Pandemic isolation and boredom have led many people to take home improvements into their own hands. More and more homeowners are taking on home improvement tasks such as repaints, insulation installments, etc. It’s a way to save money and keep strangers from entering their homes when we should be observing social distancing. But there are some instances in which doing it yourself won’t save you money, and allowing a stranger into your home is well worth the risk of a D.I.Y. project. Here’s a list of home improvements that should be left to the pros.
HVAC system repair and installation
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are complex machines that only professionals should repair and install. These systems can also cause detriment to you and the environment if mishandled. If your heating system needs repairing, stand back and let a pro do their job.
Floor plan modifications
It’s very easy for homeowners to miscalculate just how important walls are to their home’s structure. One of the more common occurrences where they make this error is when renovating their basement. But because basements are responsible for supporting much of the weight of our homes, removing a wall or two could compromise your home’s structure. Doing so could leave you with sagging floors – if not a collapse.
Electrical work
Electricians have expensive fees, but for a good reason. They’ve been trained to work with dangerous electrical currents, know how to diagnose problems, and keep them from worsening. Unless you’ve had your own electrical training, leave electrical work to electricians. Even the smallest mistakes or miscalculations could cost you your life.
Roofing
Your roof is an integral part of your home, but we can also tend to overlook it because we’re so used to it working correctly. When the time comes that it needs a repair – even it may seem like a minor problem – make sure to call a professional. Roofing problems can be deceptively simple, but the fact that a roof is crucial to your home’s structure means that you’ll want the job to be done as efficiently as possible. There’s also the added factor of working with heights, which a trained professional will be much better off doing. For your own safety, leave any roofing work to the pros – including “simple” tasks such as repaints.
Concrete
While concrete is far from a delicate material, working with it can be a very delicate matter. Any concrete job such as leveling, repair, lifting, or application should be done by a professional. Making a mistake would mean an enormous inconvenience for you because you would have to have the work undone and then redone. Just call in a pro from day one.
Plumbing
While leaky pipes are easy enough to fix by yourself, they might indicate a more serious underlying plumbing problem. It might be easy to disassemble pipes but reassembling them when you’re inexperienced is another story. Call a professional plumber to take a look at the issue. They’ll better diagnose the problem and where it’s coming from, and they’ll also be much better equipped to fix it.
Asbestos removal
Asbestos has been labeled a silent killer for several decades now, but the fact is that it remains in many structures today. The fibers that make up asbestos are too small for the naked human eye to see but all too easy to inhale without our knowing. Prolonged asbestos exposure can lead to lung diseases such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer.
Some professionals are trained and equipped to remove asbestos from buildings safely and responsibly, and it’s best to leave the job to them. Attempting to remove asbestos by yourself might mean risking your lives and those of the others in your household. Untrained hands could trigger the release of more fibers than necessary, further endangering you and others around you.
Gas
Like electrical work, anything related to gas is dangerous and best left to the people who’ve been trained to handle them properly. Even tasks that seem simple such as moving your gas appliance to a different spot, shouldn’t be attempted by an amateur. While you might do an excellent job of disconnecting the gas lines, the same might not be true for when you reconnect them. Even if the work of a non-professional doesn’t lead to house fires or explosions, there’s still the possibility of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. CO is another silent killer – it’s a gas that you can’t see nor smell, but prolonged exposure to it can lead to fatal tissue damage.
While we might fancy ourselves efficient handymen capable of doing most home repairs, unless you’re a licensed plumber, roofer, or builder, that isn’t the case. Some home improvements and repairs are too much for us to take on and cost us more money or even our safety if we attempt to do them ourselves.
