Five Home Improvement Projects You Shouldn’t Do on Your Own – Today’s guest blog is by Bryan Electric, Inc. The opinions expressed by the author in this and all guest blogs are not necessarily those of Gainesville Restoration and Remodeling.
Five Home Improvement Projects You Shouldn’t Do on Your Own
We take pride in what we can accomplish with our own two hands. Some tasks around the house can be easily handled on our own — such as changing HVAC filters or pressure washing the deck. However, there are a few projects that are best left to the professionals. Here is a list of five home improvement projects that you shouldn’t handle on your own, presented to you today by Gainesville Restoration, Roofing, and Remodeling.
Removing Asbestos, Lead and Mold
You’ve probably seen the commercials on asbestos lawsuits, where workers can sue large companies for working with the toxic material several decades ago before it became widely known how dangerous asbestos really was. For many homeowners who are looking into buying or renovating an older home, there always comes a risk that the home includes walls, flooring, or other materials that contain asbestos, lead, or hazardous mold.
While asbestos, lead, and mold should be immediately tended to, it’s beyond the typical handyman’s prowess to safely remove toxic materials. Masks, hazmat suits, and ventilation machines will be necessary. Even the slightest error in procedure could result in spreading the hazardous material or putting the safety of yourself or others into peril. Instead of taking a risk on your own, leave this serious undertaking in the hands of professionals. It’s a pricey project, but it’s critical to remove toxic elements from your home for the health and safety of your family.
Take Care of Your Home’s Exterior
Taking care of your home extends beyond the interior. From landscaping to tree removal, you need professionals to ensure that these tasks are handled correctly and safely. Additionally, if you have gutters that need some attention, call in a pro to handle that project as well. Not only will it prevent you from climbing a ladder and getting your hands dirty, hiring a gutter cleaning service will give you peace of mind knowing everything is handled professionally. Always read reviews and check ratings before you hire anyone.
Tearing Down the Walls
Demolition projects look fun on HGTV when watching from the comfort of your couch, but in reality, these kinds of projects are a little more involved than taking a sledgehammer to a wall. Realtor.com lists a few personal safety hazards that can come about from DIY wall removal, which includes the ceiling actually caving in. To ensure that you can handle a demolition project on your own, you will need the proper safety equipment as well as a very thorough understanding of where the pipes, vents, and wiring are located in your wall.
On top of that, you need to make sure that what you are tearing down doesn’t compromise the structural integrity of your home. If you tear down a load-bearing wall, it might put you and your home at risk. If you do decide to swing the ax on your own, you would be held responsible for any unwanted/unexpected damages that occur. It’s probably best to leave the demolition to the pros.
Fixing Your Foundation
Speaking of structural integrity, nothing is more essential to your home than its foundation. Cracks in your foundation may seem straightforward to fix on your own. Just fill them with spackle or something, right? While you may be able to aesthetically cover up a shifty foundation, you won’t know the extent of the damage to your home unless a trained professional takes a look. You may be seeing the signs of a larger underlying problem that needs to be taken care of. Properly fixing a foundation will require a lot of time and some very specialized tools, so you should really call in the experts for this one.
Installing New Lighting Fixtures
There’s a huge difference between plugging in a floor lamp and rewiring your living room. Electrical work may be a tempting project to handle on your own, especially if you’ve worked with wiring before in high school or college. But as many trained electricians will tell you, electricity is a lot more complicated when applied to working safely and effectively in your home, so you should always work with a licensed electrician.
While gathering the appropriate materials may be easy and cheap enough to pull off on your own, setting up a new fixture that is safe, efficient, and up to code is not as straightforward as you think. Additionally, when working with electricity, you put yourself at risk of seriously harming yourself for even the smallest mistake.
It feels good to be able to get our hands dirty from time to time and take on DIY home improvement projects. However, it’s not as easy as it looks on TV. We still need to consider what we can and cannot achieve within our reasonable capabilities. Sometimes, we have to honestly assess whether it’s time to work or hand over the gloves to highly-trained and specialized professionals.
Gainesville Restoration, Roofing, and Remodeling specialize in restoration and remodeling projects.