DIY vs Hiring Tradespeople

Plenty of handymen out there, I suspect you could find one who would be happy to take care of anything. Don't really need an app for it, just call a few and ask around..

A good friend of mine is a master carpenter. When I need something done on my house I'll always hire him or his equivalent in electrician or plumber. And it's mainly because I just want the peace of mind of knowing the job will get done properly. He charges a lot but things always get done quickly and without hassle.I've watched other home owners I know try to do things on the cheap and they're constantly getting burned. Things take longer, there are unforeseen problems and jobs quickly d

If you don't regularly do house fixing/improving or household chores, and you just pay someone, you easily fall into the trap of believing it is all very simple and of low value. You soon will wonder why you 'pay so much' and it is still 'poorly executed' and taking 'too much time'. Having experienced the problems mentioned in the article puts one down to earth.

Sometimes you really don't want to wait for a professional.

Having fixed several appliances over the years as well as household problems, none of those things get remotely close to the cost and toil of hiring a tradesman. I recently tried to hire a plumber because my hot water heater was throwing an error code and not working. I had to call 3 different people just to wait for the guy to come out 2 days later and quote me over a grand. I fixed it myself instead. The part was $20 and it took 15 minutes.

The primary reason I do most of my DIY home repair is because 9 times out of 10, I have been severely underwhelmed with the quality and workmanship of the "professionals" I have hired. Even armed with a written scope of work and diagrams, and assurances that they will do the work exactly how I'm asking, they still just do whatever they want and then hand me the bill.Over the years, I have accumulated the tools (and importantly: knowledge!) to do almost any home repair or remode

I would pay handsomely for a service that would find and dispatch a qualified tradesperson (electrician, residential HVAC, plumbing, &c.) that would show up when promised and get the job done. And would guarantee the work, pull permits, and get me a lien waiver afterwards. I really hate the time it takes to wade through online reviews, play phone tag, and deal with flakes and no-shows when there's something that needs to be done around the house.

Having recently spent a bit of time finding a roofer, an all purpose handyman, a drywaller, a cleaner and a yard guy, I finally have a good personal team I can use. But my god it took a couple years to assemble them. And there were quite a few duds along the way. I went through 5 roofers just to get one small job done and finally had my handyman just go rent some ladders and do it.It sounds like such a first world problem, but finding quality people and reasonable prices to do this stuff is s

Every time I have to do something complex related to home renovation, book keeping etc I wish there was a platform for this. Often you don't want to engage a firm for a week, you just need some advice, but you are happy to pay a healthy hourly fee for it.

The problem with a lot of trades people is that they think they need to work for other people. I think anyone in a trade should be working on the side and charging what they're worth. I'm a programmer and I typically do my own work around the house. Just recently, I redid my plumbing so that it'd look nice aesthetically and function a bit better. My problem is that most tradesman I come across will sell themselves short but not offer to do the best jobs. For example, I had someone