20 Hilarious DIY Disasters

Due to an insurance inspection, I had to finish building our back deck and steps fast.

It was raining, so I cut the timber under cover of the front verandah and carried the pieces into the backyard to install.

Our dachshund, Beavis, was very interested in the excavation and spent the day digging there.

When the last board was in place, he was nowhere to be found.

Then I heard whining under the steps and realised what I’d done. His exploring had led him under the porch.

And removing one board wasn’t enough, I had to take up several and crawl in to fetch him.

Gerald Price

My sister and brother-in-law recently bought a new house and the only thing that was missing was a backyard fence for the dogs.

The first weekend, we put in the fence posts and the next weekend, we hired a guy with a ute to help haul the preassembled panels from the store to the yard.

He drove the ute into the centre of the yard to save on carrying materials. And finally, after a long day turned into evening, we were admiring the finished job.

We then looked at each other and immediately realised our mistake. We’d fenced in the ute.

Ralph Tremato

I was sitting on the couch knitting and my husband was working in our basement. He was using a 1.8m long flexible bit to drill holes through the floor joists in the finished ceiling so he could fish wire through to install recessed lights.

I suddenly felt the couch vibrate. It went on for a few seconds and then stopped. My husband ran into the room, stared at the couch and said in a very quiet voice, ‘Oops, there’s a problem.’

I peeked over the couch and saw the drill bit sticking out of the side. It had hit a vent and gone off course.

My husband finished the job, and the new lights look great, and so does our new couch.

Charla Schafer

While installing the expensive fan my wife had chosen, I saw a tag with printing on it. Because I’m a sparkie and was eager to start, I figured I’d read it afterwards.

When I’d finished, I proudly called my wife in to admire it. As I flicked it on, the fan unscrewed itself from the threaded support pipe and came whirling to the floor.

It was a wreck, there were scratches on the floor, and you can guess what my wife had to say. When I read the tag, it said, ‘After screwing in the pipe, use the locking screw provided to lock the pipe onto the main support.’

Stephen Finegan

During a long hot spell, I decided to install the air conditioner that had been in my garage for years, so I lugged it in to put it in the window. My wife suggested I clean it thoroughly first, but as it had been wrapped up, I figured a light cleaning would be enough.

After straining and sweating to install it, I turned it on, expecting a delicious blast of cold air.

I got the cold air all right, but the mouse droppings, dead bugs and spider webs weren’t so delicious.

Harry Kashuck

While shredding old cheques and documents, I decided my sluggish paper shredder needed lubricating.

So I sprayed the shredding mechanism liberally as it sat on top of the catcher basket.

When I switched it on, I was surprised by a small explosion.

A spark had ignited the accumulated vapours in the enclosed area of the shredder.

After taking a few minutes to calm down, a quick check in the mirror revealed my singed eyebrows and hair.

Next time, I’ll do it outside and let it dry before mounting it on the basket.

Robert Messer

As he was a carpenter by trade, my father-in-law, JC, was a great DIYer.

And after years of his wife, Lucille, asking him, he decided to fix the cabinet door in the laundry by installing an external latch.

In a hurry as usual, he started drilling the holes for the latch without emptying the cabinet. That’s when he heard a hissing sound coming from inside.

As he opened the door, he was sprayed with black paint from the can he’d punctured. It also hit the floor, the walls and the washer and dryer. Lucille was not happy.

Larry Darnell

We stripped back our bathroom for remodelling and tore up the subfloor so we could shim and level the joists.

My plumber friend helped with the plumbing, tacking plywood strips on the joists to set the height of the toilet flange.

The next day, I went into the bathroom to get to work and stood on a plywood strip.

It broke, causing me to fall between the joists into the living room. The entire suspended ceiling collapsed and I landed on the couch.

While I sat there counting my blessings that I didn’t have one scratch on me, my wife came in to discover me covered in debris and still holding my hammer.

John Nonnemacher

I work in construction so I easily put a rumpus room, bathroom and laundry in my basement. Then I just had to install a prehung door on the storage room. Piece of cake, right?

It took all of five minutes, then I saw the 25mm plastic shipping bolt holding the door shut, and I couldn’t budge the door or bolt.

I had to kick open the door and remove all traces before my wife got home. I told her I’d finished except for getting a storage room door, leaving out the word ‘again’.

Ralph Boldyga

My wife and I bought our first high-efficiency washer and dryer set. We carefully levelled the washer, following the instructions.

After half an hour of adjusting it to perfection, we ran it through a cycle, and the thing bucked like an angry bronco. I had to fling my body on top of it and yell for my wife to shut it off.

I rechecked the level and tried it again. Same result, and I took another rodeo ride. Two more tries and I was ready to kick the thing.

So I called a mate who also had a high-efficiency machine. He said his moved a bit but didn’t jump about. He then asked if I’d removed the shipping bolts. Once I did that, it washed like a dream.

Eric Meier