DIY and do you have a go yourself?

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by onoski, May 24, 2008.

  1. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    I DIY as well. Have just finished our shower, replacing the copper pipes with plastic ones and fitting it to the water tank not the mains incomming pipe. Thats on top of fitting a new bath, sink and toilet, tiling and flooring the bathroom. Just the ceiling to go after that and bathrooms finished.
    Now i'm on to my sons room, which is new carpet, paint the walls and new furniture.

    Since moving in 4 years ago, i have fitted the complete kitchen, decorated the living room, daughters bedroom, mian bedroom, and now just the bathroom and my lads left. This also included hanging doors (rather unsuccesfully at first), new carpets, new skirting, rewiring sockets, cooker, lights etc.

    While i dont mind doing it, i've had my share of disasters, like the bedroom door thats still on the skew, put a nail through a heating pipe in the bedroom floor that meant a waterfall downstairs on teh living room wall, another flood from the bathroom thats resulted in electrics going off and a patched ceiling in the kitchen, but so far no fires or deaths so its going well!
     
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  2. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Whilst I'd like to be multi skill in doing so DIY must say you've gone overboard and thanks to God to serious injuries caused. Brave you're I must say:)
     
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  3. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    Brave or stupid?? i some times wonder myself. Actually i feel pity for my girlfriend, she's the one that has to put up with the disators.

    last time something went wrong (pip leaked under the floor in bathroom after i'd finished laying the new vinyl), i threw me tools out the door, ripped up the flooring (literally), swore, cursed and threatend never to do any more DIY. When we first moved in togther, i moved some sockets in the bedroom, and when putting the floorboards back put a nail through the main feed to the heating, result,a waterfall on the walls and a flooded bedroom. I just texted her asking what time she'd get home and did she want me to leave before she saw the mess.

    And despite all this she still sticks by me and lets me try another DIY job (maybe she just hasn't learnt to stop me??)
     
    Certifications: Comptia A+, N+, MS 70-271, 70-272
    WIP: Being a BILB,
  4. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    LOL.

    I've seen "pros" drive nails into things. When I worked at the VA Hospital in Walla Walla, WA one of the things I had to repair that had gone unfixed for several years was a problem in the laundry building with the heating and cooling. To turn off the heating when the weather got warm the guy they had doing the HVAC work when I got there would get a ladder, shut down the laundry operations and stand the ladder on top of the laundry equipment to reach a steam valve over the laundry equipment that was located on a 16 foot high ceiling. During the winter he would open up the steam valve again and then run both the heating and cooling at the same time. He'd been doing that for 6 years when I got there. :rolleyes::eek:

    They asked me to take a look at the problem after I'd been there a few months and I traced the problem down to the re-roofing job done 6 years before. One of the roofers drove a nail into the electrical conduit that housed the 12-wire thermostat cable and shorted out the cable.

    We never did get all the old thermostat cable out of there. They had driven that nail right through conduit and the wire. We had to pull new wire. Fortunately the conduit was much bigger than it needed to be so we had enough room to do it. Otherwise we would have been stuck running new conduit and new wire as the nail itself was underneath one of those rubberized flat roofs and there was no way we could get to the nail without causing leaks in the roof for the next 20 years.
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA, A+
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  5. Mof

    Mof Megabyte Poster

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    i believe its down to youth this diy, When i first brought a house it had to be affordable so you go to one you have to do work on because its all you can afford. But as you get older and more experienced
    at diy you begrudge paying all that money out and still do it yourself, then when you think no more DIY your kids go and buy a house and your back to square one
     
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  6. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Funny:), but true and if that's me I'd teach my kids how to DIY in the little things like painting and floor laminating etc.
     
    Certifications: MCSE: 2003, MCSA: 2003 Messaging, MCP, HNC BIT, ITIL Fdn V3, SDI Fdn, VCP 4 & VCP 5
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  7. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    painting is quite easy although I suppose it helps because my dad is a painter so I probably learned from a master, everything else the misses does, I'm useless at DIY, although I can take a soldering iron to a motherboard and fix it but I cannot put a shelf up straight!?
     
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    WIP: Nothing
  8. Leehaa

    Leehaa Gigabyte Poster

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    We do everything!

    Spent Saturday assembling and wood staining our new garden shed that will house more DIY stuff :D

    I have done most of the painting since we moved in in Feb (getting really good with edges), and when hubby assembles things and plumbs things in, I am assistant...and disappear to make cups of tea / do food when he's stressing! I really love it, and it's a really great thing to do as we have the house, but no plans for kids for a while, and are fortunate to have the freedom to enjoy that kind of thing...best thing is that, after a day's hard work, we can sit down to a takeaway and dvd or games knowing that we are saving money (well more than we would going out and getting a decorator in) :D
     
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  9. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    Your post reminded me of one of my snafu's at DIY.

    The first door I hung I had major problems with. No matter how I plumbed that sucker the door never fit right. It was just driving me nuts. I couldn't figure out what in the world I was doing wrong. So, I asked a buddy of mine who is a professional carpenter to come over and give me a hand after telling him what I was running into. He just sort of smiled and said OK.

    I found out why he smiled as soon as he got there. The first thing he did was check the level I was using for plumb. It was way out of whack. He pulled out his level, handed it to me, and I hung that door on the very first try.

    Much of the secret of DIY is having quality tools and understanding your tools. For some reason I had some sort of brain fart with that door and just never suspected the level. I kept on thinking it was me. The reason my buddy basically laughed at me was because he had learned the same lesson the same way only a long time before I did because he did that work all the time. He could have told me, but he just wanted to watch me squirm with embarrassment when I saw what the problem was.... :twisted::biggrin
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA, A+
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  10. twizzle

    twizzle Gigabyte Poster

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    Just like my Girlfriend, she's the forman always supervising and making cups of coffee while i do the work and stressing!! :p
     
    Certifications: Comptia A+, N+, MS 70-271, 70-272
    WIP: Being a BILB,
  11. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Love it. Sh1t at it. But love it.
     
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  12. Mof

    Mof Megabyte Poster

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    I use to hate plastering always had dodgy edges, for years i would always get someone in to do it, until a friend of mine introduced me to gyp-rot bonding compound he always said how good and forgiving it was, I had a ceiling plastered but was never very happy with it, my friend kept telling me to go over it with gyp-rot but i never listened, finaly i moved house and one of the ceilings was full of cracks so i gave it a go. to say it was life changing would be to do it no justice, Now when we strip the walls i always give it a coat of this stuff and the walls are good enough to paint, just slap it on and sand any rough edges in seconds.sounds like an advert but this isnt.:D
     
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  13. Leehaa

    Leehaa Gigabyte Poster

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    Excellent - it's always good that way - keeps the peace and harmony flowing!
     
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  14. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Still slowing finishing up on my painting of our three bed town house and boy or girl it has not been easy or fun. But hey, did a good job as a family friend saw the work and was impressed.

    By the way my wife is not good in diy so I had to do all the painting and sanding myself but she's good with an eye for details. Just finishing up on painting all the doors and skirting boards so it's looking sharp.

    I have also stripped all the carpet from the living room and all three bedrooms including the stair case as I would be putting down some IKea laminates.

    Now that would be a biggy as I have read one can slip and it's noisy etc. But it's my choice and the misses is okay with this too so yep it's laminates everywhere except the kitchen and bedrooms.

    I must say if I had got someone in to do this would have cost over £1,800 plus so am quite impressed with me self:)

    Thanks for sharing all as this did inspire and encourage me to go the long haul.
     
    Certifications: MCSE: 2003, MCSA: 2003 Messaging, MCP, HNC BIT, ITIL Fdn V3, SDI Fdn, VCP 4 & VCP 5
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  15. Raffaz

    Raffaz Kebab Lover Gold Member

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    If your floors are in good condition you could always hire a belt sander for a day or two and sand them back (make sure to punch the nails below the surface before you use the sander or you will go through tons of strips) Once thats done you just need to stain it up. I personally think it looks much nicer than laminate. :)
     
    Certifications: A+, MCP, MCDST, AutoCAD
    WIP: Rennovating my house

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