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Design DilemmaDIY
gabby247

DIY mishaps and regrets

Gabby Wong
4 years ago

So partly if anyone has any good advice.. and party to help me feel less useless and I thought it could be entertaining!


What DIY mishaps, mistakes and disasters have people had?


Today I've managed to fail at putting up blinds (that I've managed to put up all over the rest of the house...) No idea what this Lintel is made of compared to the rest.. but omg... I've been drilling for ages and I get about an extra couple of mm... tried a different tip and it broke!!! all masonry drill bits


and then trying to put up a wall bracket for the TV in the kitchen... and first one hit some random metal strip... then despite being smaller than the bolt, they wouldn't grip properly... went down another size.. and now ones all the way in, was about to do the final tighten and then went suddenly loose.. and now the top one won't go in any further!.... so I've made 5 holes now in our new wall.. and none of them will hold the bl**dy thing! Grrrrr.... I think I need to give up for today! *sigh!*



Featured Answer
  • Sonia
    4 years ago

    We always get a handyman/woman in to do any DIY jobs as we are both useless! However, my husband recently decided to spray WD40 on all the window hinges, but he also did the little storm windows which now won’t stay open at all and just flop shut! He also decided to scrape the ice from the freezer bit in our fridge WITH A SCREWDRIVER! You’ve guessed it, he punctured the fridge so all the gas escaped. So apart from the nasty gasses escaping, we had to buy a new fridge. So he is banned from any DIY now..........

    Comments (19)

    • rachelmidlands
      4 years ago

      More of a bodge job than a disaster but recently had the kitchen roof re done as it needed urgent attention because of a leak. Thought it would be a good opportunity to get a new cooker hood and fit a new extraction vent (was previously a recirculating one). So we start taking the kitchen apart so hubby can drill hole in the ceiling, drills the hole in the correct place only to discover a joist slap bang in the middle! Doh!
      Couldn’t think of any better solution so just squared off the hole to the size of the chimney cover so we could squeeze the pipe round the joist. Best of all roofer bought the wrong size tile vent so had to buy a new pipe anyway. So all in all we’ve got an extractor that is noisier than it should be but it’s not our forever home and at least the roof leak is fixed...touch wood! :-)

    • Gabby Wong
      Original Author
      4 years ago

      I feel your pain, the same happened to us during the extension.. I feel like ceiling joints are always where you don't want them.


      Glad you managed to find a way around it though. Fingers crossed your roof leak is fully sorted though!

    • Gabby Wong
      Original Author
      4 years ago

      Hahahaha... I love that he's banned...

      I tend to do more than the other half.. and have put up the blinds and curtains in most the rooms.. Know the feeling with the WD40!! When we were staying at the in-laws over the last few months I oiled some their internal doors that creaked all the time... turned out like you, one is now too lose and when they have the back door open in the kitchen it doesn't stay closed and will blow open and shut continuously! Doh! (felt somewhat bad about that one!!)

    • Sonia
      4 years ago

      At least you’re giving it a go. I bought a little cordless drill and when I attempted to put together a wooden raised pond I made a right bodge of it. Finished it, but don’t look too close :-)

    • Tani H-S
      4 years ago

      @Sonia that did make me laugh! He could have least used a flat knife, ha ha.

    • Sonia
      4 years ago
      last modified: 4 years ago

      @Gabby haha yes nobody wants floppy doors and windows. That’s hilarious!


      @Tani H-S that would have been too sensible!

    • Daisy England
      4 years ago

      A tip for creaky hinges on windows and doors ..... use washing up liquid. Squirt from the top and let it dribble down at the same time flapping the door or window back and forth so the liquid goes in the folds of the hinges. Works a treat.

    • Juliet Docherty
      4 years ago

      Sonia, my husband put together a flatpack Habitat set of office drawers. By the time I heard drilling it was too late, he'd drilled holes in the top for the casters. He then found the bottom that had the pre-drilled holes so we now have drawers with four holes in the top!

    • Sonia
      4 years ago

      Goodness me colourhappy, he sounds as bad as mine! My husband used to always have a go, but since fridgegate he mustn’t touch anything!


    • Patrina
      4 years ago

      When we moved into or home 7 years ago, the laminate our master was so bad we decided to replace it with carpet. On the morning the carpet fitter was due to arrive, my hubby decided to fix the one squeaky floor board and proceeded to put a nail through our hot water pipe! Cue the mad rush to get a plumber out to fix it before the carpet fitter arrived. All this time my husband was joking about us having under floor heating! Let's just say he is banned from hammers! and the blooming floorboard still squeaks.

    • Sonia
      4 years ago

      Another banned husband lol! :-)


    • Gabby Wong
      Original Author
      4 years ago

      Oh wow!!!
      Patrina I can’t imagine the stress of having to try and get that sorted with such a deadline in addition to the hole in the pipe!! I mean I think the joking as well was a very brave move! Haha

      Oh dear colour happy - worst thing you’ll be reminded every time you look at it!!

      Well maybe I should be grateful my OH does basically none of the DIY! (He did do very well building the new wardrobes & bed tho thankfully whilst I was studying)

    • Patrina
      4 years ago

      @Gabby yes my stress levels were through the roof! my hubby has the unique ability to make we want to burst out laughing whilst getting the urge to strangle him at the same time!

    • ilikefriday
      4 years ago
      last modified: 4 years ago

      I posted this on a different thread when it happened.

      I decided to diy hair color. I have a lot of hair and knew it would take a lot longer than the time stated on the package so I gave myself about an hour. I didn't want to stand that long so I decided to do it at the dining room table. I didn't realize I got drips on the floor. Yikes.



      I found out hair dye is great at changing wood color. I had to pull out my hand sander on this one. Didn't I just comment on a post someone wrote who wanted to stain her staircase handrail black? I suggested paint. Forget that. If you see this, Dark N Lovely works great!

      Fast forward a few months and now it's time to redo. I will again take my seat at the dining room table but this time I will cover the floor with a towel.

    • Jonathan
      4 years ago

      Years ago I put a curtain pole up for my Mum.
      The screw fixings we’re almost in the same place as the previous curtain rail and there were no sockets on that wall so I thought it was a fairly safe bet I didn’t need to check for any pipes or wires....oops
      Weirdly there was a wire to one of the PIRs for the alarm miles from either the alarm or the PIR. Of course the alarm thought it was being tampered with and so the whole street knew about my gaff!

    • Gabby Wong
      Original Author
      4 years ago

      LOL oh dear Jonathan! That must have been very frustrating!
      I remember a friend taking down a curtain rail in an old house they were doing up, (again not near a plug or light switch) took out thy e screw and the lights went off... so they put it back in and got the electrician round.. turned out random wire that went in a zigzag up the wall and the screws had severed the wire, and was now the link between the 2!

    • Gabby Wong
      Original Author
      4 years ago

      @ilikefriday I know that feeling, although I used to get tiny dots either side of the wall mirror... we’ve now redone the bathroom with larger mirrors and fully tiled haha

    • rinked
      4 years ago

      DIY renovating our little 1950 house since 2012. We did the major work in the first 2 years, went slow afterwards. So plenty of mistakes too LOL.


      Some bad choices, like cheap bathroom floor tiles (huge discoloration on the shower floor) and cheap bathroom paint (which is already pealing off walls and ceiling) and cheap alkyd for the woodwork (some areas look like a chain smoker lives here).


      Some not so handy decisions, like taking out the original pine floors to be able to insulate underneath and remove weird patches and hatches, then nailing them back onto osb, but never thinking about the possibility of the current massive creaking (just about everywhere).. It looks great though..


      But also some 'fun' experiences, like discovering a huge abandoned wasp nest above a bedroom ceiling, roof beams that had been chewed on by longhorn beetles for about 10 years (which thus had to be replaced, did that ourselves too though.. humble yet pround and slightly stubborn)..


      And, last but not least, we had to use polyurethane glue to fix just about every impact plug used for the insulation of all of our external walls, because it turned out our (13cm thick) concrete walls were not quite solid, but made of concrete frames (with 20mm steel reinforcement, also great when drilling onto) filled with iron slag.


      Always remember: It's better to regret the things done, than to regret the things you didn't. And better to try and fail, than .. Oh well, you get the point ;)

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