Worst Tenant Attempted Repairs?

[Patrick L.]

I always tell my tenants never to try to fix anything themselves and to call my full time maintenance person. That's why he's on the payroll and he'll answer his cell phone pretty much any time of the day. He has even been nice enough to go remove a half dead rat that was twitching in a trap at 1am for a tenant. Even with easy access to professional repairs tenants are often so eager to prove how handy they are that they attempt repairs that are way over their heads.

Last week I found that one of my tenants (a stucco contractor) had a small roof leak that he "fixed" himself. His solution was to coat a 10'x12' section of the roof with the stucco, in the process essentially ruining that entire portion of the roof and leaving me to re-roof the entire house since the rest of the roof had <5 years of useful life left. He was given notice that his lease is being terminated (he was month to month) and he's moving out now.

I had another tenant move out this week where the kitchen faucet appeared to be clogged with sediment and rather than cleaning out the filter or calling someone he duct taped the sprayer to the faucet and had been using that instead. That one at least made me laugh and was a much less costly fix than the roof.

What are some of the stupidest repairs your tenants have attempted themselves and failed miserably at?