Peter Palivos on When Should You DIY vs Hiring a Contractor?
Keeping up your home is a point of pride. It’s also necessary, as regular maintenance is crucial to keeping a residence up to par over time.
Home repairs and improvements are not a choice, although the specific projects you have done might be. One other decision you have to make is whether you hire professionals or DIY.
Pros and Cons
There are natural tradeoffs in this particular decision. The DIY route can help you take true ownership over your domain — while potentially saving money. However, the results might vary, and professionals can often do the work faster. It might just come down to a matter of personal confidence.
You’ll find no shortage of resources if you do decide on the DIY route. Online tutorials and step-by-step lists of instructions are widely available for sale or free online. Anything that you already have the skills for might be something you can do with relatively good results.
Sweat equity can save you hard cash. One typical arena for successful DIY projects is that of seasonal maintenance. Cleaning gutters, replacing filters, painting fences, and landscaping should fall within the purview of most homeowners and their applicable skills.
Many homeowners are better off skipping DIY options for projects where disaster can happen if mistakes are made during the actual project. Fixing a plumbing leak inside a wall might result in water damage, and substandard electrical work might start a fire.
In general, heating, plumbing, and electrical work are things better left in the hands of contractors and other appropriate professionals.
Even among projects that might fall within your DIY skills, you need to consider two factors when deciding which ones to tackle on your own versus what you call in professionals for.
First, how much time are you willing to put into a project? Even if you have the skills to do something, you’re just not going to do it as quickly as a professional will. If they work full-time in an industry, they’re doing that kind of work all week and will run through tasks like they are nothing to them. On the other hand, you might eat up a whole weekend on one thing.
Second, what finished level of quality do you want? Nearly any homeowner can learn how to tile something, but is it going to be professional-caliber? You may have to live with that for years, so think carefully.
Article originally published on PeterPalivos.com
