Decorating disasters. Any victims?!
Discussion
Well, Mrs Fun Bus and I have spent the last 3 days painting our kitchen, dining-room, lounge, hall, stairs, landing, bathroom and 2 of our 3 bedrooms. We're lucky as it was all very neutral to start with so only one coat was needed throughout and the end result is fabulous.
It all went without drama, a few mini-rows but no big drama. It got me thinking though, have any of us had any big decorating disasters?
It all went without drama, a few mini-rows but no big drama. It got me thinking though, have any of us had any big decorating disasters?
Yes.. When laying laminate flooring. After peeling back the old carpet, I noticed that a couple of floorboards were loose. Tap 'em back in with a hammer I thought. Oh hang on, this one needs a new nail. Bash, bash bash. Ah that's better the floorboard's in place. Hmmm... What's that fizzing sound? Why is my floorboard starting to feel damp? Oh s
t!
Nail straight through the central heating pipes. 4 hours later and £300 lighter (thanks Mr emergency plumber) everything's dry and there's no longer a hole in the pipe.
t!Nail straight through the central heating pipes. 4 hours later and £300 lighter (thanks Mr emergency plumber) everything's dry and there's no longer a hole in the pipe.
AH yes. New house. About 11pm, stripping wallpaper off the walls with the steamer. Stay away from the steam and it's pretty safe. Large strip of wallpaper pealed off the ceiling due to the steam (when I moved in every inch of plaster was papered including the ceilings). No problem, get on with the walls. Then there was a mighty crash behind me. Large chunk of plaster (about 2 foot diameter) now missing and on the floor. More bits falling all the time. Cue me running round trying to control all the falling pieces to stop the neighbours getting woken up. Steam had caused the 80yr old plaster to come off the laths. My first job in my first home, and I could see into the loft. Not going well.
Still, it was better than last week when I nearly lost a foot to a runaway 9" angle grinder with a diamond cutting disc. Been showing my big gash to all the ladies this week
)
Still, it was better than last week when I nearly lost a foot to a runaway 9" angle grinder with a diamond cutting disc. Been showing my big gash to all the ladies this week
)
The plaster skim coming off with the wallpaper on a couple of walls, requiring a reskim.
Putting new switches in the hall and somehow getting the wires mixed up, cue hours of swapping and trying, swearing and resulting in a phonecall to my FIL to come and sort, which he did in 2 minutes.
Putting new switches in the hall and somehow getting the wires mixed up, cue hours of swapping and trying, swearing and resulting in a phonecall to my FIL to come and sort, which he did in 2 minutes.
Snoggledog said:
Yes.. When laying laminate flooring. After peeling back the old carpet, I noticed that a couple of floorboards were loose. Tap 'em back in with a hammer I thought. Oh hang on, this one needs a new nail. Bash, bash bash. Ah that's better the floorboard's in place. Hmmm... What's that fizzing sound? Why is my floorboard starting to feel damp? Oh st!
Nail straight through the central heating pipes. 4 hours later and £300 lighter (thanks Mr emergency plumber) everything's dry and there's no longer a hole in the pipe.
Not only did I do just the same, but for added ft!Nail straight through the central heating pipes. 4 hours later and £300 lighter (thanks Mr emergency plumber) everything's dry and there's no longer a hole in the pipe.
kwittery, I'd only just installed the fking pipes into new bathroom. The only time my missus has ever called me a silly ! I was though 
The first house my wife and I owned, my wife took the doorbell mechanism off the wall when we repainted the hallway. Go to put it back up and find four wires protruding from the wall (2 x red, 2 x white), and three contacts on the back of the doorbell mechanism. No combination of wiring seemed to make the doorbell function correctly. Went down to the shop and bought a battery powered doorbell to replace it with.
Helping a mate out with decorating his house after a loft conversion, he had all the ceilings boarded and skimmed.
Cue a rush job to get it finished as he had to move back in.
I had been helping out every day off and weekend for weeks.
All the bedrooms are done, just hall stairs and landing to go!!!
I have a ladder on the stairs, scaffold board from the ladder to a set of steps at the top of the stairs (health and safety would have loved it)
Now its a boiling hot day, shirt off wearing just a pair of shorts, up onto the scaffold board I clamber to 'cut in' around the top of the wall. Merrily painting away when.................
KERPOW!!!!
THUD!!!
WTF!!!
I'm sitting/sprawled against the bathroom wall the other end of the landing
Allegedly I shouted fk! at the top of my voice!
Now I had painted the ceilings 2 days earlier, and disconnected the smoke alarm (after switching the lighting circuits off at the fuseboard) unknown to me the chippy had switched the lighting circuits back on the previous evening when working late in the kitchen.
Painting merrily away, I brushed against the cable I had brushed against several times 2 days earlier and discovered 240v and bare sweaty skin don't mix!!!
To my credit I didn't spill a drop of paint
took me an hour or so to stop my hadn shaking so that I could hold the paintbrush and 'cut in' 
Cue a rush job to get it finished as he had to move back in.
I had been helping out every day off and weekend for weeks.
All the bedrooms are done, just hall stairs and landing to go!!!
I have a ladder on the stairs, scaffold board from the ladder to a set of steps at the top of the stairs (health and safety would have loved it)
Now its a boiling hot day, shirt off wearing just a pair of shorts, up onto the scaffold board I clamber to 'cut in' around the top of the wall. Merrily painting away when.................
KERPOW!!!!
THUD!!!
WTF!!!
I'm sitting/sprawled against the bathroom wall the other end of the landing
Allegedly I shouted f
k! at the top of my voice!Now I had painted the ceilings 2 days earlier, and disconnected the smoke alarm (after switching the lighting circuits off at the fuseboard) unknown to me the chippy had switched the lighting circuits back on the previous evening when working late in the kitchen.
Painting merrily away, I brushed against the cable I had brushed against several times 2 days earlier and discovered 240v and bare sweaty skin don't mix!!!
To my credit I didn't spill a drop of paint
took me an hour or so to stop my hadn shaking so that I could hold the paintbrush and 'cut in' Not strictly decorating related (or at all indeed) but...
I was moving house and having a last check of the loft to make sure it was empty before we left.
Stood on a board that wasn't nailed down, which tipped me up, between the joists and through the ceiling, depositing me in the bedroom below.
Oh how the new occupants laughed as I reminded them it was now half past one and the house was legally theirs
Bye then
I was moving house and having a last check of the loft to make sure it was empty before we left.
Stood on a board that wasn't nailed down, which tipped me up, between the joists and through the ceiling, depositing me in the bedroom below.
Oh how the new occupants laughed as I reminded them it was now half past one and the house was legally theirs
Bye then Helping a mate out with painting the floor boards upstairs, he tried to carry a Hoover, fresh pot of paint (sealed) and a sweeping brush upstairs all at once. Cue a heavy "thunk" followed by "oh fk!"
I shouted up asking if everything was ok?
He replies with "well that's the paint gone!" at which point I assume he means that scraping noise I heard was the Hoover scraping the paint off the wall as it fell...
How wrong was I! He had somehow managed to drop the tin in a manor that resulted in the lid popping off and it landing top side down on the carpet of the stairs. He lifted the pot up, causing a bigger mess and started scraping the paint up. (White gloss paint, red carpet)
After about 10 seconds I told him it was no use....the carpet is shagged. He ignored me and tried to get rid of the paint stains. After about 5 minutes he shouted to me "how easy is it to cut the carpet?" to which I responded "Stanley knife and job done"
So now we have a "random" patch of carpet missing on the stairs, quite a significant one too
The paint didn't all go to waste though, he took the opportunity to finger paint the floor boards, and yes, it does look like a 5 year old painted them, and yes there is now a rug over the finger painting.
k!" I shouted up asking if everything was ok?
He replies with "well that's the paint gone!" at which point I assume he means that scraping noise I heard was the Hoover scraping the paint off the wall as it fell...
How wrong was I! He had somehow managed to drop the tin in a manor that resulted in the lid popping off and it landing top side down on the carpet of the stairs. He lifted the pot up, causing a bigger mess and started scraping the paint up. (White gloss paint, red carpet)
After about 10 seconds I told him it was no use....the carpet is shagged. He ignored me and tried to get rid of the paint stains. After about 5 minutes he shouted to me "how easy is it to cut the carpet?" to which I responded "Stanley knife and job done"
So now we have a "random" patch of carpet missing on the stairs, quite a significant one too
The paint didn't all go to waste though, he took the opportunity to finger paint the floor boards, and yes, it does look like a 5 year old painted them, and yes there is now a rug over the finger painting.
flakeypaul said:
Our house had every single ceiling glossed in horrific loud colours when we bought it. 7 years later we're still trying to cover it up (after 6 months the paint cracks and falls off).
Have you tried putting a stain block on it first ?http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9252968&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372013}/categories%3C{9372033}/categories%3C{9502022}/specificationsProductType=treatments&tmcampid=4&tmad=c&ecamp=cse_go&CAWELAID=266956840Not me but the firm I work for have so far this month managed to wipe out a bedroom where the customers kids pushed the ladder over with the decorator on them,2.5 ltr of satinwood sure goes a long way when it hits the ground
Same decorator the following week started stripping a lined ceiling in a bathroom only for it to give way on him breaking a shower tray,shower door and the toilet cistern.
Just another day at the office but we have renamed him Jonah for the time being.
Student house, in the mid 90's, my pc was the communal access to the internet.
Decided to install a phone extension instead of the lead up the stairs we had the previous year.
traced a phone extension into a cupboard on the 1st floor, and decided to cut into that. As the pliers closed I was contemplating the reason why the telephone flex had suddenly become much more substantial. It was at this point I was propelled 6 feet backwards. Oops.
Other was when installing a kitchen. Drilling a hole and everything goes silent. That would be the cable run then. If anyone ever removes that kitchen cupboard they will find a chunk out of the plaster to gain access to the damaged cable...
Decided to install a phone extension instead of the lead up the stairs we had the previous year.
traced a phone extension into a cupboard on the 1st floor, and decided to cut into that. As the pliers closed I was contemplating the reason why the telephone flex had suddenly become much more substantial. It was at this point I was propelled 6 feet backwards. Oops.
Other was when installing a kitchen. Drilling a hole and everything goes silent. That would be the cable run then. If anyone ever removes that kitchen cupboard they will find a chunk out of the plaster to gain access to the damaged cable...
Just remembered another one - fitting coathooks in our newly built/plastered/painted porch, looking absolutely beautiful. Never been a big fan of those pipe/cable locator, they always give my false positives. Anyway, noted that I wasn't drilling anywhere near vertically above the sockets/lightswitch, so off I drilled. Lights suddenly went out.
Bloody spark had the wire from the lightswitch going at 45 degrees behind the plasterboard
Had to chop a square out of the plasterboard to repair the wire. Managed to patch it up OK in the end (it is hidden behind coats!)
Bloody spark had the wire from the lightswitch going at 45 degrees behind the plasterboard
Had to chop a square out of the plasterboard to repair the wire. Managed to patch it up OK in the end (it is hidden behind coats!)
Re paint cracking and falling off glossed ceilings. To me the problem sounds like differing expansion/contraction of the paints. Gloss has a degree of flex, most emulsions have none. I would try an acrylic eggshell (most decorator centers should be able to help). And yes, a coat of stain block in-between would help.
Too many to list really.
From my time refurbishing pubs:
Biggest mistake was missing a line of text from a specification and drawing for a pub refubishment. Left the entire ceiling of one of the roughest pubs around painted bright pink!
As we were over budget by that point, it just got left.
Not my mistake, but the contractors this time. There were two colour schemes for a pub / restaurant, one blue / green and a second, red / black.
Client chose blue / green scheme, everyone notified in writing, drawings amended etc etc. Got a phone call from the contractor a couple of days before handover. "Are you sure about this carpet?".
Turned up on site and he'd ordered and fitted the wrong carpet, to the whole pub.
Best one at work was a client who was a complete arse, had been a proper about every single aspect of the job. Asked me to replicate, exactly, the special paint finish of the existing walls on all the new walls of his office, and he didn't care how much it cost.
The special finish? The slightly rough texture you get from putting two coats of white emulsion on with a roller!
From my time refurbishing pubs:
Biggest mistake was missing a line of text from a specification and drawing for a pub refubishment. Left the entire ceiling of one of the roughest pubs around painted bright pink!
As we were over budget by that point, it just got left.
Not my mistake, but the contractors this time. There were two colour schemes for a pub / restaurant, one blue / green and a second, red / black.
Client chose blue / green scheme, everyone notified in writing, drawings amended etc etc. Got a phone call from the contractor a couple of days before handover. "Are you sure about this carpet?".
Turned up on site and he'd ordered and fitted the wrong carpet, to the whole pub.
Best one at work was a client who was a complete arse, had been a proper
about every single aspect of the job. Asked me to replicate, exactly, the special paint finish of the existing walls on all the new walls of his office, and he didn't care how much it cost.The special finish? The slightly rough texture you get from putting two coats of white emulsion on with a roller!
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