Do-it-yourself home renos can be a fantastic way to save money… IF you know what you’re doing, and unfortunately, most people don’t. If you’re looking to sell and want to renovate your home to increase the value, DIY projects can be great... but when done poorly they don’t do nearly as well as a home that’s been professionally renovated and may simply end up costing you in damage as well as additional fees to fix. 

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Here are 8 Common DIY Projects You May Want to Hire a Professional For.

1. The Roof
Having professional roofing can be expensive, but so can serious roofing screw-ups. Troublesome, damaging leaks are common in DIY roofing jobs. Unless you’re experienced, you should consider hiring a pro.

2. The Deck
If built poorly, a deck can collapse and be a health hazard. Pros know how to properly evaluate the land you’d like to build on and can save you a lot of headache.

3. Converting Indoor/Outdoor Space

If you want to convert your space into a functional extra room on your own, be cautious. Converting space takes a ton of work typically, and often leads to spaces that look sloppy and amateur, because they often don’t get completed and lack functionality.

4. Installing Hardwood and Carpet

Flooring is one of the first things seen by buyers, and a great job on flooring can be very impressive. The opposite is true as well. You need to be handy and do adequate research if you try to do carpeting yourself. Otherwise, leave it to a pro.

5. Painting Your Rooms

This one can be completely fine if you’ve had experience. Many of us paint our own rooms with no negative effect. That being said, if you don’t know what you’re doing, and ugly, poorly-executed paint job can do your home a disservice and repel buyers.

6. Kitchen Renovations

Buyers absolutely love a nicely renovated kitchen, which is great for sellers. Installing your own cabinets or appliances can be costly though if errors are made. If things don’t align properly, are poorly cut, or are damaged during installation, you could turn off a lot of buyers.

7. Adding a Bathroom

This DIY reno can be dangerous, risking costly structural damage to your home. Issues with plumbing are noticed very quickly by home inspectors, and if poorly installed, they may flag the issue, which could become a condition in offers you may need to fix.

8. Tile

Tile can look incredibly sleek when done right. When buyers see misaligned tile they can’t help but assume the homeowner didn’t invest enough money to do the job right. It takes skill to make the tile look its best and perfectly aligned.

If you’re an experienced handy kind of person, open to spending lots of time researching, watching tutorials, speaking with professionals, then maybe you could handle some of these DIY projects. If not, then it's probably best to leave these projects in the hands of a skilled professional.

Thinking of selling and want some great professionals in Sarnia-Lambton? Call me at (519) 331-3746.