Should You Do It Yourself?

April 3rd, 2011 Jackson Colson Leave a comment Go to comments

Thanks to the recession, do it yourself is making something of a comeback. Many people are interested in saving money by taking care of home repairs, lawn care, and other items that they might have paid someone else for prior to the recession. It’s all about cutting costs.

Sometimes, though, doing it yourself can actually cost more in the long run. This is because some jobs require a certain level of expertise. If you don’t know how to do something, and you mess it up, you could end up having to pay someone else to fix the damages and do it right. Your plan to save money could backfire horribly.

Deciding Whether to Do It Yourself

When our basement flooded, we discovered that there are some things that we could do ourselves. Turns out that it’s fairly easy to remove baseboards. Once we had someone show us how to remove a baseboard, and put it back on, it was no problem. There are a few other things that can be done on your own around the house.

However, there are some things that require a little more expertise. Laying carpet (and other flooring) is one of those things. If you don’t know how to do it, you could end up with an ugly mess made of your flooring. Major remodeling projects generally require that you get some sort of help at some point. And I absolutely refuse to engage in do it yourself plumbing or electrical.

When deciding whether to do something yourself, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

Is the work specialized? If so, do you have the special knowledge to do it properly?
Do you have the right equipment? If not, how much would it cost to rent the right equipment?
Are there special circumstances involved?
Do you have the time to accomplish the task in the proper timeframe?
How much will it cost you if you do something wrong and have to pay to have it fixed?

As you answer these questions honestly, it should become apparent whether or not it is a good idea to do it yourself. Run a cost comparison. In some cases, you might find that spending a few hundred extra dollars is worth it if you are concerned about performing specialized work that could cost more to fix if you mess up.

Do It Yourself

For many people, relatively simple projects can be done on your own. We put up our own vinyl fencing, after we hired someone to put in the posts (we didn’t have the time and specialize equipment to place the posts). Some aspects of putting our basement back together could be done with the help of a knowledgeable relative, and that saved us quite a bit of money. However, there were some aspects that were not practical for us to take care of on our own.

Most of our lawn care can be done without professional help, and there are a number of people who like to change their own oil (make sure you dispose of the oil properly). Before you decide to do something yourself, make sure that you really will save in the long run, and that you have the knowledge and ability to do the project right.

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