With the New Year just around the corner, many households will soon be thinking about updating their abode. Whether it’s painting the bedroom or installing new kitchen cupboards, there are plenty of odd-jobs that you can easily carry out yourself. However, accidents happen, to both you and your furniture, so it’s important to be prepared.
We’ve asked around and collated four of the worst DIY disasters – hopefully they serve as a reminder of the accidents that can occur, and help you to avoid them yourself.
“I tried fitting a carpet once”
Alex Balmer explained that trying something for the first time, with little to no experience, often doesn’t go quite to plan.
“I used a snapped off paint brush handle and a hammer to knock [the carpet] into the floor. I cut the carpet straight but the wall wasn’t straight itself, so there was a massive gap from the carpet to the wall…anyway, I had to get a complete new carpet and wasted £70-odd quid.”
Even professionals make mistakes
A scenic artist and muralist, who wishes to remain anonymous, has had his fair share of DIY mishaps on the job – showing even professionals can make the odd mistake. The story of what happened at a beautiful Georgian house located opposite the American Embassy is perhaps his biggest disaster.
“The Embassy had turned off the street’s water while they did refurbishments. Meanwhile, on the top floor, a builder and I were marvelling at a modern kitchen tap that had recently been installed. Since there was no water, we couldn’t make a cup of tea, so we went back to work.
“A few hours later, the owner’s wife came running in to where we were working on the ground floor, panicking because water was pouring from a mural of a sky on the ceiling of the ground floor! Everyone stopped what they were doing to do damage control. Apparently, I had left the fancy tap on (it really wasn’t clear what was hot/cold/on or off), AND a previously sacked plumber had left a blockage in the overflow. It turns out, the Embassy had turned back on the street’s water!
“But that wasn’t all – at the end of the job, the clients kindly paid for me to have a massage. The masseur recommended a hot bath afterwards, so I ran bath in the top floor flat where I was staying. In my relaxed state, I thought I heard a bang – oh well, someone attacking the embassy, I thought. Two seconds later, my husband, who had gone to bed, was shouting up the stairs: “What have you done?”
“I leapt out of the bath, grabbed a towel and went out to the stairs to meet my clients. Apparently, the boiler beside the bathroom had burst and was emptying hot water throughout the house. I turned off the inlet valve but couldn’t find the shut off so, once again, water was raining from the painted sky mural in the ground floor living room, not to mention down the new Venetian plastered walls throughout.
“I don’t know why, but they never called me back.”
The joys of redecorating a new home
Heather Clark and Sean Andrews found some unusual and rather worrying DIY mishaps from the previous owner of their new home, which caused them some issues when they decided to redecorate.
“I was taking up flooring and as I went to carry it out to the skip it all collapsed in on itself with the weight of stale old cat pee it had soaked up, fun!” Sean said.
Heather added: “I ripped a sink out to find a mug sealed underneath to catch the drips…what was the plan when it was full!? I also found a cut live wire underneath several layers of wallpaper.”
“Beautiful black eye, though”
Bex Lambert highlights the importance of not doing DIY alone, as she ended up with a “beautiful black eye” as a result.
“I knocked myself out by standing on a chair to chip off some plaster – some came towards me so I did a penguin dive (head first) onto the concrete floor and was out for a few seconds.” Ouch!
While we can’t protect you from knocking yourselves out or cutting the carpet wonky, we can help you protect your furniture. Self-storage is the perfect place to store your furniture while you’re redecorating. There, it will be safe from stray flicks of paint, and it will give your more space in which to work. Get in touch with us today to find out more.
