Should you hire a professional to tackle that home electrical project, or should you take it on yourself? That’s a question that has many homeowners scratching their heads over, and has sparked a lot of debate among the professional community.
That’s why eLocal made this topic their 7th question in their ongoing Blog Off Series.
Here’s my take on this topic:
For most renovation projects, you should hire professionals to do the work. Generally speaking, this is what they are trained for, licensed for, and are experienced at doing.
Speaking for the trades portion of a project (if applicable), most jurisdictions allow a homeowner to work on their own home providing they check with the local building authority to see what is required to do so. This is a necessary step, most importantly to protect the health and safety of you and your family. You should check with your insurance provider to ensure that you are not compromising your coverage on work you do yourself.
You may need to obtain a homeowners’ (electrical, plumbing, etc.) permit, and have a qualified inspector check you work to ensure you are compliant with relevant code rules as they apply to your project.
If you choose to do some (or all) of the work on the project yourself, the first question to ask yourself is why? Saving money is the worst motivating factor, simply because in all probability, you won’t!
If you have an interest in tackling the project, are capable of doing the work, and have the time, then go for it, but remember these points:
1. You will take much more time to complete tasks than it would take the professional. You will make mistakes, spend more time thinking, planning, and doing things that a professional would do instinctively. Your extra time spent on portions of a project that you do yourself will hold up progress on the rest of the project that you hire out.
2. Do your research in advance. Failure to plan is a plan to fail!
3. Make sure that this is something you will enjoy doing!
Doing part or all of a renovation project yourself, and doing it correctly will give you a sense of pride, accomplishment, and satisfaction that you won’t get from simply writing the cheques.
Either way, make sure that the job gets done properly and that the professionals you do hire are reputable, and have solid references from happy customers and clients. I’m sure we all have examples of very questionable quality in work done by those calling themselves experts or professional at what they do.
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I was happy to be awarded the “Most Unique Comment” for my post!
As you can imagine, the views were quite varied from the experts. Read eLocal’s blog – click here to view it. What are your thoughts on this?
