What DIY/Renovation regrets do you have?
Posted by PaddedValls@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 107 comments
When we got our en-suite added on, my wife insisted on having a stand alone bath.
No shower head or anything.
Obviously fell victim to social media aesthetic.
I said, back then, that it would be a novelty and eventually become barely used.
She didn't agree.
That was 2 years ago.
It hasn't been used in, I guess, 6 months?
Could've just had a simple shower cubicle, which would've been used much more often, and not have this bath take up half the en-suite.
MindComfortable6216@reddit
Not mine but a friend had a new kitchen put in and chose grey cupboards and drawers. Not sure what they’re made of but they’re completely full of greasy finger marks and the kitchen looks awful, as if they’re really dirty people. No way to keep them clean though, once cleaned they have to be dried immediately. Next touch and immediate finger marks. By the end of the day it looks the same as before it was cleaned. Not sure if it’s the colour or what they’re made of or a combination of both?
danddersson@reddit
Are they high gloss? Handleless?
High gloss was the fashion for a few years until people realised....
Isgortio@reddit
I've got white high gloss on one of my wardrobes and the matching drawers, I don't see any marks on them unless I shine a light directly at them. But I've worked with darker coloured gloss cupboards and yeah they show every mark possible lol
danddersson@reddit
Yes, you can sometimes get away with light colours. Having handle-less doors and drawers on high gloss is a bad combination.
There was a relatively new high gloss, black kitchen in our house when we moved in...
MindComfortable6216@reddit
I’ll have to look next time I visit, if I can see a patch between the greasy marks lol. I think they’re sheen.
Alert_Breakfast5538@reddit
Spending days of my life, and hundreds of pounds refinishing my solid pine floors. They look absolutely beautiful, but I didn’t know that you can’t keep them with underfloor heating. We got underfloor heating added 6 months later.
Hello engineered wood
bluejeansseltzer@reddit
Why isn’t it possible to keep them?
Alert_Breakfast5538@reddit
Apparently they will warp and buckle really bad as they get heated up and dried out.
bluejeansseltzer@reddit
Ah that makes sense. Though I would've thought that if you regularly waxed them, say, every 3-6 months, then they'd be able to retain a high enough moisture level to not warp and buckle. But I'm no carpenter, and even if what I say is correct then it involves a lot of regular maintenance.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
When I was younger we had the floors professionally sanded. Even with rugs, it was only around 18 months before the dog had inadvertently scratched it to bits.
Dogs of course do not have retractable claws and you heard him clicking around all the time.
amcoffeecup@reddit
Oof that hurts. Did our stairs recently, took hours and hours, they still don’t look great, and now we’re thinking of just painting them.
Vequihellin@reddit
When we did our kitchen, I picked a glass splashback that looked like a sort of soft olive shade in the showroom. On the wall, it's an ugly sort of blue green that doesn't fit into the colour scheme of the kitchen. It's not fully any one particular colour and I've basically hated it since it went in, but it's so well adhered I can't do anything with it. Definitely regret trusting the showroom sample.
kiddj1@reddit
We wanted to knock some walls down.
I believed the builder when they said they have a structural engineer & will take care of drawings & building control
Half way through the project I asked when building control will be attending he said soon
As time went on he spent less and less time at my property
I gave him the benefit of the doubt and wouldn't chase..
It then became a month without them being on site, he refused to answer my calls or texts
I decided to get building control in, everything has failed. They advised to get a structural engineer to look. They've told me everything has been done wrong.
I now have to spend money on legal fees to follow up with the builder... I also have to spend more money on rectifying this issue.
This was my first dream home with my wife and kids and now it's a building site and a major risk to live in.
I'm trying to get a new builder but I'm struggling to find someone who wants to actually take this on
Every day I wake up wishing I never met the builder and just decided to do cosmetic changes.
Eventually it will get fixed... But I feel like I shouldn't have to pay
Bossman_Mike@reddit
Structural engineers get silly expensive. I was once quoted £1000 just to come out, have a look and propose "best practices" without even designing anything.
Tattycakes@reddit
I assume he had decent reviews? Not your fault if someone betrayed you
kiddj1@reddit
Yep I spent far too long looking into the bloke before we accepted his quote
He was genuinely a lovely bloke. Really nice to my wife and my kids
I WFH and spent many lunch breaks chatting about similar hobbies with him.. we got on great
I actually thought I'd found the family builder who'd do all the jobs I can't do to transform my house
I never complained or questioned his work.. I fucking should have
Now I just spend most night's laying in bed stressing about how I'm gonna get this sorted.. will I find a builder.. do I just have a giant target on my back for people to take the piss as it already has been done.. how have I let this happen
Now I think about it.. I'm probably burnt out from the stress and worry.. it's eating me alive.. but I push on for the family and remain positive Wel find someone to actually save our home
confuzzledfather@reddit
Last week I took a load of spare floor tiles to the tip that had been sitting around for 5 years following our remodelling of the kitchen dinner. This week I cracked a tile for the first time and thought, oh bugger.
Keep at least a couple for emergency replacements. Or live to regret it
iffyClyro@reddit
Not doing it all sooner so that I could relax and enjoy it. House is absolutely gorgeous now and I’m about to sell it.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
As an FTB my vendors had a third baby (which I think may have been a "surprise") and had to upsize. They moved a few streets away and I occasionally saw them.
The man of the house said "we got it just the way we wanted it" and if that's how they wanted it, then dear Christ. I had a lot to do in that house.
Lulovesyababy@reddit
Ha, that was my dad for an entire decade, and then we moved :D
iffyClyro@reddit
At least with this move I’ll finally have some money to get people in and get the stuff done quickly rather than waiting to find the time and motivation.
floodtracks@reddit
That assumes the people will 1) turn up to quote and 2) then actually do the job. It's been 12 months since I got structural calcs to take out a wall. 12 months of trying to find a builder to do it.
iffyClyro@reddit
Fortunate enough to have developed decent working relationships with some local tradesmen so hopefully won’t be in your position.
floodtracks@reddit
Living the dream! All the best for when the time comes. Honestly priceless to have those relationships.
Gauntlets28@reddit
Same, my parents spent almost all of their time in my childhood home just renovating some part of it or another. The only time they came close to actually enjoying it as a finished house was in the time leading up to selling - and even then, things still ended up going wrong - a big one was the tile cladding over the garage door all falling off overnight.
HotAirBalloonPolice@reddit
This is me as well. I put off so much stuff thinking there was no point as it’s not my forever home and it would be a waste of money. Now that the market is so slow I can’t sell it so i’m just taking the view that I’m going to wait the market lull out but make some improvements that I can actually enjoy.
8rummi3@reddit
This is the classic. Fix all the issues so you can sell, but after fixing everything you no longer need to move
A_Chicken_Called_Kip@reddit
Usually I just regret not fixing things earlier. I live with mildly irritating things for years because fixing them seems like a lot of work. Not major repairs, just annoying little jobs. Then when you get around to it, it’s amazing how much stuff just needs adjusting with a screwdriver and five mins of your time.
AutomaticInitiative@reddit
It's the fear that instead of a 5 minute job, it's a 5 week and costly job once you start doing it
Bossman_Mike@reddit
And you end up getting becalmed leaving the house in a state. I've got a spare room like that right now, it's basically out of use because I'm trying to refurbish it but a couple of tasks are beyond me and need trades.
Butter_the_Toast@reddit
In that situation now after attempting to change a running flush on the bog, where everything just fucking went wrong and broke
Long_Huckleberry1751@reddit
Mission creep. I could replace the dripping tap but I'll have to take the drawers out of the unit underneath and something will break and they are discontinued and also the washing machine drains into the same gubbins and that's always getting blocked so the minute I faff with that something else will come up and the backsplash needs regrouting and... or I could just wrap a cloth around the base of the tap and some gorilla tape around the source of the drip.
admgryne@reddit
Our porch is currently stripped back to plaster, floorboards and naked utility meters because the new door required a new thresh, which was pointless to build on the wooden flooring we want to replace, which necessitated the removal of the 70s wooden cupboards, which would have left the wallpaper half stripped...
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Or I start and mess up and have to call an emergency plumber. I avoided doing our toilet for ages because of that and coped with drips and needing to fiddle with things in the cistern daily, but it was a 5 minute job.
OscarsWhiskers@reddit
Damn right, I’ve had to replace a water fill valve pipe in our downstairs toilet… easy peasy, nope.
Plenty of pipework tools but no space to work in between the boxing in from the previous owner. Spent an age fannying around and had to order a 24mm spanner for the compression fitting, that thankfully worked. But couldn’t then get a tool on the plastic nut on the fill pipe… out comes the dremmel. So the pipes now been removed, bruises all up my forearm and the downstairs loo covered in tools currently. Fitting the replacement can bloody wait until I come back from our long weekend away. Sod’s law is that I won’t be able to do the new but up without removing the whole toilet, which will no doubt be super easy 🤣
AutomaticInitiative@reddit
Best of luck mate!
Bossman_Mike@reddit
When I was an FTB I thought I'd bought a house, when in actual fact I'd bought a tapestry of bodges.
Enough-Ad3818@reddit
Every month, I dedicate a weekend to household tasks. There's a list of the fridge, and I try to complete as many as I can each month. At first, the list was huge, but it turns out that, just as you say, a lot of stuff doesn't need that much effort.
The list has gone from about 30-35 items, down to around 10, and that's with adding some stuff on over time as well.
I've learnt how to do a lot of stuff myself too, which has been an added bonus, and I always wanted an excuse to own a crowbar...and now I do.
Necessary_Doubt_9762@reddit
I have such a brain block on what end up being quick jobs. I knew I needed to sort out my eldest daughter’s clothes and drawers and have been hugely avoiding it. Gave myself a talking to and did it the other day took me less than 30 minutes. Even with this knowledge I know I’m going to continue avoiding sorting out my own clothes.
Tattycakes@reddit
We had a cupboard without a proper handle for several years until I injured myself on the makeshift handle. It took him all of 5 minutes to fix it after that! ❤️
No-Jellyfish-177@reddit
Not fixing squeaking floorboards before we had all the carpet and flooring put down.
Bossman_Mike@reddit
Laminate in particular is a mare and doesn't really go back down properly once it's up.
Beautiful_Resolve897@reddit
Omg yes this I’m so annoyed with it
Vequihellin@reddit
We DID fix a squeaky floorboard but somehow it's still broken!
mobuline@reddit
It adds character!
20127010603170562316@reddit
You can fix squeeky boards?
It's impossible to move in my house without some other part of the house making a noise.
ImperialSeal@reddit
Adding screws can help. But they can fail too, or new squeaks develop
20127010603170562316@reddit
This would just be a comedy of me making things progressively worse. I'd fix one squeak to find the toilet's sprung a leak.
Spadders87@reddit
The solution to squeaky floorboards isnt doing an incredible amount of work trying (and usually failing) to irradicate the squeaks but playing grownup hopscotch.
I dont think you should have any regrets. But I am lazy and immature.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
I am generally terrified of sticking something through a pipe too or causing worse damage. That is my usual for DIY fixes.
carpet_tart@reddit
Baby powder works on squeaky chip board floors 👍🏻
Groundsinho@reddit
I spent so long making sure our stairs had no squeaking whatsoever... Then we put the carpet on it and it squeaks... I'm fuming!! Such is life.
Phenomenomix@reddit
I went to the effort of trying to fix ours and for the most part they either developed squeaks in new places or the old squeaks just came back after a while
Akash_nu@reddit
Same! I thought we will do it later, that day never came and now I can play DJ by standing on different areas of the floor.
No-Jellyfish-177@reddit
Once you get all your gear in, it’s a wrap - never gonna get done haha
Suspicious_Steak_696@reddit
Changing toilet mechanism. Not checking properly for drips. 3 years ago and still not sorted the downstairs ceiling
ServerLost@reddit
Twice now I've done floors in a new place with the gloss still waiting, yellowing in silent mockery of my laziness.
crgoodw@reddit
Insisted on a DIY charity shop wooden cabinet with a large glass bowl sink on the top with an over sink bronze tap.
Didn't think about moisture so all the veneer on the cabinet peeled off almost immediately.
The glass bowl is a magnet for toothpaste, which will stick to the surface of it with the strength of some kind of heavy duty industrial welding effect. It shows up every splash of toothpaste immediately after cleaning it.
Because of the warped wood, the tap now leaks and sits at a funny angle.
Oh, and a family member who is a bit shaky on their feet dropped a mug on the edge of it and cracked the bowl on one side, so you can't fill it with water any more or it just pisses out of the side like a fountain.
Cant remove it either because I insisted that it be installed before we lay the floor for that built in look.
Because Pinterest told me it would look pretty!
Tape_Badger@reddit
I am about to do this but the cabinet is teak and I'm chucking a piece of worktop over it before adding the basin... should I pack it in now do you think?
crgoodw@reddit
I think teak is pretty water resistant (I.e. it's not a random piece of furniture you found in a charity shop!) so you're already better than us there! Definitely do the worktop, my other half has bought a slice of mdf countertop to fix ours, so I'm hoping that will resolve some of our issues with the wood warping and so on.
The annoying thing is that is does look amazing. It's just a massive pain to clean (I have two teenagers, trying to get them not to leave toothpaste etc in the sink is like asking them to perform brain surgery).
Tape_Badger@reddit
I have 2 six year olds so I am somewhat concerned about splashing and 'experiments'. One of them is pretty fastidious but the other one is like a walking hurricane, so I might be asking too much.
I agree they look so much better than off-the-shelf vanity units, plus I have struggled to find proper solid freestanding ones without spending twice as much as I did on the cabinet... guess I'm about to find out whether it's a false economy.
Hopefully your worktop solution pans out for you!
Tattycakes@reddit
What flooring is it, is there any chance of filling in the difference for a smaller, or floating sink?
dwair@reddit
I bought a 200 year old deralict Chaple. I don't even like DIY that much. I need a better hobby.
HotButteredBagel@reddit
Not piping gas to the new kitchen and getting an induction cooker. We hate it so much and now there’s no going back. We could have paid less money for a better range gas cooker and we’re stuck with this vile machine until we can either pay crazy money for one that works well or rip up flooring to lay gas pipes across. Big regrets. Huge.
Hungry_Hannah23@reddit
Wish so much I'd forked out the extra money for underfloor heating in my kitchen and dining room...it's so cold in there even with the heating on and that would have made such a difference 😭
PoglesWood@reddit
Put an air conditioner in.
Isgortio@reddit
I had some people round for quotes on underfloor heating last week, I'm not in a big place but it would've been 15m² coverage. One quoted me £3.5k for it, and that was the one from the boiler but they didn't have the specialist equipment to place the stuff properly and it would've raised the floor by 3cm so everything would've needed redoing to fit around it.
Another one said "don't even bother, get bigger radiators". And y'know what, I think he's right. Swapping the radiator out in the kitchen for a bigger, beefier one would cost me about £300 for the radiator but it'd hold and push out so much more heat.
So, have a look at your radiators. Might be a better option for you.
gander8622@reddit
I've heard that underfloor heating is really expensive to run?
speedboat_jacket46@reddit
Painted the walls and the skirting boards of my bedroom bright yellow. I thought it would look nice because I used very expensive paint. It did not.
anabsentfriend@reddit
Not getting the tipple ceilings skimmed when I first moved in. Money was tight and I thought I'd save up and get it done 'soon'. It's been 12 years and I still have the stupid bobbly ceiling.
Lufc87@reddit
OP you may already know but, just in case, you can get ceiling mounted shower rails and riser kits.
Sad-Nectarine-7855@reddit
Oddly enough, getting rid of the bath for a shower.
Went back in soon after the first sprog arrived
mellonians@reddit
I was in similar shoes. I fitted a TV in the bath and now it gets used so much. Piped in the Xbox and it's so much more fun.
yearsofpractice@reddit
It’s a small one, but I wish I’d done a ruthless clearout of our belongings when we were putting them into storage. 49 year old married father of two here. Just finished a year long home renovation. Now that our renovations are done, we’ve now got a joyful 3 months of moving vast piles of what amounts to rubbish from storage back home and then have a full scale war about what needs to be kept and or thrown out… all the while using one of our fresh new rooms as a dump for all of the plastic tat our kids have accumulated in the past decade.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
We are similar but doing it bit by bit as we do renovations. Every cupboard, drawer and box in the house is full of old crap we never use but when you go through it there is this "what if we need it?" or "what if it is worth something" or "I forgot about this!". Just got to be brutal. It was tough with the kids stuff but they reached an age where they actively didn't want the plastic crap and I almost worry they don't have enough to do - but they move on to computers and lower key hobbies than toys.
Tattycakes@reddit
Konmari time!
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Not doing a full paint and decorate when the rooms were empty, should have replaced all bedroom carpets before fully moving in at least even with cheap stuff.
Realistic-Tailor3466@reddit
That is a common regret, as those aesthetic tubs often just end up gathering dust and taking up space. If you ever decide to swap it for a shower, you can reach out to SBCFL for the remodel or Violation Clinic; they are based in Florida, to make sure the new plumbing stays up to code.
Dr_Gillian_McQueef@reddit
Starting stuff and not finishing.
reticulatedbanana@reddit
Not doing the bathroom before we moved in…
Now we’ve waited and waited and lived with it and still waiting because now I’m 28wks pregnant should I just wait until the baby is here……. Gaaahhhhh
boldbunny01@reddit
Not putting in enough sockets in the right places.
Meant we had to add them later ruining all the decor we’d only really got finished
Counterpoint-4@reddit
As a young new owner getting sockets fitted and electrician asks where you want them when a good electrician would give advice - if they've been doing it for years then give the punters your knowledge.
Nkhotak@reddit
Not listening to the contractor about which lights to have controlled by which switches.
Getting fancy ceramic pendant light fittings that mean I can’t just swap in easy-fit lampshades.
Not insisting the kitchen fitters found a way to accommodate the integral fridge I wanted. They said there were only two that would fit, one had all the features I preferred not to have, the other was a £20k Fisher and Paykal. Got the cheaper (only relatively) one and it’s crap. Luckily we kept our old one to have in the utility. It’s cheap and ancient, but so much better.
Sharp_Budget_4416@reddit
Open shelving in the kitchen. Looked amazing for about two weeks, then reality set in. Everything gets dusty, nothing matches once you actually buy food, and you end up hiding half your stuff behind the toaster so it looks "curated". Would take cupboards back in a heartbeat.
Beancounter_1968@reddit
Not sacking the architect.
Not checking that the revised steels drawings for the roof were symmetrical
Not checking that we couldn't use the existing roof and use additional wood and tiles to make the new roof
Not moving a wall to make sure the bathroom was a decent size
Fitting a bath that no one could use
Not checking the kitchen design against the actual size (wife did it)
Gauntlets28@reddit
Baths are nice, and I am one of those people who think that a main bathroom should not be without its main feature, but an en suite is usually much more compact and fundamentally secondary to the main one, so I don't think I would ever install one in there, unless it was huge and in a huge house.
danddersson@reddit
Not even if the house were huge.
If I have a bath, I like it hot and long, = steam.
Ensuites are usually off of a bedroom, and I don't want a steamy bedroom.
Powerful extractor fans are fine for a shower, but the noise is unacceptable for a long bath.
Phenomenomix@reddit
Letting the plumber provide the vanity, sink toilet and bath for our bathroom.
My wife sourced all the stuff for the en-suite and it looks great. Plumber provided stuff is too small for the room and cheap. The “chrome” on the taps and shower controls came off within months.
And the cheeky sod didn’t even bother to fit the bath panel properly so it’s currently in bits while I work out how to cut 1cm off the end of the end plate without wrecking the whole thing.
zeusdadog@reddit
The Vessel sink disaster. They look amazing in magazines but in reality, they're splashy, hard to clean and awkward to use. It was a style over function mistake.
Anxious-Nibnibs@reddit
Agree, the ones above a wooden cabinet are terrible - look amazing but degrade so quickly because the water splashes over. I’m quite clumsy too so I always feel like I’m going to break them!
No-Jicama-6523@reddit
I think you can get bad shapes in any style of sink/basin. You’d think the sink in my en-suite was designed for water to jump out of it.
Holiday_Cat_7284@reddit
Open shelves in the kitchen instead of overhead cabinets. I fell for the Regency kitchen aesthetic. No one tells you about the dust.
Cinnamon-Dream@reddit
Having the floors sanded and finished (had previously been done but needed refreshed) and realising at first time owners that these are more of a subfloor and not up to the task of being a floor. So dented now!
Loose_Loquat9584@reddit
Putting up Regency stripe wallpaper in an old house where the room walls didn’t have any right angles.
No-Jicama-6523@reddit
Ouch!
Akash_nu@reddit
My OH is super insistent on actually adding a bath tub but WITH shower head in our en-suite.
banxy85@reddit
If there is a bath elsewhere in the house then this is super uneccasary
Sternschnuppepuppe@reddit
I was wondering that for OPs post as well; typically you’d have a nice bath in the main bathroom and the en-suite is to do the ‘get ready for work’ dance.
CombinationCalm9616@reddit
Best of both worlds.
YouSayWotNow@reddit
Anything decided on style over substance (aesthetic over practicality) is doomed to failure unless one is very lucky that the aesthetic and practical happen to coincide!
We tend to take so long to get around to any home improvements that we're usually pretty solid on what we actually need by the time we do!
CoffeeandaTwix@reddit
I built alcove shelves and cabinets and didn't run in feeds for lighting. It meant that you can't see the photos on the shelves well most of the time we are in the room (evenings). We are repainting the room so have taken the opportunity to do so now but it means chasing and also plasterboard patching so a bit of a pain.
whiskeydumplings@reddit
What about those stick on lights?
CoffeeandaTwix@reddit
I didn't want a shit compromise tbh. I wanted them controlled from the light switch on the same circuit as a picture light I was placing in the middle too.
lavayuki@reddit
Using liner paper instead of skimming the wall before painting. Lining paper is crap, if the walls aren’t smooth best plaster or skim
ceb1995@reddit
Putting the P shaped bath in the bathroom and the toilet right next to it with no gap before we had our son. He's autistic and developmentally delayed and we now need to need to rip it out for a wet room, wish we d gone with a walking in shower in the first place.
Mobile-Access-9693@reddit
I dunno if this counts, but not having the opportunity to properly learn from the people helping me. I wanted to, but so much got done while I wasn't around due to time constraints that I'm basically just as useless now as I was before I moved out. Hopefully I can learn next time
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