These days, most of us are inclined to call up the experts in order to fix any issue around our home, immediately. Other people, however, naturally have the handyman, DIY enthusiast’s spark.
There are many great reasons to be DIY focused. It makes you more autonomous, boosts confidence, can help you to save money, and so on.
But for all that, there are nonetheless times when it is a good idea to forego DIY, and resign yourself to calling in the professionals after all.
Just when, exactly, should you get tradesmen in to deal with your home issues, instead of handing them yourself? Well, here are some suggestions.
When you’ve got absolutely no idea of how to do the job yourself
Unless you’ve worked in the roofing profession for some time, it’s very unlikely that you have much of any kind of idea how to set about performing residential roof repair.
Likewise, if your boiler breaks, and you have no background in plumbing, the odds don’t seem particularly high that you are going to have a decent understanding of how to remove your old boiler, source and install the new one, and address any issues that may come up as a result.
It’s a great thing to always remain committed to perpetual learning, but there will inevitably be complex areas of home maintenance where you just have absolutely no idea of how to perform the job yourself. While it may be worth your while brushing up on your understanding, for the future, you should probably call the professionals to deal with the situation for you in the here and now.
When the potential consequences of doing a bad job are severe
Certain home repair jobs, if done badly, will be a bit frustrating. If you incorrectly replace a tap fitting, you may have water leaks, and other such frustrations to contend with.
You’re not, however, very likely to die as a result.
Certain home maintenance jobs come with high stakes. If, for example, there is a serious issue with the electrical wiring in your home, doing a bad job may have fatal consequences.
Whenever the stakes or potential consequences of doing a bad job are significantly high, you should ensure that a highly experienced and qualified professional is handling it.
When you’ve got a lot of pressing responsibilities, and time spent doing DIY would interfere with those
It might be that you work more or less around the clock, have a young family who you don’t see often enough, and various other pressing responsibilities that require time and attention.
In these cases, dedicating time and energy to a DIY project might mean failing to fulfil some of your more meaningful obligations in different domains of your life.
Always weigh up the pros and cons of doing an intensive DIY job. It might be that you can manage to do the DIY job without any trouble. But it can also be the case that instead of spending your weekend doing DIY, you should really take the kids to the zoo.