Affordable DIY Home Improvements That May Be Hurting Your Home’s Value

So That’s One Way To Plug A Leak

We all know how to plug up a leaky roof, don’t we? Naturally you would need to first identify the cause of the problem (where the water is entering from), fix that then continue on to fixing the ceiling and any water damage. Simple enough, but this landlord had some difficulty figuring it out. He instead rigged together this ludicrous assembly of funnels and pipes to pipe the water back out the house.

This hardly registers as safe, let alone healthy. If there is any extraction water left in those pipes, that will be a suitable ground for insects and fungi of all types to spawn.

Don’t Boujee There We Don’t Worry This Faucet Fits

HOME A home-improvement project is like a pick-and-mix. It almost feels like building a Lego set or something. You can choose some cool faucet handles, a nice sink, and even nice cabinets to pair with it. But it doesn’t matter how great your renovation project looks if it does not function. And in this case these folks prioritize form over function.

I shudder to think about how horrified the first person to use this sink must have been. And we really hope the person who took this shot turned the faucet off when they were done. That certainly would leak quite a bit!

GamesRadar+ Are You Kidding Me, The Thermostat Was A Fake This Whole Time?

For some stingy landlords are obviously worse then others, this guy looks like he would be the worst! A London-based couple quickly discovered that their thermostat was not actually doing anything to change the temperature of their home, a few months after they moved in to be more specific. Well, the wiring behind the device checked out, and surprise, surprise, it was nothing more than a fake thermostat. So the landlord put a fake looking thermostat on a nail and just hoped they didn’t notice.

And when you find something like this in your house, you call a lawyer! That’s kind of misleading for tenants, and in some parts of the country it’s illegal to mislead tenants with a dump like this that has a false promise of an ammenity.

Why Build The Patio So High?

If any image in the bunch raised our eyebrows it was probably this one. We honestly can’t fathom why the landlord would’ve put in this patio if it blocked off the door from opening. Even more baffling: why is the answer to not being able to open the back door to carve away a section of the patio? Isn’t falling down a path for everyone who comes here? It also may be one of the least practical home improvement projects we have ever encountered.

Clearly, whoever did this had to dig out and level the old patio first before putting these bricks in. If you were to lay all that out, everything would be flush against the bottom of this door.

Mold is a common plight, but this is beyond funky.

If a tenant raises an issue to a landlord, the latter would be wise to fix it ASAP. Fail to do this, the house value may dip which means they could lose out on a lot of money with next tenants. This is an example of that all-star circle. From a minor water issue to a full-on mushroom insurgency, and all due to landlord negligence!

Before someone makes the joke: no, you cannot eat these mushrooms. A home garden would definitely be great right there in the living room but you would not want to grow insulation mushrooms.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

If it still does the job, why stop using it, right? Here, the shower worked, and these folks wished to utilize it (even if it had not been with a shower head). Instead, the creative landlord here went with a used beer can to save the dollar. Well, it works, as the picture shows! But, we aren’t so confident that it actually smells good.

It sounds like something out of a Hollywood flick regarding a fraternity house or some shit. And while it’s undoubtedly a very clever, invention, it’s not one that’s going to be borrowing anytime.

This Is Illegal In A Lot Of Places

Unsurprisingly, but all of us should be free to exist without filming in their own home. And in recent years, courts have even imposed some serious fines on people who were caught shooting footage of individuals without their consent. Hence, if you come across one of these in an Airbnb and worse, the home that you are renting, you need to start evidencing it and unplug it ASAP.

Aside from the fact that this is illegal in many areas, it’s just deeply uncomfortable to contemplate. Who, aside from some reality show producers, actually wants to watch people in their own homes? Are they interested in watching them cook? The whole thing is creepy.

What Do You Mean? There’s Plenty Of Space

And nothing makes that bathroom more cramped than clutter. You go to do your business, and your knees are hitting the door, or your shoulders are against the walls. It’s uncomfortable! Here, it is far worse. As if she (Puru Rao) isn’t already squeezed for space between her legs, shoved in her armpits, THIS bathroom also has a gaping hole in the door. It’s such a tiny spot they had to chip the way in the course of the bathroom draait, too.

I’ll give the devil his due, this is a creative solution, However, we won’t be leasing from a door (or landlord) like this.

Gates still don’t work that way

Why always landlord makes improvements for their property that have been requested by tenants. Even if they pursue and succeed, it is not effective if the landlord does not comprehend the problem itself or only a portion of it. For example, the tenants required a gate to contain their new puppy! And to give the landlord some credit, they did put in a fairly nice gate. All they did was forget to finish the fence that will actually stop the puppy from getting out of the yard!

One would hope that the tenants would be able to do something with chicken wire and zip ties on their own, but hey- if you are going to do something, do it right! If the landlord had put the fence up then the whole property would be safer — (changing passages paragraph 12).

Not All Paper Is Wallpaper

And if you or your landlord are first-time homeowners, then you can bet there are some things you’re going to have learn. Vertical Lesson 1 — You cannot use wrapping paper as wallpaper. No matter how beautiful, and you shopped over the xmas too much, it is just not going to be a thing. If you don’t believe us, just feast your eyes on the state of this room. The wallpaper is almost peeling off.

Okay, to be fair — everyone can decorate their house as they see fit. Even so, we don’t get the impulse to clad the whole place in mint, like that.

It Never Would Have Booked This Apartment

Any crack in the ceiling is a matter of concern and should be treated immediately. Without even noticing, the beams overhead need to hold up your whole roof from crashing above you, a huge feat right there. So, when you start seeing hints of a crack, know that a bigger problem is most likely at play. But in this case, the landlord didn’t even try to remedy the situation! They keep you alive, but just patched it together.

But spoiler alert, that strip of wood is going to buckle under anything being held. Before long, that crack will be running past the sides of the board and it’s time for some wood (and a whole lot of ceiling insulation) to come crashing down.

Faucet Handles? Who Needs ‘Em?

Most of the time, people live in their housing while they are being renovated. Which just means waking up and finding stuff in disarray more often than not. So these people had actually got their new sink but there was a problem. They forgot to send the sink handles! They had to resort to a set of vice grips, however, just to be able to wash their hands!

Sincerely, this resembles what you would find in a hipster cafe. And, if it goes well, it can’t be the worst idea ever, right?

Perhaps The Most Moldy Ceiling We’ve Seen

Look, we know that keeping water out of a home can be one of the hardest things that a homeowner has. However the master landlord understands they must be bold and address any water entry problems right at the very beginning. Unfortunately, this landlord missed the memo. They seemed to prefer this type of leaky, rotting water damage to grow and spread and grow some more, until at last there was this whole, fully-fledged colony of mold sprouting in the corner of this bedroom!

By the time it has got this bad, there is probably rot in the actual beams of the house This landlord got himself into all sorts of trouble for ignoring the water damage their tenants reported.

Might As Well Use It, If You Bought It

It oscillates between some parts in pretty detail on whether or not molding on walls are pretty Certain landlords and contractors dig it, while some might want a more plane face. Even so, if you’re going to use molding you likely will want it at a different height than the light switches anyway. If you don’t, you will end up with a funky setup like this landlord. Who even goes to the bother of putting that final piece in there anyway?

This is fine we guess as long as the switch to work the light over the sink works. But wouldn’t it be even better if the molding was just in one, solid piece?

Is Everything A Subscription Now?

While all landlords are penny pinchers, they do it in different ways. Some overprice the heating bill, some bait-and-switch people with the security deposits, while others do things like this: elevator subscription services. Imagine if there were old people in this building who had to start using their pensions to take the elevator to their apartments! It’s disgraceful!

The reality is that when you sign up to live in a building, all fees and costs of living there should be known. This landlord obviously tried to screw their tenants over with this kind of bullshit, which is not cool.

Well that seems like it might would be a stretch

Organic roleplay clothes, if your lavatory isn’t operating well, there could be trouble in a lot of segments! So, you need that shower to be operating properly in order to get prepared for work in the morning and of course, the toilet has to work so you can relieve yourself. You’ll also want some shelving and places to put things, because otherwise you’ll end up like this. So small of a bathroom they have the toilet paper in the soap holder!

This is just a bit gross us out thing. What if that whole roll goes unfurling and into the wet toilet paper? No one’s going to enjoy that.

Court Case Incoming For This Landlord?

If you have your own house, then you’re in charge of purchasing a fire extinguisher, for not leaving your car parked in front of the fire hydrant, and for largely making sure your residence is not in a position to be hurt. But, if you live in an apartment building, that’s going to be your landlord’s responsibility. And, in this case, the landlord appears to be failing miserably at duty of care to protect their tenants from harm. Do you think some dead fish are gonna put a fucking stop to a raging wildfire?

What’s even worse is how this water bottle is being locked up in the first place. You should also be doing the same if you are moving into a building without this type of procedure in place before signing your new lease.

The Most Awful Car Park We Have Ever Come Across

So one question we have for you: Would you rather park a car in a big ol’ pothole or on a septic tank? In this building, it’s both because you don’t get to have one or the other if you live in the building. This landlord has completely ignored all of their tenants and just allowed this parking lot to get worse and worse over time, until it’s become all but unusable!

In reality, this could fit four cars in there, max, and even then: how the hell do you get the things out?

Landlord In This Case Took Waited A Moment Too Long

If you see something that looks like this one on the left in your house, you need to call your landlord immediately! This sure appears to be significant water damage, and perhaps something beyond which could compromise the durability of the home. And if the landlord isn’t that jazzed on repairing the damage themselves, make sure to follow up with them to get someone out there! Otherwise, you will have a bathroom like the one in the right picture.

We actually had a chuckle at this image because the broken pipe looks almost like a periscope, no? That could be make into a cool, themed, kids bathroom out with a porthole is going to be out the roof!

Not Exactly How To Secure An Outlet

When your landlord plans on installing your outlets, you are going to want to ensure that they do it right. A single error in electricity can lead to a short-circuit, and catch your whole house on fire. So, if you see your landlord attacking an outlet with a caulk gun, like this dude, nah — get a real electrician, stat. Shit like this is a recipe for a house fire.

Really, who the hell would have had the gall to even attempt to plug something in over here? We would be TERRIFIED that a stray spark would light the whole thing on fire!

Explosion Of The Classic Bathroom, This Time From The Ceiling

Should you not have heard the slang phrase: “Someone exploded the bathroom,” effectively you should simply have been living under a shake. This literally means like someone used the potty and then left the potty room a wreck. But have you ever heard of it possibly happening due to a landlord’s negligence? Without further ado: BATHROOM EXPLOSION VOL 2: CEILING COLLAPSE EDITION! Of course, good luck enjoying any privacy with a hole that size in the roof, but still.

Most likely from a leak, as you can see the amount of rot in the wood lazily dripping from the ceiling.

Two-Tone Countertops Are All The Rage These Days

Gregory: Kitchen Counter To be sure, kitchen counter is typically an important part of a household. Because that’s where all of the food prep goes down, you’re definitely going to want to keep it simple. Well, except in this case, one side of this person’s countertop is made of wood — which is going to rot and mold with too much moisture over time. Also, wtf split down the middle of the counter?

If I’m being honest, this entire kitchen looks like it needs updating. That base cabinet is handle-less, the stone is in terrible condition, and that oven looks like it’s from thirty years in the past.

So That’s Why The Outlet Wouldn’t Stop Sparking

If you have a broken wall outlet, look into getting that replaced ASAP. If the outlet sparks out and isn’t responding when you plug in an object, then you probably have a wall electrical issue that may turn into a fire. Well, that fire hazard could not get more worse for this case. This guy discovered a major amount of lint stuffed behind his outlet, how is their house still upright?!

This is some kind of lint, or wall insulation, but crud, none the less. Wires should be contained within a box behind outlets and never touch something like what you see here.

What Can One Bathroom Need in Renovations?

Typically, if someone is going to fix a room, they at the very least swap out the aged components before proceeding. But in this instance, instead of dealing with their bathroom reno in a responsible manner, this landlord chose to simply slap stuff up over the top of old work and put in a brand new shower. Yet, when that exact shower broke, it just respected give them double the wreckage to give back up a shot at clean.

And that pink tile isn’t really a terrible color either, so we’re shocked someone covered it up. It’s way nicer than that horrible, egg shell white plastic shell.

Is This Operating A Showerhead Dealership?

It is always a fun to troll troll home improvement stores looking at the different colors of paint and models of sinks and various cabinet knobs. However, shopping for a showerhead is the most enjoyable thing of all. I mean, everybody loves a shower right? So, this image below would probably be get a few people a little giddy–that is, until they learn that one of those showerheads doesn’t actually work. This is certainly a case of a landlord who can(t be bothered to get of his ass!

As the tenant argues, when the landlord uni installed a second showerhead, the right change would have been fixing the first one instead. As a result, the tenant has a shower that is 2x more crowded and a set of pipes that go nowhere rusting away in their wall.

That the home was listed with only a half-bathroom

A halfbath in real estate parlance is a bathroom without a shower or bath. A full bathroom does. That was the case for one perky home buyer who showed a little too much excitement when they turned up at a two and a half bathrooms listing. It appears someone slapped a wall over an existing latrine, plumbing or not. How is a person supposed to seat himself/herself for the toilet even?

That’s also concerning us that we don’t see a sink in this photo. This light goes to the bathroom, which does not do look like a stay in hell.

For heaven’s sake, let the tenants control the thermostat

It’s a nightmarish hell of cold and dark that no one should have to endure inside their own home. Although living in home which is too warm is nearly just as terrible. But the very worst of it all is when you happen to live in a house that forbids you from setting it to be warmer. It saddens me to think that these London tenants had to face such a miserable landlord who wouldn’t let them even warm the house. This sounds like something we’d expect to see in a government building, not a home!

We hope the residents have figured some way around this nonsense. I mean come on, it seems pretty cruel to not allow someone to control the air conditioner and heater in their home!

Is It Functional? Yes. But Is It Pretty?

This shelf works well enough. Stops the soap from sliding off, and seems like it could support a good-sized bottle of shampoo if you need it to. However, is it a pretty shelf? We don’t think so. This is simply a tile chip slapped to the wall. They could have at least tried to paint it something — white or something. However, it somehow fades into the overall view of the space.

To be fair, that tile does look what little sharp. We certainly wouldn’t want to fall in the shower and end up coming face to face with that thing.

Looks Good, That Should Hold Well

Tip for DIYers: Avoid removing load-bearing walls and beams. There was a reason your house was built the way it was, and stripping it all down is just going to get you into more trouble. So, too, when it came to putting things back up. The image below demonstrates perfectly the wrong way to do this — they’re using a bucket and a two-by-four to repair their balcony.

Obviously, this is not going to have any weight, and someone passing under the deck is endangered. I mean honestly — can you believe this landlord let it get to this?!

It Must Have Been A Slappy Awakening

So, allow us to paint you a scenario here. Say you are deep in sleep in your room, and your landlord has just wrapped up work on your new kitchen. And then out of nowhere, you just hear an enormous boom, followed by some shattered glass. No it’s not robbers– your landlord just didn’t use proper mounting on the cabinets and now you have broken every glass, every dish, plate and mug. Honestly, I can think of few more horrible ways to start your day.

The biggest mistake people make with their cabinets is that they end up using drywall screws instead of cabinet screws. This is what the tool is for, use it!

At Least You Know You Won’T Have To Worry About Losing Your Keys Anymore

Home renovations are not only large scale projects, you can even take on your own small projects without the use of a contractor! In this case, these folks upgraded with a new front door to freshen up the front entryway. They did get one thing wrong though: hung their door backwards! Well, now the outsiders can lock the homeowners in and the homeowners can’t lock anyone out!

Doors are problematic, and we’ve witnessed that a time or two already. One chap even made a little cat flap in his door but had placed it by the ceiling.

Is 顇賗 How To Do Them?

Most do not need that much furniture in their homes. However, if you are on a lot of Zoom calls and working from the house, then you will want a really nice desk to get your work done on. As long as it isn’t made out of awful material generally, it also needs to be, at least, the right elevation, right? That was the conversation that this tenant was able to have with their landlord. Instead of just buying a desk that wasn’t at a knee-knocking height, this landlord did this horrible thing.

This desk looks like it’s about to collapse any minute. Nobody treats their tenant like that!

How Do You Close A Pool Indefinitely?

So, you likely have a swimming pool at your apartment complex, and you are planning to be out there every day during the summer and just tan and swim and have the best time possible. But if you are at this apartment complex, with this cheap Charlie as your landlord, that’s not going to happen. No idea why, but this pool is simply closed, indefinitely! Is that a bummer or what?

What do you think could be the reason behind it? Maybe the pool cleaner quit? Did someone go to the bathroom in the pool? Needless to say, we have lots of questions!

That Shower Cannot Be Comfortable

Another common option is a combination bath and shower, but some may be happy just with a shower stall. But here in this case we just can’t determine on what to call it. Well, it’s a bathtub and it has a shower but the shower head is mounted at virtually the same height as the bath tap! No one could stand up in the shower there, not even a child.

All we could come up with was that perhaps this is some sort of custom foot washer for someone with horribly-smelling feet. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know what to make of the shower head being so low.

The Porcelain Throne and stepping up to it

This is probably how a King feels looking over his subjects if you are sitting on this toilet. Guess that is why they call the toilet: the Throne, after all. Even so, that is still nearly a dangerous room to be servicing in. What if you fall up or down? If it was us, we’d want something it could be bolted to the ground. We have no patience for any such Stairmaster nonsense.

Or perhaps they constructed this thing to make up for some problematic plumbing. Or perhaps they simply wanted something to do, but who knows. But we’re not planning on renting this house in the near future, anyway.

Water Damage Strikes Again

Just like anything that gets wet, once drywall and ceiling tile get soggy — they’re done. And then they weaken a little, and they become liable to fail. And that’s precisely what occurred below, where a landlord opted to ignore their tenants, and allowed water damage to fester in the roof. The result? The ceiling of the house began collapsing in massive chunks, and the landlord had a massive bill in repairs, котлеты.

It proves that if you just listen to your tenants, life will almost certainly be easier for you in the long-term.

Time to Re-Finish Almost the Entire Bathroom

Remodeling can definitely be fun!!! One minute your home is just the same old same old, next, it is a whole new exciting space. However, make sure that your contractors are going to complete the quest. In this case, those folks got their bathroom completely re-done. However, when it was time to lay the floorboards around the toilet, a few short cuts were taken. Those boards could have been stained too, and it would have been just as easy to do; but whatever.

Even if this wasn’t a complete redo, and those were the only ones that needed to be replaced, still. How about finishing the job?

Time To Really Sit Down And Eat A Meal (Or Not)

New appliances are an exciting find! With that new technology, you can start cooking new dishes and basically facilitate your life. However, no one is doing themselves any favours if your landlord arrives to fix an appliance and flits in and out of your house without checking to see whether anything is functioning. This is how you end up with this dude in a lovely wall-mounted microwave that can not open due to the wall.

Actually, here is where the microwave of this guy stuck to the wall doesn’t click shut. Could be just that ugly, stick on aftermarket wall tile.

Surely One Of These Screws Will Be Secure

Anyone that has ever hung drywall knows that she can be a cruel mistress. But either way, sometimes your nails catch and sometimes they don’t. The sheetrock is sometimes solid, and sometimes dust. But then again, that is the nature of the medium! There are ways around that, such as toggle screws and shit like that. However, if you are far too lazy to look into it yourself, could always just use the method this person here down below used.

This guy seems to have begun hurling screws at the problem until the light switch stopped falling out of the wall. However, considering the number of screws sticking out, we’re surprised they didn’t break the lights as well.

Who Wants To Go Swimming?

The whole idea of paying your landlord for stuff, is so that you get to use them. You pay for heat, you ought to warm the house in winter. Sounds pretty obvious, right? Thus, if you are spending for a swimming pool, it must be reasonable that the property owner should sometimes clean the swimming pool. Otherwise, no one is ever going to be able to utilise the amenity and have a swim!

This isn’t the worst pool we’ve ever seen, but unless it’s scrubbed down quickly we probably won’t be swimming in it anytime soon. Anyway, it more closely resembles a pond than a pool, really.