. DIY SOS Returns: Discover the Most Jaw-Dropping Disasters—From Collapsing Homes to Builders Storming Off Set
DIY SOS has been a staple of British TV since it first aired in October 1999 with a simple premise – professionals helping to fix DIY jobs that have gone wrong.
While the show has created some amazing transformations over the years, not every story featured has had a happy ending.
In fact, some homeowners claimed that the pros ‘ruined’ their properties and, on occasion, furious workmen have walked off the set.
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Now, as the show returns for a brand new season this month, fans have been reflecting on the biggest DIY SOS disasters.
From builders storming off on set to allegedly near-fatal flaws, despite the premise of the show, there have been occasions where the properties have dramatically fallen short of expectations after getting the DIY SOS treatment.
2017
But not all of the DIY SOS fails over the years have affected homeowners and in 2017, the repairs of a house in Hull proved to be too much for one builder, Chris.
He actually ended up walking off the set of the show after learning that the property’s ceiling would need torn down and redone.
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DIY SOS has been a staple of British TV since it first aired in October 1999 with a simple premise – professionals help to fix DIY jobs that have gone wrong (pictured here is the show’s host Nick Knowles)
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Now, as the show returns for a brand new season this month, fans have been reflecting on the biggest DIY SOS disasters, including when a builder stormed off set
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Chris the builder couldn’t take it after learning that the property’s ceiling would need torn down and redone
Host Nick Knowles said: ‘It does mean you’re going to have two chippies hanging out of Chris’s newly re-plastered ceiling. That’s not going to go down well.’
Before walking out, Chris raged: ‘That is the last bit of plastering happening in this house.’
Nick replied: ‘Oh no, it isn’t! All people who think they’ve stopped plastering take one step forward. Chris, where do you think you’re going?’
The angry builder replied: ‘What do you mean, okay? How can you drop a line like that and end it on okay? There’s nothing okay about it!’
2018
One memorable fail from 2018 involved a semi-detached £200,000 house in Devon. Bizarrely, its owner’s daughter, Lauren, claimed that her room actually shrunk as a result of the work done by DIY SOS.
But the final product was even worse for her dad Stuart, who was forced to stare at a wall after the repairs.
Stuart’s mother, who had given up her home to move in with the father-daughter duo, also suffered as a result of the work as she did not have the same amount of space in the renovated property as she did in her own house.
Stuart said: ‘Mum was much happier there previously. She had more space, and she had pals.’
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One memorable fail from 2018 involved a semi-detached £200,000 house in Devon – bizarrely, its owner’s daughter, Lauren (R), claimed that her room actually shrunk as a result of the work done by DIY SOS
2020
Another DIY SOS fail that affected a whole family took place in 2023 when homeowner Peter Chapman claims he was left with a property with flaws so great that they almost caused a fatal accident.
According to him, just one day after the work was completed, the assistance bars that had been installed in the bathroom for his wheelchair-bound wife and daughter came loose.
Part of the hallway in the Cheltenham home is also said to have collapsed, which Peter says could have caused a deadly accident.
Other problems included a leaky roof and cracks in the walls, prompting the BBC to offer Peter £15,000 in compensation.
However, the homeowner rejected the sum, insisting that it would cost more than that to fix his property.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘DIY SOS has robbed me of the last three years and the stress is killing me.’
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The assistance bars that had been installed in the bathroom for this homeowner’s wheelchair-bound wife and daughter came loose during another DIY SOS disaster
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Other problems included a leaky roof and cracks in the walls, prompting the BBC to offer Peter £15,000 in compensation
2025
But some fails on DIY SOS have been entirely preventable, as host Nick revealed ahead of the release of the latest season.
Speaking on The One Show, he said that a house very nearly flooded because of a language barrier between its builders.
Nick said: ‘Yeah, so there’s the language barrier between the builders very often anyway! And quite often we’ve got each other by the lapels in what, in political circles, they call a free and frank exchange of ideas. So that can get quite heated.
‘But on this particular occasion, we were really hurtling towards the end of the build, about 200 people in this three-bedroom semi. And suddenly the plumber walks in and he goes, “We’ve got a bit of a problem with the shower that we’ve put in – it’s voice activated.”‘
Nick continued: ‘I said, “Well, what’s the problem?” He said, “It’s currently speaking French and we can’t switch it off.” I said, “What do you mean you can’t switch it off?”‘
Hilariously, in a bid to solve the problem, a member of the team was forced to shout the French word for stop (‘arret’), but it still didn’t stop the shower.
Nick said: ‘So we’re like, we’re all shouting things.
‘And the shower, because we haven’t got the drain in at the moment, so the shower is filling up with water and is going to flood the rest of the house. And none of us can work out what to shout at this shower.’
Mercifully, however, the team were able to get the shower back under control before it was too late and they changed its voice-activated settings to English.
