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What's your biggest DIY calamity?


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I'm sure we'll all proud of what we've achieved in the building/renovation of our homes, but as DIY'ers I'm sure there are some tales to tell about moments that have made you nip up your butt cheeks. The ones that you look back on fondly and help you to re-appraise your own limits.

 

I'll start.

 

My best friend is an accredited Solar PV installer, we had our system fitted in August 2011. 3 months later we decided to build an extension that resulted in the panels needing to be repositioned. He's a busy guy, so I did the donkey work. I removed the panels to store them, then once they were ready to go back on, I did the physical re-fit. Everything went well and I took it as far as I could for him to come round, make the final connections and check off my work.

 

I was in the loft, bundling the wires together. Neglecting that PV panels have no 'off' switch, I managed to receive a substantial shock. I won't lie, it hurt, in fact it brought tears to my eyes, but more due to the thought of what could have happened. Luckily it was 4pm, so the intensity had gone out of the sun and the panels were not producing anywhere near their peak. Had they have been up to speed, I imagine my Wife, who was out at the time, would have found me, chargrilled. The thought terrifies me.

 

Who's next?

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On top of my house roof repairing the ridge without fall protection on a very cold and icy morning....... slipped and proceeded to very quickly zoom down the slate roof, onto the garage roof also on an angle and then shoot of the bottom, hit a retaining wall.... bounced of the house wall and landed on the pavement. Not a scratch or bruise on me.  Bloody lucky I guess. 

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39 minutes ago, Cpd said:

On top of my house roof repairing the ridge without fall protection on a very cold and icy morning....... slipped and proceeded to very quickly zoom down the slate roof, onto the garage roof also on an angle and then shoot of the bottom, hit a retaining wall.... bounced of the house wall and landed on the pavement. Not a scratch or bruise on me.  Bloody lucky I guess. 

 

Not to mention stoopid! ?

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2 minutes ago, christianbeccy said:

 

Come on, you must have something to add? I've got more, but thought I ought to let others have a go. ?

 

Last one was falling / slipping down a ladder and running the electric plane across the lead.

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15 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Not to mention stoopid! ?

The act of falling off could be classed as stoopid but risk is something I am very comfortable with and pottering about on my roof unprotected would be Classed as one of my lower risk activity’s...... put me in a professional environment and I tick all the boxes and more, but my personal time is my own to do as I please and I like the freedom to do as I want when I want. I hope to have many more happy days fluffing about on my shite slate roof without the constraint of a rope but if I stop posting on Buildhub abruptly............ 

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Almost finished the build and using an angle grinder with a wood carving blade, said angle grinder slipped from my grip (arthritis in said hand) and proceeded to nearly remove my left thumb, oh bugger I thought, quick trip to hospital in ambulance and duly sewed back on. I have limited movement now but mostly useable. (I have photos fir the less Squeamish if required).

 

p.s. I have a reputation fir being careful with power tools, well, used too,!!,!

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A long time ago I was building a fence on a Sunday. Nailing planks outside and the hammer went astray and hit my thumb. Hard.  It throbbed like hell all night and had a huge blood blister under the nail by the morning.

 

So Monday morning, first thing over to see the nurse. Big advantage of working somewhere  with a decent medical facility, seen instantly with no wait.  The nurse used an unfolded paper clip, heated over the flame of a spirit burner to pierce the nail and relieve  the pressure.  The relief was immediate.  True to her prediction I lost the nail but a new one grew back.

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21 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Did not happen to me, but I know someone that was fitting a log sauna, his mate was hammering down a log, with his mates tackle caught between two pieces.

'Black Man's Pinch' did not start to describe it apparently.

 

lucky and unlucky at the same time ?

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Forgot to seal a top access shower trap/waste. First use it was raining on my computer in the room below.

 

Near death experience... I embedded some 10mm threaded rod in the concrete slab for my shed to make it easier to bolt down later. Some days later I fell backwards and one ended up a few inches to one side of my head. Nearly impaled. I spent the next 10 mins cutting up some 40mm pipe to put over them.

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Fitting her dad's new kitchen I was putting up a high level wall unit. There was a socket beneath it so took the cover of and plumbed up from the cable. Took the drill out and put one bracket up moved over to the next one and about 20mm into the next hole a mighty blue flash and I fell of the stool. Drill bit melted, hammer drill never worked again and I had a blue dot in my eye for days. Who ever tracked the wall was 75mm out of plumb. 

There was a lot of bad language said that day.

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11 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Fitting her dad's new kitchen I was putting up a high level wall unit. There was a socket beneath it so took the cover of and plumbed up from the cable. Took the drill out and put one bracket up moved over to the next one and about 20mm into the next hole a mighty blue flash and I fell of the stool. Drill bit melted, hammer drill never worked again and I had a blue dot in my eye for days. Who ever tracked the wall was 75mm out of plumb. 

There was a lot of bad language said that day.

The lesson from that is if you know there are cables nearby, turn the electric off or at least the circuits you think might be there.

 

The rule with a double socket is the cables can be anywhere withing the width of the socket up the wall so assume the full width of the accessory might contain cables.

 

And check with a non contact voltage pen which should detect cables just burried in the plaster.

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2 hours ago, Declan52 said:

mighty blue flash and I fell of the stool. Drill bit melted,

I thought it was normal to drill into a cable.  I consider that a minor mishap, even after the 3rd or 4th time.

 

I did overflow my bath, leaked into the kitchen below.

Drained some water out, had my bath.  As I got out, I felt a tingle in my foot.

Wet wiring and a cast iron bath.  Got called Thatcher for weeks after that.

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3 hours ago, ProDave said:

The lesson from that is if you know there are cables nearby, turn the electric off or at least the circuits you think might be there.

 

The rule with a double socket is the cables can be anywhere withing the width of the socket up the wall so assume the full width of the accessory might contain cables.

 

And check with a non contact voltage pen which should detect cables just burried in the plaster.

I did all that except turn the electric of as I need it to power the drill.

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1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

I thought it was normal to drill into a cable. 

 

I did that once when working fir BT, got blown across the room and the customer went mad at me, all his computers went down. All the plaster was also blown off and we could see multiple previous holes drilled (it was a plant room) and every other hole just missed a large cable with no protection on it going across the wall at 45’. After a formal complaint from the customer and my boss being called out the customer was informed that we would not be doing any further work till the electrical installation was “fit for purpose.” .

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