Your biggest D.I.Y. blunder

[Jason]

Workshop's goal is to help everyone to do it themselves. We want to provide a forum where people can share their experiences, knowledge and advice so you can have the confidence and skills to tackle your projects. 

But we know it isn't always easy, and we've all made mistakes in the past.

Please share your biggest D.I.Y. blunder in the discussion below. Don't be shy, we promise not too laugh too much!

Jason

[Darren]

Recently we replaced the nasty vinyl floor tiles in our bathroom with some new ceramic tiles. Trying to be helpful I took the bathroom door off to give the tiler plenty of work space (I also wanted to rejuvenate the old door with a fresh coat of paint). 

With the tiling done I eagerly re-hung the door but when I went to close it, it would barely move - it was now dragging along the floor. Our new tiles had raised the height of the floor and I'd failed to take this into account.

Suffice to say the door had to come off, again, and after a bit of planing (and cursing) the job was finally done. Correctly.

[Kermit]

[Jackson]

This isn't home improvement-related but definitely fits under the DIY umbrella...

It was a few years ago during summer, and my mate and I had been heading up to Eildon every weekend to get out on the water. We were bored with regular skiing and wakeboarding so we decided to spend a couple of late nights tinkering around with some old skis and other bits and pieces in his shed. We weren't sure what we'd end up with, but the plan was to take a few mates and whatever we created to Eildon that weekend.

The results are below. Two of these were amazing successes, one was a complete failure. Does anyone want to guess which one was the blunder?

[Jason]

Are they plastic meal trays @Jackson? That can't have ended well...

[Jackson]

@Jason, they certainly are! We procured them from McDonald's actually (legally of course). They weren't as hydrodynamic as regular skis but performed pretty well. The big failure was the camp chair mounted on two skim boards. We spent a while picking up the pieces when that spontaneously exploded... with someone on board. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

[ProjectPete]

I always manage to get my fingers stuck together with super glue but one time I was doing some work and didn't realise I'd spilt super glue and was kneeling in it, until of course I couldn't get up (it was a big heavy plank of wood I was kneeling on). Needless to say I didn't get anywhere fast and had a rather painful experience detaching myself and losing a chunk of skin in the process.

Also had a rusty nail stab into my heel after my dog made me stunble while carry wood to make some pallet style eskys.

Sliced my index finger to the box with a stanley knife while removing some trim on my car when I was about 20.

Other than injuries I'd say I've had a pretty good run.

[maknilsin]

I once tried to be creative and thought that I would paint on some artwork on my white bedroom wall.

I created what I thought were some fantastic stencils with some paper and preceeded to paint the wall with my stencils using several bright colours for each stencil.

After removing my very poor stencils I discovered I had just painted blotches of different colours to my wall. 

Safe to say, I never attempted to try my hands at some artwork on my walls and my D.I.Y. disaster was quickly hidden away with a fresh coat of white paint.

[stupidfish]

[Kermit]

Even the "professionals" get it wrong sometimes...