To ask for your straightforward DIY efforts that ended up being anything but?

[Tweedypie]

Absolutely at the end of my tether with decorating, new carpets have been laid and my husband said taking the door off to file it down as the new carpet is thicker would be easy........we now have something a horse would enjoy as a stable door as he's filed the wrong bloody end!
I'm so fed up and can't face a trip to B&Q for a new door yet.
What oh so simple DIY job have you tackled that ended up anything but easy?

I tried plastering a crack in a wall did not go well. I hate painting always make a mess. Ive literally given up on getting a carpet down in my little front room and just use throw rugs and carpet off cuts. Curtain buying and fitting can do one too, never easy! Tried washing the windows once and chucked a bucket of water over myself. At least I can bake and sew.

I wanted to strip a few layers of paint off a rocking chair. Looked into getting it stripped professionally, thought, £80? No way! Many hours of horrible work and two large tins of Nitromors later . . £80 looked like the best bargain ever. And there are still bits of paint on the chair.

Oh the stamping on the paint tin just reminded me of the day I decided to paint the hall while my older kids were at school and my 6 month old was napping.

I covered everything with dust sheets, took special care with where I would be painting, taping them down. Timed it perfect and got one part done in his morning nap then in his afternoon nap finished the second part. Was super proud of how tidy I’d kept the splashes.... right up until I realised I hadn’t locked one of the cats out and the hall carpet was covered in paw prints from him stepping on the tin lid when my back was turned.

Kept finding paw prints in random places for weeks

Replacing the locks on my front and back doors. They had to have only one key, but the doors required different style locks and I couldn’t buy a set of two locks that already matched. The instructions said recoding the locks would be easy. Two hours later there were springs and little metal pieces all over my floor and a very expensive locksmith was replacing my locks.

Painting skirting board at back of small space between kitchen cabinets. I managed to get the top of my head stuck on a sharp hook. Was stuck there with hook quite deeply under skin. Had to pull
Myself off. Lots of blood, ambulance etc.
Quick tidy in garden before big day at work - Stepped on old iron heavy stubby rake (a la laurel and hardy) which smashed into my mouth splitting my lip. Cue day at two hospitals and max fax surgery etc.
Be safe out there everyone. This thread has made me laugh and wince.

Some of these are hilarious and honestly has put me of diy for life!

We wanted a wardrobe to fill a space. The space was 198cm 🙄 of course all the wardrobes are 200cm.
We did eventually manage it by building our own from various bits of IKEA wardrobes, but it took about 10x longer than if we could have just put up a normal sized one!

I shouldn't have started reading this thread. We've just started decorating our hall and landing. I may be back with my own story!

This thread is hilarious. I am ok at DIY as long as I keep within my limits. DH on the other hand is lethal with a drill. He's caved in a huge chunk of wall before trying to hang a mirror... he didn't realise the wall was lath and plaster.

He goes all red and shouty and stressed and puts too much pressure on the drill that it jitters about so much tearing chunks out of whatever it touches. He forgets it's HIS finger on the trigger too and he has the power to stop! He just keeps going. Terrifying to watch.

He's currently banned from using it so I have to do it instead. I'm not great but at least I'm not the fucking driller killer.

We wanted to move the door to the en-suite so we could fit in a bigger shower.

Only the builder found out that the upstairs walls were unsafe and the joists holding up the stairs were rotten. We had to take down EVERY SINGLE WALL upstairs and have them rebuilt. Was a challenging time!

Creosoting the fence, stepped off the ladder into the BIG bucket of gunge, fell over onto my arse with the bucket jammed on my foot. It went everywhere and now I have a big baldy patch on the lawn where nothing will grow.

Our whole house.
We replaced the windows that then damaged the render, which we fixed, but too late as it has already damaged a different bit of render, that whilst we were up there noted the roof tiles were slipping, which whilst we were fixing that noted the chimney needed repointing...been here two years nearly-just take all my money house...

Decided to redecorate my small bedroom as a bank holiday job. It wasn’t huge so reckoned I could get it done over the weekend whilst my husband was working. Took 2 strips of paper off to find it was holding up the bloody wall. As I peeled away the plaster underneath just fell away. Thought it may be just be that wall so carried on only for it to continue. Husband came home to a room full of rubble. Had to call in a plasterer, who came in started the job then ran out of my house telling me he had seen a monk (ghost) on the stairs and left. Then had to get a builder in to knock all the remaining plaster off and re-plaster the full room!!! My husband and I suddenly split up during that time so it became a nightmare! Ended up lodging alone with the ghost 👻!!!!

This thread is brilliant, especially the line rocky theme in my head

I thought it was just me

Had to call in a plasterer, who came in started the job then ran out of my house telling me he had seen a monk (ghost) on the stairs and left.

LOL!

@MadSweeney and @HeronLanyon both your posts made me wince! Poor you!

Nailing down the last floorboard and hearing a suspicious hissing noise on a Sunday evening, yep it was a water pipe on the first floor. I had to put my finger over the hole while DH went out to find a shop open
My husband has done this twice, in different houses. I don't let him near a hammer now.

My ex husband managed to flood the downstairs loo whilst changing the toilet seat. TWAT!

I bought an old cottage that had a really old elm latch door at the bottom of the stairs. I thought I'd strip it down, sand it etc. I bought a bottle of Nitromors (which in those days was the real deal - really strong acid) and started. I then discovered that there must have been 200 years worth of paint on this door. I had to keep going back and buying extra bottles, it took about 5 in the end. In addition the dissolved paint went everywhere and I got really badly burnt by the Nitromors - up my arms where it spashed. The door looked lovely though - after about a week of work.
Then someone said 'Why didn't you send it away to be dipped?' I was a young and novice householder/diy'er, I didn't even know then that you could do that!

My husband was painting the ceiling (painting was the only bit of DIY I'd let him do) when he slipped and painted over 3 spot lights 🤦🏻‍♀️ He's now only allowed to pass me things and buy the DIY stuff.