Worst DIY job ever...

[ChrisKH]

I had to unblock the outlet pipe from the chamber that my sewage ran into after a neighbour filled it with baby wipes and blocked the outlet pipe.

Yep, i've done that as well. Drain was backing up because two doors down were putting everything down the toilet (nappies, wipes, etc.). Thing is, the blockage was under my (horrible) neighbour's house and garden and he didn't give a flying f. as he wasn't affected by it. Even though he is liable under law. So I paid £70 for someone to come round and clear it (after I had done everything in my power to clear it myself) and I wasn't unhappy when all the backed up sewage dumped itself, via the last drain before the main sewer, on my neighbour's front garden and drive.

 

[ChrisKH]

The one that really took the biscuit for me was laying underfloor heating which I had to do through the night as the guy was coming to scree the floor the next day and then tile it. And when he tiled it, he applied too much downward pressure on the tiles (body builder) and broke the underfloor heating. You try telling a bodybuilder that his work was sub-standard and you are withholding the money for the job........

 

[Sambu]

Sanding overhead, rotten, dusty beams covered in pigeon s**t for about 2weeks! awfull!

 

[Kirstie]

Cleaning grout off a recently tiled slate floor with grout remover (it stinks) and a scrubbing brush. It took me three days of being on my hands and knees scrubbing. All I can say is thank goodness for mtb knee pads - made it a whole lot more bearable.

 

[swee'pea99]

I now appreciate just how hard the job of a coal miner would have been

There's a brilliant piece by Orwell somewhere describing how he tried being a miner for a day. Having got to the bottom of the shaft by lift, they then had to set off for the actual coal face, which was something like two or three miles away down a tunnel cut through the seam, varying between about chest height and waist height.

By the time he reached the actual coalface he'd skinned his back and was so completely shattered he could do nothing but observe and try not to think about the journey back to the lift. For the miners, of course, their day's work was just beginning...

 

[porteous]

1984. I rebuilt a house in which the foul drain was blocked with no way of getting a rod in the underground pipe (Found out it was blocked when the upstairs toilet filled up on boxing day). Spent the morning digging down to the pipe, which was 4' under a rose bed. Cracked the top off the pipe with a ball pein hammer and got a rod in to start things moving, and all goes well until I realise that, while the blockage (which is solid compacted nasty stuff) is moving the contents of the stack pipe up the wall to the toilet, about 15 feet up, are liable to be a lot more liquid and will probably exit via the rodding slot I have just made.

I go as far as turning my back and starting to climb out of the hole when the sky went dark.

My wife hosed me down in the back yard while I stripped before she'd let me in the house for a bath. To be fair, she kept a straight face, but only just.

 

[661-Pete]

Seem to be an awful lot of 'drain' stories here...

Not really surprising. When the rodder came to do our blockage, I showed him the photos I'd taken of the affected pipework when it was first laid (very useful information for the rodder, he said! ). I am lucky to have these photos because the drains were laid at the time we had an extension built.

Tip for anyone having major structural work on their house: take photos of everything as the work proceeds, from every possible angle. Any cheap digital camera will do. And keep the photos safely stored on DVD. And if you come to sell the house, offer the photos to the purchaser - their thanks will be effusive!

Anyway the rodder pointed out that the photos showed that the drains were laid incorrectly, something I'd already guessed at, with a major junction not provided with an access cover, which would make rodding of the drain from the main soil pipe (not involved this time) difficult. We've now had a quote for setting this right. It's expensive, but having read the horror stories from this thread, I'm inclined to have it done.

 

[ChrisKH]

1984. I rebuilt a house in which the foul drain was blocked with no way of getting a rod in the underground pipe (Found out it was blocked when the upstairs toilet filled up on boxing day). Spent the morning digging down to the pipe, which was 4' under a rose bed. Cracked the top off the pipe with a ball pein hammer and got a rod in to start things moving, and all goes well until I realise that, while the blockage (which is solid compacted nasty stuff) is moving the contents of the stack pipe up the wall to the toilet, about 15 feet up, are liable to be a lot more liquid and will probably exit via the rodding slot I have just made.

I go as far as turning my back and starting to climb out of the hole when the sky went dark.

My wife hosed me down in the back yard while I stripped before she'd let me in the house for a bath. To be fair, she kept a straight face, but only just.

Exactly what happened on my neighbour's drive as he is at the bottom of a hill and the sewage had stacked up all the way down the hill. Neighbour stuck his head out of the window and said "Is that sh*t I can smell?"

 

[jonny jeez]

I now appreciate just how hard the job of a coal miner would have been

Ahhhh yes the gold ol' days of the welsh "understair-miners"...happy times indeed....sigh

bring back understair mining I say

 

[jonny jeez]

Rolling out glass wool in the attic. .

we have a winner!!!!

that job does, and always has been the one I never look forward to..even laying cable or pipes in the attic with all the rockwool and glass fibre....eugh....shivers.

Done plenty of blocked drains and just kind get used to it (although I never look forward to it) and use a really, really long rod.

 

[Globalti]

My parents used to have a cottage in Wensleydale, which had a septic tank. One fine day the downstairs loo blocked up and when I lifted an inspection cover between the bog and the septic tank I found that full to the brim. Ah! Septic tank is full! So we call the farmer chappie who comes along with a massive tank on wheels and sucks everything out of the septic tank. Off he goes to spray a few tourists leaving us with a pipe that's still blocked. Simple, just put the rubber disc on the rods and push what's accumulated through to the septic.

Anybody who understands the principle of a hydraulic pump will know how a rubber disc about 5" diameter acting as a piston can exert considerable pressure on a second, bigger piston. So there am I pushing away at the rods when suddenly the dog goes mad and starts barking and running around like a nutter... I go to investigate and find there's a second inspection cover between me and the septic tank, which has been lost under the garden and is now lifting under hydraulic pressure with poo and pink bog paper bursting out all around the rim. Cue screams of laughter from the whole family while I withdraw the plunger and stick it down the downstream manhole. A good shove and... have you ever seen clay being extruded from a pugger in a potter's studio? The blockage slid gracefully out under pressure from upstream, blatting into the bottom of the pit while the dog went absolutely ape and the rest of us clutched our sides, tears of laughter streaming down our faces. By then I was covered in poo but the hose down with cold water I endured after that was worth it for the entertainment we'd had.

 

[swee'pea99]

OT, but I'm reminded...

Friend of mine got taken on as a day labourer by a chap called Tarquin or Justin or somesuch who through a friend of a friend had somehow got the job of renovating a four storey town house in Chelsea. After a few days, Tarquin takes friend down to cellar and says 'I need you to take out that wall - we're going to make this a simply marvellous open-plan area'. Mate looks at it dubiously, walks up to wall and gives it a good thump. 'You do know that's a supporting wall, right?' Tarquin is not pleased at being second-guessed by a mere grunt. 'Just do it,' he orders haughtily. Mate shrugs shoulders and sets to with a big sledgehammer.

Sure enough, when he's got the hole big enough to climb through, suddenly there's a horrible loud cracking noise as the entire floor above sags. On his way (at speed) up the cellar stairs, he can hear shouts of alarm from the upper floors. You'll never guess. Every single floor is now v-shaped at that wall.

Wonder how much that cost to put right...

 

[trustysteed]

[quote name='swee'pea99']Mate shrugs shoulders and sets to with a big sledgehammer. [/QUOTE]

am i the only one thinking your mate should have refused purely for reasons of his own safety? i wouldn't stand anywhere near a supporting wall that was being knocked down by a sledgehammer.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

am i the only one thinking your mate should have refused purely for reasons of his own safety? i wouldn't stand anywhere near a supporting wall that was being knocked down by a sledgehammer.

Yebbut "Tarquin asked him to knock a wall down and he refused" is nowhere near as good a story.

 

[swee'pea99]

I did ask him about that. Said a) he needed the money, and he'd already taken a major dislike to Tarquin, and decided it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity