Friday OT - I broke it worse

[besserheimerphat]

A couple weeks ago was replacing one wall mounted bathroom light fixture with two. Got one of those special 48" flexible drill bits to drill through studs and pull wire through. Tried drilling the hole from the side with less clearance, so the bit didnt bend as much as it should have. Ended up drilling a 1/2" hole right through my siding. Did a quick patch and will have to replace a chunk of siding now in the spring when it warms up. Fortunately the hole was right under the overhang so I didn't have to worry about making it totally waterproof.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Not really something I broke, but when I was starting to tear out and getting ready to tile my tub surround, I started taking off fixtures (not really thinking about it to hard, obviously). Took the shower control off and the water sprayed straight across and was hitting the far wall.

Just then, I realized that I didn't know where the water shut off was. And worse, this tub had a slow drain, so I was sure it would overflow if I didn't get it shut off in short order.

So I'm sprinting around the house looking in every closet, etc, and cannot find a shut off. Decided it must be in the crawl space (yes, crawl space, 12" of crawling through dirt, and I was soaking wet). It wasn't there.

After running around some more, I noticed a carpeted box in the hall closet which hid the shut off.

 

[bsblllvr14]

I have two, one for my wife and one for me.

Wife's isn't construction related, but it's a story I tell all the time. Moved into a new house and the living room had nice wood blinds. The pull cord for the blinds, though, was like five feet too long. Always laying on the floor and overall just annoying. She decided to trim them up one day, which was a fine idea. However, she trimmed them when the blinds were in the up position. When I got home and tried to lower the blinds, they would only go about half way because there wasn't enough string.

Mine was much more costly. I had a steady drip in one of our bathroom tubs. I knew how to fix it, so I decided to on a Sunday afternoon. I tried and tried to get the metal ring off of the spout to get the the insides where it was leaking, but I couldn't get it. I finally resorted to using a pipe wrench. Ended up wrenching it too hard and ripped through all three copper pipes that fed the faucet. Decided to pay emergency pricing to get a plumber out to fix my mistake. That was an expensive leak.

 

[CtownCyclone]

Not really something I broke, but when I was starting to tear out and getting ready to tile my tub surround, I started taking off fixtures (not really thinking about it to hard, obviously). Took the shower control off and the water sprayed straight across and was hitting the far wall.

Just then, I realized that I didn't know where the water shut off was. And worse, this tub had a slow drain, so I was sure it would overflow if I didn't get it shut off in short order.

So I'm sprinting around the house looking in every closet, etc, and cannot find a shut off. Decided it must be in the crawl space (yes, crawl space, 12" of crawling through dirt, and I was soaking wet). It wasn't there.

After running around some more, I noticed a carpeted box in the hall closet which hid the shut off.

Water shut-off is the first thing I locate when I move to a new place. For reasons such as this.

 

[AgronAlum]

I build/fix a lot of stuff but I’ve never screwed anything up enough that I had to call in someone else to fix what I screwed up. For that, I am proud.

The worst one one I can think of is the plumbing underneath our kitchen sink. It started leaking, so I took everything apart to figure out what I needed. While everything was apart, my wife decided to start the dishwasher not realizing it empties into the same line. It had been running for 30 minutes or an hour before i heard it and it hit me. I had taken out the bottom of the cabinet and it had been draining into the HVAC vent below into our basement. I walked down the stairs and halfway down, an HVAC line let loose from the wall dropping all the water that had built up into our storage room. It was leaking right on top of the new flooring I laid from our refrigerator water line leaking a couple months prior.

I put in standard laminate floor because our house had zero water in it during the 12 inch rain we got in Ankeny a couple summers ago. I thought we’d never get water in it. It has now had water in it twice.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

Actually, this is what I was looking for. I was hoping for a few stories of people that have lost their composure doing stuff like this and embraced the rage within.

I'm usually patient to a fault, but some times I forego patience for brute strength. It rarely ends well.

Back in the days when people fixed their own cars, my ex fancied himself a skilled mechanic...(pro tip - he wasn't). When brute force didn't work, he would throw the tools across the floor from under the car. After he hit me in the ankle with a rather large wrench on one wild fling, I quit helping him. Is that what you meant?

 

[ImJustKCClone]

Not really something I broke, but when I was starting to tear out and getting ready to tile my tub surround, I started taking off fixtures (not really thinking about it to hard, obviously). Took the shower control off and the water sprayed straight across and was hitting the far wall.

Just then, I realized that I didn't know where the water shut off was. And worse, this tub had a slow drain, so I was sure it would overflow if I didn't get it shut off in short order.

So I'm sprinting around the house looking in every closet, etc, and cannot find a shut off. Decided it must be in the crawl space (yes, crawl space, 12" of crawling through dirt, and I was soaking wet). It wasn't there.

After running around some more, I noticed a carpeted box in the hall closet which hid the shut off.

The mental image of you sprinting around the house....Oy!