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There’s nothing wrong with rolling up your sleeves and starting a fun DIY project, but we often underestimate how dangerous a small fixer-upper can be. 56.4% of preventable-injury-related deaths happen in the home, so it’s much safer to call a professional for certain home repairs.
10 Home Improvement Projects You Shouldn’t DIY
Whether you’re sprucing up the place to sell or you just want to improve the rooms in your house for your own sake, it’s recommended that you don’t try to DIY the following things.
1. Installing a Dishwasher
At first, installing a dishwasher yourself doesn’t seem too hard, but it’s worth it to pay the extra cost for a professional to do it. If you’ve never used a dishwasher before, you’ll likely have to drill holes in water lines, position the electric lines, and hook up the dishwasher to the waterline.
2. Low Water Pressure
If your low water pressure is caused by gunk inside the aerator, then you won’t need to hire a pro. But if cleaning your system doesn’t help, and you live near Salt Lake City, you should hire a professional plumbing company, like ARS, to check for a fractured pipe or an eroded water line.
3. Malfunctioning Sink Pipes
Sink pipes can be partially or fully clogged due to hair, grease, or foreign objects. If a chemical drain cleaner doesn’t unblock the drain, don’t dismantle the piping yourself. Pipes are pretty complex and difficult to assemble, especially when they’re close to other piping components.
4. Painting Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets are often coated with grease and finger oils that are difficult to remove without a diluted TSK degreasing agent. To paint kitchen cabinets, you need to first remove the grease and then use an oil-based paint fed through a sprayer, which is dangerous and hard to do.
5. Installing New Lights
Unless you know how to work around electrical wiring safely, you should never attempt to install new lights in your home. A live wire can generate enough electricity to severely injure or kill you, and faulty wiring could overload or spark, causing fires or damage to the electrical system.
6. Installing a GFCI Switch
A ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) switch is often found in bathrooms, laundry rooms, and kitchens because it helps prevent electrocutions in damp or wet places. Like any other electrical component, there’s a high risk of electric shock if you install it incorrectly or handle live wires.
7. Any Type of Roofing Job
If you need to reshingle your roof, patch up a leak in the sealing, or remove a branch from the top of your home, call a professional. A fall off of a one-story home is a 10-15 feet drop, which puts you at risk of severe injury, whereas a fall from a two to three-story house could kill you.
8. Waterproofing a Basement
While waterproofing your basement is a smart move, especially if you’re in an area that floods frequently, the waterproofing process is long. It can take 3 days to a week to waterproof a basement with help, and you can’t leave your dug hole open, or it could cave in your house.
9. Removing a Single Wall
You probably think you don’t need a lot of experience to demolish a single wall, but you’d be wrong. If you accidentally damage a load-bearing wall, there’s a high chance you’ll cave in your ceiling. Not only that, but you could sustain serious injuries from flying and falling debris.
10. Semi-Complete Demolition
Unless you plan to completely demolish the house (which is still dangerous in old homes due to asbestos), you need to make sure you don’t hit any electric wires or structural beams that cost a fortune to replace. A professional demolition company won’t destroy anything you’ll need.
