Your biggest DIY cock-up.

eth0

GreeBo wrote: »

I think that means that more than the earth was incorrectly wired...:eek:

It wasn't wired at all. Anyway it's been grand for years now since I put in the earth wire

randylonghorn

GreeBo wrote: »

Yeah thats basically safety rule #1 for mixing cement...dont use your ass.:pac:

Actually, I suspect that's safety rule #2 ... >_>

Gloomtastic!

I hate DIY with a passion.....

We were turning my study into a nursery, not a problem, a bit of paint and some stencils on the walls.

However the door saddle was always squeaking so I decided to nail it down. Simples....

However the jet of water that hit my face and then the ceiling underneath filling with water meant I'd f@cked up major!

Called out a plumber on a Safurday afternoon who spent the next five hours repairing the damage, floor boards up everywhere, water dripping downstairs. No heating, house was freezing and wife swearing at me at every opportunity. Paid the plumber about €500, Not a good day.

Next day was hammering the floorboards back down when I did the same thing again. Plumber just laughed when I called him again.

Fixing Good

Upstairs shower was blocked so I decided to get some drain blocker in the shop. I never read labels so I piled it down the plug hole. The ensuite filled with acidic smoke but went away so I thought it was normal.
The next morning I had a shower only to be stopped by screams from downstairs; the waste pipe had melted away and the water was freely flowing into both the kitchen and sitting room ceilings and down the walls!!
Cue plumber having to cut parts of the ceiling away and a plasterer to finish it off!!!

Another day my handbrake was bait loose so I decided to fix it myself with some guidance from YouTube. So I stuck a screwdriver in tightening what I thought I was supposed to tighten. When I tested it, it seemed the same so I left it at that.
Driving to work the next morning the handbrake locked up going through town, I stop and it then seems fine to drive on. It happened 3 times so I diverted to garage. If anyone was looking it looked like I was pulling handbrakes randomly going through town!!!

Kashkai

Normally I'm a DIY king but this one time I was putting up a curtain pole and about to drill into the wall for the brackets when I check to see if the alarm wires are in the wall where I'm about to drill. So I look down and sure enough, the sensor and it's wires are under my intended drilling point. So I move about four inches to the right of where I was going to drill. I'm now well out of the way I think to myself and so off I go with the drill only for the alarm to go mental as I drill through the wires. Feckin builder had put them in under the plaster at a 45 degree angle which took them right under where I'd drilled into the wall:mad:

If I hadn't been so "careful" and just drilled in straight above the sensor, I'd have missed them:rolleyes:

Vizzy

Pottler wrote: »

I chucked a block down onto a pile of timbers - a lump of 4*2 shot back up and I stuck my arm up to deflect it - arm broke with a very satisfying crack - much to the hilarity of the rest of the mugs present. Off to the A&E, where I'm on first name terms:D Plaster in the eye- steel in the eye, steel chunks in the hand, severed arteries, smashed fingers, cracked neck vertebrae, electrocution(not fatal Whoopsadasiedoodles).jasus, it's a miracle I'm still here..

You didn't have anything to do with Priory Hall by any chance ?

Pottler

Vizzy wrote: »

You didn't have anything to do with Priory Hall by any chance ?

Hah! We're actually the opposite, we fix the crap others have saddled people with, probably why we're still flat out busy and getting ever busier:) The block throwing was while knocking a wall where we had to hand-ball blocks out of an extension years ago and the others are accumulated over 25 years of working day in and day out - so laws of averages and all that.
Funny one we did recently was where a two storey business premises had a blocked(totally) jax(several actually) on the second floor, so the manager decided to knock a small hole in the downpipe(inside the shop, boxed in with an access hatch) down on the first floor so he could rod the pipe to clear it(:D:D & )
He got to the "1.take hammer and hit big pipe to make hole stage.. whatever the next intended step was no-one will ever know because he released a deluge of sh1te, bog roll and water like a mini tsunami that proceeded to flood the ground floor most impressivly.
We got called out, and I made an executive decision(:D;))to delegate the clear-up to my skilled operatives(jasus it was rank in fairness) while I checked out the coffee-shop next door in case there was any colateral damage..:D Fortunatly the coffe-shop was fine, but their danish was a tad stale. We put in a nice new pipe, jetted all the drains and sorted the broken sewer - biggest cost was the clear up...I think I can still smell it.. Manager did do a very good "sheepish" face though.

Vizzy

Pottler wrote: »

Hah! We're actually the opposite, we fix the crap others have saddled people with, probably why we're still flat out busy and getting ever busier:) The block throwing was while knocking a wall where we had to hand-ball blocks out of an extension years ago and the others are accumulated over 25 years of working day in and day out - so laws of averages and all that.
Funny one we did recently was where a two storey business premises had a blocked(totally) jax(several actually) on the second floor, so the manager decided to knock a small hole in the downpipe(inside the shop, boxed in with an access hatch) down on the first floor so he could rod the pipe to clear it(:D:D & )
He got to the "1.take hammer and hit big pipe to make hole stage.. whatever the next intended step was no-one will ever know because he released a deluge of sh1te, bog roll and water like a mini tsunami that proceeded to flood the ground floor most impressivly.
We got called out, and I made an executive decision(:D;))to delegate the clear-up to my skilled operatives(jasus it was rank in fairness) while I checked out the coffee-shop next door in case there was any colateral damage..:D Fortunatly the coffe-shop was fine, but their danish was a tad stale. We put in a nice new pipe, jetted all the drains and sorted the broken sewer - biggest cost was the clear up...I think I can still smell it.. Manager did do a very good "sheepish" face though.

I'm genuinely delighted that you are keeping busy and hope you remain so.
THe Priory Lawn thing was only a quip:)

Pottler

Vizzy wrote: »

I'm genuinely delighted that you are keeping busy and hope you remain so.
THe Priory Lawn thing was only a quip:)

All good:D Don't do domestic work anyway, it's all commercial we do. I like getting paid and stuff:D

GreeBo

eth0 wrote: »

It wasn't wired at all. Anyway it's been grand for years now since I put in the earth wire

not to go too off topic, but the earth is there to prevent shocks when something has gone wrong, not an everyday occurrence. I'd suggest you have a bare write that's grounding on the body of the switch..

nbar12

I accidentally created a glory hole in my room which my gay roommate took full advantage of...

Capt'n Midnight

GreeBo wrote: »

not to go too off topic, but the earth is there to prevent shocks when something has gone wrong, not an everyday occurrence. I'd suggest you have a bare write that's grounding on the body of the switch..

no it's not

earth is there to blow fuse / trip ELCB if live makes contact is made with it, it's to protect the equipment

if you want to prevent shocks use double insulated stuff or an isolation transformer,

you don't want to get caught between live and earth

most of the things you are supposed to do like rubber soles, stand on phone book, use a wooden broom stick, etc. are to isolate you from earth so there is no return path



then again fixing the problem is probably a better option than spending the rest of your life wearing a thick pair of rubber gloves :pac:



DIY , oh the number of times I've put something back together again and notice the extra part and have to strip it down all over again

Don't do stuff when tired !!!
Stripped an ipaq down, broke a connector and punctured the battery
a little later on found out that it probably only needed a reset

Took apart a cassette player to fix the buttons, put the motor connector on wrong, too tired to double check and the magic smoke escaped

nacimroc

Not so much a DIY cockup, but before I started my current job, I had to go for a 2 day interview with my Boss. We went to do a job whilst he assessed what I knew. We were working on a panel when he left his multimeter hanging and turned around to take a call.

I tried to figure out what was wrong but instead sparks flew everywhere and I welded one of the leads of his 200+ quid multimeter to a battery terminal and I fried the PCB board by the looks of it. I was frantically ripping it off just at the second he turned around. At that moment he gave up trying to fix the fault, put the multimeter away and probably didn't use it for a few weeks after, but when he did he would find a giant ball of metal welded to the top of the lead and probably a dead multimeter! To this day he never asked and I'm still hired!

Capt'n Midnight

changing the spark plugs on someone else's car

sheared one off :eek:

fasttalkerchat

Preparing my mum's bathroom for being re-tiled... trying to remove the old tiles which had been put on with ridiculously tough glue. Anyway, was having a whack at a particularly tough spot with a hammer when I clipped the toilet cistern, flooded the room and water came through the kitchen light fixture.

Now it gets worse, I ran downstairs to tell my sister to get back from the possibly eceltrified water, and spent a few mins getting at the fuse box, then tried mopping up the water before collapsing in a heap of desperation wondering how to explain this... at which point I realised, the cistern inlet was still flowing and more water was running straight onto the floor!

fasttalkerchat

Not exactly DIY, but a local fella was going round with a van selling firewood, we had a big utility room at the back of the house so we could buy in bulk, I tried to haggle but no luck so decided to err, do it myself.
I pass the place he gets the wood from (cheapest around) on the way home from uni and his £3 bags were £2.70 each, anyway I was gonna buy 15 bags to make it worth the hassle of driving 20 miles with the car fully loaded...
But then I saw our old friend the tote bag.
It was actually a few quid cheaper for much more, and not having a trailer, van or anything other than a Seat Toledo would hold me back.
After an hour of hauling the wet dirty blocks into the boot, backseat, passenger seat and under the arm rest I finally had it loaded much to the amusement of the staff at the site.
Eventually got it home and all went well until I realised that if the money saved wasn't used on increased fuel burn, it certainly went on the broken suspension

Giselle

Everlong1 wrote: »

I do this all the time! Never had any mishaps though.

...Yet!

El Guapo!

The gf asked me to glue the sole of her shoe back together for her. I did it and was chuffed with myself. I didn't realise I spilled a puddle of glue on the floor though and I put her shoes on the puddle. An hour later she goes to pick up the shoes and they're stuck to the rug. She wasn't too pleased.


My uncle decided to do some paving out his back garden and got a lend of an angle grinder to cut the slabs. He cut one of them and stupidly put the grinder on the ground while it was still spinning. It bounced back up and sliced his kneecap in half. Ouch.

Ronan|Raven

Painting my parents bedroom when they were on Holidays. I hate painting, hell, I hate DIY.

After a week of putting it off I decided I better get the job done, we have an old house with high ceilings so I needed to get a step ladder to reach the coving. I of course took the old ladder which was red rotten ( I am a husky gent...) rather than drive 3 minutes to pick up the good ladder.

Ladder snaps as I am on the top rung. I awake on the ground, my Labrador looking at me worried. I am covered in paint, the bedroom door broken clean off the hinges, I cracked my toes, caught my fingers on my right hand in the ladder and snapped three of them back.

Was a fun drive to A&E... I was never asked to do any DIY again...

GreeBo

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

no it's not

earth is there to blow fuse / trip ELCB if live makes contact is made with it, it's to protect the equipment

if you want to prevent shocks use double insulated stuff or an isolation transformer,

you don't want to get caught between live and earth

Sorry but;

A fuse/circuit breaker is different from an ELCB.

A fuse/circuit breaker is there is protect wires from drawing too many amps and overheating. Your total equipment on the circuit matches the wire and the wire matches the fuse.

An ELCB measures current travelling on the earth.
(A RCD is better again as is checks for impalance in current on live & neutral)

Its not just to protect the equipment, as demonstrated by eth0.
If you dont have an earth (or an RCD) and current is leaking into the equipment your body will earth it and get a shock.

If all you do in this scenario is add an earth then you still have the original problem; i.e. current is leaking from the equipment.

And a double insulated wire doesnt solve this problem, it just makes it less likely that your equipment will come into contact with a bare wire, nothing more.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

most of the things you are supposed to do like rubber soles, stand on phone book, use a wooden broom stick, etc. are to isolate you from earth so there is no return path

Personally I dont rely on attempting to insulate myself before I dim the lights, I'd rather my electrics were correct!