8 Jobs You Should Not Take Into Your Own Hands

As some countries enter another lockdown, many people will be thinking about what they can do differently this time and what they can do to keep occupied that is productive and useful. Of course, DIY springs to mind, there are always jobs to be done around the house, whether its a new coat of paint on the walls, hooks that need putting up or indeed a broken door that you just haven't got around to repairing yet. There are some jobs you should not take into your own hands that you can definitely leave to the professionals.

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[ctt template=”4″ link=”P4mYI” via=”yes” ]There are some home repair jobs you should not take into your own hands that you can definitely leave to the professionals.[/ctt]

Image by Andy Gries from Pixabay 

While you're getting your list together of things you can do this lockdown though, be careful to not get hurt, as it's really not worth risking during lockdown when hospitals are already very busy, or if you make a mistake, you'll have to live with it until the end of lockdown. Plus the damage you could cause could end up costing you a lot more money than it would if you had just called the professionals in the first place. By all means, get some jobs done over the next month but don't attempt these:

Sanding Floors

Sanding floors isn't easy, and you need to have the skill which takes time to develop and perfect. Amateur work is instantly recognisable, and it could make your floors look worse than they did already. Sanding the floors isn't going to be a job that needs doing right now; it is one that can wait so it's better to save it until you can either learn how to do it right or get someone in to do it for you. 

Roofing

Any job that involves you getting up high should be avoided, especially during the lockdown. This would be the worst time to end up being admitted to hospital because you fall off a ladder or your roof. If you have a roofing job that needs doing, then call in the experts and leave it to them. If your job is an emergency, then you should still be able to get it fixed during the lockdown as a roofer will be able to do it socially distanced, and it's outside work.

Pipes and Plumbing

While there are some minor jobs you might be able to do, don't try anything huge like replacing a sink, as it won't be long before you find water leaking through your ceiling. Not only is having a leak really annoying, but it could also do more damage by causing mould, which can become dangerous to your health and expensive to fix. Dismantling pipes can be risky if you don't know what you're doing because they are complicated and can be very tricky to reassemble if you take them apart. The pipes under the sink are usually close to other important pipes and switches that you'll need, such as the dishwasher pipes or the mechanics of the waste disposal. If you know what you're doing and you have experience dismantling and reassembling pipes then, by all means, give it a go, but if you're not, it's better to call the professionals in the first place to save yourself any disasters.

Removing Walls

Lockdown may seem like the perfect time to get on with a big project like knocking out a wall to create one huge room. Well, stop thinking about it now. It's far too risky to remove a wall. First of all, it could be a load-bearing wall which means you could almost pull your whole house down, the ceiling caving in or the roof collapsing you could get seriously injured plus you could get injured.

Electrical Wiring

It might not seem like such a big job to install a dimmer switch or swap a light fixture, but unless you know what you're doing, you could make silly mistakes which could end up being dangerous and causing you an electric shock or even starting a fire. While there are loads of YouTube videos online telling you how to do just about anything when it comes to DIY, it is still best to leave anything electrical it to an experienced electrician. 

Heavy Lifting

There are jobs which may seem simple enough, but if they require you to lift something like heavy granite countertops, then you could hurt yourself or severely damage the materials. Anything else that involves heavy lifting such as paving the garden or even moving furniture around, it's not advised to do this by yourself and especially during lockdown because again if there is any risk of injury, then it's not worth it during this difficult time. 

Painting The Kitchen Cabinets

Another one that sounds like an easy job and one that could easily be done over the next month. Well think again, when it comes to kitchen cabinets, you need to be aware that the buildup of cooking grease and oil on the surfaces makes it different from any other painting job. It actually involves specialised equipment and safety measures that most people aren't aware of, it's far better to get an expert in who knows what they're doing so wait until the lockdown is over. 

Installing A Dishwasher

It might seem like the perfect time to buy a new dishwasher; however, that doesn't necessarily mean it will come with someone to install it, and at the moment, it's unlikely that it will. Save buying your dishwasher until you can hire a professional as there's a lot of moving pieces. If there hasn't been a dishwasher in your home then might need to drill into a cabinet to make holes for the water lines and then you'll need to position the lines and hook them up which you could get very wrong and end up with all sorts of complications. 

This is a contributed post.

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