Home repair is a lot like greatness: Some folks are born handy, some achieve it, and others have it thrust upon them. Indeed, there’s nothing like having a backed-up sewer and visiting relatives to suddenly pique your interest in plumbing.
The do-it-yourself (DIY) trend continues to grow steadily. Last year, home-repair products reached a $200 billion market, increasing 6.2 percent from 2001, which had gained 5.4 percent over 2000, according to the Home Improvement Research Institute in Tampa.
Although an aging population suggests that many DIYers might be hanging up their hammers soon, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Industry forecasters expect consumers’ share of home-improvement purchases to post annual gains for the next four years at a rate double that of remodeling pros (6.2 percent vs. 2.9 percent).
One reason DIY numbers continue to rise is that home repair is linked with household income rather than age, says Richard Johnston, senior research analyst at the research institute. Another factor is healthy housing sales, fueled by low mortgage rates. “Even when you move into a new home, you do things to customize it,” Johnston points out.
In fact, the mere act of buying a house seems to bring out the Bob Vila in many folks, which should come as no surprise. Homes always cost more in real life than on paper, and penny-pinching homeowners realize that they can save a bundle on projects by eliminating labor costs. Yet at some point, home improvement seems to evolve from being a function of frugality into a labor of love.
Despite their backgrounds or budgets, DIYers agree there are two cardinal rules of home repair:
Projects usually cost more than you think.
Projects always take longer than you think.
Time delays and budget increases are partly explained by escalating ambitions. The more you accomplish, DIYers say, the more you want to tackle.
Randy Martin had always enjoyed woodworking, but when he and his wife, Dawn, moved from their Chicago apartment to a three-bedroom house in far southwest suburban Manhattan, his home-improvement horizons expanded rapidly.
“It all started with some ugly, white ceramic tiles around our fireplace,” says Randy. The Martins decided to replace the offending tiles with a granite fireplace surround. They also wanted to change their wood-burning fireplace into a gas unit. But when the new fireplace showed up on their doorstep, it was a natural-gas unit rather than the propane one they had expected. So Randy installed it and converted all their appliances — by himself. And he didn’t stop there.
“It was like an avalanche,” he recalls. “Because of some ugly tiles, suddenly I’m threading pipes, adding circuit breakers, doing roof slashing — making changes to almost every system in the house.”
Since then, the Martins have built a pier for their pond, put up a 1,000-foot-long fence, and installed a rosewood floor, to name just a few projects. They’ve also built a shed for their rapidly expanding collection of tools, which includes a sandblaster, air compressor, airless paint sprayer and cement mixer. “When we bought the house, our three-car garage seemed like more space than we’d ever need,” says Dawn. “Now it’s packed.”
Older homes in particular seem to have a will of their own, DIYers say. Even seemingly simple projects can turn into complicated nightmares, especially when they involve electricity or plumbing. As you try to fix one problem, another obstacle presents itself, dragging out project timelines and requiring multiple trips to Home Depot for supplies.
Pat and Audrey Walker of northwest suburban Streamwood recall their previous home, a vintage bungalow on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Repairing a leaky sink led to replacing the entire bathroom floor because of rot discovered under the sink. “Finding parts becomes challenging because you run into 100-year-old plumbing fittings that no one in stores has ever seen,” Pat explains.
Another time, the Walkers wanted to install a ceiling fan in the living room. There was one switch that didn’t activate any other outlet in the room, so Pat naturally assumed it belonged to an existing junction box in the ceiling.
After installing the fan and hooking up the wires, he flipped the switch — but nothing happened.
Several weeks — and several holes in the wall — later, Pat finally located the correct switch box, which was inoperable because someone had filled it with plaster. “My original optimistic estimate, which was four hours to install the fan, turned out to be more like 40 or 50 hours of grimy labor over a period of three weeks,” he says.
Today the Walkers have a framed “Arlo & Janis” comic strip hanging in their home that shows someone flipping a light switch with no results. In the last frame, the cartoon alludes to a family in China wondering why their lights are flickering on and off.
Electrical projects in older homes can also be frustrating because all the wires are white, Pat adds: “They mark hot wires at the end in black, but in the middle you have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
Projects also tend to drag out because most DIYers have limited time to pursue their undertakings. When you’re working a 9-to-5 job, home repair is relegated to evenings and weekends, which makes it easy to lose momentum.
Now retired, the Walkers recently built a 12-by-14-foot shed for their back yard. “It was a ball,” says Audrey. “This was the first project that we had enough money and time for.”
DIYers often enjoy the middle of a project more than its beginning or end.
“There’s a fair amount of psyching up to do that’s relative to the size of the job,” points out Ken Markham of Milwaukee. This winter, Markham started to remodel his basement, something that had been on his “to do” list for several years. “I think it scared me because it was such a big project,” he says. “Yet after five weeks, I had the framing done, almost all the drywall is on, the electrical almost complete, three doors in and only three to go — not too bad.”
Once started, projects usually take shape rapidly as DIYers begin to see results on a macro level, but there’s also a tendency to procrastinate toward the end.
“There always seems to be some detail that you find yourself putting on your `I’ll get to that later’ list, usually because it’s tedious or not as important,” says Gregg Cole of Niles, Mich., who spent the winter building a 1,000-square-foot home theater in his basement. “The creative part is over; you get bored and want to move on.”
Driven by their passion for improvement, DIYers always seek ways to do things better and cheaper. Yet sometimes those brilliant ideas can backfire.
Cole, who regards drop ceilings as ugly, used burnt-white paneling for his basement ceiling, which he framed into squares and trimmed with strips of plywood. “It looks great, but turned out to be very time-consuming,” he says. And, unlike a drop ceiling where panels can be lifted out to reach the phone and electrical wiring, Cole’s paneling made it difficult to revise wiring and install lights, causing him to scale back. “I understand again why people do drop ceilings,” he says.
Another consideration: Cutting corners sometimes ends up costing more.
Dawn Martin recalls the time she and her husband were building a wall around a drainage culvert in their driveway. They bought 2 1/2 tons of flagstone from a stone quarry and then tried to save a $50 delivery fee by transporting the stone themselves. After all, the Martins thought, they had a truck. How hard could it be? Pretty hard, they quickly discovered. “You don’t realize how much flagstone weighs until you start hauling it,” says Dawn. “We made at least a dozen trips to the stone quarry and wasted a whole day.”
A hardy breed of optimists, DIYers may occasionally lose patience, but something always seems to rekindle their passion.
Geoff Apgar of north suburban Libertyville recalls remodeling a bathroom and tiling himself into a corner. “I had gone overboard with inset boxes and had no idea how much work I was creating for myself when I started the tiling,” he recalls. Irritated by how long the project was taking, Apgar considered throwing in the trowel. Yet after calling around for quotes, Apgar discovered it would cost him $5,000 to have someone else finish the work.
“That re-inspired me really fast,” he says. When the dust finally settled, Apgar had invested less than $10,000 in the bathroom — a project that would have cost $25,000 if he had contracted the work out.
Although the bottom-line savings are certainly motivating, there are other payoffs to home-improvement projects.
Many DIYers like the idea of total control. Because they’re the ones who will live with the final results, DIYers believe that they’re more conscientious and devote more attention to detail than professionals would.
It’s also a change of pace from normal routines.
“Home repair is very different than selling insurance; it’s much more tangible,” Apgar observes. “I enjoy changing something, making it better in my own eyes.”
Projects never go quite as expected, but that’s part of the fun, says Apgar, who likens home repair to an archeologist’s dig: “It’s sometimes hilarious to pull layers off walls and see what shortcuts and decorating choices the homeowners before you have instigated. Once I opened an outside wall — and there was no insulation in it.”
Home repair is also a great conversation starter. “Every time we have a party, everyone is always curious about the latest project,” Apgar says.
Another pleasant aspect is the chance to “guy shop” and check out new tools, Markham points out.
One final motivator, adds Markham: “If things turn out well, you’re a hero.”
