Something you'd rather have a professional handle than DIY?

[fiby41]

The likelihood of me undertaking a DIY project is directly proportional to how much I think I'll learn from the experience

How do you measure "how much" you will learn?

[OldPro]

I"d ask, is it something you WANT to learn, irregardless of how much you would learn. There may well be something else you would rather learn by using that time. Time is one thing you cannot bank. Once you have used it, it is gone.

[Sclass]

Good point. Getting know how requires investment. No good if you don't care about the knowledge (capability) dividend.

I love great pastries. But I'm very happy to let the local gal down the street make them for me for an acceptable price. I'm not terribly interested in the ins and outs of what makes he crusts flakey or the filling creamy. It looks like a lot of detailed work for something that won't satisfy me (my mind not tummy).

[luxagraf]

I"d ask, is it something you WANT to learn, irregardless of how much you would learn. There may well be something else you would rather learn by using that time. Time is one thing you cannot bank. Once you have used it, it is gone.

That's true. I guess a lot of times, to keep myself within the fairly strict expenses budget I have, I have to do it myself. And I'm not sure that WANT is the best teacher. Sometimes NEED is when you really learn things. Of course sometimes you learn that you shouldn't do it yourself.

The likelihood of me undertaking a DIY project is directly proportional to how much I think I'll learn from the experience

How do you measure "how much" you will learn?

I do some basic research, try to figure out what might be involved vs how much it would cost to hire someone, weight that against what value I think the DIY knowledge might have down the road (rebuilding carburetor, handy to know; putting on a new roof, less likely to be useful again) and, meh, pretty much just do what I felt like doing in the first place. Usually I'm just too stubborn and dumb to hire someone else to do things for me.

I should add that having a close friend who's an electrician, another who's a plumber and another who's a licensed contractor gives me some first hand access to expertise when I need it. I don't learn everything from youtube.

[jennypenny]

Using the pastry-making example, I think there's a difference between learning a skill that might be necessary, and learning one that's simply useful. If you don't know how to make good pastries and the bakery closes, you can live without pastries. Learning to garden or tile a bathroom are good money-saving skills, but aren't ever 'required' knowledge.

If a pipe bursts it needs to be addressed quickly, so at least knowing how to stop the leak is a good idea. Same with skills like changing a tire. I think some skills are worth learning if they remedy a problem that couldn't be ignored and a professional might not be immediately available. I joked about not doing DIY surgery, but I've learned first aid.

[Sclass]

What I've gotten out of this thread are the different dimensions that drive DIY. There's money or the lack of it, the desire for capabilities, time, joy, curiosity, safety. It's really hard to come up with some hard fast rules that draw the line between when you should and shouldn't dive in.

I can think of many things I wouldn't touch (like pastry making) that other people seriously geek out on.

Then there are things involving spiders.

Then there's the ego driven stuff "whattaya mean I can't do that myself!?"

Or "I have to pay you $1000 for THAT!? Get outta here."

Then there's the "do something now!" The loose wire in my garage door motor preventing me from driving out to a meeting - this just happened to me and I was scrambling like a trapped rat with a voltmeter. I found that some yahoo had twisted the wires together to connect the electric eye safety device with the motor unit...DIY gone bad after the wires corroded.