Have you had a DIY dream turn to disaster?

My DIY skills are very much on a par with Herod’s childminding capabilities. I have an impressive number of tools, including something called an ‘angle grinder’ (although how one grinds angles I have no idea, but it was useful for a few shelf supports), a ‘router’, which I used to render a perfectly cut and hitherto beautiful piece of timber into something that resembled a plank used by Blackbeard in a matter of seconds, a ‘Jig Saw’, which is utterly useless at making Jigsaws (I have tried), a chainsaw – now that’s a fun device 🙂 , a power saw (less fun, far noisier, but it does have a laser on board!) – and an assortment of spannery things, innumerable screwdrivers (why can’t they make all screws with the same head????) and several magnificent (and still pristine) box sets of things called ‘bits’, which seem to be for drills, but the name of which I’ve appropriated for most of my tools. I even have tools for my tools, with some very odd-looking things that seem to be for fitting ‘bits’ into drill-things.

Despite the equivalent (over the years) of enough money to buy a small third world country being invested in tools, the hammer remains the most useful, with – I swear – other things rapidly acquiring lives of their own as they spy me approaching. Every power tool has a lead which conspires to wrap itself around itself and other things with more dexterity than a set of Borromean rings and equally as implausible, drill bits delight in mocking my inability to drill a hole exactly where I want it, saws seize every opportunity to wander from the carefully drawn pencil line I’ve painstakingly measured out (power saws do that so much faster…) while despite taking what I think is every precaution, hidden electrical pipes sneak furtively into places where they shouldn’t be, empty pipes fill with water and perfectly unassuming water pipes contrive to connect themselves to gas outlets, so when I buy a handy ‘self-tapping’ washing machine connector nothing but a stream of highly combustible propane emits when it’s turned on which, given the other topic on warranties, might possibly void the Electrolux’s guarantee.

Finally, even when taking every imaginable precaution to trace a lead pipe, ensuring I could locate both ends and that neither was connected, the amount of water that gushed out all over me as I tried to cut this useless and ‘empty’ piece of pipe down to take it to the scrap yard because of something called a ”T” piece was enough to convince me that in DIY the first letter stands for “Demolish”.

My first “major” (well it was to me at the time) DIY job was changing a leaking radiator.

After being ripped off for a new immersion heater that we didn’t need I decided to tackle the job myself.

A trip to the local plumbers who were slightly amused but extremely helpful, even lending me a tool and explaining how much PTFE tape to use etc, I managed to drain the system, reposition the brackets and get it all working again without any disasters all the while ignoring my then partner’s 2 cents worth to get a plumber in .

That was a proud moment in DIY.

As well as Barry Bucknell, Reg Prescott had a series of helpful programmes for the diy enthusiast. One example: youtube.com/watch?v=lo7l1QAe_es

I could change the title of this topic from diy to professional disasters
My whole place is DIY, Everything. A lot of it looks like a dogs breakfast because its temporary as half the place is a work in progress but I have no failures, leaks or shocks in 20 years or more and I note regular that so called professionals are all to ready to complain about appearance as a certainty of the job being sub standard and/or dangerous when in fact it is often the contrary.
I feel many like to make us believe that plumbing and electrics are in some way complicated which they are not.
Long before electric valves etc were available most things were possible and near all the components are still available
I have seen a place wired to 17th edition with no thought to the ability of the power source. In several cases i have seen the same problem.
Fit a consumer unit with all the usual MCBs etc and all connected to a 2 or 3kw inverter supply. The MCBs will never trip in any circumstance because they are all too big and too slow to trip. There is not enough power available. Safety to the equipment does not matter. Just continue blondly down the same route and it was right ever other time.
When I change them out to proper rated ones for the job in hand I got told that that what I done is not correct.
I argue the toss because I know.
My daughter bought a house this year and it had had a new kitchen and bathroom fitted.
Of course the house inspection of a 1960s house does not involve trying everything and the outcome is that the kitchen taps are those fiddly hose high pressure types as are the wash basin ones
The shower hose was too short by far.
All this in a gravity fed house
The shower stopped working at every opportunity, air-locking requiring a little help from a wet vacuum near every day. And she’s 12 mile from me!!
Her father in laws plumber stated it will need a booster pump. “It’ll never work with gravity, I’m tellin you”
A shower pump supply and fit will be £500 supply and fit.
I mentioned the lack of a check valve on the hot at the kitchen sink and that it would need a swing type valve as the system is not correct. He said he could only fit a normal spring type valve as that was regulation. Rubbish I said, there’s barely pressure to flow water let alone a spring. He retorted he didnt care, he would only work to the regs ????????????? According to what had seen and with the knowledge of his skills I doubt his judgement.
Seeing as no one was offering to pay for these costly solutions I decided to have a go at my daughters request.
Whilst there on my own the neighbour who I had met previous spoke to me over the back fence. What’re you at today.
I told him what I thought was the problems and that the plumber had said it needed a pump.
I got a surprise.
The neighbour then told me he was surprised to see “that plumber” back again as that was the guy who done the kitchen and bathroom and he had not a good reputation in the area.
I learned the plumber had fitted the parts supplied to him and had also fitted a new vented cylinder because it had burst or started to leak during the renovation. Strange??
The cylinder is in a cupboard downstairs. The hot pipe comes out the top as usual and does a few wiggles and makes it way back up into the roof space.
Once in the roofspace it continues on up to make the vent. The 22mm takes off from the riser in the direction of the bathroom but in that lay the problem.
The 22m hot feed continued to rise before turning vertical downward.
The neighbour told me the plumbing had worked all the time he knew the houses at least up until this renovation.
I cut the 22mm hot pipe as it rose from the tank to the vent in two places. I raised the hot tank end of bath hot feed and reconnected the lot
I noted a very up and down piece of hep below the bath so removed it and replaced with a piece of copper sloping up toward the taps.
I had to got to town at that point to get two brass 3/4 back nuts as the nuts on the taps were plastic and split.
I used proper 3/4 copper tap fittings not those very restricted flexibles that were there.
I then fitted a brass swing type check horizontally to the hot feed to the kitchen mixer and the flow via the tiny pipes was such that the swing type valve barely flows. What would a spring type have done with this I know not.
I turned everything back on and without any priming or sucking with a wet vacuum water appeared everywhere and apart from occasional small bursts of gas the system now works it seems.
The next thing to do is to replace the high pressure kitchen and wash basin taps with proper ones which are still available.
I will now get the son in law in action and raise the header tank up at least a further 4′. I’ve been in and looked in the neighbor’s roof space and it seems they were raised originally as this is a row of former council cottages.
I have already been told by some that the plumber is not at fault because he only fitted what he was presented with which I dont agree with.
My old long gone mate would have told the owners to take these high pressure parts back and get suitable otherwise your system wont work.
I have already told the story of a neighbour who had an electric shower with neither and earth nor RCD and fitted by a local electrician.
I have seen many things that are not as they should be and not just in renovations but in new installations also.
Everything is not as it should be.
Yes there are good tradesmen, There will always be good tradesmen but there are many poor to bad around also.
The above mentioned plumber can only be deemed as dire to the extent he was willing to take payment to sort out problems caused only by himself.
According to what abilities one has is a lot to do with whether one should attempt diy or not.
Your partner will soon let you know if your successful or not and thats a fair indication of your abilities.
Do not attempt anything that you know nothing about. Electrical and plumbing can both be dangerous if not treated as should be.
If it were not for diy we would be broke as I inherited a run down old farm yard that need the price of several little houses spending on it. A real b*****s of a place with not one service in place. Not so much as a 240v lightbulb in sight.

Hi Josef, Your turning into a poet good man
I followed supposed professionals and not a chance of knowing where anything went. Not even a scribble on anything. Follow your nose as one would say.
I worked with loads of dc circuits and it seems perfectly acceptable for them to use pos to be brown and neg to be blue. Not a bit of red or black tape in sight. High voltage, low voltage, ac dc all the same to them it seems
Then bundle the whole lot into the same controller/enclosure and into the same trunking along with you guessed it brown and blue ac wires. I nightmare that is.
When checked they say “its okay we done the 17th edition” you did did you, well so did I and this is all wrong
Keep it going Jo