Knowing your way around a toolbox is a useful skill to have. Not only does it save you money on hiring a professional for a quick DIY fix, it allows you to keep your home in good condition. However, no matter how many DIY articles and books you read, you are not an effective replacement for a trained electrician or plumber. When things break around the house, it’s better to admit that you don’t know what you’re doing and call someone in to fix it. Attempting to repair things that are beyond your understanding in an attempt to save money, often result in much bigger expenses. You will be lucky if those bills are only for repairing your work, and not a stay in the hospital.
Plumbing
There are quite a few plumbing jobs that should be easy to do yourself. Unblocking the drains either requires a good plunger and some elbow grease, a solution of baking soda and vinegar to clear the blockage, or you can even clear it by hand as a last resort. Plastic traps are easy enough to remove, but metal ones may require some tools and muscle power. Once the pipe is removed, you can push out the blockage.
Where you can get into trouble is if you try to modify your plumbing system, which includes extending hot water lines or re-routing your sewer pipes. Working with hot water means copper pipes, and that requires a blowtorch. Unless you have some serious welding experience, it’s best to leave the torch jobs to a plumber. While this isn’t as dangerous as electric work, plumbing problems can get out of hand fast and lead to an expensive and wet future. Your brief plumbing career won’t seem like such a money saver once you have to pay to fix the damage to your house, and to have your work redone properly.
Roof leaks
Even with well-meaning guides on the internet, fixing a roof can easily go very wrong. Fixing a leak is the most common thing that your local roofer will get called in to fix after the homeowner has made a botch job. They usually just keep adding caulk and think that will fix the leak, but usually it doesn’t. The result of their hard work is a soggy attic and a lot of wasted caulk. A trained professional can patch the leak using real roofing materials.
Asbestos removal
Asbestos has been used for about 150 years on a large commercial scale for fireproofing and insulation. Unfortunately it can also cause serious lung diseases such as mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer. This is the biggest reason why you need to hire an expert to help you remove it. While it’s possible to perform a DIY asbestos removal, it’s not recommended. Aside from the inherent dangers of toxicity, there are many laws that govern the removal of asbestos because it can pose a danger to those in close proximity, like your neighbors.