DIY Disasters Solved

Most DIY disasters happen on a Bank Holiday, and the next one is fast approaching. There is something about a Bank Holiday that makes some wives think their husbands should be occupied putting up shelves or fixing a plumbing problem. Occasionally women themselves decide that there is no better time than a Bank Holiday to hang oak doors or paint the bedroom ceiling.

Some studies suggest that a DIY disaster costs the average householder at least £250 to put right, especially if it’s something where they should have called in a professional in the first place. There are a few DIY disasters that are less of a financial or safety disaster than others which means they can usually be put right without having to call in a professional.

Hanging a door

Hanging a door shouldn’t be too difficult as the rise of the internet has meant that there are guides for some jobs and information on just about everything. Guides on how to hang a door are pretty straightforward, and there may still be time left over for your husband to watch the Bank Holiday film. There are two main disasters that can occur when an amateur is hanging a door, the first is the one that will definitely cost you money to solve, while the second can be dealt with, but you will miss the film.

One of the things you are supposed to do when you are hanging a door is to establish which side of the door the latch and handle block is on. The markings for the block are usually on the top of the door, if you miss these then you could end up hanging the door upside down.

Getting the door upside down is a fairly common but expensive mistake, if you don’t realise what you’ve done before you start making cuts and marks in the door, it could be a right off. You have two choices for solving this disaster, either you go out and purchase a new door and make sure you get it the right way up this time, or more expensively, but less of a risk, you call in a professional to hang the replacement door.

Fitting a Carpet or a Laminate Floor

There are a number of different disasters that can occur when you are fitting your own flooring, and they will either cost you a lot of time or else a lot of money to put them right. One of the worst disasters when fitting a carpet is not to have measured up properly. It’s far better to have a bit too much carpet than not enough. Providing you discover your mistake before you cut out the pieces for the fireplace and the bay windows, you can use the carpet in the spare bedroom. If you have already cut it about, then it might fit in the loo, if you go for carpets in the smallest room in the house.

One of the mistakes that people make when they are either fitting a carpet or adding a real wood or laminate floor is whether the door will close when the job is finished. I once fitted cork tiles in the bathroom and because they were thicker than the lino tiles that had been there previously, when the bathroom door was re-hung, it wouldn’t close.

If this happens to you it’s not an expensive mistake if you are careful, it’s just time consuming. You have to take the door off its hinges again, measure what you think the gap should be, and then plane that couple of inches off the bottom, and be prepared for it to take a good few hours. Then you can re-hang and close the door, just make sure you plane the right end, it will get you nowhere if you plane off the top.