Our roundups of the Worst DIY Installs have become so popular that we want to make it a monthly feature. But we need your help. You guys come across bad installs all the time, whether it’s by a DIYer or another installer. Next time you do, snap a photo and email me (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) with “Bad Install” as the subject our upload them to this thread.

Here are instructions on how to upload images.

Click the “Attachments” field above the “Submit Post” button and upload the photo from your computer. The maximum size is 75KB, so you’ll have to do separate posts for more than one photo.

Let’s have some fun with this and see who has encountered the worst install in the field.

This photo was sent in by Kris Hogg, managing director, Konnectiv Group Limited. It was a job he cleaned up in the UK. Thanks, Kris!

Here’s a photo from Joel Russcher of Premovation A/V System Integration

This is how my (not impoverished) uncle modernized his phone system. He was quite pleased with himself.

Steve Crowe - 19 November 2010 08:49 AM

Here’s a photo from Joel Russcher of Premovation A/V System Integration

That is priceless.

From Brendon Ziegenbein of Signature Sound & Video:

I was touring Washington DC a few weeks ago and ran across this little “Gem”. This was taken at the old post office next to the IRS building, it was where you used to be able to ring the bells and the DVD was “Explaining what the bell/clock tower was being used for.” The laptop is literally attached to the wall with screws through the computer into wooden blocks and a picture to cover the keyboard. Tax dollars hard at work!

Steve Crowe - 22 November 2010 10:27 AM

From Brendon Ziegenbein of Signature Sound & Video:

I was touring Washington DC a few weeks ago and ran across this little “Gem”. This was taken at the old post office next to the IRS building, it was where you used to be able to ring the bells and the DVD was “Explaining what the bell/clock tower was being used for.” The laptop is literally attached to the wall with screws through the computer into wooden blocks and a picture to cover the keyboard. Tax dollars hard at work!

Nah, if it were tax dollars, we’d see a small Picasso hanging off the keyboard!

Maroje Sardelich of JSN Comon sent us this photo all the way from Croatia. Thanks, Maroje!

This is a 4 star hotel with 150 000 euro alarm voice system according to BS and EN regulations, and this is the switch placed by the fire detection company between our racks and their fire panel. They have major issues with their equipment (frequent false alarms) and they wanted to switch it on and off so there isn’t frequent evacuation messages triggering in the hotel 150 000 euro system hanging by a thread, or 5 cent switch.

We’ve seen variations of this theme elsewhere, but here’s my implementation of paper-clip-as-wire-management-tool

Here’s another doozy from Joel Russcher: “Why go to the trouble of aligning the projector when a piece of tape will do just fine?”

Cabinet Tronix... a classic picture sent in from a client showing us their DIY installation. The things people will do to watch TV at the foot of the bed?

Here is a “Before” shot including mini fridge, Cable box, DVD player, TV and lets not forget the “cables”. You can see why they may want a TV lift cabinet. A TV lift furniture console is the best solution for placing a TV at the foot of the bed.

I will follow up with an “After” picture to show just how big of a difference a TV lift cabinet can make for the function/look of any room and solving this worst install.

Cabinet Tronix.. Here is our “After” follow up picture with one of our TV lift cabinets custom made for our client.

This picture was taken with the TV lift in the “up” position which is controlled by a IR/RF universal remote system. No more cables and no more mini fridge.

The cable box and DVD player are now hidden at the base of the TV lift cabinet. We hope you enjoyed our Before and After picture set. Thank you Steve for all your help. This is a great topic that we all can truly appreciate. Denzil Cintron Vp of Operations. http://www.cabinet-tronix.com

I went out to visit with Avitel in Bozeman, Mont. and they showed me photos of a bar install they cleaned up. The original installers used 1-inch wood blocks to separate and cool the components. Also, signals to TVs kept dropping out, and certain satellites were only hooked up to certain TVs, meaning only certain TVs could get certain channels. Certainly not the ideal environment for a sports bar. But Avitel cleaned up everything. Read more about the clean up job: Neat-O: Sports Bar’s Worst Nightmare

Mark Blackketter of Phonograph Electronic Architecture sent this photo in via cell phone. Here is his description:

This was the crawl space behind the two equipment racks. The receiver in the picture is the one of the three in the system.  We have given them a quote on cleaning this mess up and well as making the control system actually work (RTI).

Hi everyone,

Here are some photos of bad repairs that we plan to get started on next week.

SoundVision Team

Steven Cheung of VidaBox came across this picture and sent it to us, saying this must of been the company’s “$30 Installation Special.”