Are you a DIY handyman?

[bdh]

Do you do all your own work around the house - building, plastering, electrical, plumbing, carpentry etc or do you get someone in to do it for you when the need arises. I'm not talking about simple thing like putting on a plug but the inevitable things that happen in a home over years of living in it: need a wall built, need paving in the driveway, an extra plug point in a bedroom or kitchen, or even building an entire room like another bathroom or bedroom ... that kind of thing.

Do you do it yourself or pay someone?

[Boo]

When I have time, I do it. When I don't have the time, I hire someone.

I am "Mr. Fixit" most of the time.

[EarlyCall]

I do it by proxy and hire someone. It is better this way for all involved.

[bdh]

I am "Mr. Fixit" most of the time.

Still try to do the same but now it's getting to the point where the spirit is far more willing than the body.

For the most part, physical work is uplifting and even encouraging -- when it goes right of course -- and I'd guess most men would find this to be true.

I do it by proxy and hire someone. It is better this way for all involved.

I wont ask.

...There are of course the times it goes horribly wrong - like the time my neighbor needed to replace the element on his hot water geyser. I warned him that turning off the water supply & opening the hot water taps would not drain it, but he never listened. The thing was is cupboard in the kitchen and when he pulled the element out, 400 l of water flooded his house ruining [his wife's] Persian carpets and the wooden floor tiles. It was a very expensive lesson. He's also in the hiring business

[tango]

A chap I know once attempted a DIY job, and when he was way out of his depth he called a professional. The verdict was that if he'd called to have the job done it would have been $70 but to fix up the mess and then do the job was going ot be more like $500.

So he never did DIY again, which suited him just fine.

[bdh]

In the trade, the call that school fees. One often has to make mistakes to learn -

A couple of months back I changed the tap-mixer in the kitchen (taps were shot not just the washers). 10 minute job I thought.... found a local DIY store with a cool tap mixer on special and bought one.... which is when the nightmare began.

Long story short, when I took the old tap mixer out, the cold water pipe broke inside the wall (old pipe). Spent the next three days chopping a chunk of the kitchen wall out to get to the pipe to join it. Fortunately there were spare tiles in the garage so a lot of mess and tile cement and grout later, it's all spick-and-span now and a brand new tap mixer that does not drip. But the 10 minute job did turned into 3 days of hard labor. Doesn't matter though - I kind of enjoyed it and it's fixed right now. Besides, in this case, I doubt a plumber would have fared any better.

[amazzin]

Same- same.....but lately I've been relying on my son and others to help

When I have time, I do it. When I don't have the time, I hire someone.

I am "Mr. Fixit" most of the time.

[tango]

In the trade, the call that school fees. One often has to make mistakes to learn -

A couple of months back I changed the tap-mixer in the kitchen (taps were shot not just the washers). 10 minute job I thought.... found a local DIY store with a cool tap mixer on special and bought one.... which is when the nightmare began.

Long story short, when I took the old tap mixer out, the cold water pipe broke inside the wall (old pipe). Spent the next three days chopping a chunk of the kitchen wall out to get to the pipe to join it. Fortunately there were spare tiles in the garage so a lot of mess and tile cement and grout later, it's all spick-and-span now and a brand new tap mixer that does not drip. But the 10 minute job did turned into 3 days of hard labor. Doesn't matter though - I kind of enjoyed it and it's fixed right now. Besides, in this case, I doubt a plumber would have fared any better.

Sure, but that's only any use if you plan to do anything with the knowledge gained.

I do most of my own electrical work (as far as the law allows) because I've got the skill to do it and if I'm going to be home to supervise a sparkie I might as well be home and do the job myself. But I'd rather pay someone to do the work than make a royal hash of it, lose a lot of my time and then have to pay more to someone else to clean up my mess.

[bdh]

Sure, but that's only any use if you plan to do anything with the knowledge gained.

Know-how is never wasted, even if it comes at a cost. It is will always come in useful one day. And even the specific thing does not come up again, it can often be used for solving something else.

[tango]

Know-how is never wasted, even if it comes at a cost. It is will always come in useful one day. And even the specific thing does not come up again, it can often be used for solving something else.

I agree with you although back in the days when I had virtually no time to call my own but did have a much higher income than I do now I'd have paid someone else to do it rather than sacrifice what little free time I had.

[bdh]

I agree with you although back in the days when I had virtually no time to call my own but did have a much higher income than I do now I'd have paid someone else to do it rather than sacrifice what little free time I had.

That's pretty much what prompted me to ask the question in the first place - I think a lot of people had a lot more disposable income 5-10 years ago but that's changing fast.

We have neighbors on both sides that never used to DIY anything, and now I hear them cutting, hammering, grinding and chopping on weekends... what does concern me sometimes is for many, hard times make this the first time they tackled anything like this. For example, the one guy on our West side had a lot of trees and initially used a professional to fell them now he's doing it himself.... and I'm worried that he's never done this before. He has some big trees that, if not felled correctly, let's just say the outcome for his house [and mine] could be less the desirable

[Reynolds357]

I do about everything. The only thing I do not do is work on my H.V.A.C. system. We just added a 1200 sq foot addition onto the home. I had a carpenter put it in the dry and I finished it. I could have framed it, but I want my stuff put in the dry quickly. I do not want it rained on. I did my own electrical work on the addition and the building inspector tried to tell me it was all wrong. I told him "you do not have the faintest clue what you are talking about. Go back to school and learn something. It is like it is and it aint changing." He sent his boss out there and he said that I had it wired correctly, it was just a way of laying out circuits that other guy had never seen. I wire my stuff where you will not observe any voltage drop. I can't stand it when something turns on and other things dim. The most common method of laying out residential wiring is cheapest, but definitely not best.

[bdh]

The most common method of laying out residential wiring is cheapest, but definitely not best.

Yeah, on plug circuits the neutral and live is usually daisy chained all the way to the last plug. It's better to wire each individual circuit directly back to the DB but needs a lot more wiring.

[tango]

That's pretty much what prompted me to ask the question in the first place - I think a lot of people had a lot more disposable income 5-10 years ago but that's changing fast.

Sure, my income dropped substantially due to some specific decisions we made (like not wanting to spend my entire life either working, travelling to work, or sleeping off being tired from work), but for most it's not that simple.

We have neighbors on both sides that never used to DIY anything, and now I hear them cutting, hammering, grinding and chopping on weekends... what does concern me sometimes is for many, hard times make this the first time they tackled anything like this. For example, the one guy on our West side had a lot of trees and initially used a professional to fell them now he's doing it himself.... and I'm worried that he's never done this before. He has some big trees that, if not felled correctly, let's just say the outcome for his house [and mine] could be less the desirable

Indeed... it's always good to know your limitations as well as push the boundaries a little once in a while.

[Reynolds357]

Yeah, on plug circuits the neutral and live is usually daisy chained all the way to the last plug. It's better to wire each individual circuit directly back to the DB but needs a lot more wiring.

Yep. It is my house, and I am going to be living there. I want it like I want it. If I decide to plug a space heater in every outlet in the house, I want to be able to do so without having to worry about tripping a breaker. If I tried to wire houses like that for a living, I would go broke.