In this day and age, DIY projects are pretty popular amongst regular homeowners and for good reason too – sometimes we want to save money and decide to do something ourselves or we may think that we have the necessary skills to be able to get the job done.
You might be considering repairing or replacing your gutters on your own and really, this is a risky thing to do.
DIY Gutter Installation
Let’s look at the pros and cons of installing gutters on your own.
PROS
- The most obvious is saving money. You don’t have to hire anyone.
- You set the pace and how fast or slowly you want to work on the project.
- There’s no deadline and you can pretty much decide when you want to finish things up.
CONS
- Housework requires skills and if you don’t have the experience and expertise to do such projects, you might end up hurting yourself and others.
- If you don’t have previous experience with gutter installation, you’ll end up renting or buying tools for the project. That’s an added cost for you.
- Due to trial and error, you might be buying more materials.
- Is the extra $50 you saved worth it? If you take a look at the overall costs, you might not be saving THAT much money compared to hiring a professional.
- Due to your inexperience, the installation might force you to actually fire professional gutter repair services, thereby costing you more.
Why you should hire a professional
As much as you may want to do something yourself, you might want to consider hiring professionals to get the job done for you.
PROS
- The best part of hiring professional help is that you don’t have to do anything. You can leave it to them to do the dirty work. Just sit back and relax!
- Because your days aren’t filled with DIY projects, guess what this leaves you – a lot of time to do important things!
- Because you’re not up on the roof risking your life, injuries are far from your mind!
- Most professional gutter replacement and repair companies buy their materials at wholesale prices because they get them in bulk. You may actually be saving money by hiring professionals.
- Because the job is done by a professional and it is done right, there’s no need to worry about patchwork to be made. If you hire a reputable gutter repair company, their work will be polished from the get go.
CONS
Some people may see this as a downside to hiring professionals and costs play a role in deciding whether or not you want to get your gutters done professionally.
Don’t think about the short term effect of spending, instead consider the number of years your gutters will last. If you do a DIY project on gutters, you are most likely looking at months or if you’re lucky, a year of an ok job. Then you’d have to spend again on gutter replacements or repairs, forcing you to spend money again earlier than needed.
Don’t also forget the health hazard of doing an installation on your own. Professional gutter companies have industrial grade tools that help them do their job right. Your ladder may not be as sturdy as theirs or if you live in a multi storey home, you might not have a scaffold that can aid in your installation like professionals have. Don’t underestimate the project and instead hire professionals that have the knowledge and experience.
