Admit Your Dumbest Homeowner Repair Mistakes

Slipped off a rafter and leg went through the ceiling in living room. All because I was running a phone line...

Painted our half bath the color of a brown paper bag.

I don't have any because I'm perfect, but the previous owner insisted on DIY'ing and half assed everything, for what that's worth.

Anything plumbing related except for replacing a disposal. Setting a toilet...I'm always going to break the flange.

I was 22, first home, trying to replace stove/oven, didn’t turn breaker off, jolt threw me against the wall. Dumbest thing I’ve done by far. Quickly learned to ask for help.

Owned a residential fourplex. Older, built in 1955. Tenant had an electrical oven problem. Went to the basement and flipped off the main breaker. Went back upstairs and started messing around and got knocked across the kitchen by the 220. It was still live. I can do all the trades with average to decent outcomes if I do it myself but I won't screw around with electrical.

My first house I bought was the very one I grew up in as a kid and located in the Lower 9th Ward. It was a single, 6 room shotgun and I decided to swap out all the electrical outlets and switches since the ones I had were old and of different brands and looked like crap.

I decided to do this in the daytime so I could shut off the power and get them all done, hopefully in one afternoon. A friend stopped over and we smoked a couple joints while listening to radio and having a couple beers.

He left and I got to doing the outlets first. After removing the plates in the front room I unscrewed the first outlet and reached in and grabbed it to unscrew the wiring and it zapped the crap out of me.

It was then I realized I was listening to the radio plugged into the wall in the next room and had forgotten to pull the main to start the work.

Just glad it wasn't a 220 outlet for a window A/C.

I guess stepping through the ceiling while running a wire in the attic.

Been countless small mistakes, most recently was the leaking p trap installed for a new shower reno.

I could write a book with a trade for each chapter. Not a repair but a good story - I was mounting a shelf in our laundry room, drilling some pilot holes. The opposite side of the wall is the garage, circuit breaker box on that wall.

Drilling, having to push harder, drilling, BOOM. Entire house goes dark, just really loud 80s thrash metal in my headphones in a pitch black tiny room. Took a few minutes to realize what I just did & then full on panic attack. Scary as shite. Thought I was dead, then thought I would have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. Super lucky though, didn’t hit any wires and drilled through dead center, bit poked through the two columns of breakers on the other side. Bit broke off during my freak out. It’s still there.

Called my dad, he was there in about 10 minutes. Humorous look of disapproval on his face. A look I know very well. All he had to do was flip the main breaker back on because it tripped, I guess as a safety mechanism. No injury, No damage Could’ve been way worse. I haven’t worked up the courage to have an electrician come out because of impending shame. Forgot it happened until I saw this thread. I’m gonna have to make that phone call tomorrow.

Similar mistake here, went to pull a wall anchor out and I thought it was a push in anchor. Put the screw in a few threads and pulled with some channel locks. I ended up with a massive hole due to it actually being a screw in sheetrock anchor....I felt like an idiot, my wife made sure I knew I was one.

Oh, another. I was changing all of the faucets in the house and I got to the last one. I turned off the water like normal and started disassembly of the faucet handle. Suddenly the valve blew off in my face and shot water to the ceiling. I started trying to jamb the assembly back together yelling "what is happening?!" Before I realized I forgot to turn both the hot AND the cold water off. I blame the kids for distracting me, but you know, that could happen to anybody....