Home Renos: 6 WAYS TO KNOW WHEN TO CALL A PRO

When you have an older home, sometimes it comes with a long list of major faults that need to be fixed.  Other times it’s a newly built home you would like to put your personal touches on.  Either way, the chances are you have a couple projects you want to tackle in your home.  There always comes a time when a decision must be made to hire a professional or to do it yourself, but how do you decide which is the better option?  Where to draw that line between hiring a pro or trying a DIY will depend on a few things.

Any project that requires plumbing, electrical, or deals with the physical structure of your home should be handled by a pro.  Those are the parts of your home where a specific skill is required.  No question about it.

The projects that have a high price on installation is where you can decide what you have more of: time or money.  These projects include tile installation, demolition, clean up, drywall and drywall mudding and taping. These projects generally require a lot of time or detail work, so if you are willing to do the work yourself you could save a lot of money. If you need the project finished in a short amount of time because it’s an area of the house you use daily, you will have to ask yourself what kind of time you have, and how dedicated you are to finishing.  Speaking from experience, when a DIY project takes too long it tends to sit almost finished for a long time.  It is easy to lose interest when the work gets hard.  If you are someone who likes to check the job off your to-do list, and can finish it in a reasonable amount of time, then DIY is for you.

For those who don’t want to tackle the dirty work themselves but still want to save money, you can always do the demolition and cleanup yourself.  When you get a quote from a contractor have him list those separately so you can see how much money you will save.

Get an itemized quote from your contractor to see what projects are worth doing yourself.

After your renovations and projects are complete make sure you check in with your insurance agent to update your policy.  Esurance recently launched its latest service offering, homeowners insurance exclusively in Alberta.  Homeowners with Esurance can enjoy their home knowing they are protected with a policy that is backed by Allstate which has been in business for over 60 years in Canada and 85 years in the US.

 In fact, when we owned our first home in Idaho, our homeowners and car insurance were both through Allstate and we were very happy with them.  Save money and manage your policy online by using Esurance’s online tools for fast and efficient claims.

A great tool for all DIYers is Esurance’s DIY Home inspection app.  Download the app to complete your own home inspection following the instructions. Best part – you can complete the home inspection when it’s convenient for you and save yourself some money!

Could you use some money to help make your house a home? If you are reading this and you are Canadian, you are eligible to win a $200 cash gift card from Esurance to go towards your next home project!  As an added bonus I will include a free email design consultation for your project.

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