Any time there’s a maintenance task or home improvement project to be done around your house, you’ll be faced with the same difficult question– should you hire a professional to take care of it, or do it yourself? Some projects are actually very doable for the average homeowner, even without much experience, whereas others are more specialized and should be handled by experts with training and experience. Sometimes, you just might not have the time or energy to DIY something, even if it is on the simple side!
Deciding whether to handle a project yourself or hire someone for it can be tricky, so we’ve come up with this list of questions that you can run through to make the choice easier!
Is it Simple or Complex?
Consider how much time, effort, money, and materials this project is going to take to do yourself. If you’re not sure how to do a certain project, look it up online– there’s sure to be a wealth of knowledge to be found with a quick search like “how to change a faucet” or “how to hang a picture.” If the steps look simple and straightforward, it’s probably a project that’s easy to DIY. If you’re getting confused or the instructions contain a lot of specialized terms that go over your head, it’s probably a project that’s best left to the pros.
Do You Have the Equipment?
Most home projects have the expense of materials attached to them, like the cost of buying paint in order to paint a room. However, you also have to consider the cost of equipment when you’re looking at the financial angle of a project. You can buy paint, but do you have rollers, brushes, drop cloths, paint thinner, paint trays, painters tape, and the other things you would need? Take a look at the total of all of these tools. You might find that hiring professionals makes more monetary sense in the end!
Does It Involve Hazardous Materials?
Even the handiest and most ambitious DIYers know when to back off of a dangerous project, and one of those situations is when hazardous materials come into play. Anything that might be dangerous to the health of you and your family should be something that you outsource, and you might find that you have different levels of hazard tolerance at different times. For example, even painting a room yourself might be too much for you if you have a curious baby who might end up getting into an open can and putting things in their mouth, but a family with older children might be able to tackle that project themselves.
What are the Risks?
Every home improvement or maintenance project that you can undertake carries some level of risk, and when you’re choosing whether or not to DIY a project, it’s important to weigh that level of risk and decide if it’s worth it. For example, a small project like hanging picture frames might include the risk of dropping and breaking a frame or dropping a frame on a foot or body part– not necessarily something you want, but not a major issue either. Trying to handle a plumbing project yourself, however, like fixing a leaky pipe or replacing a fixture, can carry the risk of doing damage to your plumbing, which can cause water damage in your house and become expensive to fix, meaning that it’s probably a better idea to let a trained professional handle the project in the first place.
Are Certifications or Approvals Required?
Some things about your house can be easily changed without needing any approvals, inspections, or permissions from your town or local municipal body. However, this isn’t the case for every project you might want to try out. Doing something like knocking out a wall in your house, for instance, shouldn’t be done without completing the proper paperwork through building regulations. While it is possible to handle this red tape by yourself, it’s often easier to hire a professional to handle the entire project, as they’ll have plenty of experience with the necessary permissions and approvals.
Do You Have the Time?
The last and arguably most important question that you need to ask yourself about any given project around your house is this– do you have the time to complete it? We all have aspirations for our home and chores to get done, but with today’s busy schedules, you frequently don’t have as much time to devote to your home as you might like, and nothing is work than a maintenance task hanging over your head or an unfinished project lying around where you have to look at it every day. Convenience and ease is a perfectly good reason to hire someone to take care of a home improvement or maintenance task for you, and if you think it’ll be stressful or difficult to manage something yourself, even if it’s easy to DIY, then you have your answer about what the best course of action is!
Sadly, even when you decide not to DIY a project, arranging to have it done by a professional can still be difficult. You don’t have time to waste on making phone calls, looking into reviews, and getting quotes! Instead, let Maintain Your Home take care of coordinating your home projects for you. We give you one simple point of contact that you can trust to take care of the fine points and get the job done right. Contact us today to learn more!
