DIY always sounds like a good idea at the time but without any knowledge of what you’re doing, you run the risk of not only getting it wrong, but also a lot of expense to put things right. Here are some common (and not so common!) mistakes that people make when attempting their own DIY:
Hanging Wallpaper Upside Down
You’d be surprised just how many people hang their patterned wallpaper upside down. You need to ensure when carrying the wallpaper from the pasting tray that you hold it the right side up before hanging, in the case of a flowery or swirly pattern the direction is usually running up instead of running down. This will prevent you having to tear it all down and start again.
Wire Mix up When Fitting Lights
Unless you know exactly what you’re doing, it’s all too easy to get the wires wrong when attempting to fit lights in the home yourself. Wrong wiring will cause a major short circuit resulting in major power loss to the home and then you’ll find yourself having to call in an electrician to rectify at high cost.
Using The Wrong Sealant
When sealing baths and sinks you need to ensure you’re using the correct sealant for that purpose. The wrong sealant will in time, begin to weaken and crack and cause water to leak causing significant water damage to the walls and the ceiling and in extreme cases, could cause flooding.
Drilling Into A Wall Through A Water pipe
A common mistake is people drilling through a wall to hang a picture or put up a mirror without being sure what’s behind it. Drilling through an electric cable could be potentially fatal as it puts you at risk of electric shock and could cause a house fire. Drilling through a water pipe could cause the whole house to be flooded. Both would require expensive and extensive constructive work to correct.
Removing Internal Walls
Another common mistake people make is, when deciding to knock down a wall of an adjourning room in their home to make one big room, they don’t check whether or not the wall they want to remove is a supporting wall. If so, you need to have the correct support fitted to the wall before you attempt to remove; otherwise you run the risk of the upper floor collapsing. This sort of work is best left to the professionals.
Using the Wrong Adhesive When Tiling
When people choose to tile a room, a very common slip-up that people make is that they don’t consider what type of environment the room typically is and therefore use the wrong type of adhesive. When tiling a room that is quite moist and damp, i.e. bathrooms and utility rooms, you must take into consideration that some adhesives are affected by moisture in the air and if you’ve used the wrong one, you could end up with your tiles actually falling off. This means having to remove all the tiles and grouting off the walls and starting all over again which can be costly and time-consuming.
Many DIY mistakes are can often be avoided by employing the appropriate home improvement specialists when they are needed and even just not forgetting to use common sense! Rushing to get jobs finished as quickly as possible might, if you’re lucky, save you time. But in the event that you forget or overlook something important, what once was a small, seemingly simple job, could turn into something much more extensive and costly.
