My sister and brother-in-law have a solarium attached to their home that has been unfinished for 8 years. They have had intentions of renovating it, but I get the impression that the project is overwhelming. It is currently two levels and is enclosed with a glass structure that leaks by the house. The siding on the house is now rotting. The retaining wall and most of the flooring is still concrete. The stairs going outside of the house are still plywood. It is scary because it has turned into a dumpster zone and is quickly becoming a danger zone. Anything they don’t want ends up out there or they don’t have anywhere to store something it goes out there.

There are sliding glass doors to back garden, but there aren’t any stairs to get to the doors. None of the sliding doors match and it looks like one of them is supposed to be a window, but you can’t tell because there is so much “stuff” surrounding it. Oustside of the mystery “storage” in the solarium the scary part is that they have a room off of the basement that has a sliding glass door out to a room where the the ceiling is lower than the sliding glass door which also serves as the floor of the 2nd level of the solarium! More “storage” is outside of this area. The wiring hanging from the ceiling adds a “homey” touch as well. When we asked about that my brother-in-law said that was “next”.

The entire area has such potential, but where do you start? My brother-in-law says demo it and start over by adding a proper extension to the house, but my sister-in-law says it can be spared and can be a great space in their woodsy neighborhood. She is also cost conscienceous and believes that renovating would be more cost efficient than demolition and rebuilding. My brother-in-law is a self-proclaimed “do-it-yourselfer”. He takes pride in completing a project, but when you go turn on a ceiling fan for example, he will tell you not to because it is too hard to turn it off. While he does great work, some things aren’t as important to him as they are to my sister-in-law like baseboards or finishing trim.

The solarium is concerning because it is unsafe and they have had other projects come up that have taken priority. They have done so much to their house – new windows in in the main house, new siding, new bathroom, basement improvements and the list goes on. They have more to do, but this could be such an added asset to the house and such a great place to retreat I would like to see Bryan help them out. What can be done? Help!!!

Scary Solarium is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Lorrinda.

More DIY disasters:

1. Door frames too small to fit it through!
2. lift to open!
3. Why won’t my drill work?

My girlfriend recently purchased a ride-on, toy dog with wheels as a Christmas present for her one year old niece. The said dog arrived as a box of separate components. I stayed well out of the assembly process, as my flat-pack rage is legendary.

She happily constructed the toy herself, and everything was fine until she had to add the wheels. These required a little ‘brute force’ to press them onto the ends of the axles. I reluctantly fetched my hammer from the garage and proceeded to attach the wheels. Each of them clicked into place without a hitch.

Feeling confident with my success, I said “I bet you haven’t tightened any of screws up”, and started to tighten up the screws which secured the dog’s head to its body. The screws turned easily. In fact the last one turned really easily as the screw head sheared off!

I was mortified.

To be fair to my girlfriend, she didn’t shout at me as she spent the next hour exchanging emails with the manufacturer, but she certainly wasn’t best pleased. I was well and truly ‘in the dog house’.

DIY doggy disaster is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Gareth Hanson.

I was outside sanding down some old doors before giving them a lick of paint one afternoon -I was using a belt sander that id hired for the job. All of the sudden the breaker must have tripped and cut the power, so naturally I placed the sander on the patio floor and went to investigate.

I flicked the trip switch back on and made my way back outside, but as I got closer I could hear some increasingly louder noises. It turned out I had left the trigger locked on, so the belt sander was moving from side to side with intent to harm across the patio floor!

Not only had it smashed 2 ceramic plant pots as it knocked them off the edge of the patio, it had also sanded a nice circle shape in the patio floor! Those things can really move!

Belt Sanders have a mind of their own! is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Sean J.

My husband fitted a nice new bathroom cabinet on the wall just above the end of the bath for me… about 3 weeks after, the room must have got too steamy from the shower and one morning the cabinet fell straight off the wall and into the middle of bath – putting a nice little hole in it!

Fortunately there wasn’t any water in it or even me having a bath at the time!

I made sure the next one went on properly!

Hole in the bath too big for a plug! is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Pauline.

More DIY disasters:

1. how to unclog a sink without getting your hands wet…
2. slow leaking pipes cause damage eventually!
3. Bungled bungalow

My now husband was doing a favour for a friend of mine that we know from the pub, a few years before we got together, while he was between jobs.

He thought the job was pretty straightforward – re-felt his shed roof and then give the shed a fresh coat of staining while the owner was away for the weekend.   Should have taken him a couple of hours for some pocket money.

He did the job during the saturday and was pretty pleased with himself when i met him in the pub that night.

When our mate got back on the sunday night he then called him to ask him if he was busy on the monday because hed spend 2 hours putting the roof felt on upside down and it needed doing again!

Ive never seen roof felt but im told that they are pretty easy to tell which way round is right, but apparently not for my husband.

Its fair to say everything he does in my house is supervised now!

roof felt goes the other way! is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Paula.

More DIY disasters:

1. The Fable of the Fudged Fireplace
2. The tale of the enormous fireplace
3. shelves in a cupboard not to plan!

I recently purchased a bungalow with the sole purpose of renovating it myself and then selling.

To date, my progress has been:
1. Having to replace the entire bathroom after failing to plumb in the taps correctly, outcome of this lead to a scene remininscent of a mini Grand Canyon. This was largely rectified by buying fisherman’s waders for when in the vecinity but I doubt this is a long term solution
2. Failing to plumb in the washing machine correctly – see above for outcome on kitchen area

3. Electrocuting myself pretty severely when trying to install dimmer switches in the lounge. The ceiling now has a lovely burnt tinge to it, as do my hair and eyebrows
4. Having to re-purchase the majority of materials needed after failing to secure any of them properly in the property. The rennovations on next door’s house are now progressing surprisingly quicky.
5. Stapling my toolbelt to a wall with a nail gun, while I was wearing it.

Bungled bungalow is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Rob Reeves.

More DIY disasters:

1. the tap of disaster
2. Hole in the bath too big for a plug!
3. slow leaking pipes cause damage eventually!

We live in an end terraced early victorian house in wales. my wife bought the house almost 30 years ago and we have been married the last 7 . the bedrooms on the first floor all of basin sinks in them and there has been one tap that has been giving us trouble for some time. i am recently disabled and my wife has been disabled for some time.

anyway one of the taps kept leaking and i was unable to get to the tap washer and o ring. because of where it was removing the tap was very difficult and as it didnt have any isolation valve. i put one in. i cut the pipe below the sink and fitted an isolation valve. or attempted to. i am fairly new to DIY .

The valve leaked slightly for about a half hour but it must not have been on the bottom pipe correctly because the water burst out underneath the valve sending water down thru the floorboard on into the kitchen below it. the ceiling became saturated and came thru into the kitchen over our center island and hob. Before i try anything else i am going to get proper training.

the tap of disaster is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by jabrunt.

More DIY disasters:

1. slow leaking pipes cause damage eventually!
2. how to unclog a sink without getting your hands wet…
3. Paint or wallpaper?

After my first bit of DIY in our new house, I shouted for my wife after attaching a new door handle on our lounge door. She was impressed until she tried to open the door – With all her might she pushed down to try and open the door and failed, so I gave it a go and still nothing. It wasn’t moving! We were stuck!

Just as we were contemplating making our move out of the window I pulled the handle up so it went the other way. It worked. I had put it on upside down and you had to lift it up to get out now! So now the wife likes to tell the story to her friends so I suppose I may as well embrace it and tell the story myself!

lift to open! is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by James Norris.

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1. professionals can have DIY disasters at home!
2. Why won’t my drill work?
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Frustrated from trying to unclog the kitchen drain one evening, I decided to try something “new”. Usually I would use a empty soda can or something similar to create a slight pressurized force to clear the drain of debris. But I was too tired to move the dirty dishes out of the way to lift up the rack, which partially blocks the drain.

Next to the sink I eyed an a long, grilling skewer that had a wooden handle and a rod 1/4″ thick. The rod was made out of metal with a very, very dull tip on the end. Thinking I won’t even get my hands wet, I swiftly but gently poked the skewer into the drain a few times. I say gently because I really didn’t know how far down the P trap was. Soon I heard the wonderful sound of water running and I was so delighted how clever I was.

Suddenly the water flowing sounded funny, kind of strange. I looked at the sink and the water line was decreasing so I opened up the cabinet under the sink to see water streaming out of the bottom of the p trap! Just then the whole bottom of the p trap ripped opened and all the water flowed out of the pipe, through the cabinet and onto the floor. Nothing like the feeling of dirty sink water with strands of spaghetti & kernels of corn rushing around my bare feet. All the cleaning supplies stored under the sink were bathed in this murky water as well.

So after cleaning up the mess, I was inspecting the failed p trap pipe. I then noticed the walls of the pipe were paper thin. This made me feel better realizing I wasn’t entirely at fault but years of liquid drain cleaner used prior to us owning the house was. So after the new p trap was bought & installed the next evening, I was admiring my handiwork as I ran a rag over the entire drain pipe thinking the repair didn’t take long at all. That’s when I noticed the 2, 1 inch long tears that ran vertically along in the straight pipe of the drain next to the p trap. The walls of the pipe were so worn thin, the back of the wrench must of broken through during the repair. So looking back I realized after the second trip to the store, after the second repair, and the second inspection, I realized wet fingers are better than wet toes any day!

how to unclog a sink without getting your hands wet… is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by sammynj.

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1. paint stripper is not handwash
2. slow leaking pipes cause damage eventually!
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after reading the nail gun story on here, ive got a little related story that i can add.

I am a part time carpenter – used to do it as a living but now im getting on a bit (62!) i only do bits and pieces for friends and family.

Anyway I got a nice new nail gun for Christmas from my daughters, it was a couple of years back.  So Boxing Day morning i was out in the shed playing with my new job. I pinned a line of staples into a piece of wood which was great, but then i thought “that’s actually a nice bit of wood” so i decided to take them back out.

My tools were in the van so i had no pliers. I did however have a nice wood chisel that would do the job.

Which was great for the first couple. but then i missed one and managed to add a 3 inch gash to the index finger on my other hand! which was fun in A&E on Boxing Day…

right tool for the job? it seems i was indeed!

right tool for the job? is a post from DIY Disasters

Submitted by Jake White.

More DIY disasters:

1. Welcome to DIY Disasters
2. Put down the nail gun and step away from the wardrobe
3. If a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing twice