What projects should never be DIY?

Question

What are the most common DIY projects that you should not do yourself? What must be hired out?

Edit: Just to be clear, what we're looking for here are the things that a regular homeowner might think they can do, but should not.

Things that look easy but are actually hard. Last summer my landlord decided to put a new roof on the house. They removed part of the old roof, and then the the rain and wind started. It took them 3 weeks to finish. Much of their time went to securing tarps overnight or bailing water out of the attic. An expert crew would have done it in 2-3 days, and avoided all that hassle. (We're still finding nails in the grass!)

Things that have to be done right from the beginning and are hard to repair later. Like plumbing in a poured concrete slab floor.

Or things that could be dangerous in non-obvious ways. Like gas lines, where an overtightened fitting can fail, and the whole house burns down in a hurry.

Answer 1

Domestic gas piping. Seems like it's trivial to connect a stove to the pipeline in an apartment - buy a pipe and two thunks, play with a wrench - what could be easier?

Then you overtighten or undertighten some nut or use a wrong type of "thunk" and you've got a gas leak and possibly a devastating explosion. Saved 30 to 100 bucks but destroyed your own and others' property and possibly killed and injured people. Bad Idea™.

Answer 2

This reminds me of this question. Garage doors. The tension stored in those springs is pretty dangerous. Make a wrong move while tensioning the springs and it could take your arm off.

Answer 3

Brain surgery! Definitely a bad idea as a DIY project.

Seriously, I think there are few such things that can DEFINITELY be put on a non-DIY list or not. For one individual, changing a light bulb may be a stretch. For another person, tearing out a complete kitchen and redoing it, building the cabinets from scratch, is all a simple thing.

Years ago when I was faced with my very first attempt at a plumbing repair, I was worried I would burn down the house when I fired up the propane torch. So I did some research, talked to a few people with more experience. It went off without a hitch. The point is to do the necessary research in advance if you have no experience, and if you will be doing it yourself.

Of course, the presence of a mentor who can guide you through the tricky steps is incredibly valuable. This is one way that web sites like this prove useful. They offer a way to get that mentoring for a DIY newbie, from someone who has gone through the learning process already.

There is one other factor in the DIY scheme of things - the possession of the right tools for the job. For example, in my younger years I was willing to do things like replace the muffler on my car. After a while, I found that while this is something I am capable of doing as a DIY project, it simply is not worth several hours of my time, getting junk in my eyes while laying on my back underneath the car. A better choice for me is to pay someone to put the car up on a lift and do the job quickly, with better tools than I possess. Or, perhaps I might tell you of the miserable day I spent on a brake job on my car in the middle of winter, done in a windy parking lot.

What I learned was that I simply don't enjoy doing work like that, even if I am capable of doing it. I learned that for ME, a good DIY job is one that I have the skills to do, or where I can easily enough learn the skills needed. It is one where I have the tools I need, or the tools are inexpensive enough to buy or rent. A DIY job is one where I can do it myself for significantly less money than I can pay someone else to do it for me. And all of these factors will be different for every person out there.

My strategy over the years has been to learn my capabilities for such work, and what I like to do. Then as I need to do one project or another, to buy the necessary tools if I will use them more than twice. Use a tool once, I'll borrow it or rent it if I can. Gradually you build up the capability to DIY for many of the problems you will find around the house.

Answer 4

You should never do the stuff that's not fun to do. It took me a while to learn this, but unless you truly love hanging sheetrock, for instance, assume a pro will get that portion of your project done 10x faster than you ever would. That's well worth the money, IMHO.

I put roofing on that list. It's certainly a DIYable task, but a pro roofing team can redo your roof in one day. That's a good thing.

Answer 5

I'm a general contractor, and I make a living of correcting problems created by home owners trying to save a buck or two. Reading and researching online is great, but no substitute for experience and the proper tools for the job. The cost of fixing a botched job is always more than doing it right the first time, not to mention the agravation and possible safety hazards created. WHEN IN DOUBT CALL A PROFESSIONAL, or become good friends with a competent general contractor and ask for advice like my family and friends do all the time! lol

Answer 6

I hear a lot about people trying to build their own decks which later failed, resulting in serious injuries and/or death. If you're going to build a deck by yourself, at least consult with a pro and make sure you get official inspections throughout the building process and upon completion.

Answer 7

There are things you CAN do yourself, but some things you SHOULD NOT do even if you theoretically CAN. IMHO, major electrical is something you COULD do, but it's a lot smarter to have someone who knows what they're doing come in and at least check it out. also in this category for me are structural (load-bearing walls) and foundations, major plumbing and gas, and windows.

Just take the time to think "if I screw this up, but don't know I screwed it up, what could happen?" If the answer is fire, structural failure, major water damage or something else REALLY expensive (look up mold treatments), spend the money to have someone else do it.

Answer 8

I'll probably get skinned for this, but I believe nothing is a "never-DIY". I'm not a contractor, not an expert in home repair but I know two things: 1, humans have been doing a lot of this for a really, REALLY long time and 2, ask the right question to multiple people that do.

Most of the stuff I've done, I've done right (had others check it out) and that's strictly because I've asked 3 people that DO know what they're doing. If I price it out and find out someone else can do it for 15-25% more, they get the work ... except electrical and framing, I like doing those and I find them really really easy.

Answer 9

Refinishing a bathtub in place. "It's just body work - I've done this a dozen times." Incredibly messy, hard to clean up, a ton of cramped work, and even with good ventilation - just an awful job. I saved my mom a few bucks, but never again.

On the other hand, I did try one of these paints on a bathtub I want to replace. It's been a year, still looks good. Gets horrible reviews though - I may have been lucky or used a different brand.

Answer 10

I'm a bit baffled by the responses here. Gas and Electric? Really?

The two things I can think of that should never be done DIY are things which inhibit your ability properly to react (auto-brain surgery), and things involving nuclear/toxic/infectious materials (and there's some leeway here if you really do your research).

There are many, many, many things which can be dangerous if done incorrectly. That does not mean they should never be DIY.

You can hurt or kill yourself with a toothbrush if you really try. Does that mean you should never brush your teeth? As long as you go into a project with informed of the requirements and consequences, I don't really see why you shouldn't attempt it.

Knowing your limits and skills is very important. However, your ability not being sufficient does not mean that a thing should never be attempted by someone else who is more skilled.

Maybe this is a national thing. I think the idea that people have to be licensed to wire your own house is nuts.

As long as you're not in a situation where your errors may burn down someone else's house in addition to yours, if you want to go kill yourself by being an idiot, it's your own prerogative.

In a communal situation (apt building, etc...), I recognize that having codes and requirements is necessary, but as long as the wiring is inspected, I don't see a problem.

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Note - I'm distinguishing between never and generally here. I tend to think that nothing cannot be done DIY, if a person is properly motivated and informed. However, there are a lot of things which are generally out of reach of the common homeowner. The question title comes across one way, and the question body the other. My answer speaks to the never, rather than just the general.

Answer 11

Homeowners should never do anything where they cannot list 3-5 ways in which the project could go wrong.

Answer 12

If you have the tools and can locate the how-to information, you can do anything. A DIY'er only gets into trouble when they enter into something where they have not done their homework.

The only cases where you should hire out are:

• urgent things where you don't have the time to do the homework
• the tools would cost too much
• you hate or are physically unable to do the work
• nervously, you've researched some contractors and are confident they could do a better/safer job

Answer 13

Granite slab counters are typically not a DIY install if you have any custom edging.

It can be done, but requires some finesse and skill working the slabs. Cutting out even sink holes, polishing edges and bullnosing and the like...

If you just have a basic pre-fab layout, it's easy enough to make straight cuts... but few surfaces are designed with this in mind. Also, hauling slabs is difficult.

Unlike something such as a tile install, screwing up the slab is an expensive mistake where screwing up a tile cut is pretty painless.

Answer 14

As a staunch libertarian, I do not believe in govt preventing homeowners from doing any kind of work and leaving it open to be done by anyone actually betters the odds of getting more work inspected, which I see as the ultimate quality signoff. Conversely, illegalizing things like plumbing and electrical leads those who don't feel like forking out big bucks do it themselves to never get it inspected because the inspector won't even look at work not done by licensed professionals. That is bad news.

Now that I have explained my philosophical stance regarding the rules and rulers, let me say that it certainly makes sense to outsource some work even if you are in the top 2 percentile of handy enthusiasts. I believe the only things that are off DIY list are the things you don't enjoy and don't want to learn how to do or for some reason feel lacking capacity to do. I have, more or less, rebuilt my entire house and added a 100 sq ft shed (with power and electric), made a basement apartment [including dropping the floor by 8" (digging + new concrete)] almost entirely alone. Things include but are not limited to: framing, roofing, drywall, masonry (concrete AND brick), plumbing (gas too), electrical, the list goes on. The only kind of help I got was unskilled heavy lifting labor and, more recently, which fits in the category bolded above, finishing drywall. Mudding and taping drywall is just something that I have no desire to get good at. I will also get somebody to do my bathroom tiles (did the rest of bathroom all alone) as I am not the most articulated with very visual front-end work (lacking tolerance for tedium). I can say that I am more of a structural/backend guy, which is OK as front-end is cheap to outsource and I save big bucks on the things I am good at.

In six years, I have not had a single incident that involved FD or ambulance, the worst that has happened was realizing that I didn't get something right the first time and redo it (costing a few hundred $$ at the most).

But it takes a special kind of technically inclined person to do so. I see that you are a software engineer, like myself, so I am pretty sure you can analyze what it takes to do some kind of work. I cannot stress more the importance of being able to and having patience to analyze work, sometimes I will stand and stare at a job for an hour contemplating it and dissecting it into tasks necessary to get it done (as opposed to most blue collar contractors who seldom put much thought into projects and just do things by a learned and repeated routine).

Last but not least, keep in mind that what was off limits to DIY 20 years ago, due to limited access to information, no longer is thanks to the internet and forums like this one, connecting many helpful folk. I certainly would not have been able to complete a third of what I did without online help. The thing is, you need to know how to use that help and kindof get ahead in the craft farther than people who you get the help from. While this may sound arrogant, I do believe that having a foundation of critical and analytical thinking, as well as scientific method (which most contractors lack), trumps just knowing how to put two 2x4s together by sheer routine and repetitive action (which contractors do have). So you can take the trivial technical how-tos from them and supercharge them with your analytical finesse to get much farther.

Answer 15

Two things come immediately to my mind - gas and electrics, simply because both can be very dangerous when not done right. I'm always amazed to read about how much of each is done as DIY projects in other countries. In Australia both electricians and plumbers are licensed trades and their work may not be legally done by those who don't posses the appropriate license. That's not to say it isn't done of course.

Answer 16

My very handy father completely rebuilt a house, doing absolutely everything himself or with family assistance (I recall tiling a roof) except for a couple of large repetitive do-it-right-first-time jobs which he could do himself but he knew an experienced professional team would get done much better and much faster: bricklaying and plastering.

Answer 17

My experience has been that replacing existing things with the same or better items can be done DIY as long as it doesn't require more than 2 people and a lot of research is done.

The size of the job is also where you can get into trouble. I decided to remove the popcorn from my ceiling and make it smooth. It's been 4 years since I started the project, and I'm only now getting to a finishing point. I had people helping me at the beginning, but they all got busy. Doing it by myself has taken a long time due to having a job and learning how to do the work properly. I would never replace my own roofing for this reason. I also have a fear of falling off to my death.

Answer 18

HVAC work, particularly the internals of the system. A heat pump is one of the most complicated pieces of equipment in a modern home. And there's plenty of warranty issues involved if you are not an authorized reseller.

Answer 19

Install tempered glass showers. I am a master jack-of-all trades who very rerely has to call a pro for anything. Tried installing a tempered glass shower, the glass exploded in my hands.

Answer 20

Lead and Asbestos Abatement

Although legal for the homeowner to remove either personally, it is recommended (and in some jurisdictions; required) to hire a licensed professional to deal with these materials, who will thoroughly understand the risks involved to themselves and the occupants.