What is the cost of DIY?
Really, what does it cost to do it yourself? Well like most things in life it depends. What is the project? How long will it take you? Do you have any idea what you are getting yourself into?
Lots of times the DIY community will immediately jump on the cost savings associated with doing a project yourself instead of hiring it out. I totally agree, most of the time.
I grew up in a house that was constantly under construction. From as early as I can remember something in my house was in the process of being torn down, being rebuilt, or was in some state of construction. We lived with a gutted kitchen for 4 years at one point, until my parents finally paid someone to complete the work. My father was, and still is, a serial DIYer. Not a weekend went by without him doing something around the house. I learned a lot from him during those weekends and while I might not have appreciated it at the time, I sure do now.
I can remember him handing me a broom stick when when I was about 8 so I could help him. He was about to work on the old breaker box in our house. “Stand back, but if I look like I’m getting shocked try and knock my hand away from the breaker box”. I don’t do this with my kids.
He taught me to tackle projects with reckless abandon and if you break it you can probably fix it, which is true, most of the time. As was the case with my childhood kitchen you cannot always fix it yourself.
When we purchased our first home I was jazzed up to start showing my family what I could do with a hammer and drill. When a project popped up I was on it like white on rice. Tearing things apart, reading up on projects and making trips to the hardware store. Every birthday and Father’s Day included a new tool for daddy to play with. In our first three years I removed and built a new deck, extended the roof line over the new deck, built a two hundred square foot shed from the ground up, repaired rot in the crawl space, installed a new chimney, replaced our roof, attached our kitchen sink to the septic, remodeled the bathroom, replaced the motor on our washing machine, constructed a rain water catchment system and replaced all the plumbing in the house. I also spent a ton of money.
While many of my projects were money saving initiatives many went over the top. We had a plumber come and give us a quote to replace our old corroded galvanized pipes, ten thousand dollars! I did it for two thousand. When the washer broke down we were looking at a replacement for seven hundred. A new motor cost thirty. And replacing our roof easily saved us seven to eight thousand. I know this for sure because my uncle is a roofer.
Even with all of these savings we still spent the money. Weekly trips to the hardware store became the norm for our family. Once there, we could never walk out for less than a hundred dollars even if we just came for one small part. Every month it was something that needed work or repair and a new part or tool was needed to finish the job. Even when I was at the hardware store for work I would be eyeing the tools and occasionally pick something up for myself, not on the company credit card though of coarse.
On top of that, some of the projects didn’t save any money at all.
The deck that came with our house was rotten to the core, and was causing rot on the sill board where it connected to the house. This led to rot in the house that needed to be repaired. The sellers of the house had painted over the rot to make it look good for selling and had even replaced a few boards, but this didn’t help. It needed to go.
When planning out and talking about our deck I managed to get myself all worked up about using a wood called Ipe. Ipe is a South American hardwood that is one of the densest woods there is. So dense that it sinks in water and dulls most saw blades it touches. The upside is that it is beautiful, like, holy crap beautiful, and lasts forever. It is said that if you do nothing to it, an Ipe deck can last fifty years, and if you oil it yearly it will look great and last for fifty years. I was hooked and I had to have an Ipe deck for my run down fixer upper. But believe it or not rare South American hardwoods are not cheap.
I found a supplier in South Seattle who carried Ipe and would deliver it. I estimated how much I would need and placed my order, $5.25 a board foot. Five thousand dollars later I had my wood and I was ready to get started. But that is not where the expense ended. Then I needed to buy everything else, the concrete piers, the framing, the concrete for the 3 different levels of stairs and the fancy hidden attachment screws. There goes another four or five thousand.
Everything was going well with the install but wait! I didn’t have enough wood to finish the project. In fact I only had enough to cover the top of the deck and none of the stairs. One more five grand order later and I had everything I needed.
To say I over spent on this project would be an understatement. No one needs a fifteen thousand dollar deck on a fixer upper that will one day be come a rental.
Now, I must say that our deck is beautiful and will undoubted increase the rental or resale value of our house. We now have access to our yard from many angles and are not locked into a small set of stairs that are out of the way. It did really ad to our quality of life and allow us to enjoy our outdoor space a lot more. But was it worth the cost?
I do know that in the future we will be planning better, budgeting and ensuring that we are using the best materials for the situation. While I am proud of the work that I did and happy with the results I would rather have some of that money in a retirement account growing interest.
We have stripped out the weekly trips to the hardware store and are looking at how we can do more with less in the future. We are also keeping our eyes peeled for uses or reclaimed items that we can use in our repairs. I still plan to make this house a real asset for us but I will be doing it smart in the future. I have learned from my mistakes.
Pick your projects carefully, set a budget and stick to it.