Tell us about your self-inflicted DIY cock-ups
Discussion
Simpo Two said:
I hacksawed through the rising main.
Win to me I think!
Core drilled mine, downstream of the indoor stopcock at least. I had carefully positioned the cooker hood vent to avoid two lintels, whilst centering it under an existing Wiska box. The pipe was buried in the plaster, and I was drilling from the outside.Win to me I think!
On top of all that, the position I eventually chose made the boxing more compact on the inside where I look at it most.
Bob_The_Builder said:
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
I had a site in central Cheltenham. When we were demolishing it, I got a phone call to advise me we had created a new town centre water feature. A 50ft high fountain!
The council were not happy. You could see it from the town hall!
Simpo Two said:
I hacksawed through the rising main.
Win to me I think!
Well done. That's definitely top of the class potential. I came here hoping my 'drilling into a pipe, knowing full well it was there and having planned very clearly how the skirting board was to be fixed at that point, yet randomly just drilling through the skirting into it' was going to be a winner. Win to me I think!
DickyC said:
Simpo Two said:
I hacksawed through the rising main.
Win to me I think!
We had a plumber do that! Not only that, he didn't feel up to the task of fixing it or even restricting the flow. He did help me find the stop cock outside the house but didn't have the long-handled doohicky to turn it off. Two hours later the water company turned up. By which time we had 2,000 litres of water in the kitchen.Win to me I think!
Months later, Welsh Water send someone with a metal detector to locate external stopcock, only to find that it is also jammed... Several months further on, they replace that and we - finally - can get plumber to replace the internal stopcock. Knowing that there was no way to isolate water to the house made me very wary of pretty much any DIY bodgery!
silentbrown said:
DickyC said:
Simpo Two said:
I hacksawed through the rising main.
Win to me I think!
We had a plumber do that! Not only that, he didn't feel up to the task of fixing it or even restricting the flow. He did help me find the stop cock outside the house but didn't have the long-handled doohicky to turn it off. Two hours later the water company turned up. By which time we had 2,000 litres of water in the kitchen.Win to me I think!
Months later, Welsh Water send someone with a metal detector to locate external stopcock, only to find that it is also jammed... Several months further on, they replace that and we - finally - can get plumber to replace the internal stopcock. Knowing that there was no way to isolate water to the house made me very wary of pretty much any DIY bodgery!
Two recent ones from me.....
Fitting an extractor fan in my mothers kitchen. Ran a cable from a fused socket, chased it in and plastered the wall, connected to fan, checked it worked, drilled holes in the wall for the frame, drilled straight through the cable.
Took a downstairs radiator off to clean and spray paint it. Turned off valve and TRV. Couple of days later wife said boiler pressure had dropped. Topped it up and it dropped straight away, rinse and repeat three or four times. Couldn't work out why until I went downstairs to find the hallway was flooded. TRV was not off!
Fitting an extractor fan in my mothers kitchen. Ran a cable from a fused socket, chased it in and plastered the wall, connected to fan, checked it worked, drilled holes in the wall for the frame, drilled straight through the cable.
Took a downstairs radiator off to clean and spray paint it. Turned off valve and TRV. Couple of days later wife said boiler pressure had dropped. Topped it up and it dropped straight away, rinse and repeat three or four times. Couldn't work out why until I went downstairs to find the hallway was flooded. TRV was not off!
Mirror gate..
My wife had seen a mirror in an expensive shop. I resisted.
Eventually, through no other ideas I bought it her for Christmas. As I was buying it she came into the the shop (it was lunchtime near her work).
It then sat for a while as she wanted it on a wall with lots of potential water traps and it was heavy and a plasterboard wall.
Eventually I got to the stage where I was happy, so I got it out to prepare the fittings. This happened when it slipped on the floor.
It went on the wall... The Block wall with dot and dab, which meant there was not water risk and I had to completely change the fixings at the last minute!
Glass now replaced...
My wife had seen a mirror in an expensive shop. I resisted.
Eventually, through no other ideas I bought it her for Christmas. As I was buying it she came into the the shop (it was lunchtime near her work).
It then sat for a while as she wanted it on a wall with lots of potential water traps and it was heavy and a plasterboard wall.
Eventually I got to the stage where I was happy, so I got it out to prepare the fittings. This happened when it slipped on the floor.
It went on the wall... The Block wall with dot and dab, which meant there was not water risk and I had to completely change the fixings at the last minute!
Glass now replaced...
2 weeks ago, I had to replace a shower valve cartridge in our holiday let.
I drove down to Devon (3 hours) with tool kit and replacement valve.
Turned off the service valves (buried in the back of a cupboard under the stairs accessible only by a contortionist with night vision.
Checked shower was off
Unscrewed the retaining nut for the valve and the valve was ejected from the shower at about 100mph by a blast of high pressure cold water.
I was instantly soaked through and couldn't get the valve back into the housing such was the pressure
Cue - emergency night vision contortionism, cold service valve had failed. Stripped off all but boxers (to save wetting new carpets) ran through to the other bathroom, chopped off some cladding to access the main stop tap - finally isolated cold water.
I had no towels with me and no spare clothes, so after changing the service valve and shower valve, I had to drive 3 hours home in just my boxers
I now have to go back and redecorate the panelled part of the other bathroom (what idiot decided to hide the stopcock behind painted T&G panelling!)
(note. I am gradually replacing all service valves with decent quality ones!)
I drove down to Devon (3 hours) with tool kit and replacement valve.
Turned off the service valves (buried in the back of a cupboard under the stairs accessible only by a contortionist with night vision.
Checked shower was off
Unscrewed the retaining nut for the valve and the valve was ejected from the shower at about 100mph by a blast of high pressure cold water.
I was instantly soaked through and couldn't get the valve back into the housing such was the pressure
Cue - emergency night vision contortionism, cold service valve had failed. Stripped off all but boxers (to save wetting new carpets) ran through to the other bathroom, chopped off some cladding to access the main stop tap - finally isolated cold water.
I had no towels with me and no spare clothes, so after changing the service valve and shower valve, I had to drive 3 hours home in just my boxers
I now have to go back and redecorate the panelled part of the other bathroom (what idiot decided to hide the stopcock behind painted T&G panelling!)
(note. I am gradually replacing all service valves with decent quality ones!)
I quite like that oneblueg33 said:
I had a site in central Cheltenham. When we were demolishing it, I got a phone call to advise me we had created a new town centre water feature.
A 50ft high fountain!
The council were not happy. You could see it from the town hall!
DIY cock ups are (usually) small beer. If you want a major cock up, call in the professionals. A 50ft high fountain!
The council were not happy. You could see it from the town hall!
Installed underfloor heating when I did the downstairs shower room. Laying the 1” square floor tiles I had to cut the mesh backing to fit them round the shower drain. I used a Stanley knife to cut the mesh when all the lights went out and I’d cut through the underfloor heating wire. Fortunately the RCD did its job but had to relay the underfloor heating so there’s a slight step up into the bathroom.
Re-doing bathroom.
Gutted, but loo/sink/bath still in use.
I pulled out the loo to remove the tiles behind it.
Still plumbed in as flexi hose, just disconnected the trap.
Went for a run.
Daughter & grandchildren arrived while I was out.
Number 1 (luckily) then flushed.
Water appearing out of hallway socket & LED lights.
RCD tripped.
Happy days!
Gutted, but loo/sink/bath still in use.
I pulled out the loo to remove the tiles behind it.
Still plumbed in as flexi hose, just disconnected the trap.
Went for a run.
Daughter & grandchildren arrived while I was out.
Number 1 (luckily) then flushed.
Water appearing out of hallway socket & LED lights.
RCD tripped.
Happy days!
simon_harris said:
silentbrown said:
DickyC said:
Simpo Two said:
I hacksawed through the rising main.
Win to me I think!
We had a plumber do that! Not only that, he didn't feel up to the task of fixing it or even restricting the flow. He did help me find the stop cock outside the house but didn't have the long-handled doohicky to turn it off. Two hours later the water company turned up. By which time we had 2,000 litres of water in the kitchen.Win to me I think!
Months later, Welsh Water send someone with a metal detector to locate external stopcock, only to find that it is also jammed... Several months further on, they replace that and we - finally - can get plumber to replace the internal stopcock. Knowing that there was no way to isolate water to the house made me very wary of pretty much any DIY bodgery!
About 12 month ago I got the water company to replace the outside stop tap and I will be replacing the kitchen soon so the inside one will be replaced then
I bought the house over 18 years ago, no rush !!
matchmaker said:
Minor compared to some of the tales on here, but I mixed up mm and cm when installing a roller blind in the kitchen. It is 10cm (or 100mm) too short 
Some computer systems are terrible for a similar error. There was a guy at Cisco (IIRC) who ordered 300m of cable. "m" was not specified. The supplier asked whey he needed 300miles of cable and they would need a longer lead time to deliver...Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff