking went on for weeks afterwards

[TorqueVR]

Not me but my son. He survived a 6 month tour on convoys in Afghanistan despite a couple of IED attacks and being shot at, but got shot through the hand by a nail gun back here.

[Pitre]

TorqueVR said:

Not me but my son. He survived a 6 month tour on convoys in Afghanistan despite a couple of IED attacks and being shot at, but got shot through the hand by a nail gun back here.

Doug and Dinsdale Piranha?

[princeperch]

I fell off a ladder the other day, fell 4m and broke an arm and a leg.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

I had 5 cubic metres of concrete coming and I'd built all the shuttering from odds and sods of timber I had around the garden. Needless to say it started giving way as the concrete was poured. I ran round like a mad thing cutting more wood to reinforce the collapsing areas but in my haste sawed through my thumb. Persevered with repairing the shuttering then went off to A&E less a pint of blood or some such to have thumb sewn back up. The job must come first!

Most of my DiY involves some physical pain along the way.