12 People Who Wanted a Renovation and Ended Up With Wild Stories Instead

Starting a home renovation, you might expect dust, noise, and a fair share of decisions about paint colors. But sometimes, things take a turn for the completely unexpected. From plans going off the rails to surprises no one saw coming, some homeowners have found themselves in the middle of total chaos. Here, people share the wildest, funniest, and most jaw-dropping experiences they’ve had while trying to transform their spaces!

• Happened to a friend—lesson learned the hard way. They got multiple quotes for a home addition and went with the lowest one, which was thousands cheaper than the rest (major red flag). The contractor showed up, excavated for the foundation, poured it… and then vanished. Just completely disappeared.
  The worst part? They had paid him everything upfront. That was 12 years ago, and to this day, there’s still an unfinished foundation sitting in a four-foot hole behind their house. They haven’t been able to save up enough to finish the project, and now they’re trying to sell—but buyers take one look at that mess and walk away. - © joeroloff / Reddit

• This guy was hired to renovate our basement for my grandpa. Seemed nice enough, and my grandpa, being the generous person he is, decided to help him out a little. He even bought him a truck, gave him some extra money, you know, just trying to be kind.
  Turns out, that kindness cost him a lot. The contractor not only took the money but also stole my grandpa’s identity—along with $44,000. - © knuxxlove / Reddit

• Not me, but my mum. She had custom double-glazed windows installed—massive ones, about 3.5 meters tall and weighing around 700–800 kg. The builder secured them with small screws. In a house perched atop a valley where strong winds tear through for kilometers, that was a disaster waiting to happen.
  On a particularly gusty day, the inevitable happened and the windows came crashing down. Thankfully, the house was still under construction, but the impact completely destroyed a small wood stove and a marble bench in the extension. Taking the builder to court was the only option. He eventually settled, but the process was long, expensive, and completely exhausting. - © ac**kblockedorange / Reddit

• We moved recently, and our new neighbors were renovating — constant drilling and hammering. One day, their son shyly asks if we can help move a cabinet. My husband goes, ten minutes later he returns pale. “You won’t believe it,” he says.
  “They have everything —tables, chairs, the washing machine— suspended from the ceiling beams by chains.” Now, every time the wind picks up, we wonder if the neighbors are swinging around in midair. Or maybe that’s just their idea of interior design.

• Called in a plumber to work on our bathroom. Came home to find a huge crack running through the floor, scratches all over the bathtub, and a total mess. Honestly, it looked like the plumber and the apprentice had been in a brawl.
  The only explanation? A handwritten note that read: "Could not finish b’room due to underlying problems." That was it. No call, no apology—just silence. The plumbing company was small, and after countless attempts to contact them, we kept hitting dead ends.
  Eventually, we gave up. Thankfully, our amazing neighbors stepped in, and within a year, we had a fully renovated bathroom. But to this day, I have no idea what actually happened in there, but I’ve never left service workers alone in my house since. - © owlette23 / Reddit

• Hired a contractor for a $9K job at my boyfriend’s empty rental home. Seven months later, he had barely done anything.
  Even what little he did complete was awful, and then he just walked off with $7K. We had no choice but to cut our losses, hire a real company for $15K, and they finished the whole thing in two days. That was a year ago.
  Now, I’m being sued for $9,999 just for leaving a negative review. My court date is next Friday, and honestly, if I lose, I’m losing faith in everything. - © stukufie / Reddit

• The owner of a landscaping company dropped off a worker who did not speak a word of English. Everything seemed fine until he fired up a trencher and managed to cut BOTH our electrical and gas lines.
  We smelled gas inside and rushed outside just in time to see the guy running down the street. Then came the cops, the firefighters, and the gas company. That was JUST the beginning of our nightmare... - © DannyTannersFlow / Reddit

• This happened to a good friend. After a bathroom flood caused major damage to the floors and drywall upstairs and downstairs, he had one contractor submit the insurance claim just to use their license number. The plan was to take the check and pay a different contractor to do the work for half the estimated cost.
  When the check arrived, it had the first contractor’s name on it. He cashed it and disappeared. After keeping a cut for himself, he eventually gave my friend back 90 percent of the insurance money, but it took a while to get it. — © combatcvic / Reddit

• I was expanding a long, narrow closet in my house when I opened up a wall and found my own name written inside. Cue the dramatic music. My house used to belong to my late grandparents.
  Turns out my father built the original closet around the time I was born. Twenty-five years later, I was the one tearing it open. - © redhandfilms / Reddit

• My friend was remodelling his bathroom when he found a note written on the back of some drywall. It was something along the lines of, “John and Jane Smith remodelled this bathroom with love, Smarch 1985.”
  Turns out, my friend’s parents actually knew Jane Smith, but had no idea she used to live in that house. Even more surreal, her husband had just passed away the week before. My friend cut out the section of drywall, had it framed, and gave it to her. She hugged him for a solid five minutes. — © P***isedLand84 / Reddit

• We were deep into renovating the attic of our 110-year-old folk Victorian, expecting nothing more than dust and old wood. Most of the space was just what you’d expect—unfinished, ordinary. But then we noticed one small room that was anything but.
  A tiny sink, a sloped closet, and an open space between the walls hinted at something more. This had once been a maid’s quarters. As my husband tore into the wall, his hand brushed against something brittle.
  An old paper bag crumbled at his touch, revealing a broken china plate. Nearby, hidden away for decades, lay a watch, a doll, and a collection of hat pins—forgotten traces of a life once lived in that tiny room. - © obscurityknocks / Reddit

• A few doors down from me, the owners were renovating their house when they opened up a plaster and lathe wall—only to find it packed with bones. Hundreds and hundreds of them. They called the police, who had the bones tested.
  Turns out, they weren’t human—just animal bones from cows and other livestock. The leading theory was that they were used for insulation, but that never really made sense to me. Just weird. - © tehsma / Reddit

The before-and-after home makeovers on television may make you want to renovate your home, but as these stories prove, home renovations are definitely not for the faint-hearted and here are 12 stories that prove that!