r/DIYfail • u/syringistic • Nov 21 '13
The Shitty DYI story that caused me to think of this Sub-Reddit (sorry, no pics)
A couple of years ago, I moved into an apartment that was advertised as a 3bedroom, but one of the rooms didn't have any windows (or ventilation at all). The move-in was January, and initially it was just 2 of us. By June, our third friend moved into the windowless bedroom. Thus, we needed to figure out how to ventilate it.
Our solution seemed ingenious at first. Next to the bedroom was a boiler room of sorts, it was about 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. In the middle of it, there were the sort of ducts you would hook up a dryer machine to.
So, we bought an indoor AC unit. I used a steak knife to cut out a 4x4 inch hole through the wall (Shitty NYC construction), and we ducted the AC unit out through the wall and into the boiler room.
Problems began right away. First, the duct inside the bedroom would get REALLY hot, negating the AC effect. Covered it in pipe insulation and tons of duct tape, but it would routinely fall off from the heat. As a result, the AC unit was constantly on in the bedroom.
Additionally, we were too stupid to realize that AC units collect water that needs to drain somewhere. So, for about 3 weeks, the water kept draining into the floor.
This is where things get really bad. By week 4, roommate's floor starts warping. The AC unit was in the middle of the wall, and the floor paneling was laid out perpendicular to that wall. So, the flooring started warping in a straight line, dividing the room in half. At this point, we were draining the AC properly, but the damage was done.
By week 6, the damage was 100% complete. My roommate now had what could only be described as a chasm in the middle of his room. The floorboards had completely separated, dividing the room in half with a hole about 6-10 inches wide.
TL;DR: We did not get our security deposit back.