Tell us about your self-inflicted DIY cock-ups
Discussion
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mr Magooagain said:
Oh Dicky Dicky Dicky! You’re just not using the knowledgeable resources at you’re disposal old chap!
Yes, yes, I realise that now, Monsieur. But at the time I thought a blob filler here and there and the job's a good un.The advice I would have needed was, when do I stop?
Nah, come on, just one more tub.
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!
Simpo Two said:
I hacksawed through the rising main.
Win to me I think!
I was digging out a soil lounge floor in a Victorian cottage and stuck a pick axe through a water main. I had to put a bucket over the fountain of water and dig a smalltrickle trench to direct the gushing water out under the front door threshold!Win to me I think!
Stop cock outside turned off all the houses (4) in the terrace. Unhappy neighbours for a couple of hours.
I was drilling a hole in the wall to hang a picture, came up against metal, and without thinking decided "I'll get the metal drill bits and go through that" rather than considering what it might be.
It was an old, unused but still live, gas pipe in the wall. In my defence we'd had the house refurbed and I knew where all the new gas pipework was - plumber should have removed the one I drilled into. But still v stupid, and expensive since it was a bank holiday weekend and getting someone out was not cheap.
It was an old, unused but still live, gas pipe in the wall. In my defence we'd had the house refurbed and I knew where all the new gas pipework was - plumber should have removed the one I drilled into. But still v stupid, and expensive since it was a bank holiday weekend and getting someone out was not cheap.
Not me but Dad - he was a very accomplished man with his hands (though a CEO by day).
He once made a very large timber bow window in our garage, made the astragals and everything back when it was all done by hand and cramped and glued everything up. Only the next day did he realise it would not come through the garage door
Did the same when flooring in the first floor of the extension before the knock through - ladders had to be cut to get them out.
He once made a very large timber bow window in our garage, made the astragals and everything back when it was all done by hand and cramped and glued everything up. Only the next day did he realise it would not come through the garage door
Did the same when flooring in the first floor of the extension before the knock through - ladders had to be cut to get them out.
Years ago, ripped out hatefull storage heaters and fitted an all new central heating, all working and checked for leaks for a few days before putting the floor boards down, last board, getting tired after a ling day, guess what, hissing noise after i hammered the last nail home........
Easter Monday a few years ago, removing floor tiles in the kitchen to get it ready for laying new laminate flooring, last couple of tiles are near the water mains. I'm using an SDS with a chisel attachment which so far has done a great job. Thought i'd best be very careful when i got to the last tile at the pipe. I didn't realise that someone had moved it previously and the feed was horizontal for a couple of feet directly below the adjacent tiles, not buried in the floor as i expected. SDS straight through it when i removed the tile beside the stopcock.
Phoned a builder mate, who had just done some work for us, to bring his big metal key to turn the water off in the street while i tried to control the flood. When he arrived he discovered that the stopcock in the street had been replaced by one of those ones that you can turn off by hand so i could have isolated the water within a couple of minutes instead of waiting for him to arrive.
Luckily he brought a plumber mate with him who was able to repair the damage quickly so we could get the water back on.
Phoned a builder mate, who had just done some work for us, to bring his big metal key to turn the water off in the street while i tried to control the flood. When he arrived he discovered that the stopcock in the street had been replaced by one of those ones that you can turn off by hand so i could have isolated the water within a couple of minutes instead of waiting for him to arrive.
Luckily he brought a plumber mate with him who was able to repair the damage quickly so we could get the water back on.
Many years ago, probably when Jesus was still a lad, we had Economy 7 for block storage heating and one of those very tall hot water tanks with two horizontal immersion heater elements.
The lower element failed, so I bought not only a new element, but the correct spanner to remove the failed one and refit the new.
I decided to do this simple task on a Saturday morning, the same Saturday morning that we were expecting my parents to arrive for the weekend. At the time, 'er indoors refered to 'er mother in law as 'The Queen'......
So I turned the water off at the stopcock and removed the exit hot pipe from the top of the tank, lowered my hosepipe into the tank and ran the hose down the stairs and into the drive and set up a syphon to drain the tank down. Slackened the immersion heater element with my big spanner, knelt on the bathroom floor to unscrew it from the tank, and was a bit suprised when the element smacked me in my scrotum as it was pushed out by a huge torrent of water, the water cascaded down the stairs and bounced over the front doorstep before losing momentum and flooding the dining room.....'er indoors was not very happy with this state of affairs and made me very aware of it.
No one had warned me that these tall hot water tanks had baffles inside them and my carefully placed hosepipe end was resting on the upperm ost baffle, perhaps only a quarter way down the bloody tank!
When my parents turned up we were still mopping up water from the stair carpet, dad laughed and told me about the tank baffles.....
I am still banned from playing with water!
The lower element failed, so I bought not only a new element, but the correct spanner to remove the failed one and refit the new.
I decided to do this simple task on a Saturday morning, the same Saturday morning that we were expecting my parents to arrive for the weekend. At the time, 'er indoors refered to 'er mother in law as 'The Queen'......
So I turned the water off at the stopcock and removed the exit hot pipe from the top of the tank, lowered my hosepipe into the tank and ran the hose down the stairs and into the drive and set up a syphon to drain the tank down. Slackened the immersion heater element with my big spanner, knelt on the bathroom floor to unscrew it from the tank, and was a bit suprised when the element smacked me in my scrotum as it was pushed out by a huge torrent of water, the water cascaded down the stairs and bounced over the front doorstep before losing momentum and flooding the dining room.....'er indoors was not very happy with this state of affairs and made me very aware of it.
No one had warned me that these tall hot water tanks had baffles inside them and my carefully placed hosepipe end was resting on the upperm ost baffle, perhaps only a quarter way down the bloody tank!
When my parents turned up we were still mopping up water from the stair carpet, dad laughed and told me about the tank baffles.....
I am still banned from playing with water!
Edited by ferret50 on Wednesday 8th May 11:06
Moved in to a new house on a Friday.
Sunday afternoon the wife asked me to put a shelf up in the kitchen… easy enough… have a quick look, and it doesn’t look like any electrics or water pipes are anywhere near.
Start drilling the holes… on the 3rd one and all of a sudden I’ve got water pissing out of the hole and hitting the wall on the other side of the kitchen.
Stick my finger over the hole, shout the wife and tell her to look under the sink for the stop tap… nothing. Eventually find the stop tap in an outside lean to backing on to the kitchen.
Have to pay an emergency lumber bank holiday weekend rates to come seal the hole… and end up with a 6” square hole in the kitchen plasterwork…
The water pipes for upstairs were just buried in 4-5” thick plaster, diagonally across the kitchen wall
Sunday afternoon the wife asked me to put a shelf up in the kitchen… easy enough… have a quick look, and it doesn’t look like any electrics or water pipes are anywhere near.
Start drilling the holes… on the 3rd one and all of a sudden I’ve got water pissing out of the hole and hitting the wall on the other side of the kitchen.
Stick my finger over the hole, shout the wife and tell her to look under the sink for the stop tap… nothing. Eventually find the stop tap in an outside lean to backing on to the kitchen.
Have to pay an emergency lumber bank holiday weekend rates to come seal the hole… and end up with a 6” square hole in the kitchen plasterwork…
The water pipes for upstairs were just buried in 4-5” thick plaster, diagonally across the kitchen wall
Anything to do with water I pay a plumber for now. I'm never lucky enough for it to be as simple as turn off water, undo fixing, fit new fixings etc. Always leaks. Gutted bathroom in current house, thought I'd use push fittings to cap pipes off and they didn't work. Went to turn off stopcock and and some clever t
t had put it behind a kitchen cabinet so I had to turn it off on the road. And because this was just as 2nd lockdown was starting in Wales I struggled to get a trade in so went months with no water. Luckily I was still living with Dad then. Tiles were 4 deep and when I got to the actual walls, they were like bowls.
Ripping kitchen out over the last few months and tiles to find plastered over larders I've had to reboard. A pillar the stench pipe is in, half is boxed in with plaster board, other half is the wall. It's not level in any direction and kicks out at the top. So when I went to fit the new unit for the cooker there, it wouldn't fit flush. Had to SDS the top of it so I could at least get it flush and I'll have to repair it later. May just tile the whole pillar to make a feature out of it. But the pillar itself is out almost an inch from bottom to top so I may have to board it somewhat level first, or I'll be packing way too much adhesive behind it. Not one wall in this house is level. Even when I tile by the worktops it's going to take quite a bit of work to get right. I'll prime it all, use floor adhesive and hope for the best.
When we fitted the cable for the hob, the sparky wanted it 30cm away as per regs. But meant where we dug out the cable run is right between where we needed the cab bracket to go. Had to chisel out either side of the cable trunking, drill holes, use a bit of wood to screw into, then fix bracket to that. It worked and you can't see it but what a faff!
Every job in my house as been hard work as you end up coming across previous bodges and having to get inventive with your own bodges instead.
t had put it behind a kitchen cabinet so I had to turn it off on the road. And because this was just as 2nd lockdown was starting in Wales I struggled to get a trade in so went months with no water. Luckily I was still living with Dad then. Tiles were 4 deep and when I got to the actual walls, they were like bowls. Ripping kitchen out over the last few months and tiles to find plastered over larders I've had to reboard. A pillar the stench pipe is in, half is boxed in with plaster board, other half is the wall. It's not level in any direction and kicks out at the top. So when I went to fit the new unit for the cooker there, it wouldn't fit flush. Had to SDS the top of it so I could at least get it flush and I'll have to repair it later. May just tile the whole pillar to make a feature out of it. But the pillar itself is out almost an inch from bottom to top so I may have to board it somewhat level first, or I'll be packing way too much adhesive behind it. Not one wall in this house is level. Even when I tile by the worktops it's going to take quite a bit of work to get right. I'll prime it all, use floor adhesive and hope for the best.
When we fitted the cable for the hob, the sparky wanted it 30cm away as per regs. But meant where we dug out the cable run is right between where we needed the cab bracket to go. Had to chisel out either side of the cable trunking, drill holes, use a bit of wood to screw into, then fix bracket to that. It worked and you can't see it but what a faff!
Every job in my house as been hard work as you end up coming across previous bodges and having to get inventive with your own bodges instead.
Fitting our first kitchen myself. I somehow cocked up a wall measurement so the final tall cabinet (housing the oven) was 100mm off. This meant the back door wouldn't open fully as the oven was in the way. The neighbouring units housed the fridge and freezer so couldn't be replaced with a thinner unit to compensate.
DickyC said:
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.
When my internal stopcock was leaking and the plumber that came to repair it didn't have the tool I just reached in up to between my elbow/shoulder and did it for him..I've had a couple but the first one that springs to mind was the very first day we moved in. I was really excited to get stuck into a renovation and went to take the radiator off so I could start stripping the wall paper. Turned out the nut on the pipe was stuck by paint and the pipe split instantly as I applied too much torque. Only at this point did I realise that I didn't know where the stop cock was. Went to the usual places where it could be to find valves but they didn't seem to do anything. Only after about 10 minutes did I find the valve out in the garage hidden away. Fortunately we were probably going to rip up the carpet anyway but still made a right mess!
A second one was more recent were I was getting frustrated putting some wood effect vinyl planks down in the bathroom in an awkward position. I just snapped and flung the piece I had in my hand away only to realise that i'd thrown it straight at the window which broke... My wife was not too impressed with me. Especially when she stood on a shard a few days later which i'd missed on clean up.
A second one was more recent were I was getting frustrated putting some wood effect vinyl planks down in the bathroom in an awkward position. I just snapped and flung the piece I had in my hand away only to realise that i'd thrown it straight at the window which broke... My wife was not too impressed with me. Especially when she stood on a shard a few days later which i'd missed on clean up.
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