Random DIYs Are More Expensive Than Hiring Someone (14 items)

• (#1) A Guy Used A Little Too Much Expanding Foam

  From Redditor /u/Barbarian_Bob:

  Once met a guy who tried to replace his own windows, used expanding foam to “insulate” the space between the window box and the studs. It expanded far more than he anticipated and shattered thousands of dollars worth of brand new windows.
• (#2) A Homeowner Knocked Down A Load-Bearing Wall

  From Redditor /u/Noaesh:

  Guy knocked down a wall to convert his kitchen/lounge/dining into an open plan concept. Wall was load bearing. [The home owner] Managed to f*ck himself out of $50,000AUD in order to save roughly $4,000 for engineering reports and a contractor.
• (#3) They Made The Worst DIY Patio In The World

  From Redditor /u/Some_Drummer_Guy:

  One time, we came across a patio where the homeowner used play sand for the base and nothing more. It's any wonder that the damn thing was lop sided and falling apart. No 21AA gravel and slag sand base. No concrete edge or plastic edging. Just threw down a bunch of play sand, compacted it and laid a bunch of brick. It had been done improperly from the get-go and homeowner was clueless.

  There's a reason why we're called "professionals." We know what the f*ck we're doing. You do not. Call us instead of thinking you know it all and end up f*cking it all up.
• (#4) They Built Their Own Load-Bearing Wall

  From Redditor /u/Rollerroman:

  We just recently remodeled a home that was built with 1X3 studs in the exterior load bearing walls. We could push the wall out a few inches if we leaned on it!
• (#5) DIY Septic Tanks Are Never A Good Idea

  From Redditor /u/Rollerroman: 

  We just finished remodeling a house where the toilet emptied under the house, which was discovered when we went to find out why the whole house was sinking, only to find a giant pool of feces...
• (#6) A Homeowner Was Obsessed With Building His Own Expansion

  From Redditor /u/DummGhahrr:

  A guy bought a house from my company in a pretty nice neighborhood. He wanted to expand his house himself, so, without any permitting he started building the extension himself. He built directly on the concrete slab in his backyard (no foundation system), sided his building without starter strips so they were all crooked, and he also didn’t use any vapor protection. He pulled the wire and whatnot himself, and hadn’t installed his windows last I saw it. The city inspector said that no matter what the guy did, it would never be permitted and he could not proceed any further. It was a wild time.
• (#7) They Kept Blowing Their Fuses

  From Redditor /u/worfhill:

  Got called because a light kept blowing. Checked and found out the husband had put a single light bulb on a 240 volt circuit.
• (#8) Someone Taped A Water Pipe Over Electric Wire

  From Redditor /u/Anuul:

  Me and my dad worked on a flat my uncle bought and while we were doing the plumbing we noticed a pipe that ran straight over exposed wires, stupid in itself but instead of securing the pipe with nails it was duct taped to the to the wall.
• (#9) The House That Speaker Wire Built

  From Redditor /u/AtfayElleybay:

  My dad was an electrical contractor. One guy wired his entire house with speaker wire.
• (#10) The Wrong Drywall Can Ruin Your Life

  From Redditor /u/arkofjoy:

  Got called into a house where the owner builder had used ordinary gyp rock in the shower stalls of the house and then just tiled over it. A few years later my friends bought the house lived it its few years and then discovered this. They had water running across the floors. They are going to have to gut three bathrooms back to the studs and completely rebuild them.
• (#11) Bad Wiring Turned This Apartment Into A Death Trap

  From Redditor /u/girishanobaka: 

  A breaker at my old apt in Boston kept dying (not tripping) randomly. Landlord was dragging his feet about the issue and was only really willing to replace the breaker and tell us weird sh*t like don't use the microwave with a hairdryer. Got sick of it so I called an electrician myself to trace the line and see what was causing the problem. Turns out all the wiring was done not to code and not even safely. Pro showed me a softball size bundle of wires in the suspended ceiling (it was just sitting on one of the tiles) that had lines from 2 breakers leading in and 7 lines leading out to the bathroom, kitchen, hallway, and one of the bedrooms. The pro took photos to report all the code violations and called my apt a death trap. We all moved out within a week.
• (#12) Someone Added A Wall With Horizontal Studs

  From Redditor /u/Aquanaut38:

  Contractor here. A recent one was the original owner built a wall with the studs horizontal. A load bearing wall. The osb was all that was really holding it up.

  I was at a loss. I was there to bid for converting this garage into a living space. Upon seeing the wall, I told them the whole thing should be torn down. The 2x4 rafters were spanning about 14' on 30ish" centers.
• (#13) This DIY Fix Filled A Home With Gas

  From Redditor /u/michaellow:

  I'm a mechanical contractor, like, I do gas fittings, refrigeration, HVAC, etc. I got a call from a man who claimed his house smelt like gas, but he couldn't figure out why. When I got to his house, he had taken a saddle valve(the type used for running refrigerator water lines) and tried to pierce his gas line. When the pin wouldn't pierce the line, he got out his electric drill and small bit and made a hole in the gas line. The worst part was, he still hooked it up. 
• (#14) They Made A Hairball Of Electrical Wire

  From Redditor /u/Hagenaar: 

  A screw-on wire connector (sometimes called marrettes sometimes mars connector) making the most amazing junction. The thing was the size of a shot glass. More than one live feed into it. Conventional wires, older wires, knob and tube wires, extension cord all wound up together. All just loose in the wall cavity. I just ran new wires to everything and cut out as much of this crazy spider as I could reach.

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