Home Improvement Projects: DIY or Call the Professionals?

Watching home improvement shows and DIY YouTube tutorials awaken the irresistible desire to take matters into our own hands and turn our homes into a sight worthy of an Architectural Digest cover. The shows’ hosts make everything look so easy, but for an average person with no experience in repairs and improvement projects, the DIY approach can end up costing a lot more than hiring a professional. So before you decide to tackle upgrading your home, you should evaluate your strengths, and the ability to get the job done. With the following few projects, we have done that for you.

DIY: Painting the Interior

If you were planning on calling professional painters to paint your interior walls – don’t, you can handle it. Not only that, but painting can be very fun, especially if you play some music, or get the family and friends involved. All you need is a bucket of paint, a brush/roller and some painter’s tape to keep the lines straight. You can even experiment with some geometrical shapes by applying the tape to the wall, instead of just around the borders.

Call the Pros: Painting the Exterior

If you are thinking that painting the exterior is the same, or very similar to painting the interior, you couldn’t be more wrong. It takes up a lot more of your time and it can even be very dangerous if you are not comfortable on a ladder. Complex architecture can pose an additional problem.

DIY: Flooring

Installing your own floor may seem as a too complicated task, but only at the first glance. With all the YouTube tutorials and simple-to-use products like snap-on flooring, you will be able to replace the floors in your living room, bedroom, etc. However, if your home has an unusual layout and it requires cutting and adjusting the boards, you should probably ask for professional help.

Call the Pros: Plumbing

Some plumbing repairs, like unclogging the toilet or sink, are completely DIY-friendly, while most of them are out of your skill set. For example, certified plumbers are the only ones who should tackle pipe damage, internal repairs, sump pump replacement and similar problems.

DIY: Install New Light Fixtures

A properly chosen light fixture can not only brighten up a room but also contribute to its décor. You can install task lamps at the sides of the bathroom mirror, retro pendant lamps above the kitchen island, statement fixture in the living room and an elegant chandelier in the bedroom.

Call the Pros: Electric Wiring

While the light fixtures pose no threat (as long as you remember to turn the power off when changing them) any work with electrical wiring, including repairing a circuit or replacing wires puts you in a risk of receiving an electrical shock. Changing the wiring also requires permits and knowledge of local codes.

DIY: Update Your Kitchen Cabinets

Preparing food in a kitchen that looks old and worn out is depressive and boring. If you want to turn your cooking into art, you will have to update the look of your kitchen. The simplest way to do that is to repaint the cabinets (remove the old layer of paint with sandpaper, and apply two new ones). After the paint has dried, you can also replace the hardware on the cabinets.

Call the Pros: Tiling the Walls and Floors

This goes for both kitchen and bathroom. Proper tiling requires experience, steady hands, and good tools, and if you’re missing only one of the three, you should pick up the phone and call a professional. Uneven spaces between the tiles can be very obvious, especially after grouting, and you might end up paying much more to have your mistakes corrected than you would if you called the pros in the first place.

Do-it-yourself projects are very tempting, both money- and confidence-wise, and if done in accordance with your abilities, they can be very rewarding. However, if you bite more than you can chew, they can be very disappointing too. So ask what you can and what you cannot do, and start making your house more beautiful and functional as of today.