What Home Improvement Projects Should You Never Do DIY?
There is a YouTube tutorial or how-to article for just about any DIY home improvement project you might want to tackle. But the fact that you can do something with your own hands does not mean that you have to do it. In some cases, your time, money, and safety can be more valuable than what you would pay a professional to do the same job.
Look, we’re not here to discourage DIY – we’re Lifehacker, after all. But sometimes the trick is to “call a professional before you go berserk.”
Bottom line: know your limits. Here are some situations in which you might want to reconsider your DIY decision.
The pros could do it for less money
Calculate how much your time is worth per hour (or how much you think it costs) and how long the project will take, add the cost of materials and tools, and compare the total to how much a professional would charge for the same job. Of course, this approach does not work if you are solely doing your home projects in private time, which does not have the same value as your professional time, or if keeping to a budget is your top priority.
But you should also consider the cost of hiring a professional to fix bugs or rework any work that you don’t like.
The pros could have done it faster
If time is money or you have limited hours to complete a DIY project, it might be worth paying a professional who can almost certainly get it done faster.
The pros could have made it safer
Some projects are not easy to implement with YouTube education, without training or hands-on experience. You probably don’t want to DIY at home when it comes to:
- Electrical work (in addition to replacing the switch or lamp )
- Anything with tension springs (e.g. garage doors)
- Gas plumbing
- Roofing
If there is a chance that you will electrocute yourself, get choked, fall down stairs, or burn your house on fire, consider hiring someone to do the job.
Do it yourself will void the warranty
Many home appliances, systems and materials come with warranties, and installing or repairing items yourself or using unsuitable materials may void those warranties . Please read the warranty information carefully before proceeding with the following DIY projects:
- HVAC repair
- Flooring
- Siding
- Roofing
- Exterior painting
- Repair of household appliances
You don’t have the tools you need
This goes back to the issue of cost: some projects require specialized tools that you may not have on hand for one-time use. If you can’t rent them, DIY may be too expensive.
The end result will look like DIY
You can lay out the bathroom tiles yourself, but will you be happy with the end result? Will a prospective home buyer be able to say do it yourself? This category may include brickwork, tiling, cabinet installation and painting, and plastering.
You don’t even like DIY
For some, DIY is just a pain in the ass. If you are not going to enjoy the process, consider outsourcing the work to a professional. This article was originally published in October 2012 and was updated on October 14, 2020 to update dead links, perform copy editing, add a new header image, and align content with the current Lifehacker style.