We’ve all faced that (supposedly) simple DIY home repair project. A little paint here, drilling there, add in some YouTube videos for good measure, and whatever you’re repairing should be good as new, right? Turns out, sometimes fixing things yourself isn’t as easy as you want it to be – and unfortunately, things may get worse. Check out these eight examples of home repair projects that went totally sideways.

This person (almost) started a fire. Yikes!

Smart thermostats can save on energy costs and keep your home at a comfortable temp. But only if you install it correctly, which was not the case of this Reddit user:

 “Tried to install an ecobee and couldn’t differentiate the correct color wires… unit started smoking like crazy. I killed all the power to the house cause I didn’t know what was happening… this happened on one of the hottest days of the year. Had to enroll for emergency coverage with my electrical company cause no one was available. Finally got a worker to come and thankfully he had the part that I blew out. $500 later, all was fixed.”

A quick project that turned into an all-day project

“So we moved into our new house in August and installed a Nest thermostat. The hvac system is relatively new but it seems they moved the thermostat last time they upgraded it and only ran a 4wire thermostat cable even though they needed a C wire on the old thermostat.The wiring only had 4 wires, R, W, B, and G. The G wire was wired to the Common port on the hvac so they could power the thermostat so there was no separate fan control, but the fan worked fine when running ac and heat.

I bought a Lux power bridge thing hoping to get a separate fan control working.

Installed it per the instructions and connected everything up. Nest saw right away the new wiring and I ran a test on the fan. It did not start up. I tried ac, and blower did not start, but I could feel and hear the outside unit turn on and the air handler getting cold.

I opened the air handler and tried to find a blower reset switch…doesn’t appear to be one. I removed the power bridge and rewired it to the original wiring, but still no luck. I spent a couple hours trying to troubleshoot why the blower wouldn’t start to no avail… I just gave up and called the emergency HVAC service.”

Trying to troubleshoot electrical issues but don’t have the time to spend all day on it? Let us help.

And the creative duct tape award goes to…

… this Imgur user, who said, “It started to leak so I stepped in to save the day.”

It’s well known that duct tape is possibly strong enough to solve a myriad of problems, but this really takes the cake. When something is leaking, there’s no amount of any tape that’s going to do the trick. A skilled professional like Fixer can take care of plumbing and drywall issues all in one visit – no duct tape required.

When grout becomes your worst enemy

This tiling project turned into a messy, uneven-tiled grout monster.

If you’re mid-DIY and that tile upgrade isn’t turning out the way you had hoped, just slowly put down that trowel, and walk away from the scene of the crime.  We can help!

Sometimes old houses have their own surprises.

This HouseBeautiful story is a little scary: “We were removing 1970s wood paneling that had been layered on top of [an] old lath-and-plaster wall in the stairway. The first few panels came off okay, but after prying one stubborn piece down, we [accidentally] ripped a softball-size hole into the wall! Next thing we knew, all of the blown-in insulation was pouring out. We later learned that there was no stop between the first and second floors, so the insulation for the second floor poured right out, too!”

That’s… not how any of this works.

This Reddit user’s roommate tried to add a “nice” glass insert to an interior door, but ended up with a disaster.

This brings a whole ‘nother meaning to low-maintenance.

Who needs to install a shelf when you have tape?

Interesting idea but, like we saw with duct tape, probably not the safest way to keep things stored. Next time you need a shelf put up safely and efficiently, just text us.

Patching problems

“I’m in the process of replacing and relocating a towel ring in my powder room and patching/texturing the spot where it used to be. The old towel ring had a square mounting plate larger than the mounting plate of the new towel ring and it left an imprint in the wall that made it obvious it used to be there. Patching the old anchor holes was not a problem but I bought one of those water based spray texture cans to try and mimic the existing orange peel texture and things went off the rails from there. After letting the spray dry for a day, it seemed to be an ok match but, by the time I finished repainting that spot, it looked pretty obvious where I had patched. I tried sanding and taking some of the excess texture off with a putty knife and that made things even worse.”

Don’t let your next DIY project become a nightmare. Our Fixers can solve even the smallest of home-repair issues quickly and skillfully, with not one ounce of judgment.