DIY tasks you hate ...

I thought roller blinds as soon as I read the title

All of them!

All of them!

+1

Gloss painting all the woodwork, skirtings, door frames, all that stuff.

I'll happily emulsion walls and ceilings all day but gloss paint, eugh, no.

I found a relatively long term solution a few years ago, using a quality exterior undercoat and gloss that doesn't yellow and gives a nice hard coat so I don't do it anywhere near as often these days but I hate it when I have to.

Sealing round the bath/sink. Made worse by the knowledge that you'll be doing it again in 18 months <awaits STW silicone gods>

The bath has been ok northwind but the shower needs done.

@uggski .....Likewise.

Can't summon up enough interest for any house diy tasks these days.

Just keep it clean and tidy.

Plenty of more interesting stuff to do outside, in the workshop, riding the bike etc.

+ 1 for silicone sealant.

For me it’s the cleaning up after pretty much any DIY job that I hate. Always seems to take longer than the job itself.

All of it.
Don't find silicone sealant too horrific though.
Hate painting with a passion.

Fences are my true thing of hate.
An utter arse of a job to do on your own. Digging out old posts or trying to get a panel behind some bastard spiky thing. Getting grief for flattering said spiky plant.

Quietly seething whilst the neighbors kid does his level best to get a football through a freshly replaced panel.
Everytime we get a storm I get that fencing feeling.

But yeah,fences, bastards.

Silicon sealant! Done this a fair few times. Get the No Nonsense Sealant Remover from Screwfix. Tried it last time and its a godsend, just melts the stuff off. That and a Stanley blade in a scraper and you're golden.
Oh and when it comes to applying the stuff, the smoothing tools also from Screwfix along with a roll of blue paper makes life a lot easier. Expensive for a couple of bits of plastic but worth it for a tidy finish.

So far this year I've had to redo the sealant in the bathroom, paint the bathroom ceiling (little dark patches of mould appearing already on the so-called anti-mould paint), prep and paint 2 new doors and renovate the surrounds, patch, sand, prep and paint kitchen wall, some new MDF and varnish new folding doors. Oh and put another new blind up (that's 5 so far in this house - thanks The Mrs)

I hate decorating the most, its so time consuming to do a decent job, and if you cut corners it shows. Electric sanding is pretty much the worse. Had to strip wallpaper this summer, revealing various horrors underneath- we already had a plasterer to redo the ceiling but it was good enough to patch with filler and electric sand. The bosch sander I've got has a paper filter and a plastic dust collector which fills up but it blows clouds of dust out. I clean it out and give it a blast in the garden to blow clear, but use it for a few minutes and its like being in a 1950s London smog.

Then the decorating- scraping filling, sanding, cleaning, knocking nails in, more filling, mixing wood filler which goes off in 2 minutes, and caulking. Then the flipping masking tape which takes forever - removing metalwork from doors where its easier, taking doors off altogether. And finally painting, So bloody boring, but if you try speed up you get runs and drips. With doors, door surrounds I paint each facet surface or panel one after another. Multiply that by 3 coats, perhaps with a change of brush from 1/2" up to 2" depending on the facet width and you've lost an entire weekend to a couple of doors and surrounds.

Yeah so that was my summer. Just browsing for loft insulation, its never ending. Imagine a weekend without going to Wickes. Both my bikes have punctures but there's so much crap in the garage I can't find my bike stuff and spares! Maybe.....

Applying gloss/eggshell to woodwork with a roller has been a gamechanger.
So much faster.

All of them.

They interrupt me from doing something I would enjoy, and I can't do them as well as a pro, so I get frustrated with myself.

But nothing generates the fear like MrsMC saying "I've ordered some roller blinds for...."

D I bastard Y hate it. Odd really as fixing bikes or boats is mostly enjoyable.

I am in the middle of putting a bathroom in so this thread hits hard 🤣

Three worst things for me:

1. Getting started. The dread of the mess and disruption it will take, the hours or my time, the cost, the stress and grief. Pitched against a slowly mounting pressure to actually do whatever it is that needs doing. Ugh.

2. The mid morning shopping trip. After you finally got started (see #1), got far enough to realise you need some trifling fixing or whatever you don't have, you have to go to B&Q midmorning. Takes ages to get there, cos it's Saturday, ages to get round cos it's Saturday, ages to get back, by which point it's gone lunchtime. So get something quick to eat, do all the lunch tidying up, then it's mid afternoon. Back on the job, get half a dozen of your new fixings in and it's knocking on time to finish up because you can't leave things in that state with kids around. Ay caramba.

3. Spec creep. Current job is to cut a hole in a stud wall for a new door. The work of a minute!, were it not for the light switch in the place the door will be. So up to the attic to take up the boards and pull the wiring back. But! Boards are covered by the pointless (but "live") plumbing the heating bloke that switched the boiler out left up here. So go find plumbing gear and 15mm compression endcaps (maybe goto 2 at this point). Drain system, chop out daft pipework, cap off, repressurise and check. Tidy up. Lift boards, pull back wire, relocate switch. Realise you've got the same again but a but worse for the ring main socket below the lightswitch, and the work of a minute is probably two weekends worth of work 😒

Whatever task that I didn't realise needed doing until it appears on MrsBeanZ list .

I quite like painting which is a good thing as I'm a decorator. Hate all the prep though.
I've spent the whole day mixing four yard bags of ballast in a mixer for a concrete slab for our patio to be laid on in the spring. Awful, messy, painful job, so I'm now in a bubble bath soaking my aches away before I carry on tomorrow.

I am not brilliant at DIY. I'm not patient or practically minded enough. I have to put up 2 curtain poles for mum next weekend. Both are going to have to be fixed to a plasterboard hollow wall. There is no studwork available for a solid fixing. Only 150cm each, and curtains are only 2.3kgs on each pole, but I did have to check she has accidental damage cover on the house insurance just in case...you know...in case the roof falls in 😳

I'm a very practical person but apart from a bit of carpentry & plumbing.

DIY = Don't Involve Yourself

I'm an industrial electrician and domestic electrical work can go take a long walk on a short pier. I earn money doing what I'm good at to pay someone else who is good at their trade to do well for me. Redistribution of wealth is what it is 😉

Cutting bricks, concrete, tarmac etc with a diamond disc. Wearing a dust mask means the safety glasses mist up so I cut for as long as I can hold my breath then retreat. The dust gets everywhere, even with protective sheets. Second is sanding wooden floors for similar reasons.

the ones i hate, the ones that take forever to get done

currently
re-pointing the lime mortar and flint.. its just sooo slow and easily impacted by weather (6yrs, 40% done, the terminal sections are done)
finishing the roofing on the woodshed, it works and aint going anywhere
oh and the register plate has a massive rusted hole in, the fireplace is a crazy, read bodged, layout and the only way to know what i need is to dismantle the hearth/chimney..or order a CO alarm and leave it till spring

thread reminds me of martins hot tap

Currently fitting glassfibre insulation between the floor joists using the subfloor (approx 18 inches high) for access. Absolutely filthy, full PPE, pitch dark, I am mildly claustrophobic...

Pretended to have bust my headtorch so I could have a week or so without having to go down and finish the job.

Front room carpet isn't cold to sit on any more though.

Currently fitting glassfibre insulation between the floor joists using the subfloor

I used recycled polyester for that. Same R value, easier to cut, more rigid. Twice the price but worth every cent. Bare feet on a wooden floor at present.

Another +1 for all of it here... Absolutely bloody hate DIY! But not only that, I hate living in a house with work being done to it (scarring memories from a kid with parents constantly having work done to the house I think)... I'd rather live in an old shit tip!

Causes quite a lot of fraction between my and my GF who's a bit houseproud... She can't wait for me to be well enough to go back to work properly so on my next Ireland trip, she can call her Dad in and the 2 of them can revamp the living room whilst I'm not there! 😂

Stripping 70 years worth of paint off 6 internal doors, architraves, mouldings and skirting boards.(without damaging the patina underneath)

Of course i didn't realize this till i was 3 weeks into it.