Here’s a Home Repair you should NEVER try to DIY: Major Basement Renovations

With the popularity of home improvement shows designed to enthrall viewers with stunning renovations, it’s easy to get swept up in the DIY craze. In the hopes of saving money and channeling their inner design diva, even not-so-handy homeowners may be tempted to pick up a hammer and give home repair a go. This may sound empowering, but there are several home repairs you should never do yourself.

While there are home repairs that can certainly be tackled by enthusiastic amateurs, taking on complicated tasks you’re not qualified to do can have costly consequences. Fact: There is such a thing as home repairs best left to professionals. Not only could faulty work lead to spending more money on repairs than you would have spent if you’d hired a pro from the start, they could result in your home not being up to code, serious injuries or even death.

Even if DIY is your life motto, there are certain cost-cutting measures you want to avoid when it comes to home maintenance. Here are some home repairs best left to professionals:

Frequently DIYers will enthusiastically embrace doing their own basement renos because—to the untrained eye—it’s not a main part of the home and mistakes can be easier to hide. But it’s another on the list of home repairs you should never DIY, says licensed contractor Mark Clement of MyFixitUpLife.com. “Even if it seems simple, like studding out for basement walls, there are details for home safety that need to be added,” he says. “For example, details that can get overlooked in basement build-outs are fire-blocking and vapor barriers,” Clement adds.

Frank Cohn, owner of Cohn Construction Ltd. and host of the Home Improvement Show on Toronto’s NEWSTALK 1010 radio, agrees with Clement that basements should be left to the experts. Cohn says that underpinning (digging out the basement to make it lower) can be especially dangerous. “There’s been a few stories in the Toronto area over the last couple of years where people have even been killed doing underpinning because walls or even the entire house has collapsed.” Even if you are lucky enough not to be harmed by improper basement renos, the price to fix repairs can be in the tens of thousands of dollars because it’s such painstaking and extensive work that affects the entire structural integrity of the house.

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