[Misc] What do your DIY skills stretch to ?

[smudge]

I am absolutely shocking, plus I seem to excel in getting in the worst possible tradesmen who are proper bodge it & scarper merchants.
I absolutely despair at some of the "tradesmanship" that I've forked out for over the years.
If I could give 1 tip to anyone getting a new kitchen, do not use Wickes. Maybe we were unlucky, but the guy we got was really, really bad.
My next project is the garden, so if any cowboys in the Lancing area are hoping for a payday with minimum effort & a piss poor job, then I'm bound to get them.

 

[B-right-on]

Looks good, though I would have laid the flooring in the other direction.
Wood grain planks look better going in the longer direction.

The idea was to make it look wider than longer. Didn't work as was desired, you don't notice them under the desks etc...

LVT click flooring. Great stuff, more heardwearing than laminate. Made the mistake of fitting glue down LVT tiles once, but after being high as a kite for days on the Evostik, never again. Got the make recommendation off NSC.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Beautiful job mate. All your work?!

Yes well me and my mixer

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Being given a Meccano kit for Christmas as a 10 year old and buckets of Lego helped me.

Best DIY tip ever:
Measure twice, cut once!

 

[maltaseagull]

I'm somewhat limited in my DIY skills but being old with a toolbox that has been built up over 40 years can turn my hand to a few things. Having seeing yet another plumbing advice thread it has got me wondering. I have close Family who can just about build a house, (groundworks, bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing, plastering etc etc) but I simply stand back and look on jealously

So, where would you rate your DIY skills ?

I can decorate and put up a shelf etc.
Anything else , I have learned from experience, call a professional.

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

I'm 18th edition and have been fixing domestic appliances for 30+years.
Been training the new generation of engineers for the last 11 years.
I'm confident in any appliance/electrical work but that's about it.

I don't touch anything to do with wood, plumbing or bricks and detest decorating.

Know your limits, people are tradesmen for a reason.
YouTube can be helpful, but you can't do everything by watching a video that someone in the trade has spent a lifetime doing

 

[Justice]

I am absolutely shocking, plus I seem to excel in getting in the worst possible tradesmen who are proper bodge it & scarper merchants.
I absolutely despair at some of the "tradesmanship" that I've forked out for over the years.
If I could give 1 tip to anyone getting a new kitchen, do not use Wickes. Maybe we were unlucky, but the guy we got was really, really bad.
My next project is the garden, so if any cowboys in the Lancing area are hoping for a payday with minimum effort & a piss poor job, then I'm bound to get them.

Out of interest do you tend to hire the cheapest quote? I’m interested as my clients often tell me you weren’t the cheapest by quite a margin. I’ve been living off recommendations for years now best form of advertising.

 

[studio150]

I have the same skills as Tommy Cooper and Eric Sykes in The Plank

 

[BN9 BHA]

Know your limits, people are tradesmen for a reason.
YouTube can be helpful, but you can't do everything by watching a video that someone in the trade has spent a lifetime doing

With bells on mate.

Hopefully you will like this

 

[Bozza]

He's putting the roof on at midnight??

I didn't check but it wouldn't surprise me.

Andy was at the same comedy night as me a couple of months ago and we both had a few drinks. At 8am the next morning, a Saturday, I was awoken by Andy commencing his building work for the day. I think I made it out of bed about two hours later.

The man is an utter disgrace.

 

[BBassic]

I fall somewhere between not being trusted with a paintbrush and decent at cutting in.

I ruddy hate DIY.

Would rather pay a professional to do whatever needs doing. Unless that professional is my Dad (a decorator) as he gets paid in the currency of having me as a son. The exchange rate isn't great on that to be fair.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Despite being in the construction industry all my life, I have no practical skills whatsoever. Flat pack assembley always ended with a few bits left over, so I gave that up. I've owned a B&Q "Value" tool box for about 30 years and it is still in pristine condition. I do, however have a trusty handyman who can turn his hand to most things (for the last 25 years) a reliable plumber, electrician, tree surgeon, gardener and checkatrade when anything else is needed.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

My DIY approach summed up ..... Google, if I don't know the right tradesman and get someone in who knows what they're doing, cheaper in the long run

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I can emulsion walls, but hate using gloss paint, because of the fumes which make me feel sick.
As the daughter of an electrician, I can wire a plug (not needed nowadays) and fairly confident with light fittings etc
I can build smallish flat pack bookshelves or tv stands, and garden quite well.
I can cook but don't like cooking whereas my other half does, so he does it.

 

[Justice]

One Sunday morning this a lady rings me up it was her daughters 18th birthday party at the house that day, all the food was in the fridge etc and the power was tripping in the kitchen. I gave her the rate for first hr think it was like £160 can’t quite remember.
She booked it in and then cancelled as I was getting ready as she said her husband who knew nothing about electrical installations was going to fix it. Great I thought and went back to bed this was like 6.30am
Around 11.30am the wife calls back and yep problem still not fixed all the party food is going off. Long story short it took me 5mins or something to resolve the issue. The husband had ruined the day for sake of being tight and knowing F all about the job in hand and they weren’t poor by any means.
I see a lot of recoil at tradesman charges you are also paying for years of experience and that gets forgotten.
What annoys me even more is no one blinks at paying a solicitor £200 to write a feckin letter those lot are never investigated way worse than tradesman in my book, biggest rip of merchants in the country.

 

[timbha]

I can cut the grass and trim the edges, do most forms of cleaning, use the washing machine/tumble dryer and peg stuff on the line.
When I paint I get it done but end up in a mess, usually dropping the wet paint brush somewhere in the process requiring extra time clearing up the mess.
Any electrical work is minor with fingers crossed that there’s no explosion when a light is switched on.
Nearly always use a professional for any job. It’s money well invested.
As for car repairs….. no way

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I can cut the grass and trim the edges, do most forms of cleaning, use the washing machine/tumble dryer and peg stuff on the line.
When I paint I get it done but end up in a mess, usually dropping the wet paint brush somewhere in the process requiring extra time clearing up the mess.
Any electrical work is minor with fingers crossed that there’s no explosion when a light is switched on.
Nearly always use a professional for any job. It’s money well invested.
As for car repairs….. no way

Lawn mowing and general household chores l can, and do manage, but anything that comes under the realm of that dirty word "diy", l stay well clear of.

I can barely tell one end of a screwdiver from the other. My skills evidently lay in a different direction, although at the age of 66 l am still trying to find them.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

With bells on mate.

Hopefully you will like this

View attachment 159591

Saw this the other day

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

One Sunday morning this a lady rings me up it was her daughters 18th birthday party at the house that day, all the food was in the fridge etc and the power was tripping in the kitchen. I gave her the rate for first hr think it was like £160 can’t quite remember.
She booked it in and then cancelled as I was getting ready as she said her husband who knew nothing about electrical installations was going to fix it. Great I thought and went back to bed this was like 6.30am
Around 11.30am the wife calls back and yep problem still not fixed all the party food is going off. Long story short it took me 5mins or something to resolve the issue. The husband had ruined the day for sake of being tight and knowing F all about the job in hand and they weren’t poor by any means.
I see a lot of recoil at tradesman charges you are also paying for years of experience and that gets forgotten.
What annoys me even more is no one blinks at paying a solicitor £200 to write a feckin letter those lot are never investigated way worse than tradesman in my book, biggest rip of merchants in the country.

I hear ya brother.
Why waste all that time at college getting qualifications when all you had to do was spend 5 minutes watching a video on YouTube.
If only it was that easy, right?

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

One Sunday morning this a lady rings me up it was her daughters 18th birthday party at the house that day, all the food was in the fridge etc and the power was tripping in the kitchen. I gave her the rate for first hr think it was like £160 can’t quite remember.
She booked it in and then cancelled as I was getting ready as she said her husband who knew nothing about electrical installations was going to fix it. Great I thought and went back to bed this was like 6.30am
Around 11.30am the wife calls back and yep problem still not fixed all the party food is going off. Long story short it took me 5mins or something to resolve the issue. The husband had ruined the day for sake of being tight and knowing F all about the job in hand and they weren’t poor by any means.
I see a lot of recoil at tradesman charges you are also paying for years of experience and that gets forgotten.
What annoys me even more is no one blinks at paying a solicitor £200 to write a feckin letter those lot are never investigated way worse than tradesman in my book, biggest rip of merchants in the country.

Double post