DIYs, have you recently injured yourself while doing a repair? I did.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It seemed simple enough. I needed a new jack directly off the telephone punch down panel to ensure a clean connection for our VOIP Gateway.

My office sits over the telephone punch down panel. I drilled the hole through the floor into the basement. I then drilled small holes through two rafters for a better wire run. I measured the wire leaving about 9” extra and wired it into the new jack. I fed all the wire into the hole and attached the jack to the wall with double-faced tape. So far so good, everything is going smoothly.

I then head down to my basements. I already have a nearby light to aim right onto the panel. I have a sturdy wooden chair I use continually to work on stuff in the basement. This could not be easier. I prep the 4 wires. Determine where they will punch down. I have a nice clean unused row to hook into. I do not have a punch down tool, but wire strippers and a thin flat head screwdriver always works fine. I just need to be extra cautious.

I get all four wires punched down and stop for a second to check my work. (Okay, I am admiring the goodness that is my awesome skill at tackling DIY projects and have them work perfectly :wink: ). At this point the chair tips, I am simultaneously trying to rebalance, grab hold of something, but not a pipe or a wire and trying to figure out how the Coyote always pulls those wonderful signs out of nowhere. As I go crashing down, I wipeout two screwdriver racks*. I end up on the ground with a lot of pain in my shoulder and left leg and a little on my butt. I have managed to get 5 scrapes on my left shoulder; one is a big enough gouge to look like a panther got me. At least that is what my daughter said. I have nice abrasion on my shin and several other scratches. The chair is fine, in case anyone was worried for it.

I hobble upstairs after repairing the two screwdriver racks. I am silly this way. I get my wife to clean up the shoulder wounds with witch hazel**, wincing heavily the whole time. I am a bit of a big baby when it comes to pain. She also uses Bactine[sup]TM[/sup] on them. I clean up my accessible wounds.

So what injuries or embarrassments have you all suffered?

Jim {BTW: the phone jack works great, we no longer have static on the VOIP that we had from the old jack.}

  • Did I mention that the punch down panel is over the area, I keep the bulk of my tools?

** not Witch Hazel but the astringent.

2

Every. Single. Time.

I can’t seem to manage to get through any but the very simplest DIY jobs without some form of injury. Granted, most of them are mild and usually result in little more than little bruising or swelling accompanied by a string of expletives, but I’ve had a few nasty ones, as well.

3

What VOIP provider? I was using One starting with a V but switched to a pay-as-you go one that ended up being less expensive.

4

We are using AT&T over our Comcast Internet Service. We get two discounts and end up paying just under $5 per month for unlimited national service with dozens of features including the Emailing of our Voice messages to both my wife’s work account and my home account.

Q.E.D., man that sounds rough. I really am pretty good at DIY stuff and I am usually exceptionally good at wiring, I am far more embarrassed than injured tonight. I can’t believe I hurt myself on a simple fix. I have wired my entire basement, put fans in impossible places working on 10 ladders and loads of other jobs. I think the problem was, this job was so simple, I was not being cautious.

Jim

5

I usually get injuries with DIY projects, usually to my hands. I end up squeezing them into tight spots and ripping off skin, but never notice it until I’m done.

6

My last project did not result in any injuries, but my daughter did slip two peaches into my toolbox after I was done. After two weeks in a closed container, very few of my tools escaped uninjured.

7

I always wear gloves when I work on DIY projects. Always. Because, if I don’t, I end up cutting my hand on some stupid thing, getting a splinter, or otherwise doing some small amount of harm to myself. Like RealityChuck, I almost never notice it at the time. It’s usually more along the line of hey I’m bleeding on my work, oh gee where did that cut come from? Thankfully, no major injuries yet, just minor scrapes, cuts, and bruises.

I have also discovered that the likelihood of me completely smashing a watch to bits and not realize it while working on a project is directly proportional to the cost of the watch. The most damage I ever did was to the most expensive watch I ever owned. Once, when working on one of my cars, I completely broke the glass out and managed to rip both hands off of the watch. I don’t even remember hitting it on anything. I just looked down and :eek: I have yet to do any damage to an el-cheapo watch.

So, gloves and cheap watches, and all is well.

8

Generally nothing more than nicks and bruises. The odd splinter, etc.

But I do have a screwdriver that I keep as a reminder not to mess with 220 volt water heaters. I did some fancy arc welding with it and now it’s basically just a handle with a metal stub sticking out. After I changed my shorts I shut off the circuit breaker and finished the repair.

9

There’s your headstone right there.

I’ve never seriously injured myself. The odd laceration, scrape, splinter, electrical jolt, but nothing lasting. But I know that one of these days, my habit of doing renovation work while wearing shower shoes is going to catch up to me.

10

I was replacing some electrical fixtures in my kitchen, and started pulling the switch for my garbage disposal and overhead flourescent light - the switch was mis-wired and I had firmly grasped a hot, open circuit. While (obviously) not fatal, it was less than pleasant.

11

I have an old house and do a lot of the work on it myself. This is the worst that has happened to me so far (insert knocking wood smilie here):

We decided to go with butcher block counter tops in our new kitchen. We lived in the house during the renovation and propped up a piece of the counter top material on two sawhorses so we’d have a place for food prep until we got the cabinets in. This piece of countertop was about 3’ x 6’ x 1" thick and weighed in the neighborhood of 75 pounds. (It’s since been cut down and ripped to fit the cabinet.)

To run wires in the back wall, the electricians moved the countertop and the sawhorses, but didn’t move them back. Rather than wait for my carpenter friend to come help me move it back, I decided to move one end over a foot or so, then go move the other end over a foot or so, lather, rinse, repeat until it was flush against the wall.

On the second nudge the whole set-up collapsed, and the sawhorse kicked up and pinched my right little finger between it and the counter top. You know how when you step on a grape the grape skin splits and grape goo will ooze out? Your finger will do that too. In the carpentry trade it’s called a blowout.

I got 9 stitches in the tip of my right little finger. Flexibility has mostly returned but the nerves are damaged and it’s cold much of the time.

Lessons learned:

Don’t try to do a two man job alone. Or a two person job alone. Or a two woman job alone. You get the idea.

Finger wounds bleed a lot.

If you have a bleeding finger wound and you bring your hand to your face quickly so as to look at your wound, you will throw blood all over your face.

Moist kitchen sponges make good temporary bandages, though their sterility is questionable.

If you walk into an ER with blood all over your face with your hand wrapped in a kitchen sponge, people will get out of your way and help you faster. So if you have a leg wound, rub some blood on your face and grab a sponge before you go to the ER.

12

Like Ivorybill, we have an old house, and my husband being the handy sort, has done most of the work on it himself, with help on the easier stuff from me. He has done all kinds of projects, from plumbing to woodwork to drywalling/plastering. He hasn’t had any major injuries, but his hands always seem to look like he was just in a fight. I always tease him about it, because in his career he is a business consultant, and has to wear a tie & the whole nine yards. I’m sure people at work sometimes wonder what in heck he does in his free time to cause all the scrapes, cuts, and bruises!

13

I should think about doing my own DIY projects, that way the injuries I incur while OTHERS are doing my DIY projects wouldn’t seem so bad.

Examples:

Friend was taking down the exterior shutters. For some reason the previous owner (my sister!) decided to paint them a gawdawful Big Bird yellow. They had to come down. He handed me a shutter, which I proceeded to drop and scraped my shin up pretty well and caused a huge bruise on my foot.

Basement full of guys installing insualtion, outlets - basically making it livable. I walk down the steps, trip, bang my head against the wall and sprained my ankle. (And I burned my hand taking the apple crisp out of the oven)

Nephew painting the bathroom for me. I tripped over the drop cloth. Shoulder banged hard into the sink corner, whacked my leg against the metal ladder.

Roomie cleaning gutters. Needed a new bag. Went to hand him one, slipped on wet leaves and grass. Sprained ankle.

sigh I am very dangerous to myself.

14

When we first moved into our house, there was horrible, filthy dirty carpeting that we promptly tore up, rolled into long tubes and stored in the basement. Fast forward a couple of years to when I finally got around to cleaning out the basement. Throughout this time, I’d discovered that the trashmen will take just about anything if it’s presented in a pleasing manner, so I get the idea to cut up the carpeting into more manageable sizes and duct tape the rolls so they’re easily lifted into the back of the trash truck. So, I’m outside with my box/carpet cutter, slicing carpeting. Now, I’m right handed–always have been, and aside from any unforseen accident, always will be, however, this time, for some bizarre reason, I’m using my LEFT hand to slice up the carpeting. All of the sudden, I slice into the back of my right hand with the box/carpet cutter which I’d been using the slice the horrible, filthy dirty carpeting. It bled like a geiser, and although I didn’t get any stitches (didn’t even go to the doctors), I still have the scar on the back of my hand.

15

I woke up Sunday morning to water in the hallway, leaking water heater.

I buy a new one, bring it home and install it. This only requires two extra trips to hardware store.

The NEW water heater leaks.

So I drain it, take it loose, and get it back to HomeDepot just before they close, exchange for another one, take it home, and install it.

Oh yes, it is winter. The H20 heater and furnace are both gas, and next to each other. So as not to take any chances, I turned off the gas while connecting up the H20 heater, which has been all day now. Since two water heaters have leaked, I’m working in a fair amount of spillage, have not been dry all day.

About 10 PM, after installing two heaters, I am cold tired and beat, so I wait for the water to heat, take a hot shower, and hit the hay.

Monday morning is trash day. The remains of the two water heater boxes are in the halway. So I start gathering the carton remains up to put out with the trash.

Then I wake up laying in the hallway with a knot on my forehead, and the two-wheeled dolly I brought the last heater in with laying next to me. Apparantly I bent down to pick up something and hit my head on the dolly, knocking myself cold. Not sure how long I was out.

16

Well, aren’t we a clumsy crew?

My husband and I are big do-it-yourselfers, usually with few problems per project. A few weeks ago we started a very small mini-revamp of our kitchen. We had put ceramic tile down last year on both the floor and the counters – a big job that included tearing up all the old flooring, putting down new sub-floor and concrete board, and so on. That job went without a hitch. This year we were just repainting (only above the chair rail), putting up new wallpaper border, changing out the faucet – really just a few cosmetic things.

And it’s been the worst job we’ve ever done. The faucet (which I bought online because I liked the looks of it) was a shoddy affair and a nightmare to install; we had a bitch of a time matching the wood stain on the woodwork, etc. Not one single job went smootly or easily.

AND, we had two injuries – our first ever DIY injuries. My husband was grinding down a trowel with his grinder; and it bounced back against the grinding wheel and cut the shit out of his thumb. It bled so long I started to be afraid that I’d have to take him to the emergency room (at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon – that would have been fun!).

Then, a few days later, I fell off a 6 foot ladder while putting up the wallpaper border. I had my hands full as I climbed the ladder, which put me off balance. Got to the 3rd step from the top and toppled right off. I fell onto the counter first, fortunately, then onto the floor. A direct 4 foot fall onto tile probably would have broke something. As it is, I have a HUGE technicolor bruise on my hip – about the size of a pie plate and a lovely navy blue.

17

Not recent, but a self-injury, and stupid, for bonus points. Was setting threaded pins into a poured concrete basement wall so adjustable shelf standards could be hung thereon. Simple job-insert threaded pin into Hilti gun, slide in .29 cal powder charge strip, press nose safety against wall, pull trigger, bam it’s fastened. Except when you’re working inside a framed closet, and bam drives tool, and arm against wall framing.

&*%$#@! Think funnybone ^3. My arm was numb for the rest of the day.

Also, when using a hammer tacker, do not divert your attention. When a cow-orker asks a question, stop swinging. Stapling the tip of your index finger to wall sheathing is NOT a pleasant experience. Pulling the aforementioned staple out of your finger to get free of the wall is equally uncomfortable. Particularly when tools aren’t within reach of your unstapled hand.

18

The scene: Me on a step stool removing old moulding from the kitchen cabinets

The tool: A prybar and a hammer

Lesson learned: Hit the prybar with the hammer. Not the back of one’s left hand.

The scene: My husband replacing step treads on the front porch, looking very closely at where he was nailing

The tool: Claw hammer

Lesson learned: Move your face out of the way of the backswing of the claw hammer

19

The other day my neighbor lent his chainsaw to another neighbor who nearly cut off his own hand. Novices: don’t use chainsaws.

20

:eek: Ouch and ouch.

I am quite clumsy but have managed to sustain only minor cuts and bruises.