6 DIY Fails Where Common Sense Was Obviously Lacking!

The whole point of this blog is to help you guys with your DIY questions and to explain it all in the most entertaining and easiest way to understand. Unfortunately there are those people who don’t choose take advice, think they don’t need any help when it comes to doing DIY or – and there’s no easy way to put this – are just plain stupid. Take, for example, this cutting tool fail that we posted a while back. Thankfully the Internet is awash with videos like this, although it really does make you despair for the future of our species! On the positive side though it gives us perfect fodder for a blog post on DIY fails, and a bit of a laugh too!

Roof Repair Fail

There are two main things that you should do when you clamber up on a roof to assess damage or carry out any repairs; 

1. Use a decent ladder that’s big enough to have at least some length over when it reaches the roof.
2. Don’t do it on your own. Have somewhere there to support the ladder when you’re climbing up and down it.

This guy does neither of those things. In fact, he uses a step ladder! The height of the roof may not look like much, but one bad fall can do a lot of damage regardless of the height you fall from.

More DIY fails below the fold!

Channel 5 Want You To Rat People Out For a New DIY Fails TV Show

Recently we discovered that ‘more than half of British men have made a mess of home DIY’. To be fair most of the DIY disasters we see our genuine mistakes, but some of them are made by people who are truly awful at getting their hands a little dirty in the home and probably don’t really do much to rectify that situation. 58% of those asked also said they would try to cover up any botched DIY jobs, so I'm not sure if those are the kind of people that will be willing to sign up to a new TV show announced by British broadcaster Channel 5.

The show will concentrate on the worst DIY disasters and home improvements around the country. Since Channel 5 know that most men are unlikely to admit to making DIY mistakes they’re relying on other people to grass them up in return for £150 slipped secretly into their back pockets.

So, are you willing to embarrass your significant other on national TV all for just £150? Well, cash is tight these days I suppose! If you are you can email diy@iwcmedia.co.uk or take a look at the programme’s Facebook page to discover more DIY fail stories than we have time to cover here on DIY Helpers.

Here's What NOT To Do When Using Cutting Tools

I used to have a book called the The Darwin Awards; which you've probably heard of as it was pretty popular and a film based on some of the stories from the book ended up being released (the book itself is a pretty fun, if a little morbid, read). For those who haven't heard of it though it basically documents stories of people who have died due to doing something stupid. For example, cutting a tree branch off with a saw when you're sat on it is one of the things that would earn you one - provided you die of course. Funnily enough the safety tip I'm going to give you today is similar to the branch story, except you can substitute the branch for a massive pipe.

Although the video is titled 'welding accident' the guy sat on the pipe is actually using a cutting torch. Clambering up on the pipe to cut it probably ran through his mind as a good idea, although anyone else with an ounce of common sense will know that the pipe is going to be harboring a lot of tension. What happens when you slice something in half with a cutting tool that's holding a lot of tension? It fires off and flings anyone whose unfortunate to be sat on that half into the air.

To be fair on the bloke it's a tough job to handle when something as big as this pipe is under tension, but following safety procedures (e.g not sitting on the thing) can be the difference between a safe and trouble-free cut to suddenly finding yourself halfway in the air. Practice safety using cutting tools and you will be fine.

(Via Toolmonger)