Cost savings of DIY

[charbaby]

I’ve been in my house 42 years and I don’t even know how much money I’ve saved by doing everything myself as much as possible. The same with cars, lawnmowers snow blowers and just working on my own stuff. There’s a sense of satisfaction of doing it even if it was my first time, it was at least a learning experience and something I could share with others.

 

[Dave Hess]

I don’t mind spending good $$$ for a high quality job.

Some things I just can’t do like roofing or A/C repair,

 

[SwampSurvivor]

With my old house I had to do a lot of work on it and I'm sure I saved a ton of money.

I had to jack portions of the house up 12-18 inches along with replacing the the floor joists , girders, rim joist and sil plate for the entire first floor. DIYing all of that saved a ton of money.
I also rewired most of it bringing it up to code and adding a ground.

When the water heater failed, I was going to replace it myself but didn't feel comfortable doing gas. I found a Rheem tanked gas water heater I wanted to use and was going to buy it for $850. I called a small local guy who does HVAC and water heaters and he charged me LESS for the installation of the same exact water than I could have bought it from home depot for ...

 

[MurkyAsparagus]

I’ve noticed the same type of savings. There’s very few things I hire out nowadays - mainly just HVAC stuff when it comes to anything that I don’t have tools for or can’t easily diagnose like capacitors/fans/control boards. We’re going to be doing some renovations here soon with the bathrooms and kitchen and will probably have $10k+ doing it ourselves. At some point I want to do all new windows which will cost some $$$. We do need a new roof and gutters that I’ll hire out to do, it’s just too much work and I don’t have the experience.

I’m super picky and a perfectionist when it comes to carpentry and that sort of thing so my projects normally come out pretty nice.

I know on the car side of things I calculated $1-3k a year savings.

 

[Leo99]

In 2025, I replaced an A/C cap and a furnace inducer motor. Figure that saved me about $1000. I replaced some trim boards on my house exterior. I'm sure that would have been expensive for something relatively easy.

I did pay for a professional to install a new water heater. Plumbing is not my forte.

 

[opus1]

Sometimes I wonder if places quote high just because they aren't interested.

A friend's father was a contractor and he said that he'd quote high on jobs he wasn't interested in to either scare off the potential customer or make it worth his time if they accepted.

 

[PandaBear]

I was forced to DIY a lot during a kitchen remodel because we hired a pothead that didn't do much before being fired. The next guy we begged to finish our job had to redo a lot of my DIY and he also was inexperienced with IKEA cabinets and made some mistakes. At least it is finished now but I know the job is a hack and I would rather have spent another 50k to avoid the stress to begin with.

For rental unit I wouldn't mind DIY since they don't complain about quality as much. I would definitely hire a good craftsman to do the job that I can't do well and end up looking cheap later. I can probably paint and assemble some simple stuff but I learned that a lot of my tools aren't that accurate compare to the pros, and I would likely make some mistakes that require redo compare to the pros who do it every day.

 

[funflyer]

How did you come up with that number ?

I keep a spreadsheet of all my home project costs, and call two or three local contractors to satisfy my wife's curiosity as to "is it worth doing ourselves". One of the first projects we did in 2013 was the kitchen remodel and she was shocked when the lowest estimate was 16K more than we spent on materials to do it ourselves. It took us probably 10 times longer to do than a contractor would have taken but it was well worth it.

Some other costs I got over the phone like the garage door repairs I just did. Called two companies and the the lowest cost was $1200 to replace 2 springs, inspect/lube door and replace a sprocket in the opener. The other guy didn't repair openers, just replaces them and wanted $1850. I ordered the torsion springs, new rollers, gear/sprocket assembly and a can of lube for $125. After watching a few YT videos and a couple hours of my time the door is working better than ever.

 

[Hall]

Sometimes I wonder if places quote high just because they aren't interested.

Contractors absolutely will do that. Can also be that they're simply too busy, but they don't want to ignore a potential customer. My brother does this for roofing jobs. He typically does remodels, renovations, etc and stays busy with that, but still gets word-of-mouth referrals. He doesn't want to ignore them, so he throws out a fairly crazy estimate. Best part is, more than once, the people have said they'll move ahead with the job. He'll groan about it initially, then is glad to get the $$$.

 

[funflyer]

I was forced to DIY a lot during a kitchen remodel because we hired a pothead that didn't do much before being fired. The next guy we begged to finish our job had to redo a lot of my DIY and he also was inexperienced with IKEA cabinets and made some mistakes. At least it is finished now but I know the job is a hack and I would rather have spent another 50k to avoid the stress to begin with.

For rental unit I wouldn't mind DIY since they don't complain about quality as much. I would definitely hire a good craftsman to do the job that I can't do well and end up looking cheap later. I can probably paint and assemble some simple stuff but I learned that a lot of my tools aren't that accurate compare to the pros, and I would likely make some mistakes that require redo compare to the pros who do it every day.

I understand. Some jobs are better left to the pros with the right tools. One of the first kitchens I ever helped remodel was a coworker's and he bought Ikea cabinets. I recall they had an odd rail system to hang from and also reversible panels for different applications. I didn't care for them so when I did my kitchen I use standard cabinets and found a remodel calculator online that made it easy to design for the exact size cabinets to fit perfect.

 

[funflyer]

Sometimes I wonder if places quote high just because they aren't interested.

That happens a lot, especially on small jobs.

 

[AZjeff]

Since moving into this new build in 2018 we did our own landscaping (saved $5000), painted the great room & kitchen(saved $1000+), replaced a control board on the air handler (quote $500, board $100, 10 minute job), replaced the anode rod in the water heater (no quote but rod was $30), replaced kitchen faucet (no quote faucet was $150). Replaced garage door torsion springs (GASP!) ( no quote springs were $96).

We did have the exterior painted last year, 10 years ago I would have done it but not now.

I don’t mind spending good $$$ for a high quality job.

And that's the problem. I'm lucky to be able to do most DIY things around the house as good as or better than people I could hire. No "do my best and caulk the rest" work.

2 years ago the kitchen drain got slow and had to have a plumber come and snake it out, $300. Last year same thing so the plumber got out his high pressure drain jetter, $400. I suspect there's a slight belly in the drain line under the slab that's just going to require maintenance. It started to gurgle a bit and today a 100' high pressure 1/8" hose with a drain jetter nozzle that attaches to a pressure washer showed up. Cost $110. Saved at least $300 now and who know what going forward.

 

[JeffKeryk]

The good news is, after being burned by workers I have found a core team whose work is excellent and prices are more than fair.
Cesar is remodeling Petaluma as we speak. No more popcorn!

 

[Leo99]

I keep a spreadsheet of all my home project costs, and call two or three local contractors to satisfy my wife's curiosity as to "is it worth doing ourselves". One of the first projects we did in 2013 was the kitchen remodel and she was shocked when the lowest estimate was 16K more than we spent on materials to do it ourselves. It took us probably 10 times longer to do than a contractor would have taken but it was well worth it.

Some other costs I got over the phone like the garage door repairs I just did. Called two companies and the the lowest cost was $1200 to replace 2 springs, inspect/lube door and replace a sprocket in the opener. The other guy didn't repair openers, just replaces them and wanted $1850. I ordered the torsion springs, new rollers, gear/sprocket assembly and a can of lube for $125. After watching a few YT videos and a couple hours of my time the door is working better than ever.

I don't have torsion springs, I have the coil ones which are not dangerous and were not difficult to replace. One decided to go to spring heaven at 2am and scared us out of bed. The torsion springs are dangerous from what I understand. I'd leave them to the professionals.

 

[funflyer]

I don't have torsion springs, I have the coil ones which are not dangerous and were not difficult to replace. One decided to go to spring heaven at 2am and scared us out of bed. The torsion springs are dangerous from what I understand. I'd leave them to the professionals.

You'd be surprised at how simple and safe they actually are to change with the right winding bars and a little patience. I wound my new springs per the online instructions and they were just a tad too strong so I backed them off by 1/2 turn and all was good.

 

[funflyer]

Forgot to add in the money we saved when we painted our house last fall. Never did call for quotes, just bought an airless sprayer, 15 gallons of the best Glidden paint and went to town.

 

[Cropduster172]

My son and I did our kitchen remodel 4 years ago...not by choice but by necessity. It was the tail end of the COVID-19 nonsense. The cabinets were ordered and took about 4 months to arrive...all of a sudden we got notified they were being delivered within 24 hours. The countertops were ordered but the guy that does the measurements doesn't come out until the base cabinets are installed. Tried 3 different contractors to hang the cabinets and do the backsplash. No luck. Screw it. I did it with my son. Hung the cabinets, tiled the backsplash, did 90% of the crown molding(finish carpenter I hired was a clown for $500/day), sink and plumbing disposal, built the center Island,etc...Countertop guys were top notch. They set the sink, I did the plumbing
Came out great. Saved about $15,000.

 

[Leo99]

My son and I did our kitchen remodel 4 years ago...not by choice but by necessity. It was the tail end of the COVID-19 nonsense. The cabinets were ordered and took about 4 months to arrive...all of a sudden we got notified they were being delivered within 24 hours. The countertops were ordered but the guy that does the measurements doesn't come out until the base cabinets are installed. Tried 3 different contractors to hang the cabinets and do the backsplash. No luck. Screw it. I did it with my son. Hung the cabinets, tiled the backsplash, did 90% of the crown molding(finish carpenter I hired was a clown for $500/day), sink and plumbing disposal, built the center Island,etc...Countertop guys were top notch. They set the sink, I did the plumbing
Came out great. Saved about $15,000.

My countertop guys were great. They didn't speak much English but they knew how to measure and install granite. Needed 5 pieces and they all fit perfectly. I asked about the price for them to cut the granite and deliver, but I'd install and the cost savings were much too small to consider it.

 

[Cropduster172]

My countertop guys were great. They didn't speak much English but they knew how to measure and install granite. Needed 5 pieces and they all fit perfectly. I asked about the price for them to cut the granite and deliver, but I'd install and the cost savings were much too small to consider it.

The countertop outfit we used sent a guy out separately once I told them the base cabinets were installed. He used laser measuring devices and an iPad. The installers came out a few weeks later with the quartz countertops. Installed them,, install the sink and drilled the quartz for the faucet and soap pump....all completed 100% perfectly.
I wouldn't take on any part of that work.

 

[Leo99]

The countertop outfit we used sent a guy out separately once I told them the base cabinets were installed. He used laser measuring devices and an iPad. The installers came out a few weeks later with the quartz countertops. Installed them,, install the sink and drilled the quartz for the faucet and soap pump....all completed 100% perfectly.
I wouldn't take on any part of that work.

My guys measured with a measuring tape and then brought in a fairly large metal case that contained some sort of device that had a stylus that they'd move to various edges with a corresponding beep. I was very curious about it, but due to language barriers, they were unable to explain it.

They were some burly guys that carried the pieces from the truck to inside the house.