There are some home renovations that you can perform yourself and others that you are better off hiring in a professional to complete them. It’s important to know your limits and what you can learn to do vs what will end up being too much for you. You don’t want to end up with half a project completed and having to call someone in to rip it out and start over. Other than being deeply embarrassing, it will also end up costing you more money too.
Here are a few renovations that should be within your grasp.
Cleaning Gutters
When gutters overflow, they damage any siding on the home, exterior paintwork and potentially cause water to seep into the foundation too. A flooded garden is the last thing you need if you want to have a happy home life too.
Gutters should be cleaned once a year, but more often if you have trees with branches that overhang and come the fall will block up the gutters with leaves. You can clean the gutters quite easily by donning long sleeves, some rubber gloves, and a scoop to extract the malted mess that has built up. Layer some plastic down below or have a plastic bag ready to scoop out the mess into.
Another option is gutter covers/guards. They prevent leaves and other debris from getting inside the gutters. However, they need occasional maintenance too and it’s a tossup whether the cost of time or money to clean the gutters periodically is more than outfitting the gutter covers in the first place.
Painting the Outside of the House Safely
Painting the exterior of your home doesn’t look too difficult at first. The issue comes in when you have a two-story home where it gets tricky to safely access the top part of each wall. While an extended ladder may certainly reach, it doesn’t take much unintentional movement on the ladder to cause it to wobble and become unsteady. Even when someone is holding the ladder at the bottom, the longer it is extended, the more effect that small movements will have on its stability when leaning it up against a wall.
For homes that have an accessible roof where a secure rope and pulley system can be setup, then a protective iron worker harness, like the ones workers use on building sites that have three D-rings sewn into the back and on both sides to secure the worker, is ideal. The trick is to have a way of providing a safe mechanism to secure it to as a harness as it’s only as good as what it’s hooked onto.
Maintaining the Deck
The deck at the back of the house needs taking care of in the spring, the summer and at the start of fall. In the spring, it should be cleaned and be sure to use a suitable cleanser for the type of decking it is. In the summer, check for any issues like boards out of place or screws missing and repair anything that’s necessary. By early fall, keep the deck clear of falling branches and leaves, and move lawn furniture around periodically to prevent the deck discoloring in that spot.
Not every home renovation is something you can do yourself. However, it’s also true that you don’t need to run out to hire someone for every minor thing that must be done. The more you can learn to do things yourself, the less costly the home will be to maintain in the long run.
