When it comes to the serious stuff like plumbing/electrics/gas where I could destroy my house and myself if I fuck up then I’m more inclined to pay for a professional, but I’m always up for trying simple fixes myself.
Speaking to tradies I think they both love and hate people trying it themselves; they loathe trying to pick apart someone’s half-arsed bodge-job but are very happy to be paid to fix someone’s cock up!
That’s the part where it gets really interesting. The right mindset when approaching those tasks means doing the research to do the job professionally, yourself. You meet that threshold, and actually start going through and reworking what was already done - you start to notice all the little shortcuts and weird decisions and bodge jobs that the professionals in the past did. And now, armed with the knowledge and basic tools to do the job - you’re not talking about $200 to pay a plumber to come out and fix one leaky elbow on your pipes - you know how to isolate it, drain it, cut it, deburr it, flux it, solder it, and clean it up, for like $3.00 in parts (and for what I said specifically, a minimum of maybe $50 in tools - cutter, blowtorch/propane, deburring tool, flux brush, emery cloth). For example. And for what could be a $5000 job, you can do it yourself for maybe $1000 in materials.
There are actual methods that the professionals have developed to be certain they did the job correctly - you just have to learn them.
When it comes to the serious stuff like plumbing/electrics/gas where I could destroy my house and myself if I fuck up then I’m more inclined to pay for a professional, but I’m always up for trying simple fixes myself.
Speaking to tradies I think they both love and hate people trying it themselves; they loathe trying to pick apart someone’s half-arsed bodge-job but are very happy to be paid to fix someone’s cock up!
That’s the part where it gets really interesting. The right mindset when approaching those tasks means doing the research to do the job professionally, yourself. You meet that threshold, and actually start going through and reworking what was already done - you start to notice all the little shortcuts and weird decisions and bodge jobs that the professionals in the past did. And now, armed with the knowledge and basic tools to do the job - you’re not talking about $200 to pay a plumber to come out and fix one leaky elbow on your pipes - you know how to isolate it, drain it, cut it, deburr it, flux it, solder it, and clean it up, for like $3.00 in parts (and for what I said specifically, a minimum of maybe $50 in tools - cutter, blowtorch/propane, deburring tool, flux brush, emery cloth). For example. And for what could be a $5000 job, you can do it yourself for maybe $1000 in materials.
There are actual methods that the professionals have developed to be certain they did the job correctly - you just have to learn them.