What DIY repair made you feel ridiculously proud of yourself? Win £200

[EllieSmumsnet]

From coaxing a dying washing machine back to life, to replacing a tiny part instead of buying a whole new appliance, some repairs feel like a genuine triumph and you should absolutely feel very smug if you’ve managed it! <back pats.

Have you ever fixed something you were fully expecting to retire to the tip? Maybe you saved a small fortune, avoided a call-out fee, or simply refused to let the toaster/washing machine/fridge win.

We’d love to hear your best repair story. Come on and share how handy you are and don't be shy about celebrating that feeling of bringing something back to life! We want to know: What broke? How did you fix it? Did it save you money? And did you spend the rest of the day casually mentioning your achievement to anyone who would listen?

Share your story below by 17/08/2026 to be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 VEX voucher for a store of your choice and to inspire other MNers to try fixing before replacing. (T&Cs)

Managed to get my solar system back online by buying activating & replacing sim then power cycling system & resetting inverter. Still cant quite believe I managed it & feel ever so proud of myself (roughly 1 month on). I did have remote instruction from my installer with you tube video provided by him to guide the power cycle process, regardless feeling exceptionally acomplished with improved knowledge of the system

I've had quite a few since my ex moved out... I've stripped the wallpaper and painted a ceiling he was 'going to get round to' for around 15 years. I managed to figure out how to dismantle the fridge freezer so I could get to a fan and get all the ice off it, so it stopped making a horrible noise. Re-gassed my car air con all by myself.. It has been equal measures terrifying and empowering.

Haha, unfortunately I don't have any great stories. The best thing I did was change the fuse to something that I thought was a total goner.

I have a large library room and I'm always buying bookcases to add as I buy more and more books. I'm proud that I've managed to set up all the bookcases on my own, without any help. Yes, it has been hard, but it feels very rewarding. I'm not much of a bragger though lol.

Still a great story.
The elegant simplicity of simply changing a fuse and thus saving an entire item- which many people would just give up on - must have been so satisfying.

Our 4 slice dualit toaster suddenly stopped working on one side, the lever wouldn't stay down and so it wouldn't toast. I was gutted as I really like it but didn't’ want to have to buy another as they’re so expensive, this one cost £84 around 8 years ago. Anyway I knew it was just the lever thingy as if you held it down it would still heat up, so the element was still ok. A quick google and chat with AI and I had the confidence to unplug it, take it apart and look inside. On giving it a bit of a clean and hoover out, I found a wee white plug had come loose from a circuit board, so I plugged it back into the board then tested it before putting it back together and hey presto that was it ! I'm so pleased as it would cost over £100 to replace and this didn't cost me anything except a few minutes of my time, well worth it !

I've tried quite a lot of things over the years but I was quite pleased about replacing my loft hatch with an insulated one. Also this year I pressure washed my patio and then regrouted it and a man who was cleaning my gutters thought it was newly laid.

I replaced the wing mirror on my own car. After knocking the same one off for a second time, I couldn’t face the embarrassment of taking it back to the garage. Nor could I afford it. So I did some Googling, watched a few YouTube videos, ordered the spare and hoped for the best.

It’s an old car, mine, so it’s one that still has the manual toggles to adjust the positioning of the mirrors. I’d be lying if I said that that particular functionality has worked well since the ‘repair’, but it saved me well over £200 doing it myself. And I pride I felt was truly priceless.

Wooden dividers for my son’s drawers!

My washing machine springs broke on a machine that was less than a year old. The warranty claim
was ridiculously complex so a quick google and I managed to sort the issue. Even my dad was impressed

20 years ago I had an old banger with a leaky sunroof. A hooded raincoat was a requirement as whenever I turned right, collected rain would pour in on me.

The garage quoted me £170 to fix the seal. They tried twice but couldn’t sort it so I got my money back and forayed into the DIY shop for some inspiration…

A roll of electrical tape later and my leaky roof was no more, arriving to work dry was revolutionary and this was most definitely my proudest DIY moment!

Unblocking the filter of the washing machine and removing the colour catcher from it. I had to follow the instructions in the manual but was glad I got it working again.

Fixed the satellite box which saved us buying a new one.
Same for the kitchen extractor fan.

This is probably going to sound ridiculous. The felt on my shed roof has been deteriorating (with the rest of the shed) and it's ripped and every time it rained things inside were getting soaked. I'm 62, widowed, and had a knee replacement last year, so no way I could get up a ladder and replace the felt. Besides, the shed is built very close to the neighbouring fence so I wouldn't be able to reach the far side anyway. I was agonising over what to do when I had a brainwave. I ordered a roll of very thick polythene that is a bit larger than the shed and I've fixed it to the inside of the roof panels. It's got a thousand industrial staples holding it in place and so far it's withheld some seriously heavy rain storms with no water getting inside. I realise it'll be a temporary fix, but it's doing the job for now, and hopefully will continue to until I replace the shed next year.

We have a full height integrated fridge. A few years ago I was on a day out with my sister when my husband, not known for his diy skills, phoned me in a panic saying that the fridge door had fallen off. Not the cupboard door, but the actual fridge door with the wooden door still attached to it. I don’t know what he expected me to do from several miles away, but I suggested that he might want to empty everything that was in the door and then prop it closed as best he could. When I returned home much later, I could see that the problem was with a pin and a piece of plastic where the bottom of the door attached and pivoted, which was broken. I figured out that there was the same arrangement at the top, which was not weight bearing in the same way as the bottom. I switched the top and bottom fixings, and used a bit of superglue to fix the broken part which was now at the top. The repair held until I decided to replace it last year (for other reasons). He was suitably impressed!

When the carpet fitters were coming the next day and I lifted the flooring in my needing renovation home to find a massive hole in the concrete from the old hearth. I got a flooring repair kit, which was essentially a bucket for concrete and filled it myself. Just like baking, had to get the right mix with water and level it off.

Lone Parent for 10 years now and even before that my ex husband was useless. I have removed tons of stone from the garden and laid turf myself. Built a log cabin with a bit of help. Changed all plug sockets. Repurposed loads of second hand furniture. And got myself a brand new kitchen by painting the old one and replacing handles. It’s amazing what you can do yourself if you haven’t got much money.

I moved into a very unloved house and I’ve slowly fixed it up- stripped and DIY’ed my disgusting bathrooms, kitchen, hall, all bedrooms and small garden whilst working full time with 4 kids all with serious health problems as a single parent and dealing with the death of their father. I’m actually most proud of the wonky wallpapering!

This goes back a very long time, when I was about 10. My father made a cigarette burn in his favourite shirt, it burnt through the pocket and the fabric underneath. I removed the pocket, made it smaller by cutting off the burnt bit, carefully darned the hole in the layer below and repositioned the pocket over it with very careful pattern matching. It made him very happy, which in return made me very happy.

Smugest?! 🥴

I'm the one that tends to do the DIY in my family. When it comes to technical issues, that's my husband. When it comes to physical items, that's all me. I've fixed alot of things over the years, the best one has to be fixing up my wedding dress as it was too small so I had to take the seams out and restitch to make loose.

Sanded a ceiling crack and repainted. Small but I was young & proved I could do it alone with practice. Have fixed and painted many things since. Start simple to build confidence :)

My job means that I'm able to do a lot of DIY jobs and even my in laws contact me to do jobs for them. The best thing I ever did was make up my in laws garden to something more presentable and it was all a surprise. I just love seeing joy on other people's faces.

My 21 year old washing machine seal broke off a piece. Cue foamy water all over the floor. I could have replace it but obviously it wasn’t worth £75 on a part, plus having to take the machine apart.

I spent £7 on sealant glue and moulded a new bit. Still going strong 18 months later

Interesting….my washing machine has a very small split in the seal which gets a little bit of water on the floor.
Please could you tell me more about what the product was you used to fix it?