Do it yourself, or hire it out?

I’ve thought a lot about this topic and been on both sides of the equation. I’ve spent countless hours demo-ing and refinishing, doing simple plumbing and electrical, sheet rocking, mudding, painting, nailing in floors, and countless other activities. I’ve experienced the frustration of something not going quite as planned, and the satisfaction of a finished product.
I’ve also experienced dealing with contractors. They’ve stood me up. They’ve overcharged me. They’ve done things wrong. I flooded my floor because of careless work. And sometimes they’ve done a really good job at something that would have taken me a long time to do in a much worse way.

So let’s look at some of the pros and cons

Do it yourself

Pros:

• Cheaper when done right
• It’s only up to you how it gets done
• You learn a lot
• Potential for great social media content
• You might enjoy doing it

Cons:

• You might hate doing it
• Takes a long time
• Typically lower quality than the pros
• Can be more expensive down the road if done wrong

Hire it out

Pros:

• Gets done fast
• Can be done at very high quality
• Much less of your time

Cons:

• Can be done at very low quality
• Miscommunication can result in a different result than you imagined
• Typically more expensive
• Contractor may be challenging to deal with

So which should you do? Well, it depends on your goals. I personally find it helpful that I’ve done a lot of DIY so that I understand what it actually takes to do a job. But there’s a lot of frustrations and a lot of time spent doing it all. It’s hard to understate how frustrated you’ll get when you uncover shoddy workmanship that makes your job harder. Or even worse, when you discover that you’re not actually very good at it (because unless you do it a lot, I can guarantee you’re not going to do a good job).

On the other hand, contractors are challenging. First, it’s hard to find a good one, and even if you do, he might be too expensive. And then if you can find a good one at a reasonable price, it’s up to you do describe exactly what he needs to do. If you’re vague in any way, he’s going to fill in the blanks, and you might not like what he does. And then he might not show up for work. He might even take your initial payment and disappear forever. It’s truly a pain and doing this well is a real talent.
So as I said, this depends on what your goals are. Here are just a few questions you should answer for yourself:

• Do you value your time spent doing other activities?
• Do you want to learn about the inner workings?
• Do you want to create interesting social media content?
• Are you most interested in saving a few bucks?

Conclusion

Those are some of the questions you need to answer for yourself. For me, I’m glad I spent time learning how it all works by doing a bunch myself, but at this point, I know that I can make more money or get more value from my time by doing other activities. So I work on building up my skills at dealing with contractors.