DIY jobs that you’ll try or not try?

[ABB125]

Brilliant!

Worse, though, is when you make a mistake which is obvious to you but not to anyone else except somebody in that trade. That’s really embarrassing when you get found out.

I get the feeling that you may have experience with this... Care to share?

 

[Bald Rick]

I get the feeling that you may have experience with this... Care to share?

Too many examples. Besides I’m embarrassed. There’s bound to be a landscaper, electrician, carpenter, kitchen fitter, flooring specialist, decorator, or bricklayer on this forum who will then say “you idiot”.

 

[ABB125]

Too many examples. Besides I’m embarrassed. There’s bound to be a landscaper, electrician, carpenter, kitchen fitter, flooring specialist, decorator, or bricklayer on this forum who will then say “you idiot”.

Undoubtedly!

I suppose it's all part of the "fun" of DIY (and, as the saying goes, he (or she) who has never made a mistake has never made anything).

 

[Cowley]

Too many examples. Besides I’m embarrassed. There’s bound to be a landscaper, electrician, carpenter, kitchen fitter, flooring specialist, decorator, or bricklayer on this forum who will then say “you idiot”.

You idiot!

 

[najaB]

Electrics - changing a light fitting or light switch - no problem. Wouldn't risk major wiring work.

I'll do things like adding a spur or a new light socket. In fact, I just put up some outside lights and wired a socket into the shed for my parents. It was a little odd because I'm not used to US split-phase wiring. I had to convince myself about 5 times that wiring earth and neutral together from a 220V circuit would give me 120V rather that blow everything.

 

[eMeS]

I'd like to lower the Consumer Unit in my garage by around 5, maybe 6 feet - extending as necessary the cooker, ring main & lighting wiring.
It was installed when the house was built in 1981-2, and is fitted with wired fuse-holders. (I do have an RCD for garden electrics...) Since I moved in it's not been any trouble, but I'm getting older, and balancing on top of a ladder is much more risky now than 40 years ago. Worse, the Consumer Unit is sited high touching the garage ceiling such that it's shielded by the up-and-over garage door - a masterpiece of local electrician placement, but it saved him some cable. So if I need to get access, I have to move stuff out of the garage, get the step-ladder in position, and close the up-and-over door; having made sure that I have working torches. A few years ago suitable cable joiners were offered by trade sources, but it now seems that they're no longer available/approved, and without suitable joiners, I think it's best left alone until I move out - either in a coffin, or to a care home.

So far my old fashioned wired fuses have never failed, and the only shocks I suffer are from removing recently laundered clothes.

 

[najaB]

A few years ago suitable cable joiners were offered by trade sources, but it now seems that they're no longer available/approved, and without suitable joiners, I think it's best left alone until I move out - either in a coffin, or to a care home.

I could be wrong, but I think that moving the consumer unit needs to be done by a certified electrician. Something to do with the service tail and making sure the fuse doesn't get damaged.

I was wrong, I was thinking about moving the meter.

 

[eMeS]

I could be wrong, but I think that moving the consumer unit needs to be done by a certified electrician. Something to do with the service tail and making sure the fuse doesn't get damaged.

I was wrong, I was thinking about moving the meter.

The meter is on the other side of the garage, and is sited on an external wall, in a standard cupboard - quite a sensible position.

 

[Springs Branch]

Speaking of DIY in general, I wonder if any of the other older members on here have seen the following pattern over the years.

After I bought my first house (in my late twenties - remember the good old days when you could do that?) I made my first foray into smallish DIY jobs around the house. I'm not a natural handyman, but I do understand technical stuff, can interpret instructions and am probably around the median of the bell curve for practical aptitude.

In the early days, while some small jobs went OK, as a general rule there would always be something that didn't go right. For example:-

• Drilling holes for screws, despite double and triple checking the positions, once drilled at least one of the holes wouldn't be quite in the right place, or not quite perpendicular into the wall.
• Cutting a piece of timber - either the cut wouldn't be quite straight, or if it was straight, then the length would be just that bit too long for the intended purpose.

It was almost as if any random thing that could go wrong would and everything seemed to take much longer than it should. This got quite dispiriting after repeated occurrences as I was always waiting for whatever will go wrong next.

Now in my seventh decade, my eyes are less sharp, my hands are less steady and I haven't amassed years and years of DIY experience, nor a collection of trade-quality tools in the meantime.

But with more time on my hands, I'm tackling DIY jobs again and finding that things generally go much more smoothly these days. I'm doing jobs I'd have shuddered to attempt in the past and small maintenance and painting jobs can be knocked off neatly, with the minimum of fuss and all cleaned up by tea-time.

I wonder if there's some kind of self-confidence thing that avoids "attracting bad luck" which you can acquire with age without realising it?

 

[Gloster]

I have never been very keen on DIY and was put even further off by one of my first forays into it. As the house was old there was a variety of different keys which kept moving about when I wasn’t looking. I decided to put up a key-board, chose a suitable spot on the wall and started drilling. BANG. I had drilled through a cable leading to a socket down at skirting-board level: the socket was a good couple of feet to one side, but the cable ran diagonally up the wall. I had to dig a hole in the wall in order to safely, if untidily, blank off the ends and was left with a dead socket, although it was in a silly place anyway. What was worrying was that the previous owner who had rewired the house was an electrician for the local electricity board.

 

[eMeS]

I have never been very keen on DIY and was put even further off by one of my first forays into it. As the house was old there was a variety of different keys which kept moving about when I wasn’t looking. I decided to put up a key-board, chose a suitable spot on the wall and started drilling. BANG. I had drilled through a cable leading to a socket down at skirting-board level: the socket was a good couple of feet to one side, but the cable ran diagonally up the wall. I had to dig a hole in the wall in order to safely, if untidily, blank off the ends and was left with a dead socket, although it was in a silly place anyway. What was worrying was that the previous owner who had rewired the house was an electrician for the local electricity board.

The cable should have been under a metal protective cover, as well as the wires going vertically.

 

[Gloster]

The cable should have been under a metal protective cover, as well as the wires going vertically.

This was the early 1980s and the cable was in a heavy duty plastic/polythene trough. Not only did it run diagonally, but it must have changed direction (slightly) at least twice.

 

[David Goddard]

Happy to attempt most DIY jobs around the home, and have done a few bits for others as well.
not a great carpenter but have had a go at a few jobs and turned out OK.
Seem to have done a fair bit of "heavy" gardening jobs (I've not putting in pretty flowers but building raised beds, mending the shed etc) and have been pleased with these.
I find decorating a chore but do it to save the cost, and trying to get satisfaction of achievement.
Flat pack furniture no problem- with three wardrobes, five bookcases and two chests of drawers self built in our house which are still standing (most of which survived a house move four years ago) I happily tick that box.

Have been interested in electrics from an early age and am confident at most tasks which are permitted for the householder to do (a week ago was fitting new LED tubes in the loft and garage). What I don't like is the jobs that involve concealed cabling and Indeed one of the things that put me off training to be an electrician was the filthy jobs like cutting chases in walls and making good again. Next job is replacing down lighters in the en-suite which is allowed as its replacement rather than installation in a wet area.

Plumbing I avoid as don't have the confidence of maintaining a seal, you get a lot of mess in the time taken to switch off again. Have replaced a screw fitting plastic kitchen sink waste trap though.
Gas a no-no as that's best left to the GasSafe people

 

[Bald Rick]

Speaking of DIY in general, I wonder if any of the other older members on here have seen the following pattern over the years.

After I bought my first house (in my late twenties - remember the good old days when you could do that?) I made my first foray into smallish DIY jobs around the house. I'm not a natural handyman, but I do understand technical stuff, can interpret instructions and am probably around the median of the bell curve for practical aptitude.

In the early days, while some small jobs went OK, as a general rule there would always be something that didn't go right. For example:-

• Drilling holes for screws, despite double and triple checking the positions, once drilled at least one of the holes wouldn't be quite in the right place, or not quite perpendicular into the wall.
• Cutting a piece of timber - either the cut wouldn't be quite straight, or if it was straight, then the length would be just that bit too long for the intended purpose.

It was almost as if any random thing that could go wrong would and everything seemed to take much longer than it should. This got quite dispiriting after repeated occurrences as I was always waiting for whatever will go wrong next.

Now in my seventh decade, my eyes are less sharp, my hands are less steady and I haven't amassed years and years of DIY experience, nor a collection of trade-quality tools in the meantime.

But with more time on my hands, I'm tackling DIY jobs again and finding that things generally go much more smoothly these days. I'm doing jobs I'd have shuddered to attempt in the past and small maintenance and painting jobs can be knocked off neatly, with the minimum of fuss and all cleaned up by tea-time.

I wonder if there's some kind of self-confidence thing that avoids "attracting bad luck" which you can acquire with age without realising it?

I started doing diy when I was at school, and now more than 3 decades on I’m still having the same issues, particularly with drilling holes!

 

[ATW Alex 101]

As a qualified maintenance engineer and building services engineering technician (though not practicing), my skillset does cover a somewhat broad spectrum!

I was a maintenance manager at a 69-bed nursing home complex for 6-months and did pretty much everything within my remit including plumbing, plastering, joinery, painting & decorating, gardening and deep-cleaning.

I do handyman work for people as a foreigner on occasion. Again this has ranged from painting & decorating to plumbing to gardening to general fixing of things.

I have my own removals company and on occasion I’m asked to do some DIY or remedial works. I often carry out furniture assembly and plumb in fridges and washing machines etc.

I am currently undertaking a mass-renovation of one of our rental properties and this has been pretty much a back-to-bricks type job. I did the plumbing myself, joinery, some of the plastering (a mate did the rest as I was so busy with other jobs), flooring and assisted my mate who is a qualified electrician to carry out a full rewire. I still have the flooring, painting and decorating and tiling to do.

In terms of what I won’t do;

I can’t and won’t touch gas. I’m not qualified in the slightest and know nothing about it.

I won’t touch other peoples electrics without working with my mate (qualified electrician). In a past life I designed electrical systems for big buildings - domestic, I had to go back to college to learn. I will do my own at home, but for obvious reasons, not anybody else’s.

I will also not touch anything asbestos. In my old job we did extensive asbestos awareness training and one would be alarmed how common this weird, wonderful but (when broken/disturbed) dangerous material is!

I also don’t touch ancient plumbing!

 

[dgl]

Just done some more DIY, putting a couple of outside lights up outside, with a PIR wall light by the side entrance/bin area and an LED PIR spotlight on the side of the garage to illuminate the path and driveway. It was done slightly on the cheap as I used rubber "pond" flex instead of using trunking/tubing as it's significantly cheaper (about £15 for a 25M reel of .75mm), note that regular PVC flex should not be used outside as it can be degraded by sunlight.
This is all wired in to a small consumer unit in the garage via a 3A fused spur basically just acting as a switch.

The consumer unit is a bit of a hack to allow extra sockets to be fitted in the extension/porch without disturbing any of the current wiring, removing the need for multi plug adaptors and removing the issue of overloading the 2.5mm2 cable if a couple of high amperage loads (i.e. the old tumble dryer and the jet wash) are used at the same time.
It's basically wired as a 20A fused spur from the main house ring, replacing the two sockets and fused spur originally fitted.
There is an RCD which is followed by a 20A MCB feeding all the other MCB's in the CU.
As for what is wired off it, it feeds the shed via a 16A MCB and a 13A fused RCD spur, 4 sockets via another 16A MCB and the outside lights and toilet heater via a 6A MCB and a couple of fused spurs, the toilet heater having a frost stat fitted so it automatically comes on when it gets cold preventing pipes from freezing.

Now for any electricians worrying about this hack unbalancing the ring, I have been able to trace the wiring back to where it connects to the ring and that is back at the fuse box, so it can't unbalance the ring.

 

[mikeg]

Electric? I'm reasonably knowledgeable but know my limits. I'm in housing association property at the moment so this is all a little irrelevant but suppose I were a homeowner, I'd be happy to do most minor electrical works having helped my father do such things just before part P came in including installing new circuits, outside electrics and all the stuff we can't do without notifying any more...

Plumbing on the other hand, beyond the most elementary tasks would be beyond me. Anything with a blowtorch is a definite no. Also gas work for obvious legal reasons and I'm not touching that ancient artex ceiling in my mum and dad's place.

Just done some more DIY, putting a couple of outside lights up outside, with a PIR wall light by the side entrance/bin area and an LED PIR spotlight on the side of the garage to illuminate the path and driveway. It was done slightly on the cheap as I used rubber "pond" flex instead of using trunking/tubing as it's significantly cheaper (about £15 for a 25M reel of .75mm), note that regular PVC flex should not be used outside as it can be degraded by sunlight.
This is all wired in to a small consumer unit in the garage via a 3A fused spur basically just acting as a switch.

The consumer unit is a bit of a hack to allow extra sockets to be fitted in the extension/porch without disturbing any of the current wiring, removing the need for multi plug adaptors and removing the issue of overloading the 2.5mm2 cable if a couple of high amperage loads (i.e. the old tumble dryer and the jet wash) are used at the same time.
It's basically wired as a 20A fused spur from the main house ring, replacing the two sockets and fused spur originally fitted.
There is an RCD which is followed by a 20A MCB feeding all the other MCB's in the CU.
As for what is wired off it, it feeds the shed via a 16A MCB and a 13A fused RCD spur, 4 sockets via another 16A MCB and the outside lights and toilet heater via a 6A MCB and a couple of fused spurs, the toilet heater having a frost stat fitted so it automatically comes on when it gets cold preventing pipes from freezing.

Now for any electricians worrying about this hack unbalancing the ring, I have been able to trace the wiring back to where it connects to the ring and that is back at the fuse box, so it can't unbalance the ring.

Not sure flex of any sort should be used as fixed wiring, correct me if I'm wrong.
Also if you're coming of the ring itself it should be fused at 13A, for the reasons you state. Why not go back to the main consumer unit and put a new 20A radial in anyway? If you ask me rings are the devil's work. Also you've used probably a lot more MCBs than necessary, some seem a bit redundant.

 

[dgl]

Electric? I'm reasonably knowledgeable but know my limits. I'm in housing association property at the moment so this is all a little irrelevant but suppose I were a homeowner, I'd be happy to do most minor electrical works having helped my father do such things just before part P came in including installing new circuits, outside electrics and all the stuff we can't do without notifying any more...

Plumbing on the other hand, beyond the most elementary tasks would be beyond me. Anything with a blowtorch is a definite no. Also gas work for obvious legal reasons and I'm not touching that ancient artex ceiling in my mum and dad's place.


Not sure flex of any sort should be used as fixed wiring, correct me if I'm wrong.
Also if you're coming of the ring itself it should be fused at 13A, for the reasons you state. Why not go back to the main consumer unit and put a new 20A radial in anyway? If you ask me rings are the devil's work. Also you've used probably a lot more MCBs than necessary, some seem a bit redundant.

AFAIK looking online flex is fine nothing in the regs to say no if used appropriately and in this case only 2M if that comes from the CU and it's the only circuit that's wired like that (it would have been 2.5mm T+E like everything else but I didn't have any to hand) and the rest is part of a fused spur, which is designed to take flex anyway. Plus lighting uses flex despite being part of a fixed install, the same with caravans and fire alarm wiring (although that is special high temperature cable). I've used the correct IP cable glands throughout so all the cabling has at least some sort of strain relief.

As for not wiring back to the CU, there are two ancient WYLEX CU's, one with four and one with two fuses, both of them are full and I don't feel like replacing them, when I have replaced sockets fairly recently the wiring seemed to be in good condition so no worries there. Also the wiring to the garage goes through the ceiling of the porch so isn't really accessible, and I know the garage roof is concrete asbestos so I don't want to disturb it.

As for anything coming off a ring being fused at 13A, well a dual socket on a 2.5mm2 spur could potentially draw 26A (which is a fair bit more than 2.5mm2 is rated for) and we're not coming off a ring as such as it's straight from the board, though just like on a spur a short in the cable would put then cable over what it is designed to handle, but I don't see that as much of an issue.
Another factor for the setup is that there is a tumble dryer out there, that meant having the "spur" fused at 13A could lead to overloading and as such I wanted to leave enough headroom. Plus it's much safer than having to use multiway plugs. I believe that so long as what I am doing makes the installation safer then that's fine with me. Note that the use of spurs where not absolutely necessary is a case of they were already there or cheaper than a suitable switch.

As for the amount of MCB's there are two reasons for this, firstly this enables circuits to be isolated easily and secondly this allows this setup to be wired on to it's own radial if the main CU was ever changed. MCB's are cheap enough anyway so cost wasn't an issue.

Oh and another bit of DIY was on a couple of fountains, these had plugtop transformers so would not fit into a normal outside socket. My solution was to break open the PSU's, remove the transformer and place it in a suitable IP68 enclosure, with a short length of mains flex for power in (via an IP68 gland) and a waterproof SP13 connector for the 12V AC output, worked perfectly.
One, however, got further modified with SY cable for power in and out, as the puppy at my dads had destroyed the original flex and though steel braided cable would help prevent further damage. Said puppy also damaged the controller cable for the blow up hot tub, though that just ended up with replacement connectors soldered on.

 

[eMeS]

AFAIK flex is fine if used appropriately and only 2M if that comes from the CU and it's the only circuit that's wired like that (it would have been 2.5mm T+E like everything else but I didn't have any to hand) and the rest is part of a fused spur, which is designed to take flex anyway. Plus lighting uses flex despite being part of a fixed install. I've used the correct IP cable glands throughout so all the cabling has at least some sort of strain relief.

As for not wiring back to the CU, there are two ancient WYLEX CU's, one with four and one with two fuses, both of them are full and I don't feel like replacing them, when I have replaced sockets fairly recently the wiring seemed to be in good condition so no worries there. Also the wiring to the garage goes through the ceiling of the porch so isn't really accessible, and I know the garage roof is concrete asbestos so I don't want to disturb it.

As for anything coming off a ring being fused at 13A, well a dual socket on a 2.5mm2 spur could potentially draw 26A (which is a fair bit more than 2.5mm2 is rated for) and we're not coming off a ring as such as it's straight from the board, though just like on a spur a short in the cable would put then cable over what it is designed to handle, but I don't see that as much of an issue.
Another factor for the setup is that there is a tumble dryer out there, that meant having the "spur" fused at 13A could lead to overloading and as such I wanted to leave enough headroom. Plus it's much safer than having to use multiway plugs. I believe that so long as what I am doing makes the installation safer then that's fine with me. Note that the use of spurs where not absolutely necessary is a case of they were already there or cheaper than a suitable switch.

As for the amount of MCB's there are two reasons for this, firstly this enables circuits to be isolated easily and secondly this allows this setup to be wired on to it's own radial if the main CU was ever changed. MCB's are cheap enough anyway so cost wasn't an issue.

What can you tell me about RCBOs? Advantages? A friend had one installed in her CU after a major rewire. (There's also several MCBs, and I think two separate RCDs.)
Thanks

 

[dgl]

What can you tell me about RCBOs? Advantages? A friend had one installed in her CU after a major rewire. (There's also several MCBs, and I think two separate RCDs.)
Thanks

The idea behind RCBO's (which are a combined RCD and MCB) is primarily to reduce nuisance trips caused by the fact modern devices with switch mode power supplies can be quite leaky and enough of them on a circuit can cause it to trip, spreading it all out on to multiple RCD's helps to mitigate that. Another advantage is that if there is a fault in one circuit that would trip an RCD it doesn't kill all of the circuits, a good safety feature as, for example, it means that you will still have lighting if any of the other circuits are tripped.

Cheaper installs will normally have two banks of RCD protected circuits so one fault won't kill all the circuits and on most cases that is absolutely fine, it's certainly a LOT cheaper to do it that way..

 

[eMeS]

The idea behind RCBO's (which are a combined RCD and MCB) is primarily to reduce nuisance trips caused by the fact modern devices with switch mode power supplies can be quite leaky and enough of them on a circuit can cause it to trip, it also means that if there is a fault in one circuit that would trip an RCD it doesn't kill all of the circuits, a good safety feature as, for example, it means that you will still have lighting if any of the other circuits are tripped.
Cheaper installs will normally have two banks of RCD protected circuits so one fault won't kill all the circuits and on most cases that is absolutely fine, it's certainly a LOT cheaper to do it that way..

Many thanks for your reply - if only the electrician involved in the rewire could have explained matters so clearly!