Remodeling? Know when to leave it to the pros

There’s something to be said for rolling up your sleeves and tackling a home remodeling project yourself. Not only can it save you a lot of money but it gives you a satisfying feeling when you accomplish a project that you undertook all by yourself. Of course, tackling a home remodel by yourself doesn’t always go down without a hitch. In some cases, you may end up spending a lot more than you would have if you’d just hired a professional in the first place. So when should you do it yourself and when should you hire a pro? The answer is, "it depends."

Know your limits

What you’re capable of doing is going to depend a lot on your experience. Repainting a room is something that most homeowners can handles themselves, as is refinishing furniture or swapping out cabinet hardware or bathroom fixtures. But unless you have experience in wood working, you shouldn’t attempt to replace the kitchen or bathroom cabinets yourself. If you’ve never done flooring, you probably shouldn’t try to re-tile your kitchen.

Know your strengths and weaknesses and don’t think you can watch a couple of YouTube videos and know how to do something you’ve never done before. Because chances are, you’re going to need to call in a professional to undo what you did and then do it correctly.

A few jobs you should never attempt yourself

A good rule of thumb is to never attempt any kind of work that typically requires a license. Are you wanting to totally overhaul your bathroom? If that’s going to require the plumbing to be rearranged, you’re going to need a plumber.

Similarly, if your remodel is going to include any work on the wiring, you’ll definitely want to call in an electrician. Not only could you cause serious damage to your home, perhaps even a fire, you can seriously injure or kill yourself trying to do electrical work yourself.

If your roof needs to be patched up and you know right where you stored those leftover shingles from when the roof was installed, you should still call a roofer or you may be risking serious injury by falling from your roof.

Communicate with your contractor

If you’d like to do some of the work yourself and you are confident in your abilities but you know there are some aspects of the project you can’t handle yourself, you should hire a professional and experienced contractor and talk to him about what things you can handle yourself to stretch your budget.

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Source: ajc.com/news/lifestyles/home-garden/home-repairs-leave-pros/nq4tt/

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