DIY or Hire – 10 Reasons To Help You Choose

Posted On 8 October 2021

Last updated on April 9th, 2024

When I talk about DIY, it can be anything that you make or repair. Food, computers, car maintenance, home repairs or upgrades, clothes, or decorations. DIY can be applied to almost anything!

They say that we need to walk a mile to see a mile. Walk another mile to see the second mile. But why walk when you can get a ride? By walking we get more exercise, when we get a ride, we cover more ground faster.

This spring I discovered that we had a water leak from our kitchen sink faucet. I thought we would just need to replace the countertop. Boy, was I wrong! The water not only destroyed the countertop, but the drywall behind the counter, the sink counter unit, and the laminate flooring. Our house has an open floor plan and the kitchen flooring goes into the living room.

Since we were already doing all that work, we decided to remove our chimney that was in the middle of the house, and not being used. It was a lot of work. I did the majority of the work since I work as a handyman.

I will give you five reasons for DIY projects, and I will also give you 5 reasons why (or when) the work should be hired out.

5 Reasons to DIY

My wife and I both are DIYers. We both cook from scratch. I take care of home, car, and computer repairs. She makes custom cakes, she can make clothes and Halloween costumes, and most recently she has started making her own vanilla extract. I brew my own beer and mead (honey wine).

There are some excellent reasons to do it yourself. These reasons vary from person to person. A person can be driven to DIY to save money, or they may be motivated by the challenge.

The first and probably biggest reason is money.

1. Save Money

Labor is expensive! When we are willing and able to do the work ourselves, we can save a bundle. Our time is precious, and we only have so much of it. By budgeting our time for doing these projects we can work them into our lives. They can even become a family activity!

Kids can provide labor in exchange for learning about working by watching and working with their parents. As they grow and develop their own skills, they can then do more. Now, while I think kids should be paid something for work that they do, I do not pay them for teaching them how to do a task.

Ok, back to the financial reason to DIY.

Don’t forget the tax consequences of doing the work yourself. Since we are not paying for the labor, we don’t have to earn that money and pay income tax on that amount. Then, we don’t have to pay sales tax on the cost of that labor.

By not hiring someone to do the work we may spend just as much, but we can get more work done or we can afford to purchase higher quality materials.

2. Lack of Availability

Since this pandemic started the wait times to get someone to perform work has grown longer and longer. If you are not able to get someone to do the work in the time frame you need to have it done, DIY!

Sure, it will take effort. It can get done, and completed on your schedule, not someone else’s.

There are other times when we want something that is just not available. Take mead for example. I had heard about it and I was curious to try some. When I asked about mead at the liquor store, they informed me that they don’t carry any and could not get it!

Online research led me to making it at home. It’s not that hard, it just takes a long time – at least a year from start to finish. Not only can I make my own, I can make any flavor I want!

3. Sense of Accomplishment & Confidence

It is a great feeling of accomplishment when I build or fix something. There is a certain sense of pride in seeing a dull, peeling building become beautiful again by painting it. Back in 2017 when we got our dog, we decided to fence our backyard. We got the bundles of lumber delivered to our house. The satisfaction of standing back when the fence was completed and being able to say, “I built that!” cannot be understated.

As we accomplish more DIY projects, we build our confidence in our ability. If we can apply what we know already to new things, we find that there are a lot of similarities between everything.

4. Better Understanding of Possessions

When we perform our own maintenance on the things in our life, we definitely get to know them better. This is a driving reason for those curious souls out there to choose to do it yourself.

Doing the work ourselves we become familiar with what we have. We can see when something is not working like it should. Also, we know that the work has been done correctly (or what has been taped together!).

5. For the Challenge

When we build on what we already know we expand our knowledge base. The directions for putting a bookcase together and the recipe for cornbread accomplish the same thing – They are a set of directions that tell us how to make something.

Trying something new is exhilarating! Now, if that new thing is a challenging thing, all the better. There are things that people had never seen done that I have accomplished. For example, I turned a metal carport frame into a greenhouse.

5 Reasons to Hire A Professional

As I mentioned earlier, I am a handyman. While I am capable of doing many different things, there are some things that are beyond my abilities. For example, I hired a professional to fix our furnace. This summer my son-in-law and his father (a professional carpenter) helped with rebuilding the sink cabinet and installing the new countertops.

There are several reasons why a professional should be hired to get get your projects done. Here are 5 reasons a pro should be hired, or the item should be purchased commercially.

1. Don’t Know How or Have the Skills

The biggest reason a professional should be hired is that you don’t know how to do something. If trying to fix something would result in more damage, don’t do it yourself!

I heard about one guy who told his family that if they ever see him walking through the house with a tool in his hand, they should take it from him and then call a repairman!

We need to know our limitations. There is no way we can learn how to do everything and do it well. Sometimes, we need to hire a professional for legal reasons – such as electrical work.

2. Don’t Have the Tools

Woodworking comes to mind. I have quite a few tools, but I don’t have the tools to compete with someone with a woodworking shop. If I had to purchase more equipment than the job is worth – with no plans for using that equipment again – it makes sense to hire someone else.

The same would apply to renting a U-Haul truck. You could probably buy a truck, move, then sell the truck to cut down on costs. We need to ask ourselves whether this buy and sell process would be worth it. Rent the truck, then return it. That is the simpler way!

3. More Cost Effective

When it comes to making food from scratch, sometimes it is less expensive to just buy it from the store. We can make our own ketchup at home that tastes just like Heinz. The question is, should we? If we are looking to save money, no. Just buy it at the store.

It can be expensive to make our own furniture. I prefer to just buy it already made. (Second-hand furniture can be a great deal!)

To figure out if it is a good deal to make something yourself, calculate the materials and your time to build it based on your current pay at work. It may surprise you that it is actually less expensive to buy it already made.

4. Don’t Have Enough Time

DIY projects take time. Often, they take longer than hiring a professional to do the job. If it is something that I have never done before, I need to figure out how to do it. Often, I need to stop during the project and research a particular step or challenge with the project.

We only have 24 hours in a day, and only 365 days a year. (I know we get an extra day with Leap Year!) There are times when we put our efforts into something better than mowing our lawn. Why spend that time doing something that will not get you where you want to go?

5. It’s Faster

When you hire someone, they know the right way to do the project, the right tools to use for the project, and the right materials for the project. The professional has done the job before and they know tricks to get the work done faster.

Besides the work being done more efficiently, you can hire as many people as needed  to get all the jobs done at the same time! When we choose to DIY, there is only one of us.

The Choice Is Yours

Not every situation should get the same treatment. Sometimes it makes sense for us to DIY, sometimes we need to hire a professional. The options are there for us.

We just need to know what our abilities are and if we take the time and effort, we can grow our skillset. Just because we don’t know how to do something today does not mean that we can never do that.

Just because we know how to do something does not mean that we should be doing that. Our time on this planet is precious and we should use it the best that we can.