For home improvement wizards or those who are simply trying to save a few bucks, taking a “DIY” approach to home repairs and improvement might seem like the best solution for all kinds of big home projects. Since you can find many home improvement techniques for big home projects online, you might think that you have everything you need to properly get the job done. While you might technically be able to figure out how to do something, the truth is that there’s a good reason behind professionals going to trade school or taking on an apprenticeship for several years to learn how to complete electrical work, plumbing, and more.
In the age of the internet, it might seem like these skills are possible for anyone to master after watching a short video or reading a blog post. Although you might have a bit of an understanding of how to do a home improvement task after learning about it from the internet or other sources, you need practice, supervision, and training to master a technical skill. Even if you feel confident in your abilities as a DIY home improvement enthusiast, some projects are too large or complicated to safely do on your own.
While it would be wonderful if you could do all big home projects by yourself, there are plenty of people who spend large amounts of their lives devoted to performing those tasks on a daily basis. Instead of risking injury to yourself or your property, it’s best to consider whether it could be beneficial to ring up a professional when you’re staring down big home projects. Just sit back and relax as the job gets done.
Why Shouldn’t I Complete a Large Home Project Myself?
First and foremost, completing a large home project on your own with minimal training and manpower is a recipe for disaster. The biggest risk you take when you complete a project on your own is your safety. If you’re trying to chop down a tree on your own, for example, you put yourself at risk of being crushed and even killed by a falling tree. What’s more, you put others around you at risk of death and injury. After all, if you are using heavy equipment and you don’t know how to operate it properly, you might accidentally hurt someone. You could also hurt the structures and environment around you. This could result in lawsuits, hefty legal fees, and even criminal charges.
A certified home improvement professional will carry liability insurance to help offset some of these potential expenses in the field. As a DIY home improvement enthusiast, you won’t have liability insurance to protect you. Even if you have home insurance, it will only go so far in covering expenses related to liability. To avoid hurting yourself and your community, it’s best to leave big, dangerous home improvement projects to those who have the ability to sense when something might be going wrong, as much as they have the skills to make a project go the right way.
Why You Should Hire Professional Help
Even if you’ve spent many hours learning how to DIY home improvement projects, you will still probably come up short against a professional who has trained in that specific niche. This isn’t to say that you’re not skilled in DIY home repairs or that you can’t do some projects. However, it is to say that your best bet at getting the job done right is bringing in a professional for big home projects.
When you think about it, you wouldn’t try to stitch a wound on your own. Sure, you might be able to get away with treating small cuts with bandaids and Neosporin. For a large, gaping gash, though, you’d want to go and see a doctor who specializes in suturing wounds. Otherwise, you’d put yourself at risk of infection and even death. Big home projects are similar to this analogy. If you have a small hole in the wall that needs filling, you can probably repair it yourself with some of the materials you’d find at your local hardware store. On the other hand, if you want to take down an entire wall and replace it with a brick one, a professional is probably better equipped to get the job done properly. Unless you’re a maintenance person by trade, it’s safe to say that professionals usually have more training and skills than the average non-skilled DIY hobbyist.
Finally, when you take on big home projects, you might not have access to the materials and equipment that home improvement specialists do. This could mean that the job will need to be redone after a while because the materials will deteriorate or cause issues. It could also mean that you might have to do some literal heavy lifting that a professional would divert to a special machine. In both of these cases, it’s better to spend money on a professional now instead of paying for it later with your time, energy, resources, and well-being.
Landscaping
For heavy landscaping jobs like building a retaining wall, you should not attempt to complete the job on your own. Landscaping might look easy from the outside, but it counts as one of many big home projects that’s best to leave to professional landscapers. A retaining wall can be a beautiful addition to your front yard and add an air of elegance to your home. Wanting to have a retaining wall for aesthetic or practical reasons is totally fair, but you should wait until you can have professional landscapers and masons complete it for the best results.
Building a House
Whether you’re looking to build a tiny home or a large ranch-style home, you should enlist the home building services of professionals instead of trying to do it yourself. A house might seem simple enough to build. From an uninitiated perspective, it may seem like it’s just laying bricks and other materials on top of each other until you have a sound shelter. When it comes to building a house, there’s more than meets the eye. You’ll need to know how to properly build the foundation so the house has a sturdy base. You’ll also have to tackle electrical wiring, window installation, and even determine where to safely build the house on a plot of land. This might all seem like something you could learn on YouTube or another platform, but getting into the nitty-gritty of it is actually quite complex.
Building a house also requires you to adhere to zoning laws and ordinances. These can be tricky to navigate even for those who are professionals at building houses. Constructing a home that is safe, livable, and comfortable takes a whole team of different people.
Even if you could technically possess all of the necessary skills to build a home, you’d still want to have people to help you do the heavy lifting. What’s more, you’d need an outside perspective to assist with problem-solving when something inevitably doesn’t go as planned. Overall, building homes large and small should be left to professionals who’ve been doing it for years. If you have a hard time trusting the professionals with constructing your dream home, trying to find a home that’s already built may be a safer option than attempting to construct it yourself.
Taking Down Trees
If you have a tree in your yard that needs to come down, you might think you can take care of it yourself. This could be a grave mistake. Trees are large, tall objects that can severely hurt you and those around you if they aren’t carefully chopped down. Finding affordable tree services is much easier than trying to rebuild your life after being crushed by a falling tree.
Even trees that seem small or predictable in the way that they might fall, the process of chopping them down should only be done by someone with skills and expertise in removing trees. Tree removal is a job that has multiple steps to ensure that it’s done safely and effectively. After a tree falls, someone needs to break down the wood and properly dispose of it. Even if you’ve chopped wood before, you’ll still probably want to call in the professionals for this one of big home projects.
Constructing Heavy Furniture
If you’ve ordered a new bed, sofa, or another heavy piece of furniture, you might think that it’s a perfectly acceptable project to try completing on your own. Depending on the size and construction of the furniture, it might be better to leave it to an interior home design professional or professional furniture builder. Some companies advise furniture owners to leave the task of building the furniture to a pro. This is because some pieces of furniture are too heavy to safely build on your own.
If you’re building a large, heavy king-sized bed frame, you could injure your back, shoulders, or another vital part of your body while straining to lift it. If you’re constructing furniture in your home like a cabinet or island, calling a local cabinet company can be worthwhile. They can let you know if your job sounds like something that’s safe to do yourself or if you should rely on professional help to get it done properly.
Resolving Plumbing Issues
When your toilet doesn’t stop running or your pipes have burst, you might want to save some money and try to fix the problem on your own. While no one wants to enlist a plumber for small plumbing services like that, it’s really best to pay for professional help when it comes to plumbing issues. Pipes can be complicated to try to understand as someone who doesn’t deal with them on a professional basis.
In old houses, a plumbing issue that seems small can be hard to fix on your own without triggering even more plumbing issues. When you notice a leaking faucet, calling in a plumber or maintenance personnel who knows how to handle it can save you money in the long run. This is because they may be able to identify the source of the problem instead of patching it up at the surface level.
Laying Down or Stripping Flooring
If you dream of beautiful oak flooring, you might be tempted to take matters into your own hands and lay that flooring down yourself. If you’re not a professional, this could be a mistake. If you improperly install flooring, it can lead to issues that allow moisture and other problems to creep in under the floorboards. By the time you notice a problem, it may be too late to fix it. It can also become too costly to resolve. This will leave you scrambling to find a temporary place to stay and shelling out more money than you would have if you just let the professionals tackle the job in the first place.
Stripping flooring might seem like a simple task that you can do even if you lack experience with flooring. However, tearing out carpeting or floorboards can be a dangerous task. If there’s mold or other hazardous materials under the carpeting, you might not have the right personal protective equipment to keep your respiratory system safe. What’s more, you risk removing it incorrectly and making the job of installing new flooring more complicated than it needed to be.
Installing an Inground Pool
To make summer fun a breeze, sit back and let swimming pool installers take care of installing your inground pool. This job is definitely not a one-person one. What’s more, if you attempt to do it yourself, you might not have the right equipment to dig out a space for it and install it. You could also accidentally flood your home if you install it incorrectly.
Fixing the Garage Door
If the garage door won’t open, calling professionals for a garage door repair is your best bet. The pros will understand the wiring that makes it function. They’ll also know how to safely work with the hefty door so it doesn’t injure anyone while they’re fixing it.
No matter how much DIY experience you have with big home projects, everyone needs to rely on professionals sometimes. Asking for help isn’t a bad thing or a sign of weakness. It simply means you know your limits for big home projects.