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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2009 21:22:36 GMT
As I'm about to embark on a fairly serious round of DIY, I just thought I'd cheer myself up by seeing if anyone has had any major DIY disasters. I'm not bad at DIY sort of stuff and have never had anything major go wrong (except when I tried to set fire to my house  ) but there must be some stories out there. Anyone want to share ? FA x |
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Post by Jasmine on Oct 18, 2009 7:16:02 GMT
Sounds like the trying to set fire to your house might be an interesting story FA  ;D |
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Post by Barbara on Oct 18, 2009 9:02:04 GMT
My hubby took some upstairs floorboards up, and forgot to tell my dad when he went up to the bathroom, the next time we saw him he was a pair of legs dangling through the sitting room ceiling. ;D ;D ;D HE wasn't hurt thank god, and even helped to repair the hole.
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Post by Missredhead on Oct 18, 2009 11:10:37 GMT
Oh Barbara..I know it probably wasn't funny at the time but it did make me laugh  I can think of any major disasters in DIY...but will have a think |
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Post by Jasmine on Oct 18, 2009 13:36:57 GMT
My hubby took some upstairs floorboards up, and forgot to tell my dad when he went up to the bathroom, the next time we saw him he was a pair of legs dangling through the sitting room ceiling. ;D ;D ;D HE wasn't hurt thank god, and even helped to repair the hole. You reminded me of a similar disaster Barbara - a guy was fixing something in the attic in the school I was teaching in years ago and he slipped off the joist and came through the ceiling legs each side of the joist - painful i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/shocked.gif . |
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Post by farmersboy on Oct 18, 2009 16:05:29 GMT
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Post by Jasmine on Oct 18, 2009 19:24:13 GMT
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Post by Missredhead on Oct 18, 2009 19:27:56 GMT
Been thinking about this and the only one that I can think of is the one where my BIL hung wallpaper for the first time..... He didn't know that you had to 'match' it..he just hung it as he cut it and the pattern didn't line up....he was so proud of himself until his wife pointed out the fact that the flowers were out of sync.....he had to rip it all back down and start again..  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2009 15:55:30 GMT
Sounds like the trying to set fire to your house might be an interesting story FA ;D Well, I was changing the light fitting in my previous house. I thought it would be a simple job of taking the old one down, disconnecting it, connecting the new one up the same way and attaching the new one to the ceiling, I turned off the main fuse box, did the change over and then turned the power supply back on. All was well until I tried switching the lights on. There was a large "pop" and a flash followed by a burning smell. Not only had the light switch virtually exploded but when I went out to the fuse box there was smoke pouring from it and the wallpaper around it was blackened and smouldering We got a proper electrician in to sort it out after that ;D FA x |
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Post by Jasmine on Oct 20, 2009 19:29:19 GMT
It's dangerous stuff that electricity ;D
Thank goodness no one had to prod you with a broom handle FA ;D
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Post by Barbara on Oct 21, 2009 15:32:36 GMT
I was cleaning a heavy glass light shade once, I did'nt want to take it down for fear of breaking it, so, I stood on a stool to do it, the stool slipped and I was hanging on to the light fitting swinging like something out of the circus , ;D with sparks flying around me like it was bonfire night. ;D ;D ;D had to pay an electrician for that and all FA.
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Post by andy on Oct 27, 2009 10:36:21 GMT
Oh my god, i could write a book on this. Most (and there's been quite a few) of my disasters go back to when i moved in with my first wife when i was about 20 years old. We didn't have much cash so i thought i'd do it all myself. We had a small utility room round the back so i thought i'd put some shelves up, drill a few holes in the wall and use it for the fish tank filters (the fish were on the adjoining wall) All went fine until that evening, the whole lot fell down....the filters were smashed, there was water everywhere and also tools, boxes of nails and screwes, the lot. Turns out i had used the wrong size rawl plugs and the screws just pulled out !!!! I also decided to decorate the hallway. It had quite a deep stairwell but i really didn't want to use wallpaper. So i decided to artex it....it couldn't be that hard surely as i'd seen my mate do it for a living !!! Now i like quite a deep pattern with artex so i made the mix quite thick. As a result, the finnished "pattern" had these artex "icicles" sticking out which ripped you to pieces if you brushed against them. I also just slapped the artex onto bare plaster....no PVA or anything so it just dried in 10 seconds flat. A more recent one involved the building of my koi pond. If i can, i'll always cut corners to save time and cash and this is what i did with the pond. I used large 18" x 9" x 9" hollow blocks for the construction but i never filled them with concrete or used steel rods down the holes. I also never pointed them properly. As a result, they fell down !!! Luckily they just pushed out against the fence but i had to take the lot down and start again....properly. More to follow i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/rolleyes.gif |
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Post by Auricula on Oct 27, 2009 11:44:47 GMT
Oh bless, Andy.........you mean, after all that, you carried on???  |
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Post by JennyWrenn on Oct 27, 2009 17:46:14 GMT
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Post by farmersboy on Oct 27, 2009 18:17:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2009 18:42:29 GMT
Oh dear sorry have to laugh at some of them  My DIY attempts are too bad to discuss with anyone  It involved dialing 999 on one occasion  Oh PLEASE tell us Jen ;D FA x |
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Post by JennyWrenn on Oct 27, 2009 21:05:40 GMT
Well OK just for your ears only F-A i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/wink.gif I had moved into my first house with fiance who was completely and totally DIY useless So down to me to work out why we couldnt get any water out of the tap in the bath After looking at it for a while I started to unscrew it - no of course I didnt turn the water off first - never occured to me i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/shocked.gif Suddenly a massive jet of hot steaming water shot up about 3 ft in the air and came cascading down like Niagara falls into the bath which filled up so quickly it started to overflow within minutes The water then started to come thru the floor into the kitchen ceiling below passing over the wiring and electric plugs - such force have never seen anything like it before. The noise was dreadful Think; geysers erupting Yellow Stone Park It was then I dialled 999 - what happened next is too awful to print i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/cry.gif |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2009 11:36:59 GMT
Sorry Jen but that made me laugh ;D Why does the misfortune of others always make you giggle ? I'm part way through my current DIY project. We had a new window in the lounge but because the old one was so big, we've had part of it bricked up. I've taken the fire and fireplace out, blocked up the hole and had it plastered. We've now got to move a radiator, get rid of an old gas pipe that used to link up to the old fire (don't worry, I won't be doing this !!), remove the wall lights and then paint everything before our new carpet arrives in a couple of weeks Come to think of it, why am I on here.........?? ;D FA x |
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Post by JennyWrenn on Nov 2, 2009 8:29:21 GMT
Oh that sounds like a big job F-A - good luck |
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) but there must be some stories out there. 
;D
