When Should You DIY a Home Improvement Project & When Should You Hire a Contractor?

Who won’t want to save money by performing home improvements or repairs themselves? This cuts expensive labor costs dramatically, but it is not always the most appropriate choice for updating your home. Sure, handy homeowners with skill or experience in a particular renovation may know what to do, which saves them time and money. On the other hand, going into a project with little knowledge or experience can result in damage or repairs that cost more than hiring a professional to do it in the first place. Before any homeowner goes the do-it-yourself route, here’s what you need to prevent an “uh-oh” moment.

1. Skill

To successfully complete a DIY home project requires a certain baseline level of skill. This does not always translate from one project to another. For example, a homeowner who has laid vinyl flooring may not know how to lay tile or carpet.

Evaluating each step in the project and performing it correctly is crucial to the home update’s success. Home projects may require a combination of skills and specialty equipment. Do you own and know how to safely operate a nail gun, for instance? What about ways to remove stuck-on floor adhesive? People who need help knowing where to start or their way around tools are better off hiring a professional home contractor.

2. Experience

Although skill and experience are related, they are not exactly the same thing. Many people know their way around a handsaw, level, and a hammer. That doesn’t mean they’re ready to renovate a kitchen.

Homeowners may need to gain experience in the project in question, which may affect if they can complete it. Sometimes, related experience does give people a knowledge base to figure out each task. Someone who knows how to assemble furniture may be able to extend their knowledge into assembling cabinetry kits. But be careful–just because you’ve successfully figured out IKEA furniture directions doesn’t make you experienced at cabinetry, built-ins, or hanging a mantle.

Homeowners whose DIY experience is limited or unrelated to the project decide if they are willing to make some mistakes along the way as they learn. Those mistakes could cost you time redoing the work and money for the materials to fix.

3. Time

Home contractors are professionals who specialize in tasks. The longer they’ve been in business, the more time they’ve had to refine their skills as painters, plumbers, installers, and floorers. However, homeowners tend to have less skill, experience, and access to time-saving equipment as professional home contractors. It makes sense that the project will take longer.

This may not be an issue for an individual with a lot of spare time and an interest in developing knowledge. Homeowners lacking the extra time will find delays and lack of experience quickly stretching out the project beyond their expectations. Professionals will take the least time from start to finish because they’ve established processes that make the job go quickly. They know their way around their tools, have the right equipment to speed up the job and work faster because they are experienced.

Hiring a home contractor who can give you a timeline and get the home renovation done within that time minimizes the impact on the rest of the household, too. Isn’t it nice to know a new kitchen will be done in three weeks and not three months, as you work as time allows on evenings and weekends?

4. Commitment

A home renovation project is a major commitment. Instead of heading to the movies or spending the evening kicking back around the grill, it’s about work. That work means investing hours in preparing, doing the renovation, and cleaning up afterward. And remember, big projects always seem to take longer than you think.

So ask yourself, how ready and willing are you to make this kind of commitment?

Some people are very ambitious and dedicated. These go-getters are likely to finish every project they start. Others may have interests that outweigh their commitment, which increases the chances that the project may get started but never be completed.

In that case, homeowners may prefer to hire a professional to ensure the home project will be finished according to the plan.

5. Risk

Ultimately, having a person lacking a high level of skill and experience in the home renovation project increases the risk of shoddy work and injury. More dangerous home renovation tasks or those requiring a permit may be better left to a professional. These include:

• Replacing a roof
• Upgrading an electrical panel
• Installing HVAC equipment

Projects with low risk that people feel all right about investing extra to make repairs may be better candidates for doing it yourself. Those are home updates like painting a room, pressure washing the exterior, and freshening the landscaping. But if you want the guarantee of a job done correctly the first time, you’ll prefer the reassurance of hiring a licensed contractor.

Home Renovations: DIY or Hire a Contractor

Sometimes, homeowners can do a project themselves, but there are cases when they really should hire a contractor. By evaluating these factors for each home update, people can be confident they made the right decision.

Updated February 2024