DIY is an absolute godsend! It’s the kind of skill you don’t think all that much about – that is, until the day comes when your home is falling down around you. In that moment, being able to grab your own toolbox out of the shed is a very practical and beneficial thing.
And if you can roll up your sleeves and get to work in your own time, you can save a lot of money on hiring a professional, and prevent any further damage from being done to your home. You could even end up adding value to your home! It’s super satisfying, and even quite empowering, when all of this goes right.
But what happens when trying some DIY goes wrong? Small errors can lead to large, lingering mistakes, and there’s a countless amount of people out there who have sent themselves to the ER with a DIY injury!
Or if the DIY you want to do starts to get quite difficult, and beyond your skill level? What happens then? It’s all about weighing up the pros and cons of continuing, and making sure you’re making the job as easy as you can for yourself. Here are some of the best ways to do that.
Find a Tutorial
We’ve all been there. Something like the sink needing unblocking or the washing machine needing cleaning out, and we think we know everything we need to do already. So we get down to it, only to make the problem worse, flood out the kitchen or bathroom, and cause a big mess we’re only going to have to clear up later!
It’s a common mistake, and it’s one we wholeheartedly recommend avoiding wherever you can. But if it’s too late for that, and the job itself isn’t as straightforward as it seemed, it’s time to head online to find a tutorial for it.
Someone else has run into this problem before and you’re sure to come across at least one guide on how to proceed. Dig one of those out, follow along, and see if they can help you fix things.
You should be able to find plenty of video tutorials too. Youtube is laden with DIY how-tos and error fixing guides, so if an article with some images isn’t quite in depth enough for you, watch a few videos as well.
Buy Some Power Tools
You’ve exhausted your toolbox options trying to get that shelf up on the wall, or that door frame back into place. You’ve stripped the head off of a million different screws by now, and your arms ache from holding something straight while your partner tried to hammer it into position.
All in all, the project is one big mess and you’re probably going to have to start again! But seeing as that took a lot of time and energy the first time round, you’re unlikely to want to do that. So, where do you go from here?
Straight to the nearest DIY store to pick yourself up some power tools! They’ll cut the time and energy required to restart the project in half, and you won’t have to use anywhere near as much strength and pressure to get that nail through the board and into the wall bracket.
You can just use the nail gun you’ve bought instead, which only requires a few presses of a button to use. No more whacking the hammer over and over again, and no more bent nails you just have to pull out after a few near-misses!
Rope in a Friend
Know someone who seems to have every DIY skill under the sun? It’s time to get them involved. Ask if they’ve got a spare hour or two over the next couple of days and get them to come over.
In the meantime, leave the project you’re working on alone, make sure it’s safe and poses no risk to anyone in your house, and then wait for backup to arrive. Once it has, let them survey the scene and put their two cents in. They’ll probably have a much better idea of how you managed to go wrong, as well as the best ways to pull the project back together without making things worse.
And even if your friend can’t directly get down to righting your DIY problem, two heads are always better than one. Together you can come up with a solution that’ll probably save your home in the long run!
Ask an Expert
There are a lot of experts out there, most of whom will be on call to hear about your DIY woes. Get in touch with one or two and explain the problem; if you can, send pictures or videos of your worksite and where you think it went wrong too.
Of course, you don’t have to actually hire anyone to come and take care of the job for you, but you can ask them for some advice. They should be able to give you some tips on the best ways to fix an issue and/or right the course of the project.
This could involve a few tricks on how best to use your tools, or how to stabilize something that’s crumbling under its own weight, or what signs of damage and danger to look out for. You may have to pay a consultation fee, but that’s usually a lot cheaper than hiring someone outright.
DIY Difficulties Happen to Us All
Doing a bit of DIY around the house? Good for you! Just make sure you’re working to the best of your ability at all times. Start safe and stay that way, make sure you have the right tools, and never take on a job you know you don’t have the skills for.
And if it’s a little too late to apply that advice, make good use of the tips above. They might just prevent the issue from growing out of proportion; it’s quite easy to mistake a load bearing wall!