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Home repair experts and contractors have seen it all. And then some. From a bad roof job that gives a whole new meaning to a sunroof, to a sink repair that turns a bathroom into a water wonderland, to even an attempt at rewiring electrical wiring, you name a home problem, these experts will help you. The house has seen it. And they’re begging you not to try it.
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You might think you can save a few bucks by visiting a home repair channel on YouTube and picking up a hammer, but in reality you could be doing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of damage. There may be. Think of it this way. DIY can quickly turn into an “OMG” moment.
GOBankingRates chatted with Bethany Uribe, Mitigation Department Supervisor at ASAP Restoration in LCC, to hear the harrowing stories of some of the most intense and expensive home repairs her team has had to repair.
Here are three costly mistakes to avoid when doing DIY home improvements.
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The flower bed has become strange.
When Uribe thought of one of the most extreme DIY-turned-SOS jobs he’s ever had to repair, the world’s most expensive petunia came to mind.
As Uribe explained, the company recently had a customer who tried unsuccessfully to beautify the exterior of his home by adding a window sill flower bed. The first problem? They used hanging flower boxes designed to be hung outside the house. Best of all, you don’t have to drill holes into the side of your house to keep it attached.
Unfortunately, this client did not receive the memo. Yes, they screwed the flower box under the window to the side of the house. Also includes long deck screws. Beyond the most obvious mistake of screwing these boxes into the home without using proper window box hangers, Uribe said his clients used long screws in combination and did not caulk the area beforehand. said.
“As a result, watering the plants daily allows rainwater and flowerbed water (another reason for creating a hanging model like this) to flow into the side of the house,” she added. “In a short period of time, this caused a lot of water damage inside the house, which turned into mold damage, and that’s when they finally realized what was going on.”
She added that the entire repair included drying the water, pulling out the drywall, repairing the mold and rebuilding the walls. “The restoration work on those flower beds is close to $5,000. It’s basically the most expensive petunia ever,” she said.
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Solutions for poor drainage
Another truly chilling story of a DIY gone horribly wrong comes from a client who decided to be a little too ambitious with a drainage project. Uribe said it’s not uncommon for people who try to tackle land drainage as a quick weekend project to be discouraged.
However, if you don’t know much about fluid mechanics or common sense DIY drainage solutions, you could end up spending more on repairs than it would have cost you to hire a professional in the first place.
This is exactly what this client did when they decided to redirect water from their downspout through corrugated tubing to another section of their garden. Uribe said normally this type of water transportation wouldn’t be much of a problem. However, the client’s property had issues with sloping and grading, resulting in a pool.
“That was fine, except that one of the pools in the garden had quite a bit of water in it, and the bottom edge of the rim was facing the house. When that end overflowed, the basement and first floor of the house also overflowed,” she added. “This DIY gutter repair ended up flooding the entire house and completely gutting it, as the drain line was basically channeling all the water that fell onto the roof or backyard into the pool and into the house.” It happened.”
DIY mold prevention
Although it is a common concept that bleach is the ultimate mold killer, this is not actually the case. Mr. Uribe shared that many clients try to reduce the possibility of mold after water damage by spraying bleach on damp areas.
“It’s safe to say that most of these DIY mold remedies are making a terrible mistake, because mold can go from eating bleach for breakfast to doubling in size by lunch,” she says. “Things like this happen so often in our business that there are too many stories to list here and they would all be mixed together.”
Uribe added that trying to repair water damage in your home yourself could spell disaster. Better call a professional. If the damage is truly significant, you may be able to file an insurance claim.
“In fact, if you don’t do that, your insurance company might consider you negligent in making the repairs later on when your home is completely moldy, and at that point, many people have no excuse for not making the repairs. And you’re denied coverage for all the repairs you need to do.’Do the right thing first,” she said.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I fix DIY renovations that go wrong: These are the 3 most expensive mistakes I’ve seen people make
