ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Home improvement shows making my blood boil!

I remember when I was in my teens thinking "This Old House" was boring - (and this is when most of the homes done were in the Boston MA area) Until the day Bob Villa walked out onto a freshly finished concrete floor - while the finisher was still on his knee board. There was a quick edit, and Bob had what looked like a 'shiner'. (The begginings of a black eye)

From then on, the show was interesting only due to the condesending remarks of real people on the site became more obvious.

Although they do seem to shy away from showing electrical work - and I believe it is a good thing - as we all know it is not something someone can pick up on the intricacies of in a 15 second blip.

But on occasion I spot some winners.... Heres one recent one. "In all of the junction boxes in this attic - none of the wires were twisted in the wire nuts - Therefore, for safety reasons we're not going to take any chances - we're going to replace all the wiring."

Now - I too am a fan of twisting prior to the nut - but I do not see this a reasoning for replacing all the wiring.... Especially when it is not required in the first place.... Nor would it require a whole re-wire of the house!!!

From what I've seen of them, the DIY shows over here don't really get into electrical issues that deeply. They'll talk about what style lights to fit, and sometimes we'll see their lek-trish-un connecting a few downlighters or something like that, but only briefly and not in detail. Given the misleading and sometimes plain incorrect information I've seen in some books and DIY video guides, that's probably a good thing.



Hey, I just replaced my outside light because a seal had gone and water had gotten in causing some damage.

Now you tell me that I should have rewired the whole house instead of just replacing the water-damaged piece of cable!

Here's a 'DIY SOS'* clip. [*UK comedy makeover show].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSnL0TciPg


Don't you just wish!!


I tried, but failed, to find the Jasper Carrott clip where 'Wiggy', the hapless TV DIY presenter, sawed his arm off.

Definitely what some people would like to happen to some of these presenters! Looks like that van was on the wrong side of the road though.....

Bloody French drivers!

Please sit down and relax before viewing these idiots!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R30IaoIQXAU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0x8kml-afs

Alan, thank you for proving that Tim Taylor barely scratched the surface!

Tim Taylor usually scorched the surface.

"I did that just to show you that when in doubt, turn off all of the breakers. Now come upstairs and let me show you how to treat an electrical burn."

i saw designed to sell the other night with the know it all blonde monica attempting to install a light fixture.they showed the ceiling box with the light bar and threaded nipple used to mount the light fixture installed.she explains that these here fixture wires have to be threaded thru this small tube (threaded nipple) then connected to the other wires!? they then cut to commercial and the light was done when they came back on. i wonder how she mounted the fixture with the wires going thru that little tube?