DIY guys... where do you draw the line?
 

Where do you guys draw the line with DIY projects? I’m a pretty handy guy, and as a rule I prefer to attempt something myself before bringing in paid professionals. It used to be mostly with car stuff, and as a result of lots of projects I’d consider myself a pretty good wrench. I’ve also always helped friends out with house projects, and am pretty handy in that department as well.

Here’s the issue. In the past year or so (specifically, since I bought a house), I find all my weekends are being overrun by projects. Rebuilding the car’s transmission, painting the bathroom, installing a bathroom fan, insulating the basement, replacing the front brakes, re-rigging my sailboat etc etc etc. For the most part, I really enjoy this stuff… especially the house stuff. The car stuff I could do without sometimes, but if I can save $500 by working on the car for a weekend then I really can’t afford NOT to.

This came to a head this weekend. Our car went in for inspection and failed because of a couple bad brake lines and a rear bearing. I figured I could do a rear bearing in 30 minutes or so, so while I had the car up I might as well do the brake lines too. So, I brought the car home to do the work myself over the weekend. Well, I got the car up on stands Saturday night and did the bearing in 20 minutes, but then got underneath the car to do the brake lines and just ran out of juice. I was tired and grumpy, and my wife was inside by the fire with a dog snoring at her feet. I went inside for the night. On Sunday, I spent 4 hours working on the car, laying on my back cursing. I ended up having to drill out the brake proportioning valve, didn’t have a replacement and there was no effen way I was going to work on the car after work during the week. I drove it to the garage (carefully) and left it. I wasted half my weekend, and I bet I saved $75. Never again.

I’ve started pulling back a bit… doing the stuff I enjoy and leaving the crap work for others. But sometimes I take on crap work if I stand to save decent $$ by doing it myself.

Where do you guys draw the line? Which projects do you take on yourself, and which ones do you farm out?

You need to drink stronger beer in the garage. That light beer will only piss you off.

LOL... I got TANKED in the garage on friday. I should never have put a fridge in there.

Automatic transmissions, drywall and gift wrapping. Anything else, bring it on!

When the DIY project will get in the way of family, work or an income producing venture. Basically, I'll DIY if I have a spare moment. Right now, I have an oil cooler, fan and scoop to install. Plus the HVAC project and lowering the car. I have no idea at this point if I can get all or if any of them done. I'm into too many things plus I'm trying to get a business off the ground.

Pretty much draw the line at anything that requires tools that can't be bought at Sears, or requires disposal of any other fluid other than Oil, or if I can't afford to replace it if I fry it.

rjp

if it is dangerous, i will hire out. i just paid some guy to prune my trees. best money i ever spent. considering i would have probable fallen out of the tree with a reved up chainsaw...danger is my "line".

as for too busy, i dont buy it. i just do stuff when i would be watching television. TV is a sure sign that i dont have enough to do. oh, i will hire out for my home remodel. living in a crappy house is my other line.

Yup that's a good point... I have friends that say they don't have time to do any DIY stuff, but they easily watch 2-3 hrs of TV a day. I try to catch the news on TV when I go to bed, but that's it.

I usually work on projects 2-3 nights a week, even if it's just stacking wood or wiring in a new GFCI outlet.

Think of yourself as a professional with a skill set. Work on the highest priced jobs yourself. Sub-out the less cost effective stuff. I don't do exterior painting anymore. If I have the choice of hiring a plumber to retro-fit copper in my house, or a painter to paint the outside, I hire the painter and do the plumbing myself.

All things being equal though, there are some jobs I enjoy more than others. Drywall and pulling wire are pain in the arse jobs. I'd do almost anything else before those jobs.

When the DIY job is no longer any fun, I will pay someone else to do it.

No lines, no boundaries.

Girlfriend's condo at 10% done below. In reality, we should have pulled 100 years of plaster and 5 coats of paint off the walls and just replastered them. We're redoing the entire place and it's become a massive job, though highly rewarding and a nice bonding experience. that's the key to taking on any huge project, you've got to have a friend in there with you.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1133806943.jpg


This is about 50% done. At this stage you forget all the crap you went through to get here and only focus on how great it will look when done. I really find that focusing on the end result is better than focusing on the process.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1133806987.jpg

Oooooh you nailed it with auto trannys.

As far as house stuff is concerned I "aint" afraid of nothin. I like the satifaction of tackling a project I have never done before. I figure if some highschool drop out/ meth addict (most tradesman around here) can master a individual task, I can atleast become a novice at it.

Although once I've done it and feel comfortable with it I hire someone to do it the next time ie. landscaping, lol.

Interesting... I find that I do just the OPPOSITE. If I focus on the end result I find myself rushing, or being frustrated by slow progress. However, if I focus on the process, in steps, I find I can trick myself into enjoying it.

Looks great, by the way!

Television? What's that?

Yep, as many stated here, there are lots of reasons. Some jobs are just too darn complicated. I might be able to actually get the job done right, but if it's going to take me a week to learn how and do a job that I can have done cheaply in a day and I'm confident the job will be done right....

complexity (yep, auto trannies)
cost
time
danger (I'll cut the little low stuff, but when the guy is 30 feet up a tree with a chainsaw cutting the top 15 feet off and it's leaning over the neighbors detached garage....)

Here's my DIY "blacklist"

-Auto trannies
-Roofing (don't like heights)
-"out" plumbing (don't like poo)
-2 stroke engines, (exception: outboards)
-drywall
-brake lines (NEW)

I draw the line at drawing lines. I just can't get them straight.

good point above. landscaping. and i guess interior design stuff. i will mow and vacumn, but it would be nice to get somebody to make it look good first. i just dont have the eye.

Christmas lights.

Even brake lines? Maybe I did wuss out. I think part of the problem is the car itself. I get really frustrated by bad design & materials. I am starting to be really dissapointed in VWs, and don't really enjoy working on them anymore. This will probably be my last one.

car stuff. i dont think i will do bodywork.

For me it's the cold. I hate working in the cold.

- My BMW is filthy (the wife drives it and likes to splash in the puddles). It's too cold to wash it myself. If I didn't spend all day sick on the couch yesterday, I would have been at the car wash as much as it pains me and they do such a lousy job.

- I'm still trying to get the 911 through emissions. I should have done this over the summer. It's too cold to run it out in the driveway and fool with that little 3mm allen wrench. Since I don't drive it often, I'm still debating taking it somewhere to balance it out and get it passed.

Other things I have paid for or will pay for...mostly due to time constraints.

- I need a path put in next to the house. I built a retaining wall by myself over the course of a 4 day weekend last year. I have never been more tired. I couldn't move. Someone else is doing the path because the digging will kill me.

- I paid for a fence, because we wanted the dog to run around in the yard and I just didn't have time with my schedule to build it. I paid $1700 for 2 sides and a couple gates. They got it done in 1 day and I know under my yard is solid rock.

- I paid for someone to paint a couple of rooms before we moved in. I'm a perfectionist and it's a brand new house. Fortunately this guy was a perfectionist too. Money well spent.

- I had a deck built. It required a hole dug as deep as the basement for any footers that were within 5' of the house. That required an 8 foot deep hole. Again, the yard is very rocky and 8' is deep when you dig it yourself.

- Targa roof. I knew that if I attempted this and it didn't come out looking right, I would be furious. Did I mention I'm a perfectionist. It didn't come out quite as I'd hoped, but probably better than I could have done.

- I am not supposed to do electrical work (says the wife). I want to build out a room in my basement. I will wire it up and pay an electrician an hours work to look it over.

Most other stuff I will do.

I am 39, have owned cars, motorcycles, dirt bikes, street bikes, snowmobiles and airplanes (only one of which was purchased new).

I have paid for tires to be mounted and balanced (although I have been looking for a used tire mounter and electronic balancer).

I have paid for rotors to be turned.

I have paid to have heads and other engine parts to be machined.

I have paid to have avionics repaired.

Everything else including building two airplanes (I even built an oven to blow my own canopy/windshield), repainting/restoring multiple cars, rebuilding engines, building & restoring violins & guns, roofing, pouring concrete etc etc, I have done myself.

I am completely off the deep-end when it comes to DIY projects. I get immense satisfaction from learning/mastering new skills (tig welding, woodworking, bodywork, etc etc). I built my own engine yoke, CIS tester, cam nut tool.

I think I have a problem! (so does my wife!)

I'm very handy with home improvement stuff but absolutely suck when it comes to working on cars. After years of good intentions that ultimately end up in pain and additional expense DIY car stuff is a non-starter :) for me.

Others I will immediately hire out include:

Landscaping projects that involve digging or heavy materials
Heavy demolition (tile floors, counters, baths, etc...)
Moving

I'm seriously considering a 'once in a lifetime' project soon - buying a lot and building a custom home.

Reading that I would go into the garage and proceed as follows:

Try to un screw existing line connections but find they are so corroded and frozen that I have to demolish stuff to get them off while suffering 2 major cuts that need stitches. Then trying to install the new lines realize that they are not EXACTLY the same and won't fit without the special tool and "a little" welding. Finally, exhausted and bloodied, I bleed the brake system and end up spraying brake fluid all over the wifes car and garage floor forcing another trip to the store for more brake fluid. On the way I stop by the local body shop and make an appointment to repaint the wifes car...

LOL! It must be great to work on socal cars!

It started out as such.. the flexible lines were a bit rotted. Most of them came out relatively easy using a combination of penetrating oil, heat and profanity. But a couple were rusted in and broke off at the fitting. Then I found that a couple of the steel lines were badly rusted, then I noticed that the proportioning valve was siezed. The proportioning valve is mounted using 6mm hex screws that are guaranteed to seize into the aluminum housing (STUPID), so it had to be drilled off.

I have John Walker for my car.
I do small stuff on the wife's kid hauler but mostly it goes to the shop.

Around the house my track record has been diminishing. Built a shed a couple of years ago but since then I've pretty much been hiring professionals because either the job is too big for one person (big ass deck w/ a couple of large arbors, complete landscape redesign) or I just had no clue where to start (front and rear lawn sprinkler system...easier to have the landscapers do it). In my younger (re: poorer) years I probably would have tacked all of those and screwed up half of them. House needs painting this spring/summer. I'll be paying a professional for that one.

Have done nearly everything and then when we decide that it is not feasible for me to do it again we hire it out.
I paid to have someone install our new front door. Beautiful thing in mahogany with glass inserts.
I paid to have someone replace my fences and retaining wall that I put in some 20 years ago.
Next time I need sheetrock put on a ceiling, I will hire that out. That was not fun.
I don't do transmission rebuilds.
I did one roof about 30 years ago. We just paid someone to do our current house.

I am planning to redo the kids bathroom and the laudry room during the winter. All new cabinets, fixtures, floors and applicances.

After practically building my own house and doing endless repairs on POS car, I am now in the position to reward tradesmen for their hardwork whilst I sit back, checkbook at the ready. I only work on my bikes.

I draw the line under John Walkers name in the phone book.

I barely have time to eat, let alone work on my P-car.

Lets see, given how expensive parts are, I can waste days working on the car, only save the labor cost, and live in fear that its wrong. OR, I can pay John to fix it perfectly (a lot of times sorting out other minor things along the way).

My wife and I have done just about everything on our house except for a new main header beam and the family room carpet. I put down the underlayment, replacing old repairs by the PO along the way.
I am NOT a carpenter, nor do Iclaim to be one. I have lots of neat, expensive tools but I still have a difficult time in finishing a project that I feel is professional looking. My wife is happy but I know where the mistakes are. I do all of the maintenance and upgrades to our cars/ lawnmowers, etc. The only things I do not do are tire mountings, body work, and alignments. I have peformed all upgrades to my 911 as I don't believe in paying somebody for something I can do myself on a Sunday afternoon. I don't exactly have a Porsche repair shop in the neighborhood, either. I like working on my cars as it is good therapy for me.

My dad (not a carpenter by trade or even hobby) built our house, with the help of an architect/master carpenter in the family. And a lot of relatives to help with the work.

I can only hope that someday I'll be able to do something like that. It must save money, and if you can do the job right, it gets done.

Me, I'll handle yardwork, snow removal, paint, change oil, mount summer/snow tires on the family cars, etc. I don't go too far, not yet.

That's one of the really cool things about John. He's more of a 911 doctor than he is a mechanic. According to my observations, it is rare for John to quietly collect a check for his services and parts. Instead, there is an entire conversation that usually begins "I noticed your _________ was loose so I tightened it and your _________ was out of adjustment so I adjusted it. The _______ was rusted shut and I had one lying around so I put it on. I centered the ______ as much as I could but eventually you're really going to need a new one, but you're good to go for now..........."

He doesn't do this in the same way and for the same reasons other shops do. In fact, he likes to just fix things he sees and just tell the customer it was no big deal, have a nice day.

Me? I am okay doing a few things on ordinary cars, but they're often frustrating. I'll do anything on a 911 and thoroughly enjoy it. these cars are quality, in case you're wondering what quality looks like. Materials AND design.

As far as homes go, I pretty much like it all, except for crawl spaces and attics that have insulation in them. Dirt crawl spaces are kinda fun. I'm a sick man.

neurosurgery and self-tattooing (tried once, had it covered up)

I see your problem. It's not what you can or can not do, it's how much time you estimate for the task (Are you in software development by chance. ;) )

Here is how you should have estimated the task...

• Base factor - Rear bearing: 30 minutes
• Multiply by the "Never done it before factor-of-three."
• Add the constant "two hours to go buy the special tool trip."
• Add the thirty minute "Beer fetchin' trip."
• Include the one-minute "Y'all watch this!" stunt.
• Add the thirty-minute "Does this need stitches?" discussion.
• Include the "Now I understand, let's do it the right way, effort"

Final estimate to change rear bearing....

Two days. ;)

I'm trying to get away from feeling like I have to do everything. I want to have more time to do things like hike, kayak and bike. The problem is that everytime I have someone else do something, the next time I take it apart or look closely at it, I find out what a crappy job they did and feel I should have done it myself. That keeps me busy doing all this stuff myself.

So true! It is becoming very difficult to find someone who can just change a tire without issue nowadays!

This is pretty much an individual thing, governed by several factors, such as: where you are with your comfort level with the job, the time available, (that can work both ways) and the degree of difficulty/availability or special tools factor.
I've built my house (except for the foundation, rough plumbing & wiring), barn and garage, and once took a two week vacation to re-do the entire basement after water damage.
I'll tear down a Briggs & Stratton motor, but not the Porsche's, yet. (Although I am getting the parts together to upgrade the tensioners)
I like Rob's "Never done that before" time multiplier factor. Don't forget the 'helpful friend add 50%' factor.
There are the jobs you just should not tackle without a clear picture of what is entailed. Then there are jobs you shouldn't have attempted, but got through anyway. Those are learning experiences. You learn something every time you do a job.. Sometimes, you learn you never want to do THAT again.
Les

Well, after you've DIY'ed body work, everything else is a walk in the park. ;)
(speaking from experience)

That said, I only outsource alignment work on my p-car.

LOL... often true, but in this case I got the bearing done in under 30 minutes. It was the brake lines that I gave up on, and not because it was taking more time than I expected so much as I was just hating the process.