When you are a homeowner who likes to be self-sufficient and independent, you often find yourself wanting to push yourself to take on more and more home improvement projects yourself. Rather than hire professionals to help you, you try to do everything yourself. While there are definitely some projects that are DIY friendly, there are also many home improvement projects in which doing it yourself could result in major issues and disasters. Get to know more about what is and is not a DIY home improvement project so that you can avoid disaster in your Fort Myers, Florida home and can hire home improvement professionals when appropriate for the project at hand.
Not A DIY Project: Replacing Garage Doors or Garage Door Openers
Homeowners tend to underestimate the potential danger that a garage door can pose. While these doors seem light because the garage door opener lifts them with ease (when working properly), the reality is that garage doors are quite heavy and can cause major damage if they fall on object or even worse on someone. When you are trying to replace your existing garage door or the garage door opener if you do not know how to make sure the springs are locked and secured or how to dismantle the door properly, you could cause yourself or others a serious or even fatal injury. This one is better left to the professionals every time.
DIY Project: Repainting Interior or Exterior Walls
Generally speaking, repainting is a do-it-yourself project for most homeowners. The exceptions to this rule are if your home is older and has lead paint or asbestos. Homes that were built prior to the 1980s should be tested for lead paint and asbestos before you try to remove any paint from the walls or repaint. And of course, for exterior painting, if you home has many stories and a high pitch on the roof (for painting trim), you may not want to do it yourself simply because of the safety consideration. Otherwise, paint away on your own.
Not A DIY Project: Electrical Work
While you may think that installing track or overhead lighting in a dimly lit room or adding outlets to your walls will be an easy task, the fact of the matter is that any home improvement project that involves electricity has the potential for being very dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. So unless you are a licensed electrician, leave the electrical work to a licensed electrician.
Now that you know more about what you should and shouldn’t do in your home for DIY projects, you can better protect yourself and your home while also getting the home improvements you want completed successfully.