6 Home Projects You Should Always Hire a Professional For

Home repairs can be expensive and when you’re on a budget, it can be tempting to save some money by doing your own repair work. In many cases, this is a great idea. Plenty of repair projects are simple enough for someone with a little basic knowledge and the right tools to handle on their own. Unfortunately, not all projects are quite so easy. Some types of home repair projects are too complicated or dangerous for even an experienced DIY-er to do.

Demolishing a Wall

Knocking down a wall might not seem like a difficult task and you might even think it looks like fun, but you’ll definitely want to at least consult a professional before you break out the sledgehammer. If you accidentally take out a load-bearing wall, it’s going to cause structural problems in your home that will be much more expensive than it would have been to hire someone to remove the wall for you. Even if a wall isn’t load bearing, you don’t want to start knocking a wall down only to discover the wall was hiding electrical wiring or components of your plumbing system. Accidentally damaging any of these can also easily result in more expensive repairs than you anticipated.

Installing Doors, Windows, and Skylights

Installing an interior door might be easy enough to manage by yourself, but exterior doors, windows, and skylights are another story. Since these things separate your home from the elements, it’s extremely important to make sure they are installed correctly, otherwise you might end up with leaks that drive up your energy bills or cause costly water damage. One of the most common reasons why people decide to get new exterior doors or vinyl replacement windows is to get rid of drafts and doors and windows that aren’t properly installed won’t solve those problems.

Skylights are a particularly DIY-unfriendly project since not only do you run the risk of installing them improperly, the fact that you need to spend time on the roof makes installing them inherently more dangerous. You’ll also have to cut an opening in your roof, which can cause larger, more expensive problems if not done correctly.

Anything That Would Disturb Lead Paint or Asbestos

If you live in a home built before 1978, there’s a good chance you have lead paint or asbestos somewhere in your home. If you’re planning a project that would disturb lead paint, such as knocking a wall down or cutting an opening into a wall, you’ll need to call a professional to make sure the job is properly handled to prevent you and your family from being harmed by the paint.

At one time, asbestos was widely used in many items that went into homes like insulation and flooring tiles. But since we now know asbestos can cause a multitude of health problems if not handled correctly, there are many laws regarding how to safely handle and remove it. If you’re planning a project that could disturb asbestos in your home, leave it to a professional. When asbestos isn’t removed properly, it not only can be harmful to you, it can be dangerous to other people who live in your home, visitors, neighbors, and more.

Major Plumbing and Electrical Wiring Repairs

While some types of plumbing and electrical repairs can easily be done by yourself, like fixing a leaking faucet or replacing a light switch, anything more complicated is probably be best handled by a trained professional. Improper electrical wiring can easily start a fire and plumbing work that goes wrong can easily cause thousands of dollars in water damage.

Removing a Large Tree

Trees can make a great addition to any yard, but if the tree is no longer healthy, it’s best to have it removed. But cutting down a large tree is much easier said than done. You not only have to use power saws while working at a high elevation, falling branches can damage your house, other property, or even injure someone. Your city might even have ordinances about how trees need to be removed. In any case, calling a professional to get rid of that problematic tree will save you a lot of headaches.

Making Changes to the Gas Line

Need to replace your water heater? Want to trade out your electric stove for a gas-powered one? Both of these projects would involve working with your home’s gas line, which can be a recipe for disaster if not done correctly. Rather than facing the risk of explosions or carbon monoxide leaks, leave any chore that involves your home’s gas line to someone who has been trained and is licensed to work with gas lines.

Ways to Save Money on a Home Remodeling Project

It’s no secret that home remodeling projects can be very expensive. Homeowners often spend years trying to save up the money to do a renovation they’ve always dreamed of. With the high cost involved, it’s only natural to want to find ways to save money if it’s at all possible. But when it comes to home renovations, trying to save money very often ends up being more expensive in the long run. For example, if a contractor gives you a remarkably low estimate, it could potentially be a sign they aren’t licensed or insured, that they use substandard materials, or that they won’t handle something like trash removal. But there are plenty of other ways to save money on renovations without cutting corners on quality and without causing major headaches for you.

Work Around Your Existing Systems

When you’re planning a big home remodeling project, it can be tempting to move absolutely everything around, including things like lighting and sinks. But if you want to keep your remodeling costs down, keep the things that are part of your plumbing and electrical systems where they currently are unless they were very poorly placed to begin with. Making adjustments to your plumbing and electrical systems creates a lot of work and can significantly drive up the cost of the project. You’d be surprised how expensive it can be to move a sink just a couple of feet!

Schedule Projects During Off Seasons

Many types of home improvement projects can be done at any time of year, but summer and early fall are the most popular times of year to have work done on homes. Since demand for contractors is so high during those times, it can be more expensive to have work done then. But if you can wait to have your project done during another time of year, you may be able to save quite a bit of money. For example, vinyl replacement windows can be installed all year round and many companies that install them offer special deals during the cooler months when they aren’t as busy.

Stick to Standard Stock Items

One of the fastest way to drive up the total price of a home renovation is by having things like cabinets and doors custom made for you. Not only are customized pieces more expensive than buying stock peces, it will take longer for you to get them since the manufacturer doesn’t just have them on hand. Unless you have an older house and modern standard-sized pieces just never seem to fit right in your home, sticking to standard-sized stock items will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

Look for Imitation Materials

When you’re trying to decide which types of materials you’d like to use for a job, do some research to see if there’s a high quality, yet affordable alternative to a more expensive type of material. For example, hardwood floors are extremely popular, but real, natural wood flooring is very expensive. On the other hand, engineered wood offers the same great look as real wood, but is more affordable and isn’t damaged by water as easily as real wood is.

Try to Save the Cabinets

If you’re remodeling a kitchen, completely replacing your cabinets can easily be responsible a large percentage of your total costs. In many cases, homeowners have cabinets that look dated, but are still in good condition otherwise. If this is the case for you, look for other ways to give your cabinets a makeover without starting from scratch. Painting or refinishing cabinets and getting some new hardware can do a lot to give even dated-looking cabinets a whole new look. Another option is to replace the cabinet doors, but leave everything else in place. Or you could try removing the cabinet doors all together and embrace the open shelving trend.

Getting Your Home Ready for Fall Weather

Now that the hottest days of the year are becoming a thing of the past and the kids are back in school, it’s time to start planning ahead for colder weather. Although fall weather can still be very nice, it’s an ideal time of year to make sure your home is prepared for the colder weather that lies ahead. By acting now, you can be sure your home will be nice and warm when you need it to be and if you find any issues that need to be addressed, you won’t be stuck dealing with them on an unpleasantly cold day. Here are a few of the best things you can do to get your home ready for cooler weather.

Furnace Inspection

If you want to avoid any unwelcome surprises when the weather turns cold, the best thing you can do is call a professional to give your furnace an annual inspection early in the fall. According to Angie’s List, many furnace repair experts say the majority of emergency calls they get during the winter months could have been prevented with routine maintenance. Not only will routine maintenance help you avoid being left in the cold with a big emergency repair bill, it will keep your furnace running more efficiently.

During a basic furnace inspection, the technician will make sure your furnace can start up properly and that its control system is working, inspect its electrical components, check the burner, make sure its moving parts are in good condition, and check to make sure its drain pipes and vents aren’t blocked. Air filters should be replaced every couple of months and if it’s time for your filter to be replaced, the technician can certainly do that for you, but it’s very easy to change those without the help of a professional.

Make Sure Heating Vents are Clear

Have you made any changes to the rooms around your house over the summer? Maybe you got some new furniture or decided to rearrange things. If this is the case, you may want to look around just to make sure none of your changes are blocking your vents. When vents are blocked, they prevent heat from circulating around the room and force your furnace to work harder, which can increase your energy bills.

Check Windows and Doors

It’s never a bad time of year to check your exterior doors and windows to look for problems like drafts, worn weatherstripping, and caulking that needs to be touched up. The sooner you’re able to catch these sorts of problems, the better off you’ll be because they can make your house uncomfortable and drive up your energy bills if they’re not taken care of. If you have older windows and your energy bills are consistently higher than you think they ought to be, having vinyl replacement windows installed can help bring your heating and cooling bills down.

Inspect Your Chimney and Fireplace

If you have a fireplace, now would be a good time to inspect it and your chimney to make sure it’s safe and ready to be used. Even if everything was perfectly fine last year, birds have been known to build nests in chimneys and branches and leaves can fall in and cause blockages. If you see signs of soot buildup, call a professional to have your chimney cleaned because a buildup of soot can be a fire hazard. Check to make sure the damper on your fireplace is still working properly. From the outside of your home, make sure there aren’t any signs of physical deterioration on the chimney, like missing or crumbling bricks, or flashing between the chimney and your house that has become unsecure.

Taking Care of Window Condensation

If you’ve ever lived in a home that had windows in it, you’ve probably seen condensation form on them at one time or another. While condensation is always caused by one basic reason -- warm, humid air coming into contact with a cooler surface -- there can be different factors that lead to it forming on a window. Sometimes, window condensation and the way it forms can tell you important information about your home and the condition of your windows.

In many cases, window condensation is only temporary and isn’t anything major to worry about. Typically, it’s simply a sign the humidity levels in your home are a little too high. Condensation can form on windows when you’re doing things like cooking or taking a shower, or just because the inside of your home is much warmer than it is outside. You’ll most commonly see this type of condensation forming along the outer edges and corners of the pane of glass. Although this type of condensation is only temporarily, it can still be annoying and if you have wood windows, you’ll still want to keep it under control so the moisture doesn’t damage your frames. If you notice condensation forming during certain activities, like bathing or cooking, try running the exhaust fan while you do them. If you don’t have an exhaust fan, you can always try leaving doors or windows open just a little to get rid of some of that warm air. If you have a humidifier or a dehumidifier, you could try adjusting those to see if they help.

While condensation often isn’t a big deal, other times, it can be a sign there is a problem with your window. For example, are you seeing condensation forming in the center of the interior side of a window? If you have double or triple pane windows insulated with argon, this is most likely a sign that the argon has leaked out. Over time, the seals that keep the argon in can fail, causing the window to become less effective at insulating your home. If this is what’s happened, you might also see some distortion in the window’s glass. When this happens, you will have to get new vinyl replacement windows.

Another sign your window’s seals may be deteriorating is seeing condensation form between the panes of your window. This type of condensation can be particularly annoying since it’s so difficult to get rid of. The good news is that in many cases, this problem can be fixed without having to replace the entire window.

Choosing the Right Paint Color

Few home improvement projects can make a large impact for a low price the way painting can. All you need to completely change the look of a room is a can of paint, some brushes and rollers, and some time. While actually painting a room can take quite a bit of energy, one of the most difficult things about getting ready to paint is choosing the right color. It’s not quite as simple as deciding you want to paint your walls a certain color, you have to settle on the exact right shade of your desired color.

Once you know what general color you want to paint a room, you’ll go to the store to look at their paint samples and be confronted with a wall full of thousands of different shades of that color. Trying to figure out which shade is right for you can take a lot of time and guesswork. Here are a few helpful hints to make the process a little bit easier.

Decide the Mood of the Room

The color you choose to paint a room with can change more than the room’s appearance, it can change the entire mood of a room. Some colors are very calming to look at while others give off a more energized vibe, so the purpose of a room is something you’ll want to keep in mind. For example, if you’re painting a room you’ll spend a lot of time resting or relaxing in, such as a bedroom or a home library, you may want to consider cool, soothing colors. On the other hand, if you’re painting a room that sees a lot of activity, like a kid’s playroom, rec room, or a kitchen, you might feel like checking out some brighter or bolder colors.

Bring Items from the Room You’re Painting

When you go to the store to look at paint samples, it can be helpful to take a couple of things from the room you’re planning to paint. Things like throw pillows, cushions, swatches of fabric used on your upholstery or curtains, or even a leftover piece of your flooring can be nice to have with you since you’ll be able to see how they look next to various colors of paint.

Take Paint Samples Home

One very common mistake people make when choosing a paint color is buying the paint without bringing the sample home and seeing how it looks in their room. Even if you absolutely love how a paint sample looks in the store, there are a few very good reasons why you should always bring it home before buying a gallon of it. First of all, the color might look great in the store’s lighting, but the lighting in the room you’re painting will very likely be different, which can change how the color looks.

Secondly, bringing paint samples home with you will give you a chance to see how it looks with everything in your room. Even if you take things from the room with you when you go to the store to look at samples, there are lots of things that make a big difference in a room’s appearance that aren’t exactly portable. Furniture, rugs, and other types of flooring materials all make a big difference in how a room looks, but you can’t bring those sorts of things to the store with you and taking pictures of them isn’t always the most reliable way to get a true color representation.

Test It Out

Once you’ve decided on a color you like, have the store mix up a small sample size of the paint for you and use it to paint something like a piece of white paper or poster board. That way, you’ll be able to have a decently-sized sample to put on your wall for a few days. You’ll have the chance to see how it looks throughout the day in various lighting conditions. This can be a particularly smart step to take if you’re planning to completely change the color of a room or want to experiment with bright, bold colors.

Remember the 60-30-10 Rule

The 60-30-10 rule is a guideline designers use when planning a room. This means that 60% of a room’s color scheme should be the dominant color, 30% should be your secondary color, and 10% should be an accent color. Since walls are such a large focal point of your room, you’ll probably want to have those account for the 60% and let the 30% and 10% come from other things in your room like furniture and accessories.