A little DIY around the house can save you money sometimes, but occasionally you end up creating more work for yourself, or more likely, the professionals you end up hiring to fix your mistakes. Here are four areas where DIY around the house can quickly spiral out of control and create more problems than they solve.
Dry Wall Damage
It’s a pain to install, messy to work with, easy to damage and yet almost every home has it. Every homeowner has at least one dry wall disaster they can tell you about. DIY dry wall repair is hit or miss to say the least and the stuff is darn near impossible to replace without professional help. Anything from a badly hung picture to botched wallpaper removal can damage or destroy your drywall.
Misaligned Doors
Everyone has seen those “haunted” doors that open on their own. The truth is, whether it’s that bedroom door that creaks open late at night or that one cabinet that absolutely will not stay closed, the problem is probably that the door isn’t hung properly. It’s very difficult to get doors leveled, and if they aren’t properly level, gravity will gradually inch them open.
Wild Walls
That accent wall seemed like a great idea at the time, but now you have to paint over it, you’ve applied three coats of primer, and the color is still bleeding through. Sometimes that color can show up even weeks after the new paint is dry, as the stubborn color underneath continues to seep through to the surface. This is particularly true of dark colors and colors with red pigment in them. It’s also worth keeping in mind when you’re contemplating putting a pop of color in your living room.
Broken Seals
Bathrooms see a lot of wear and tear. Windows and doors are open to the elements on one side. Both involve a lot of complicated sealing to keep water and weather contained. The seals around your tub or shower, as well as the ones that go around your doors and windows, are a perfect storm of DIY potential. They’re tricky to install, take professional equipment and time to get right, and when they go wrong, they create a waterfall of other problems throughout the house. Sometimes the waterfall is quite literal.
These are just a few areas where careless DIY projects can create problems rather than solving them. Keep that in mind before you pick up your hammer.