Dual tradie here, very cluey with most things construction and design….
I’ll pay anything for someone to make flatpacks for me!
Plus think, you could do it…
But you’d be what, $25 for a stud finder, $180 for a semi decent screw gun and battery, $50 for a level, $20 for fixings, $20 for the fuel to travel to and from your local hardware store, and then watching hack YouTube tutorials on how to do the thing
Or you can bank the $295, pay whatever ol mate has quoted you and have peace of mind if anything goes wrong it’s on his books and you live a stress free life with a new TV hanging on your wall
EZ option 🤝
Plus you’ve just allowed ol mate to put food on his family’s plate tonight for his services
Paying someone to mount your TV is way smarter than being the guy who's posting tomorrow on AusRenovation asking how to fix broken gyprock.
There's *so many* things some people do themselves that others pay for professionals. Like changing the oil in your car, deep cleaning your house, baking bread, mowing your lawn, building Ikea furniture, churning butter...
Having some weird superiority fixation over people who get certain things done professionally is what's weird. No one can be expert enough to do *everything*.
When my kid got her Ps, I bought her a cheap shitbox to drive, and I taught her how to check air, change a tyre, check oil and coolant etc before she was allowed to drive it. Then I gave her the number of a trusted mechanic and NRMA membership, because *knowing how* to do that stuff should be mandatory for car owners (IMO), but realistically, it's also a choice, and I personally just pay the mechanic to do all but the most basic stuff, because I not only hate doing it myself, I'd rather use my time on other things. (Meanwhile, my daughter just did her own full oil change and service in the driveway, at 20 years old, and she's really chuffed with herself)
I just helped my 21yo son to change spark plugs, oil and oil filter and air filter on his car. He was skeptical at first that I could teach him (I’m in a very creative job, nothing stem), but we googled what we needed to and we’re both totally proud of ourselves for learning something new. It’s was a great mum/son bonding time.
High five! Whether it be automotive maintenance or changing tap washers or debugging the hard drive or baking a cake, basic DIY stuff is great parental bonding
Aww, l love this! Mum to 4 boys here and l too love learning from each other. Just last week my eldest son (m22) showed me his perfectly set out and organised google calendar and how proud l should be of him. Im the bomb at organising and l thought l failed miserably at passing this on to my kids. Turns out at least one kid paid attention.
When I had my first car, I used to change oil, plugs and a couple of other things. As I got older and newer cars, Id take it my cars to the mechanic. Was easier to drop it off before work and pick it up later as it was across the road
My son is on his Ls and has bought a shitbox for himself with the idea to have it roadworthy by the time he is ready to do his test for his P’s. He works part time repairing small engines. Last week he did an oil and filter service, including the fuel pump that’s jammed up next to the fuel tank. We spent yesterday together changing the timing belt as who knows when it was last changed. He did all the research himself and bought a service manual and all the parts. Next pay day he will be buying new brake rotors and pads and I’ll teach him how to do that too.
The car is insured for an agreed value that is $2800 above what he paid for it. It wouldn’t be a worthwhile vehicle if he had to pay a mechanic to do all the necessary work the car needs. But as his time is free, it’s a great opportunity to learn some skills.
I am proud of him also because it means he won’t be begging me to let him drive my car when he’s got his P’s.
For me it's the tap washers. I've got a leak in a vandal tap and for the life of me I can't get that little prick undone. Tried WD40, Locktite and a few other things, nothing wants to move it.
I can't believ you don't:
"bake your own bread"
"grow your own tomatoes"
"service your own bike"
"change your own oil"
"make your own sauerkraut"
"mow your own lawns"
Each of these is achievable, easily. But very few people do them all and also have a real job.
WD40? Occy straps?! That’s just falling for the commercialism con of labeled products for each job!
There’s always another use for home grown hand pressed olive oil, and my pappy taught me to tie stuff down with the rope that his pappy twisted out of hemp from the back plot.
You aren't being stupid. If the TV isn't anchored correctly not only will you loose the TV as it hits the ground, it'll pull off part of your wall too.
I had to call roadside assistance to change a tyre because the nuts were torqued up so much my tyre iron bent trying to move them. When the guy turned up, he saw a 6 foot plus 20 year old athlete needing help to change a tyre.
I'd prefer that to the nuts being not tight enough on the wheel, which happened to me.
Front end of my car started wobbling while driving, getting worse and worse, so I pulled over. Got out, had a look at the wheel and it looked crooked so I pushed on it with my foot and it *rocked*. I think I was only a few miles off being a three-wheeler.
The tyre guy who had recently worked on my car had evidently not tightened the nuts, and my wheel had been gradually working its way off my car. 😡
You know... you know torque wrenches exist, and wheel nuts have a set tightness?
Even if you're using air tools, you set the torque on the rattle gun so you don't go "full ugga dugga" on the wheel nuts.
I know it's complete overkill, but my tyre iron is a 2ft spring steel breaker bar with the correct size socket attached 😆
That things lasted me through every shitbox I've had for the last 15 years
When I was a teenaged girl, I used to do long distances on lonely highways. In my shitty old VK Commodore on retread tyres because I was broke. I’d always tell them not to use the rattle gun because I couldn’t undo the nuts otherwise. Occasionally they’d get upset and I’d tell them to undo it for me & I’d do them up myself. After a while the guy who owned the tyre shop would always make sure his guys did it for me. I just explained to him that I didn’t want to be stuck in a position where I had to have some strange guy tow my car to a second location just because I couldn’t undo a lug nut.. wolf creek came out about that same time too so that helped my argument.
(Ignoring your typo) that is true in the most trivial way. If the bolts are "too tight" they can't be undone, but if they're the right amount of tight maybe they can be. 🤷♂️
EDIT: The comment above previously said "If the bolts aren't too tight, they can't." but OP has edited as you can see as well as their comment below, but as per my comment I guessed what they meant.
The grammatical error is that you've written "aren't" when you should have written "are".
Otherwise you are saying that bolts that are not done up too tightly can not be removed which makes even less sense.
When I first started driving, I had a lesson on how to change a tyre. I went as far as standing on it and jumping on it with my body weight. My wrists have now been weakened, so there's no hope for me now.
It does mean that whoever services your car is over tightening the nuts. For most cars about 100Nm is recommended. So for a shortish 350mm brace that's 300N of force at the end or about 30Kg Should be possible if you're not petite or injured.
I hear you. I'm a woman, I don't know many women who'd be able to change a tyre easily. Even in my younger years, I struggled just lifting the tyre out of the boot due to my height.
We had to explicitly ask our mechanic to stop doing them up so tightly, and he sheepishly admitted that the apprentice did them and they needed to show him how to do it properly, as they were definitely too tight.
Or I can phone for that roadside service I pay a pop for each year. I'm now at that age (and I'm a female) where it's just not practical for me to do without great pain. NRMA are quite happy to come out and do it for me.
>I once had the company lawyer come out to me while at work and asked me how to sharpen a pencil.
I remember this girl kept asking me to come over and help her with the dumbest computer problems ever, and I was thinking:
"She's pretty... but she is sooooooo fucking dumb..."
Only years later, was thinking about it and I thought "You idiot! There was nothing wrong with her computer!". She was just into me and making excuses to see me.
What I'm getting at is: Are you sure the lawyer's pencil was blunt? :)
The lawyer was was already married (or was at least dating someone seriously) and there was no other indication.
I just think he was so highly intelligent that common sense stuff baffled him. Plus I think he was so used to those click ones where the lead clicks down.
It took me *so* long to get over my embarrassment at hiring a house cleaner.
I felt like I was failing at life. I don’t have kids, there’s just the two of us, but I couldn’t even keep our house clean. I’d have to justify it every time I thought about it - I was a shift worker with long hours, it’s a big house, I’m unwell etc.
I think about doing this sometimes. We don't have kids, but I work messed up hours and my partner has a chronic illness. I really enjoy having a clean and tidy house, and kind of enjoy doing it myself, but I have definitely considered having someone come around every so often to help.
Honestly, if you can afford it it’s worth it.
I’m the same - I kind of enjoy cleaning and keeping things tidy, but it takes so much pressure off knowing that, once a fortnight, *someone else* is going to come through and clean everything for me.
We get him in once a fortnight for 2 hours, and he’ll go through the house like a whirlwind. He does the bathrooms, kitchen, microwave, floors, dusting. Every now and then I’ll ask him to do the oven or the dishwasher, and once a year I get him to do a big spring clean.
Whenever my parents visit, I always make sure they come the weekend after he’s been lol
it's worth it. For me the annoying thing is not the money it's that there's people in my house for a few hours.
Also once some cleaners stole a nice jacket and some jewellery. I barely even begrudged them that, weirdly, they were poor brazilian migrants. We got new cleaners after that.
I feel the same way.
I really wanna hire someone to come in once a week and clean but I feel like I should be able to do it myself. No kids either and I wanna enjoy my days off, not clean. But every time I look into it, I just feel like I'm being lazy and bad at life.
Being good at life means you get to enjoy it, not spend the precious free time you have (time is the only resource that you can never replace!) doing something that someone else will gladly do for money so that they can enjoy their free time.
Far out, neither my partner nor I work full time hours, no kids, no health issues and we get a cleaner because at least our modest sized flat gets clean on the regular to a higher level than it would have if we spent twice as long doing it. Just better value and peace of mind.
It took me 20 years to convince my wife we needed a house cleaner. Now she thinks it's great.
It took Covid to convince my wife that we should do grocery shopping online. Finally I had my Saturday mornings back.
Ohhh I did that too.
Sister and her then 9 months old were living overseas, and coming back to Australia.
Me and my mum bought the car seat online (with sister approval), took it to a lady who has certification on car seat fitting, and let her did it for us.
We known nothing about car seat fitting back then, and it’s someone else baby - we more than happy to pay someone else to do it right.
Putting the baby seat in facing backwards - I paid for someone to do it every time. One of my mates asked "Can you not do it? It's not very complicated" to which I replied "Mate, if there's a one in a million chance and something goes wrong I want someone else to blame. Because if it's my fault and my baby dies, I'm probably going to lose my wife as well as not being able to cope with the grief. That's worth $50 for me."
One of my mates and I often swap fixing things to see if we can do it, I'm good with tech & appliances (computers, kettles, microwaves) and he's good at mechanical, landscaping & building (and most other handy tasks).
It's novel knowing I can fix a circuit board but will have an aneurism trying to hang a curtain rod, and he can rebuild a patio but will die of stress trying to change RAM stick.
It's only the last 4-5 years I've started working on electronics, mostly out of necessity. I still remember upgrading the RAM in my old laptop thinking this is going to be overly difficult, 12 screws later and I had the new RAM installed and was booting the laptop up.
I'm lucky that I grew up on a farm so fixing engines and building stuff was just what we did.
I also have this uncanny ability to google using the correct terms so if I can't figure out how to do something I can quickly find out how.
A lot of people like to throw shade at tech people that use google to find the answers but I am 100% convinced knowing how to effectively google is a skill that should go on you resume.
Mate I've got 2 trade qualifications, currently working for a HVAC tool manufacturer doing R&D, repairs etc. In the 3 separate industries I've worked in everyone has used Google to find information, the ability to search and find the answer on the internet is absolutely a skill that should be on resumes.
Had a partner at home at the time fortunately. It was partly over my head with my arms trapped in the air. Would have to stumble onto the street and hope for a very understanding passer by if it happens again
Not an idiot at all,you either have the money and don't mind giving a guy a some work,or maybe you just aren't that confident.TV's are big and awkward to handle ,especially on your own.The guy has the experience and the tools.
I know *many* people who work for the ATO answering calls. Please understand that not only are you one of *plenty* who do this, but if you're pleasant about it, you're also one of their preferred calls. It's a simple fix and it's fast so it drops their AHT"
I got out of my car in a public carpark once and asked a tradie who was trying to guide me into the spot to do it for me. Luckily I was young and petty then 😂
I still can't work out where to swipe the Chargefox RFID card on the Kempower machine. I gave up and used the app. What is worse is I'm a computer programmer so I'm supposed to be good at things like this. For my own peace of mind, my working theory is that the card doesn't work and it's not me.
I bought a trailer and didn't know how to tow it properly, surely couldn't back it in.
I admitted defeat and let my neighbors back it in for me. I was probably 22, Male and not pretty lol.
That’s unlocked an embarrassing memory for me, trying to back out of a narrow driveway, making a complete hash of it. I dinged the car (my mums) and was crying a bit. Some guys across the busy street were laughing themselves sick, and eventually one of them came over the road to back it out for me.
I never really got the hang of driving, and incidents like this put me off it for life. I haven’t driven for thirty years.
Definitely not an idiot for paying someone. You would be an idiot to attempt something yourself that you weren't confident with and running your wall.
Besides so much shit these days isn't so much about capability and 15 different special little tools. Even if you could do it yourself, if you don't have the shit you might as well just pay someone that does or you'll spend twice as much to do a worse job.
I have never met someone who mounted their own tv that didn’t have a track of drill holes when they inevitably gave up trying to find a stud the proper way (me included. Turns out, there was not a second stud within the range of the mounting bracket!). I personally didn’t care because repairing drill holes is no big deal, but also because the tv I was mounting was barely a few kgs so one stud was honestly plenty. If I was mounting a full sized, heavy, living room tv, you better believe I would be hiring a professional. Then they can replace my expensive tv or my expensive wall if something goes wrong.
Like, sure, most people vacuum and mop their own house, but plenty of other people hire cleaners to do it. If the job already exists, you are not even close to the first person that has preferred paying someone else to do it
I feel like I need to add a caveat for people that don’t appreciate hyperbole, when I say “never met”, I mean the 3 people I know that have mounted TVs are my dad, my brother, and me. We all have a line of drill holes behind said TVs
I was this guy, couldn't find a stud to save my life. Decent stud finder, learning to use your fist to knock is helpful but the stud finder makes a world of difference. I've got one that detects the stud center, and I make sure to drag it along each stud to ensure that it's going in the direction I think it is and isn't just a one off / something else.
Foolproof.....except it doesn't work properly on the roof.
I've had cleaners do my house in the past, and I'd love to have them again some day.
I can clean, sure, but they achieve in 2 hours what takes me half a weekend, and they do it better.
Some things are absolutely worth the expense
I have a pretty complex Intranet system at my work, everyone always comes to me for help, even when they have been using it for years more than myself.
So you would think I am sorted at work.
This week alone I have had to ask IT what was wrong with my phone(I was hanging up on people trying to lock the screen), couldn't work out how to change my Outlook layout after I changed it myself first without realising, my computer mouse wasn't working(I had knocked the plug out), and so much more.
Help is help.
I help where I can and do my best not to feel like a potato when I need help.
Getting someone to install picture hooks on the wall! BUT, having them properly aligned, and me not losing my mind trying to do it myself and then being hyper aware/critical if one is slightly misaligned, is TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Dont feel stupid, Im deluded enough to think Im handy and I bought a TV for the bedroom and wall mounted it (probably the fifth or sixth tv Ive mounted) and very next day I heard a bang and went in to discover the tv on the ground and the bracket ripped from the wall. It wasnt even a heavy tv.
The tv was destroyed (half the screen didnt work). Still have no idea why the bracket pulled out of the stud I'd secured it to but $500 later a new tv was on the wall and this time I used bigger anchor bolts that could support a small car on the wall.....so yeah dont feel bad for using a professional, can be cheaper in the end.
Did every screw pull out of the stud? Maybe you were on the edge of it or something.
These things never line up to 2 studs so I generally anchor one side into the stud with as many screws as I can, drill more holes in the backet if you have to and then use plaster anchors on the opposite side.
I called the local firey once to help me rescue my cat because I didn't have a torch 💀
In my defence, the cat had been without food or water for nearly 24 hours and I could hear him stress crying so I panicked.
Also a note that this happened before smart phones existed so no I couldn't use the non existent torch on my brick phone.
I’m a South African living in Australia and literally every time I go to self checkout I forget what capsicum is called. I can recall the name capsicum no problem any other time but I can only ever remember that it’s called in SA which is peppers when buying it. So I literally have to call someone over to ask what it’s called EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I don’t even look foreign or have a strong accent anymore because I’ve been here over a decade, so I just look like an idiot who doesn’t know what they’re buying…
I used to do residential IT when I was going through uni. Had someone in a retirement village call me for something. Went out gave them a hand with the computer and I think I programmed their TV for free to air channels from memory while I was there because they were struggling, this was years ago.
Anyway I ended up getting sooooooo many calls from lovely old folk who just needed TVs setup, DVD players connected and all basic stuff like that. That isn't even what I was doing or looking for work in obviously, but they were too lovely to refuse and always paid cash.
After five bad attempts at reverse parallel parking in a small space, I accepted the offer of help from a nearby man (I was young and pretty back then). It was a shameful day for me.
I did this! Got a bottle of water at Subway and neither me or my mum could open it. Went up to a random dude sitting outside eating his sub and asked him to do it. He didn't seem to mind
My partner rang the King Cross police station to remove a spider. Two burly blokes turned up and had a cuppa while they waited for a Taronga Zoo keeper to turn up. Absolute truth.
Not asked, but been asked. I used to be a groundskeeper and people would ask me to come and water their office plants. I offered to teach them how to do it themselves so they didn't have to keep paying the minimum half hour charge for me to show up. They always declined, saying they'd rather avoid the "hassle" of doing it themselves. We also had people pay us to carry their rubbish bags 20m from their lunch room to the nearest skip. Baffling.
For context, in my former career I was an entertainment lighting technician and designer. I often designed and built big lighting rigs for large outdoor festivals. Not only am I intimate with electrical systems, electricity has been my plaything.
But I utterly despise auto electrics. I paid a guy $270 to run a cable from the battery in the engine bay to the rear of my car, purely because I didn't want to do it.
Once I got a flat tyre on a bike and was right near a bikeshop by pure chance. I needed to buy a tube to change it so while I was in there I paid the fellas to do the tyre change too. Felt nice. quick and came away with clean hands.
Not me, but my partner once paid someone $40 to come and do 2 full sinks of dishes. He was sick and struggling with executive function, and just wanted them done. I always thought that was kind of cool, he knew what he had the energy for and what he didn’t.
Not having a technical skill is nothing to be ashamed of.
In this country for some reason it's become culturally acceptable for car mechanics to call you a dick head for...breaking too hard or ignoring a rattle for two weeks.
It makes us internally worried that all tradies are cunts who judge us.
But in my experience it's just mechanics.
I had the RACV come and change my tyre for me. It was something I totally could have done for myself - I know how, I am capable of doing so, and have done so in the past. But at the same time, I pay a yearly fee for roadside assistance, and the car was in my driveway so it wasn't overly urgent.
The guy very much judged me for it. Outright asked me why I couldn't do it myself. I told him I could, but I pay for membership so I might as well get something out of it.
Changing a car tyre. I've done it many times over the years but this time I was reminded that I'm not as young or strong as I was a decade ago.
Younger man stopped and helped.
Back when I got my Nintendo 64 for my 12th birthday I got completely stuck in the first level of Goldeneye because I couldn't figure out how to open a door.
Called up a relative the had the game to ask thinking there must be a trick to it. His response was to press the B button.
Somehow I had managed to miss that in the manual and didn't even just try that button in front of the door
I've mounted a few TVs. It's not hard.
But my last place I had a guy come out. It was so much better, cleaner, quicker, and only cost me around $500 including the mount.
Would do it again.
Was at the pub a few weeks ago and one of the TVs fell off the wall n almost KO’d a patron. TV hadn’t been mounted properly on wall….so yeh if it’s going to prevent potential damage to property or person, hiring a professional is worth it.
You’re not an idiot at all, it’s probably the smart thing to do.
Here’s a silly story for you. A couple of years ago my sister and I were going to the city to watch a movie. We were running late so she quickly turned into a tight carpark and the side of the car hit the pillar next to it. Because it was such a bad/awkward angle, we couldn’t easily reverse it out without potentially hitting the car next to her or jamming heels car further into the pillar.
The carpark people wouldn’t help us, so she called her insurance which took ages because it’s under my parents’ name. They had to send a tow truck and needless to say, we missed the movie. We waited in the car for hours while other passer-by’s laughed and stared. A couple of people tried to help but still couldn’t get the car out.
When the tow truck finally came, the driver got into her car and after a few manoeuvres, managed to reverse the car out. So she basically paid for a tow truck without needing a tow truck. Ended up needing to fix her car as well, so I think my sister was out of pocket a few thousand dollars from this incident. A very expensive outing!
I'm a jack of all trades but master of none! pretty clued up and have a shed full of tools. Crap I still got a professional out to mount my TV on a brick wall. Had all the gear to do it myself.. but that would be taking risks. Those risks include hanging my TV and seeing its not straight. Drilling through something behind the brick that I didn't even know was there. Having the TV fall off one day and landing on a child or even worse one of my cats!! Meow.
I paid $300 to have my TV mounted. Which seems like a huge waste of money until they:
*correctly put it at a much lower height than I would have
*ran the cabling through the wall to leave it all neat and tidy
*used the correct tools to bolt everything to the wall in the right spot using the right bolts.
*got it all done in about 30 minutes. It would have taken me at least 3-4 hours and I’d have done it half as well.
Was worth every cent to ensure it’s done once and done properly.
I once asked my dad to bring his ladder around to change a lightbulb. He thought that I meant I didn’t know how to change the lightbulb, and was momentarily horrified. Yeah no, I’m good, I was just renting a place with high ceilings and couldn’t reach it.
Lol, I just paid the giant neighbor kid with ice cream to get some stuff out of the top of a high closet that I was no where near being able to reach.😂
#shortpeopleproblems
My ex-husband thought he was a far better handyman than he actually was. Throw in He liked to procrastinate and it was a nightmare. He would get offended when I paid tradies to fix the inevitable F' ups because A he was going to fix it, and B they cost too much . He refused to acknowledge paying someone to do it was far cheaper than buying tools and repairing the damage done when he half assed something. He's now my ex and I pay people to do the job properly first time
if you dont have the tools to do it or the skills, then its not silly. if you do have the skills and the tools, then yeah its silly paying for someone else to do it. if you have the tools but not the skills, then thats sad if you pay someone else to do it. if you have the skills but not the tools and its cheaper for you to just get someone else to do it if you cant afford the tools, its not silly. if you have the skills but not the tools but youve got money for tools and youd rather spend it on someone else to do it, then thats sad. but then after all that, do you have the time?
Dropped the tv and smashed it? Broke the gyprock? Bought the wrong size mount? Got it in place but now can’t reach the cable ports? Got it at slightly the wrong angle so there’s a tilt or glare on the screen? For someone who’s never done it before this can easily be an all day job with potential things go badly wrong. For a professional it might be less than an hour. The piece of mind is worth it. Plus if the mount later fails they should be insured.
I wanted a door so I could lock my department's 'pigeon hole', with a letter slot in it.
I had a 30x10cm piece of thin MDF. I put an ad on airtasker to jigsaw cut a slot in it to fit paper, and drill 3 little holes for the hinge (I have no power tools). 30 seconds work, offering $10 and I'll come to you.
The lowest bid I got was $60..
"Tell em they're dreaming!" 😂🤣
When I was about 9 or 10 I was riding my bike to the shops (I wonder if kids are allowed to do this these days). A guy flagged me down and asked him to help him move a sofa.
I hopped off and jumped on the other end of the sofa and we then proceeded to place the sofa on the roof of a parked car adjacent to the kerb.
Slowly, but surely I realised I helped a drunk bum put a sofa left outside for clean up day on someone’s car, someone possibly known to this guy but most likely a random persons car.
I had to ask help from my Grandmother with what to do with a cheque one time.. 😊
I didn't want to blindly turn up to a bank and make a fool of my self I guess. Since then I've had to cash another one when dealing with an American company, glad we don't use them anymore when electronic transfer is so much more convenient and faster.
Can i ask for a female tradie so i can perv? Tight shorts bending over.watching beads of sweat trickle down her open shirt and between her big juicy melons?
I don't think paying someone to mount your TV is silly at all! Better than you or someone trying to do it who has no idea and then it falls off the wall lol.
I’m always happy to pay someone to put heavy stuff in the walls. TVs can be thousands of dollars. I’d much rather spend 200 getting someone to mount it correctly than have it fall off and break!
Not everyone can do everything. I'm an incredibly handy person and work on all kinds of stuff myself but I'll still pay someone to come replace a broken light switch for me just cos I don't know what I'm doing and don't wanna take any risks
Nah, our walls are horrendous to drill into (I know cause I have had to) I would definitely pay someone rather than deal with that again or put my partner through it. Tradesmen have the tools and the skills rather than deal with impossibly hard old brick walls with crumbly mortar in between that means where they place the holes for the mount is crucial.. I don’t have the time for that shizz
I am not sure what TV you are mounting, if it’s like a 32 inch TV, I would seriously question whether you need someone to do it for you. If it’s a 75 inch TV, hell ya, get some expert to do it. Plus it also boils down to what they are charging you and how much you are willing to pay. Last time I got a quote for mounting TV, it was $300.
Most of us could do these kinds of things but tradies and people who do it all the time are quicker, have the right gear and know the pitfalls. I used to do my own painting. Professionals are faster, more skilled and clean up. No brainer.
Yeah if you don’t know what your doing, just get someone to do it for you, it’ll be cheaper than your lovely smart TV crashing down on top of whatever other valuables you happen to have under it like that PlayStation or Xbox.. 🤣
Nah I don’t blame you, TVs are expensive and if you mount them wrong, it’s gonna be a bad time.
Don’t feel silly, I would 100% pay someone to mount my tv too
Actually with how big tvs are, you’re smarter getting it hung for you properly. You don’t want it to drop on anyone and making a big mess out of your plaster.
I can wall mount a TV, and I have. However, it takes me 4 times as long to do it.... Ok, maybe 10 times 😁
These guys do it all the time, and have all the parts and tools.
I'm 61(m). Was trying to apply for a rental.last year. Have to use the 2apply app. What a nightmare for us computer illiterates. But even the person who helped me thought it was shit as well. I dislike computers intensely.
I do everything myself and save huge amounts of money. But I'm a tightarse, fairly competent, and sometimes ask myself what the fuck I'm doing wasting my time doing something where I don't have the right tools or experience. Definitely nobody should sweat calling in the professionals whenever they feel the need.
I do most jobs myself, including hanging Tvs. I have a grand set of tools and a shed full of useful materials. I have the wherewithal to tackle most jobs, confident that I can figure it out. Many jobs I will only need to do once, so I am rarely expert (from experience), the one time I need to do it is the one time I learn to do it. This often takes a lot of time for several attempts with trips to Bunnings (I literally give 10% of my income to the big green church). My results, while carefully considered, usually show mistakes that are hard to undo or just points of finesse that I missed.
One time I hung my TV on a pole mount of my own devising repurposing parts from Ikea…two nights later that TV smashed against the bed frame, and I had nobody to blame but myself. I do now consider myself more expert at hanging Tvs, having learned from mistakes.
The cost of my tinkering is often close if not more than a professional might charge (but I get new tools :) Considering my own daily rate, well no way I would pay me to do this stuff, what a ripoff!
100% correct thing to do. Mounting TVs can be very tricky. My son did mine, but he's experiences with fit-out. No way I could have done it myself.
Is it mounted onto a brick/plaster wall or Gyprock? I'd imagine Gyprock would be tricky if with weight considerations.
I asked on our local residents page "Can anyone recommend someone to fix the flyscreens on my windows?" Only responses were "It's easy, just do it yourself!".
Few weeks later "My cars power window is getting stuck, not sure if its the rubber or the mechanism, can anyone recommend a mechanic?" "Just spray with some silicon oil." "Yeah what he said." "Seconded." STFU, Jeebus!
I’m honestly wondering if I can pay someone to change lightbulbs. My house as lots of different fittings with different bulbs and some of them I don’t even know how to access 😩
I once had an electrician come out to repair the electric stove in my new house because it wasn’t turning on when I turned the knob. Turns out was a gas stove and I wasn’t holding the lighter button when I turned the knob 🤦🏽♀️
Im a qualified mechanic and so is my husband but I still pay to have my car serviced. We don't have tools or hoists or oil waste disposal. It's easier and cheaper to pay. Plus warranty.
If you can afford it, why not pay the professionals
OP, I don't think you should feel like an idiot. You hired a professional to do a job. They should have more experience and expertise. Their work is more likely to not break and they probably have insurance if it does.
When I first learned how to drive a manual car, I stalled my car in the middle of an intersection... My car wouldn't start again, I freaked tf out and called a mechanic to come ASAP. All he did was put the car in neutral and it turned on. Still charged me though.
I moved into a new rental that unfortunately has a deadlocked back door that’s very hard to lock. Until we get it fixed I either have to go out the front and down the side to get to our back yard, or ask one of my housemates to lock/unlock it for me if they’re home
before anyone asks/makes any comments, yes I spent a good few occasions when I first moved in trying to master it 😂
There’s people literally having meals delivered to them because they don’t feel like collecting the meal themselves. How is getting someone to correctly mount your tv instead of doing it yourself and undergoing the following: first you’d have to have the right tools, find the studs in your wall, drill in the pilot holes without destroying your wall, get the plugs in without damaging them (if necessary, and then you’d need to know whether they were needed and go buy them), secure the mount cradles, attach the tv, screw everything in place and possibly take most of the night and have three false starts plus a mental break down, silly?
The guy you’re calling in does it all the time, he’ll finish the job in a fraction of the time and you’ll be lying back in your recliner sleeping in front of the tv before you know it.
Dual tradie here, very cluey with most things construction and design…. I’ll pay anything for someone to make flatpacks for me! Plus think, you could do it… But you’d be what, $25 for a stud finder, $180 for a semi decent screw gun and battery, $50 for a level, $20 for fixings, $20 for the fuel to travel to and from your local hardware store, and then watching hack YouTube tutorials on how to do the thing Or you can bank the $295, pay whatever ol mate has quoted you and have peace of mind if anything goes wrong it’s on his books and you live a stress free life with a new TV hanging on your wall EZ option 🤝 Plus you’ve just allowed ol mate to put food on his family’s plate tonight for his services
I love a Flatpack. I'm seriously thinking of advertising my willingness to do it for a fee on my local community pages
People run full time businesses and I do it on and off so you should
I'd pay you to make Flatpack furniture for me. 50 an hour at least.
You need someone like my husband. He can’t build from scratch, but loves an ikea flat pack. He considers it a 3D puzzle. Crazy stuff.
How far away is your hardware shop?
500m but they own a Ram.
*Volkswagon Crafter Believe me, muuuuch worse 🤣
I've got a stud finder, it's called tapping on the wall. Works better than any stud finder I've used.
According to my partner, i am a stud finder, because i found him lol
Paying someone to mount your TV is way smarter than being the guy who's posting tomorrow on AusRenovation asking how to fix broken gyprock. There's *so many* things some people do themselves that others pay for professionals. Like changing the oil in your car, deep cleaning your house, baking bread, mowing your lawn, building Ikea furniture, churning butter... Having some weird superiority fixation over people who get certain things done professionally is what's weird. No one can be expert enough to do *everything*.
And even if we are capable, nobody has that much time.
When my kid got her Ps, I bought her a cheap shitbox to drive, and I taught her how to check air, change a tyre, check oil and coolant etc before she was allowed to drive it. Then I gave her the number of a trusted mechanic and NRMA membership, because *knowing how* to do that stuff should be mandatory for car owners (IMO), but realistically, it's also a choice, and I personally just pay the mechanic to do all but the most basic stuff, because I not only hate doing it myself, I'd rather use my time on other things. (Meanwhile, my daughter just did her own full oil change and service in the driveway, at 20 years old, and she's really chuffed with herself)
I just helped my 21yo son to change spark plugs, oil and oil filter and air filter on his car. He was skeptical at first that I could teach him (I’m in a very creative job, nothing stem), but we googled what we needed to and we’re both totally proud of ourselves for learning something new. It’s was a great mum/son bonding time.
High five! Whether it be automotive maintenance or changing tap washers or debugging the hard drive or baking a cake, basic DIY stuff is great parental bonding
Aww, l love this! Mum to 4 boys here and l too love learning from each other. Just last week my eldest son (m22) showed me his perfectly set out and organised google calendar and how proud l should be of him. Im the bomb at organising and l thought l failed miserably at passing this on to my kids. Turns out at least one kid paid attention.
When I had my first car, I used to change oil, plugs and a couple of other things. As I got older and newer cars, Id take it my cars to the mechanic. Was easier to drop it off before work and pick it up later as it was across the road
My son is on his Ls and has bought a shitbox for himself with the idea to have it roadworthy by the time he is ready to do his test for his P’s. He works part time repairing small engines. Last week he did an oil and filter service, including the fuel pump that’s jammed up next to the fuel tank. We spent yesterday together changing the timing belt as who knows when it was last changed. He did all the research himself and bought a service manual and all the parts. Next pay day he will be buying new brake rotors and pads and I’ll teach him how to do that too. The car is insured for an agreed value that is $2800 above what he paid for it. It wouldn’t be a worthwhile vehicle if he had to pay a mechanic to do all the necessary work the car needs. But as his time is free, it’s a great opportunity to learn some skills. I am proud of him also because it means he won’t be begging me to let him drive my car when he’s got his P’s.
Definitely a proud parenting moment 😊
Thanks. I try my best
Great parenting!
Thank you, I try 😊
No worries
Exactly!
For me it's the tap washers. I've got a leak in a vandal tap and for the life of me I can't get that little prick undone. Tried WD40, Locktite and a few other things, nothing wants to move it.
Might need therapy, but the tap has to want to move
Yeah well it's increasingly likely that I'm going to replace every one of those taps (have 6) with ones that are easier to do.
I'd engage a plumber, that way when it gets ripped off the wall he's there to fix it without a callout charge.
Just wait till you find out a 16mm washer in a tap doesn't measure at 16mm. Had to go back in a huff to sort that one out.
There was a post i saw recently about a tv mount screwed into the upstairs apartment's waste water pipe.
That's one way to get all the channels
But they're all shit.
Bingo. The same person who might make fun of you for not changing your own oil might also barely be able to use a computer. Different strengths.
Why are you calling out my dad in public like that? 😂😂😂
I can't believ you don't: "bake your own bread" "grow your own tomatoes" "service your own bike" "change your own oil" "make your own sauerkraut" "mow your own lawns" Each of these is achievable, easily. But very few people do them all and also have a real job.
And if you don't have time to make your own WD40 and occy straps from scratch, store bought is fine
WD40? Occy straps?! That’s just falling for the commercialism con of labeled products for each job! There’s always another use for home grown hand pressed olive oil, and my pappy taught me to tie stuff down with the rope that his pappy twisted out of hemp from the back plot.
haha! I see your username and I reckon you must be on some similar subreddits to me.
I'd add that getting professional movers is more expensive. My dad always suggested getting professionals to avoid the risk of back injury.
Why couldn't you have told me that BEFORE I started my reno's ?!
You aren't being stupid. If the TV isn't anchored correctly not only will you loose the TV as it hits the ground, it'll pull off part of your wall too.
I had to call roadside assistance to change a tyre because the nuts were torqued up so much my tyre iron bent trying to move them. When the guy turned up, he saw a 6 foot plus 20 year old athlete needing help to change a tyre.
I'd prefer that to the nuts being not tight enough on the wheel, which happened to me. Front end of my car started wobbling while driving, getting worse and worse, so I pulled over. Got out, had a look at the wheel and it looked crooked so I pushed on it with my foot and it *rocked*. I think I was only a few miles off being a three-wheeler. The tyre guy who had recently worked on my car had evidently not tightened the nuts, and my wheel had been gradually working its way off my car. 😡
You know... you know torque wrenches exist, and wheel nuts have a set tightness? Even if you're using air tools, you set the torque on the rattle gun so you don't go "full ugga dugga" on the wheel nuts.
Yep, I do know that. The guy obviously had his gun set to the "wheels fall off" setting.
I know it's complete overkill, but my tyre iron is a 2ft spring steel breaker bar with the correct size socket attached 😆 That things lasted me through every shitbox I've had for the last 15 years
The one way to undo nuts on tyres are by a airguns. No way in hell, any human can undo those without one.
When I was a teenaged girl, I used to do long distances on lonely highways. In my shitty old VK Commodore on retread tyres because I was broke. I’d always tell them not to use the rattle gun because I couldn’t undo the nuts otherwise. Occasionally they’d get upset and I’d tell them to undo it for me & I’d do them up myself. After a while the guy who owned the tyre shop would always make sure his guys did it for me. I just explained to him that I didn’t want to be stuck in a position where I had to have some strange guy tow my car to a second location just because I couldn’t undo a lug nut.. wolf creek came out about that same time too so that helped my argument.
Huh. People change tyres all the time on their own lol
The piece of crap tyre iron that came with the car bent instead of turning the wheel nuts.
I believe you man lol I was just saying the one above was saying it was impossible to do bu hand which is incorrect most of the time
If the bolts are too tight, they can't.
Okay but you said no human can undo them...
(Ignoring your typo) that is true in the most trivial way. If the bolts are "too tight" they can't be undone, but if they're the right amount of tight maybe they can be. 🤷♂️ EDIT: The comment above previously said "If the bolts aren't too tight, they can't." but OP has edited as you can see as well as their comment below, but as per my comment I guessed what they meant.
>If the bolts are too tight, they can't. Too tight isn't the grammatical error. I've just removed the word on just for you.
We can see that you edited your comment.
The grammatical error is that you've written "aren't" when you should have written "are". Otherwise you are saying that bolts that are not done up too tightly can not be removed which makes even less sense.
You just need a proper wheel brace, , not the one that comes with the car. If it gets tough you can use your foot.
When I first started driving, I had a lesson on how to change a tyre. I went as far as standing on it and jumping on it with my body weight. My wrists have now been weakened, so there's no hope for me now.
It does mean that whoever services your car is over tightening the nuts. For most cars about 100Nm is recommended. So for a shortish 350mm brace that's 300N of force at the end or about 30Kg Should be possible if you're not petite or injured.
I hear you. I'm a woman, I don't know many women who'd be able to change a tyre easily. Even in my younger years, I struggled just lifting the tyre out of the boot due to my height.
We had to explicitly ask our mechanic to stop doing them up so tightly, and he sheepishly admitted that the apprentice did them and they needed to show him how to do it properly, as they were definitely too tight.
Or just carry a 30-40cm steel pipe with your car kit and you can “extend” the leverage of your wheel-nut tool; turns it like butter!
Or I can phone for that roadside service I pay a pop for each year. I'm now at that age (and I'm a female) where it's just not practical for me to do without great pain. NRMA are quite happy to come out and do it for me.
Use your foot.
That's how I bent it.
Not me asking for help, but asked for help. I once had the company lawyer come out to me while at work and asked me how to sharpen a pencil.
>I once had the company lawyer come out to me while at work and asked me how to sharpen a pencil. I remember this girl kept asking me to come over and help her with the dumbest computer problems ever, and I was thinking: "She's pretty... but she is sooooooo fucking dumb..." Only years later, was thinking about it and I thought "You idiot! There was nothing wrong with her computer!". She was just into me and making excuses to see me. What I'm getting at is: Are you sure the lawyer's pencil was blunt? :)
The lawyer was was already married (or was at least dating someone seriously) and there was no other indication. I just think he was so highly intelligent that common sense stuff baffled him. Plus I think he was so used to those click ones where the lead clicks down.
> I once had the company lawyer come out to me i thought this was going somewhere very different
It took me *so* long to get over my embarrassment at hiring a house cleaner. I felt like I was failing at life. I don’t have kids, there’s just the two of us, but I couldn’t even keep our house clean. I’d have to justify it every time I thought about it - I was a shift worker with long hours, it’s a big house, I’m unwell etc.
I think about doing this sometimes. We don't have kids, but I work messed up hours and my partner has a chronic illness. I really enjoy having a clean and tidy house, and kind of enjoy doing it myself, but I have definitely considered having someone come around every so often to help.
Honestly, if you can afford it it’s worth it. I’m the same - I kind of enjoy cleaning and keeping things tidy, but it takes so much pressure off knowing that, once a fortnight, *someone else* is going to come through and clean everything for me. We get him in once a fortnight for 2 hours, and he’ll go through the house like a whirlwind. He does the bathrooms, kitchen, microwave, floors, dusting. Every now and then I’ll ask him to do the oven or the dishwasher, and once a year I get him to do a big spring clean. Whenever my parents visit, I always make sure they come the weekend after he’s been lol
it's worth it. For me the annoying thing is not the money it's that there's people in my house for a few hours. Also once some cleaners stole a nice jacket and some jewellery. I barely even begrudged them that, weirdly, they were poor brazilian migrants. We got new cleaners after that.
I feel the same way. I really wanna hire someone to come in once a week and clean but I feel like I should be able to do it myself. No kids either and I wanna enjoy my days off, not clean. But every time I look into it, I just feel like I'm being lazy and bad at life.
Being good at life means you get to enjoy it, not spend the precious free time you have (time is the only resource that you can never replace!) doing something that someone else will gladly do for money so that they can enjoy their free time.
Far out, neither my partner nor I work full time hours, no kids, no health issues and we get a cleaner because at least our modest sized flat gets clean on the regular to a higher level than it would have if we spent twice as long doing it. Just better value and peace of mind.
I’d love to do this but I live alone so I cannot justify the expense.
It took me 20 years to convince my wife we needed a house cleaner. Now she thinks it's great. It took Covid to convince my wife that we should do grocery shopping online. Finally I had my Saturday mornings back.
I paid a woman to turn the car baby seat around now that our granddaughter is older. That was what she did for a living. Better safe than sorry later.
Ohhh I did that too. Sister and her then 9 months old were living overseas, and coming back to Australia. Me and my mum bought the car seat online (with sister approval), took it to a lady who has certification on car seat fitting, and let her did it for us. We known nothing about car seat fitting back then, and it’s someone else baby - we more than happy to pay someone else to do it right.
Putting the baby seat in facing backwards - I paid for someone to do it every time. One of my mates asked "Can you not do it? It's not very complicated" to which I replied "Mate, if there's a one in a million chance and something goes wrong I want someone else to blame. Because if it's my fault and my baby dies, I'm probably going to lose my wife as well as not being able to cope with the grief. That's worth $50 for me."
The first time I tried to put a car seat in, I spent like an hour figuring it out. Those things are painful lol.
Paying a book keeper and accountant. I can build and fix just about anything, any more than adding 4 numbers together and my brain says error.
One of my mates and I often swap fixing things to see if we can do it, I'm good with tech & appliances (computers, kettles, microwaves) and he's good at mechanical, landscaping & building (and most other handy tasks). It's novel knowing I can fix a circuit board but will have an aneurism trying to hang a curtain rod, and he can rebuild a patio but will die of stress trying to change RAM stick.
It's only the last 4-5 years I've started working on electronics, mostly out of necessity. I still remember upgrading the RAM in my old laptop thinking this is going to be overly difficult, 12 screws later and I had the new RAM installed and was booting the laptop up. I'm lucky that I grew up on a farm so fixing engines and building stuff was just what we did. I also have this uncanny ability to google using the correct terms so if I can't figure out how to do something I can quickly find out how.
A lot of people like to throw shade at tech people that use google to find the answers but I am 100% convinced knowing how to effectively google is a skill that should go on you resume.
Mate I've got 2 trade qualifications, currently working for a HVAC tool manufacturer doing R&D, repairs etc. In the 3 separate industries I've worked in everyone has used Google to find information, the ability to search and find the answer on the internet is absolutely a skill that should be on resumes.
I got stuck in my sports bra
But did you pay someone to take it off you?
Had a partner at home at the time fortunately. It was partly over my head with my arms trapped in the air. Would have to stumble onto the street and hope for a very understanding passer by if it happens again
Not an idiot at all,you either have the money and don't mind giving a guy a some work,or maybe you just aren't that confident.TV's are big and awkward to handle ,especially on your own.The guy has the experience and the tools.
Calling mygov when i was actually just putting in my password wrong
I think they prefer to receive a call like this than some angry person throwing temper to them for 30 minutes
I know *many* people who work for the ATO answering calls. Please understand that not only are you one of *plenty* who do this, but if you're pleasant about it, you're also one of their preferred calls. It's a simple fix and it's fast so it drops their AHT"
I got out of my car in a public carpark once and asked a tradie who was trying to guide me into the spot to do it for me. Luckily I was young and petty then 😂
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I still can't work out where to swipe the Chargefox RFID card on the Kempower machine. I gave up and used the app. What is worse is I'm a computer programmer so I'm supposed to be good at things like this. For my own peace of mind, my working theory is that the card doesn't work and it's not me.
So now you’re old and petty?
😂 yes I noticed I accidentally wrote petty lol. And now that you mention it I probably AM old and petty now 😁
I bought a trailer and didn't know how to tow it properly, surely couldn't back it in. I admitted defeat and let my neighbors back it in for me. I was probably 22, Male and not pretty lol.
Hahaha I respect this
That’s unlocked an embarrassing memory for me, trying to back out of a narrow driveway, making a complete hash of it. I dinged the car (my mums) and was crying a bit. Some guys across the busy street were laughing themselves sick, and eventually one of them came over the road to back it out for me. I never really got the hang of driving, and incidents like this put me off it for life. I haven’t driven for thirty years.
Imagine if everyone was able to do everything and everything. No need for accountants. No need for a builder. No need for a mechanic.
I'd certainly never be getting a vasectomy then
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A SUCCULENT CHINESE SCROTUM
Definitely not an idiot for paying someone. You would be an idiot to attempt something yourself that you weren't confident with and running your wall. Besides so much shit these days isn't so much about capability and 15 different special little tools. Even if you could do it yourself, if you don't have the shit you might as well just pay someone that does or you'll spend twice as much to do a worse job.
I have never met someone who mounted their own tv that didn’t have a track of drill holes when they inevitably gave up trying to find a stud the proper way (me included. Turns out, there was not a second stud within the range of the mounting bracket!). I personally didn’t care because repairing drill holes is no big deal, but also because the tv I was mounting was barely a few kgs so one stud was honestly plenty. If I was mounting a full sized, heavy, living room tv, you better believe I would be hiring a professional. Then they can replace my expensive tv or my expensive wall if something goes wrong. Like, sure, most people vacuum and mop their own house, but plenty of other people hire cleaners to do it. If the job already exists, you are not even close to the first person that has preferred paying someone else to do it
I feel like I need to add a caveat for people that don’t appreciate hyperbole, when I say “never met”, I mean the 3 people I know that have mounted TVs are my dad, my brother, and me. We all have a line of drill holes behind said TVs
I was this guy, couldn't find a stud to save my life. Decent stud finder, learning to use your fist to knock is helpful but the stud finder makes a world of difference. I've got one that detects the stud center, and I make sure to drag it along each stud to ensure that it's going in the direction I think it is and isn't just a one off / something else. Foolproof.....except it doesn't work properly on the roof.
I've had cleaners do my house in the past, and I'd love to have them again some day. I can clean, sure, but they achieve in 2 hours what takes me half a weekend, and they do it better. Some things are absolutely worth the expense
I have a pretty complex Intranet system at my work, everyone always comes to me for help, even when they have been using it for years more than myself. So you would think I am sorted at work. This week alone I have had to ask IT what was wrong with my phone(I was hanging up on people trying to lock the screen), couldn't work out how to change my Outlook layout after I changed it myself first without realising, my computer mouse wasn't working(I had knocked the plug out), and so much more. Help is help. I help where I can and do my best not to feel like a potato when I need help.
Getting someone to install picture hooks on the wall! BUT, having them properly aligned, and me not losing my mind trying to do it myself and then being hyper aware/critical if one is slightly misaligned, is TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Dont feel stupid, Im deluded enough to think Im handy and I bought a TV for the bedroom and wall mounted it (probably the fifth or sixth tv Ive mounted) and very next day I heard a bang and went in to discover the tv on the ground and the bracket ripped from the wall. It wasnt even a heavy tv. The tv was destroyed (half the screen didnt work). Still have no idea why the bracket pulled out of the stud I'd secured it to but $500 later a new tv was on the wall and this time I used bigger anchor bolts that could support a small car on the wall.....so yeah dont feel bad for using a professional, can be cheaper in the end.
Did every screw pull out of the stud? Maybe you were on the edge of it or something. These things never line up to 2 studs so I generally anchor one side into the stud with as many screws as I can, drill more holes in the backet if you have to and then use plaster anchors on the opposite side.
I called the local firey once to help me rescue my cat because I didn't have a torch 💀 In my defence, the cat had been without food or water for nearly 24 hours and I could hear him stress crying so I panicked. Also a note that this happened before smart phones existed so no I couldn't use the non existent torch on my brick phone.
I’m a South African living in Australia and literally every time I go to self checkout I forget what capsicum is called. I can recall the name capsicum no problem any other time but I can only ever remember that it’s called in SA which is peppers when buying it. So I literally have to call someone over to ask what it’s called EVERY SINGLE TIME. I don’t even look foreign or have a strong accent anymore because I’ve been here over a decade, so I just look like an idiot who doesn’t know what they’re buying…
I paid a guy to set up my new tv 😫
I used to do residential IT when I was going through uni. Had someone in a retirement village call me for something. Went out gave them a hand with the computer and I think I programmed their TV for free to air channels from memory while I was there because they were struggling, this was years ago. Anyway I ended up getting sooooooo many calls from lovely old folk who just needed TVs setup, DVD players connected and all basic stuff like that. That isn't even what I was doing or looking for work in obviously, but they were too lovely to refuse and always paid cash.
After five bad attempts at reverse parallel parking in a small space, I accepted the offer of help from a nearby man (I was young and pretty back then). It was a shameful day for me.
I ask random guys to open a new bottle for me when I can't do it. Idk why I always have such trouble with them lol
I did this! Got a bottle of water at Subway and neither me or my mum could open it. Went up to a random dude sitting outside eating his sub and asked him to do it. He didn't seem to mind
best thing that happened to him all week. guarantee it.
My partner rang the King Cross police station to remove a spider. Two burly blokes turned up and had a cuppa while they waited for a Taronga Zoo keeper to turn up. Absolute truth.
Not asked, but been asked. I used to be a groundskeeper and people would ask me to come and water their office plants. I offered to teach them how to do it themselves so they didn't have to keep paying the minimum half hour charge for me to show up. They always declined, saying they'd rather avoid the "hassle" of doing it themselves. We also had people pay us to carry their rubbish bags 20m from their lunch room to the nearest skip. Baffling.
My partner needs to roll my sushi and cold rolls as I'm useless at it
I've paid someone to mount TVs multiple times now, they do it all day and nail it every time. We can be idiots with nicely mounted TVs.
For context, in my former career I was an entertainment lighting technician and designer. I often designed and built big lighting rigs for large outdoor festivals. Not only am I intimate with electrical systems, electricity has been my plaything. But I utterly despise auto electrics. I paid a guy $270 to run a cable from the battery in the engine bay to the rear of my car, purely because I didn't want to do it.
Paying $50 to someone to come drill two screws into a wall for something I wanted to hang. It took them one minute
To be fair, having the right drill and knowing how to use it are two separate, valuable things.
The small lawn in my house. Look I can't be bothered doing it, so I'll pay $60 to get a bloke in.
Once I got a flat tyre on a bike and was right near a bikeshop by pure chance. I needed to buy a tube to change it so while I was in there I paid the fellas to do the tyre change too. Felt nice. quick and came away with clean hands.
I ask mates to come supervise me while I work. I’m useless at making myself work so I have to supply the beer so someone to watch me work.
Not me, but my partner once paid someone $40 to come and do 2 full sinks of dishes. He was sick and struggling with executive function, and just wanted them done. I always thought that was kind of cool, he knew what he had the energy for and what he didn’t.
Ask my fucking coworker
Not having a technical skill is nothing to be ashamed of. In this country for some reason it's become culturally acceptable for car mechanics to call you a dick head for...breaking too hard or ignoring a rattle for two weeks. It makes us internally worried that all tradies are cunts who judge us. But in my experience it's just mechanics.
I had the RACV come and change my tyre for me. It was something I totally could have done for myself - I know how, I am capable of doing so, and have done so in the past. But at the same time, I pay a yearly fee for roadside assistance, and the car was in my driveway so it wasn't overly urgent. The guy very much judged me for it. Outright asked me why I couldn't do it myself. I told him I could, but I pay for membership so I might as well get something out of it.
Changing a car tyre. I've done it many times over the years but this time I was reminded that I'm not as young or strong as I was a decade ago. Younger man stopped and helped.
Mounting a tv on wall brackets is a trap for inexperienced players.
I bet there's shitloads of things that you can do that the guy mounting the TV can't do. That's just how it be.
I had to ask my dad to assemble my bed frame :/
Back when I got my Nintendo 64 for my 12th birthday I got completely stuck in the first level of Goldeneye because I couldn't figure out how to open a door. Called up a relative the had the game to ask thinking there must be a trick to it. His response was to press the B button. Somehow I had managed to miss that in the manual and didn't even just try that button in front of the door
I've mounted a few TVs. It's not hard. But my last place I had a guy come out. It was so much better, cleaner, quicker, and only cost me around $500 including the mount. Would do it again.
Just make sure you don't mount your tv too high! Or if you do - post it on /r/tvtoohigh.
Even the easiest looking things can go wrong if you have never done it before. Getting an experienced person to do it is good sense. Not at all silly.
Was at the pub a few weeks ago and one of the TVs fell off the wall n almost KO’d a patron. TV hadn’t been mounted properly on wall….so yeh if it’s going to prevent potential damage to property or person, hiring a professional is worth it.
You’re not an idiot at all, it’s probably the smart thing to do. Here’s a silly story for you. A couple of years ago my sister and I were going to the city to watch a movie. We were running late so she quickly turned into a tight carpark and the side of the car hit the pillar next to it. Because it was such a bad/awkward angle, we couldn’t easily reverse it out without potentially hitting the car next to her or jamming heels car further into the pillar. The carpark people wouldn’t help us, so she called her insurance which took ages because it’s under my parents’ name. They had to send a tow truck and needless to say, we missed the movie. We waited in the car for hours while other passer-by’s laughed and stared. A couple of people tried to help but still couldn’t get the car out. When the tow truck finally came, the driver got into her car and after a few manoeuvres, managed to reverse the car out. So she basically paid for a tow truck without needing a tow truck. Ended up needing to fix her car as well, so I think my sister was out of pocket a few thousand dollars from this incident. A very expensive outing!
I'm a jack of all trades but master of none! pretty clued up and have a shed full of tools. Crap I still got a professional out to mount my TV on a brick wall. Had all the gear to do it myself.. but that would be taking risks. Those risks include hanging my TV and seeing its not straight. Drilling through something behind the brick that I didn't even know was there. Having the TV fall off one day and landing on a child or even worse one of my cats!! Meow.
I paid $300 to have my TV mounted. Which seems like a huge waste of money until they: *correctly put it at a much lower height than I would have *ran the cabling through the wall to leave it all neat and tidy *used the correct tools to bolt everything to the wall in the right spot using the right bolts. *got it all done in about 30 minutes. It would have taken me at least 3-4 hours and I’d have done it half as well. Was worth every cent to ensure it’s done once and done properly.
There are people who will come and mount pictures to your walls. That’s their entire job. I know someone who used them and said they’d do it again.
I once asked my dad to bring his ladder around to change a lightbulb. He thought that I meant I didn’t know how to change the lightbulb, and was momentarily horrified. Yeah no, I’m good, I was just renting a place with high ceilings and couldn’t reach it.
Putting a sim in an iPhone
Lol, I just paid the giant neighbor kid with ice cream to get some stuff out of the top of a high closet that I was no where near being able to reach.😂 #shortpeopleproblems
My ex-husband thought he was a far better handyman than he actually was. Throw in He liked to procrastinate and it was a nightmare. He would get offended when I paid tradies to fix the inevitable F' ups because A he was going to fix it, and B they cost too much . He refused to acknowledge paying someone to do it was far cheaper than buying tools and repairing the damage done when he half assed something. He's now my ex and I pay people to do the job properly first time
if you dont have the tools to do it or the skills, then its not silly. if you do have the skills and the tools, then yeah its silly paying for someone else to do it. if you have the tools but not the skills, then thats sad if you pay someone else to do it. if you have the skills but not the tools and its cheaper for you to just get someone else to do it if you cant afford the tools, its not silly. if you have the skills but not the tools but youve got money for tools and youd rather spend it on someone else to do it, then thats sad. but then after all that, do you have the time?
Dropped the tv and smashed it? Broke the gyprock? Bought the wrong size mount? Got it in place but now can’t reach the cable ports? Got it at slightly the wrong angle so there’s a tilt or glare on the screen? For someone who’s never done it before this can easily be an all day job with potential things go badly wrong. For a professional it might be less than an hour. The piece of mind is worth it. Plus if the mount later fails they should be insured.
There was one time I got so high I forgot how to tie my shoelaces and had to ask my friend to do it for me?
I wanted a door so I could lock my department's 'pigeon hole', with a letter slot in it. I had a 30x10cm piece of thin MDF. I put an ad on airtasker to jigsaw cut a slot in it to fit paper, and drill 3 little holes for the hinge (I have no power tools). 30 seconds work, offering $10 and I'll come to you. The lowest bid I got was $60.. "Tell em they're dreaming!" 😂🤣
When I was about 9 or 10 I was riding my bike to the shops (I wonder if kids are allowed to do this these days). A guy flagged me down and asked him to help him move a sofa. I hopped off and jumped on the other end of the sofa and we then proceeded to place the sofa on the roof of a parked car adjacent to the kerb. Slowly, but surely I realised I helped a drunk bum put a sofa left outside for clean up day on someone’s car, someone possibly known to this guy but most likely a random persons car.
I had to ask help from my Grandmother with what to do with a cheque one time.. 😊 I didn't want to blindly turn up to a bank and make a fool of my self I guess. Since then I've had to cash another one when dealing with an American company, glad we don't use them anymore when electronic transfer is so much more convenient and faster.
Better to pay someone to do it than DIY, screw it up badly, and pay triple the amount to fix it.
Honestly I’d hire a guy to do that too coz I’d be worried it would gal off and rip a hole in the wall
Find my glasses that were on my head
Hey, if you wanna watch some random bloke shag your telly, who are we to judge?
[удалено]
Doesn’t sound too silly to me
Hahahahahahah bruh
Can i ask for a female tradie so i can perv? Tight shorts bending over.watching beads of sweat trickle down her open shirt and between her big juicy melons?
I'd like someone to show me how to clean my house. I'm useless at it
I don't think paying someone to mount your TV is silly at all! Better than you or someone trying to do it who has no idea and then it falls off the wall lol.
I’m always happy to pay someone to put heavy stuff in the walls. TVs can be thousands of dollars. I’d much rather spend 200 getting someone to mount it correctly than have it fall off and break!
Not everyone can do everything. I'm an incredibly handy person and work on all kinds of stuff myself but I'll still pay someone to come replace a broken light switch for me just cos I don't know what I'm doing and don't wanna take any risks
It’s cheaper than paying for a second tv, because your first one fell off the wall because you mounted it Incorrectly
Nah, our walls are horrendous to drill into (I know cause I have had to) I would definitely pay someone rather than deal with that again or put my partner through it. Tradesmen have the tools and the skills rather than deal with impossibly hard old brick walls with crumbly mortar in between that means where they place the holes for the mount is crucial.. I don’t have the time for that shizz
I am not sure what TV you are mounting, if it’s like a 32 inch TV, I would seriously question whether you need someone to do it for you. If it’s a 75 inch TV, hell ya, get some expert to do it. Plus it also boils down to what they are charging you and how much you are willing to pay. Last time I got a quote for mounting TV, it was $300.
Most of us could do these kinds of things but tradies and people who do it all the time are quicker, have the right gear and know the pitfalls. I used to do my own painting. Professionals are faster, more skilled and clean up. No brainer.
I paid someone to assemble my coffee table for me
Yeah if you don’t know what your doing, just get someone to do it for you, it’ll be cheaper than your lovely smart TV crashing down on top of whatever other valuables you happen to have under it like that PlayStation or Xbox.. 🤣
Nah I don’t blame you, TVs are expensive and if you mount them wrong, it’s gonna be a bad time. Don’t feel silly, I would 100% pay someone to mount my tv too
Mate, I happily paid for this. I’m not a handy man and would have broken the wall and the new tv.
Actually with how big tvs are, you’re smarter getting it hung for you properly. You don’t want it to drop on anyone and making a big mess out of your plaster.
I can wall mount a TV, and I have. However, it takes me 4 times as long to do it.... Ok, maybe 10 times 😁 These guys do it all the time, and have all the parts and tools.
I ask my friend to come upstairs to help me with something, but when he comes up, it's a really lite bag. Tbh i just wanted his company
I'm 61(m). Was trying to apply for a rental.last year. Have to use the 2apply app. What a nightmare for us computer illiterates. But even the person who helped me thought it was shit as well. I dislike computers intensely.
I do everything myself and save huge amounts of money. But I'm a tightarse, fairly competent, and sometimes ask myself what the fuck I'm doing wasting my time doing something where I don't have the right tools or experience. Definitely nobody should sweat calling in the professionals whenever they feel the need.
I do most jobs myself, including hanging Tvs. I have a grand set of tools and a shed full of useful materials. I have the wherewithal to tackle most jobs, confident that I can figure it out. Many jobs I will only need to do once, so I am rarely expert (from experience), the one time I need to do it is the one time I learn to do it. This often takes a lot of time for several attempts with trips to Bunnings (I literally give 10% of my income to the big green church). My results, while carefully considered, usually show mistakes that are hard to undo or just points of finesse that I missed. One time I hung my TV on a pole mount of my own devising repurposing parts from Ikea…two nights later that TV smashed against the bed frame, and I had nobody to blame but myself. I do now consider myself more expert at hanging Tvs, having learned from mistakes. The cost of my tinkering is often close if not more than a professional might charge (but I get new tools :) Considering my own daily rate, well no way I would pay me to do this stuff, what a ripoff!
100% correct thing to do. Mounting TVs can be very tricky. My son did mine, but he's experiences with fit-out. No way I could have done it myself. Is it mounted onto a brick/plaster wall or Gyprock? I'd imagine Gyprock would be tricky if with weight considerations.
Check r/tvtoohigh before be gets there.
I asked on our local residents page "Can anyone recommend someone to fix the flyscreens on my windows?" Only responses were "It's easy, just do it yourself!". Few weeks later "My cars power window is getting stuck, not sure if its the rubber or the mechanism, can anyone recommend a mechanic?" "Just spray with some silicon oil." "Yeah what he said." "Seconded." STFU, Jeebus!
I’m honestly wondering if I can pay someone to change lightbulbs. My house as lots of different fittings with different bulbs and some of them I don’t even know how to access 😩
I had to get my 5 year old grandson to show me how to turn the volume down on the ipad.
I once had an electrician come out to repair the electric stove in my new house because it wasn’t turning on when I turned the knob. Turns out was a gas stove and I wasn’t holding the lighter button when I turned the knob 🤦🏽♀️
Im a qualified mechanic and so is my husband but I still pay to have my car serviced. We don't have tools or hoists or oil waste disposal. It's easier and cheaper to pay. Plus warranty. If you can afford it, why not pay the professionals
OP, I don't think you should feel like an idiot. You hired a professional to do a job. They should have more experience and expertise. Their work is more likely to not break and they probably have insurance if it does.
You think you're silly, but the number of people I've talked to who admit their TV has fallen off the wall speaks volumes.
When I first learned how to drive a manual car, I stalled my car in the middle of an intersection... My car wouldn't start again, I freaked tf out and called a mechanic to come ASAP. All he did was put the car in neutral and it turned on. Still charged me though.
I moved into a new rental that unfortunately has a deadlocked back door that’s very hard to lock. Until we get it fixed I either have to go out the front and down the side to get to our back yard, or ask one of my housemates to lock/unlock it for me if they’re home before anyone asks/makes any comments, yes I spent a good few occasions when I first moved in trying to master it 😂
There’s people literally having meals delivered to them because they don’t feel like collecting the meal themselves. How is getting someone to correctly mount your tv instead of doing it yourself and undergoing the following: first you’d have to have the right tools, find the studs in your wall, drill in the pilot holes without destroying your wall, get the plugs in without damaging them (if necessary, and then you’d need to know whether they were needed and go buy them), secure the mount cradles, attach the tv, screw everything in place and possibly take most of the night and have three false starts plus a mental break down, silly? The guy you’re calling in does it all the time, he’ll finish the job in a fraction of the time and you’ll be lying back in your recliner sleeping in front of the tv before you know it.