DIY jobs that give you “The Fear”

I’m pretty good at building stuff for the garden, brickwork, wooden pergolas, that sort of jazz. But anything involving indoor plumbing gives me “The Fear”.

Just changed the filling valve assembly on the loo. One of those upwards feed jobs with the hole at the bottom of the cistern.

Skill Level = 2

Consequence of Screwing It Up Level = 8

Anxiety Level = 9

The Fear = OFF THE SCALE

Plumbing and electrical work, I’d leave it the experts.

Plumbing and electrical work, I’d leave it the experts.

Definitely this. Though my sparkie is proving elusive and I may have to remove a spur myself this week.

I dread painting, doesn’t matter how careful I am or how well it goes, i just know I’ll sit down afterwards and spot a mistake.

Roofing.  I have a fear of heights but have with the help of a bikepawl from here abseiled on the roof to do minor repairs and check stuff.while he held the safety line and laughed :-)

Painting – I have a tendency to get carried away will wall prep.  My hallway took 5 kgs of filler mostly sanded off again.  Walls are nice and smooth tho

Wiring and plumbing – pretty straightforward bar the crawling about in awkward spaces.

Carpentry I am rubbish at.  I can bash a nice sturdy structure together but can I make it neat?  Can I heck.  measure 3 times and still the cuts are wonky

Pumbing definately, goes wrong, lots of damage, and fact people moan the loo isn’t fushing as you fix stuff.

Painting generally but glossing skirting boards in particular. A combo of bad knees and a laziness in prep that will inevitably mean paint on carpets or elsewhere it shouldn’t be.

The best piece of advise that my dad ever gave me was “Son, the first time you do gloss painting make sure that you cock it up”.

Works a treat. Have never been asked to do it again.

I’m kinda ok with plumbing but Mrs 100th does comment that I always leave the part I’ve been working on open for days. That’s my weeping joint paranoia.
I do have a slight thing about heights, sometimes a stiff talking to sorts it out. Unfortunately I’ve a window surround to fix and it’s fairly high up.


upload image[/url]

I hate using filler. First swipe with the palette knife thing and it looks about 8/10. Second pass to finish it off ruins it. And it never stands perfectly.

Ambivalent about plumbing.

Enjoy electrical stuff because the idea of doing it properly appeals to me.

My rule doing the house was “No upstairs plumbing” as the problem is the water _wants_ to be downstairs.

TJ fixing his roof

don’t get the plumbing fear.  it’s bloody easy and it doesn’t just go wrong.  either it’s sealed or it’s not.  it’s pretty obvious if it’s not.  that said sink wastes seem to be my kryptonite and can take a ridiculous amount of fiddling.

currently my fear appears to be laying a patio.  very expensive if I cock it up.

before that it was cutting a worktop for a sink and fitting it in a alcove, before that doors  in fact the fear seems to be anything I do for the first time…..after that I realise non of it requires mensa level intellect

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Anything involving climbing more than a stepladder.</p>

Need to paint the gable end, repoint brickwork and sort the fascias out but I don’t want to acquire a brain injury.

Can’t afford to pay someone.

Got ladders mind.

Enjoy everything else. Went on a plastering course so I could reskim the house. Just finished a diploma in electrics so I can understand it all better.

Will tackle most stuff, fitted the kitchen, fitted the bathroom etc. Just not climbing.

Pics don’t show for me bikepawl.

Nor for me bloody modern technology

All. Of. Them.

On my last house, getting onto the roof involved putting the ladder up against the chimney, climbing over the top of the chimney pots to get into the gully behind the chimney before a big reach left to get my foot onto the flat roof area assisted by a hand on the hip ridge – the last move needed 100% commitment as there was no reverse! The last time I had to do it was when cleaning the chimney, I forgot to keep the brush turning so the top section was stuck at the top – I had to remove the cowl to get it out.

After refitting a radiator wrongly and having to drain down the whole system again, I’m not keen on them.

There’s also the time I put a nail through a gas pipe that was hidden in the wall (really no idea why it was there, no gas fires downstairs in the house any more..).

Amusingly I did a filler valve on my loo today as well.  Really easy and it’s not leaking yet.

I don’t really like wallpapering much, I’ll avoid that like the plague.  Also I don’t really do anything above wiring up lights when it comes to electrics.

Anything involving ladders. Despite rock climbing and scrambling up big mountains, working at height on ships rigging etc without problems.

Upstairs plumbing holds no fear as long as it’s copper. My dad taught me 20 years ago. Plastic exploding push fit junk can get in the sea.

sealant.

tried all the techniques, all the novelty tools, spoon, fairy liquid, fingers, sprayers…still end up in the corner, a sticky mess with the stuff everywhere.

hate it.

Putting a shelf up – I’m pretty much okay at most things but if the shelf is 0.0001% not exactly level then it stresses me out forever.

Yeah likewise plumbing, I’m a pretty handy person so the fact that I can’t even tell why it sometimes works and sometimes leaks drives me mad. Also I’ve never lived in a house where the plumbing was sane, there’s always been random rebuilds and stuff fitted by kitchen fitters that barely works and suchlike so that adds a bit of extra fear.

And heights but that’s not the DIY, I just don’t do heights

Anything in the evening when Screwfix etc are just closing.
I keep finding that the original tradesmen used obscure archaic, American or European standards for things which you can’t spot until after you’ve taken everything apart.

Fixing IT based stuff….

Plumbing, joinery, leccy stuff all makes sense.

Painting, i just don’t have the patience or ability, plumbing is fine, changed over the toilet a couple of months ago, same with sink, did the bath mixer tap yesterday and wished i’d not started it, it’s the snags that get you, the tap fell apart on trying to disassemble, no room to work with, everything seized, so an hour later, using clamps, monkey pliers, adjustable and penetrating oil and it was done, the toilet was just as bad, old style one being replaced had bolts through the tiles that needed grinding down and some support to be added at the back to stop any wobble, most jobs it’s really just making sure you prepare properly, have the right tools, right spares, etc to make it work, plumbing for me, flexi pipes are a godsend, electrics it’s wago’s!

all of it. Mostly the fear but also the boredom. I’ll paint the outside of the big shed and attack things in the garden when I’m being supervised by my better half/responsible adult.

Electrics, Plumbing, decorating.. nope, happy to do what I’m good at to pay people for what they are good at. And I am a crisis waiting to happen with anything more complicated than putting up a shelf. Even that is pretty much at the limit of my skills.

Instead I drink tea and constantly evolve the tool wall :)

I recently earned many brownie points by replacing the fill valve in my mum’s loo while on holiday.

It was a bit stressful though as it was (of course) the last day and (of course) I didn’t have any tools besides whatever Christmas-cracker odds and ends were kicking around the garage.

So although it was ultimately an easy job it took a bit of a deep breath to crack on past the Point of No Return 😂

When at home anything involving ladders and heights can jog on.

I have the manual dexterity of a baboon with Tourette’s so ALL DIY gives me the fear

My wife actually enjoys electrics, so that’s hers which leaves me with plumbing which I hate. I don’t mind painting, or wallpapering or that sort of jazz, actual building work (roofing, replacing windows that sort of stuff) I leave to the professionals.

Don’t mind plumbing – the stuff at work is 280 bar, thousands of litres a minute and full of oil, so a bit of water at 3 bar really isn’t scary 🙂

Heights in the old bungalow were just about doable, but I’ll not be venturing beyond the gutters in the new 2 storey house.

Least favourite job was grovelling in the damp flat on my back insulating under the floors with nose pressed against the joists and cobwebs. Got the occasional mini panic attack when I’d ventured a bit far from the opening…..

Roofing. If you make an error the damage ican be massive. Never had a issue.

Plastic exploding push fit junk can get in the sea.

As with everything there are ways to do it. Nothing wrong with it.

I’ll do pretty much anything but i HATE doing gloss paint.

Hate in capitals doesnt quite get across how much i dislike doing it.

Mrs B saying…”oh this room could do with a repaint to freshen it up”  but its never just a repaint is it! It’s new flooring, new blinds, sofa, soft furnishings, lamp shades etc etc = £000’s

Plastic exploding push fit junk can get in the sea.

As with everything there are ways to do it. Nothing wrong with it.

But would you bury it behind a plastered wall, or is that too much to ask?

I don’t like working on gutters from ladders. Guess who had to replace all his gutters and fascias this spring?

Qualify my earlier statement with “anything this house” it was bodged by the previous owners, absolutely everything needs done but properly.
I had a leaking overflow of the downstairs loo. Had a moment of clarity when I realised the they just hadn’t bothered connecting the overflow from the cistern to the overflow pipe. A flush with an internal overflow sorted it in about 10 minutes, well after rebuilding the supports for the cistern.

One of my parents houses the bathroom radiator did not work properly.  I found it had been plumbed in series in the return side! ie only cooler water flowing thru it.  Plumbed in correctly and it was fiine

The problem with DIY is is that you’re generally following a previous DIYer. It’s the physical equivalent of maintenance programming. House electrics are inherently a prick because some country & western has invariably run out of brown wire so used pink, or barbed or something. And there’s an XKCD about plumbing:

https://xkcd.com/927/

My rule doing the house was “No upstairs plumbing” as the problem is the water _wants_ to be downstairs.

Well, I laughed.

I have the manual dexterity of a baboon with Tourette’s so ALL DIY gives me the fear

Hate to break it to you mate, but manual dexterity is far from the only criterion for similarity here.

Anything involving silicone sealant.

Anything structural.

Anything involving heavy lifting.

Don’t mind plumbing but water leaks scare me. Had too much damaged in the past and the damp smell took months to go.

Nothing DIY gives me the fear but I will never ever attempt to plaster a room again. I also know what I shouldn’t touch (roofing for example), which I think aids a sense of DIY calm.

I really don’t like being on the roof and an emergency refelt of our big shed on a day after the old stuff shredded in a storm and heavy rain was imminent while it was blowing 30+knots was a little “interesting”. That it was mid Covid lockdown 1 and our local hospital being a Covid emergency facility that I had no desire to visit added a little to the tension.

Old plumbing. Fix one leak, create three more.