My friend recently bought a house, and as his only friend with any
construction knowledge, I got roped into house hunting with them. The truth is I just did a walk through on the two they had narrowed their search down to, but here’s what I realized. There are people who are gifted when it comes to DIY projects, but just because you can take the squeak out of one of your stair treads, or even replace a light fixture doesn’t mean that rewiring a house is a good project for you to take on. Yes, it is expensive to have a professional come in and do the job, but are you really saving money?

The reason I say this is because I was astonished at the projects the previous owners of these houses took on themselves. One house had tile directly on top of existing hardwood, and laminate floor that never really got clipped together properly. They had run all their own trim, and by the look of it had to get it from the hardware store to the house in their smart car and so had it all cut into 4’ sections. The other house had had an entire remodel done, electrical and all. Now I’m not trying to discourage working on your house yourself, but you need to consider at what point is it better to get a professional to step in and take over.

First lets state the obvious, some people are more gifted than others, or simply have more training and experience, and what each person should feel confident doing will vary. All that said, here are some basic guidelines to consider.

Electrical Repairs

Pretty obvious right? I mean, it could kill you or burn your house down if you get it wrong. Even still, you’d be surprised at how many people think its just a matter of pulling a new piece of wire from the last outlet. I was in a house that had a total of 6 circuits in the entire house…..Everything….and it wasn’t a miniature home. If that doesn’t seem strange to you, you don’t need to run your own electrical. If you don’t understand the significance of amperage and have a basic idea of how much a circuit can handle, stay away from electrical. If you want to replace a fixture, know how to do it safely. Cut the power, make sure your connections are in a protected box so that if a connection were to spark there would be nothing to catch fire. Another true story. My father-in-law built himself a new garage where he could work on his treasured muscle cars. Being the frugal man that he is, and I say that with respect, he wired the shop himself. How hard could it be right? He’s a mechanic, he’s pretty handy. After sheeting the walls, he installed all the outlets in the shop, proudly walked over to the breaker panel and flipped the switch. Standing there stunned he proceeded to watch a burn mark work its way around the room from outlet to outlet as the wire in the wall melted. Thankfully the breaker finally tripped and there was minimal damage, but the point remains. Don’t do your own wiring, it’s not worth it.

Installing your own counter-tops

This one makes me laugh to just think about. Now why would you
want to do this? Have you ever picked up granite? I don’t know if you realize this, but that stuff is heavy. I also don’t know if you realize how much mess it makes when it comes time to trim it back to fit, or to cut a hole for the sink. Any good installer will pick the piece back up. Walk it back outside and make his cuts before bringing it back in. That sounds exhausting just reading about it. And what happens if it cracks? Good luck getting the supplier to replace it. Again, I don’t understand why someone would do this themselves.

Structural work

The majority of people can’t look at a wall and tell whether or not its structural. Heck, I’ve looked at walls before and could have sworn they weren’t holding anything up only to expose what’s above and finding out it was in fact holding the ceiling up. Doing this kind of work is not a simple task and does not need to be left to the logic of the average Joe (or Janice). That being said, you would be surprised at how many houses I walk into to find people have proudly knocked out supporting walls to improve the feng shui of their houses layout. Don’t do this. At the very least, hire someone to supervise and who will let you be a part of the demolition process if you just enjoy being involved in the construction process.

Flooring

Probably the most common thing I see when looking through houses, especially ones that have been put on the market to sell, is the homeowner doing their own flooring installation. Rarely have I seen it done well, and it shows. It makes you wonder “what else did these people attempt on their own in here”. The concept is simple enough. Snap together the laminate floor and in an hour, a new floor. A few weeks later, all the seams start to pull apart, the floor starts to buckle because their was not enough space left around the perimeter of the room and the seams in the floor have a distinct wave to them. This is especially bad when its done in the basement on a concrete slab that is not level. It takes a certain skill level to prepare the floor before any flooring is even installed. And that’s not even scratching the service when you introduce tile into the equation.

The point is, there is a lot involved in when it comes to doing projects around the house. When done poorly, they raise all kinds of red flags when its time to sell your house. In my opinion, its not worth it in the long run and I would argue cost you money on the selling price of your house. There is nothing better than walking in and seeing an immaculately renovated house, and nothing worse than spending money on something that didn’t turn out in the end.

At Alair Homes in Toronto, we are renovation experts and you can count on us for immaculate renovations. When it’s your home, it’s not worth taking that risk. Give us a call and we’ll give you a free quote and show you how we can get it done right the first time.