Home Q&A: How do I get the right advice for DIY renovation?
When renovating, there are key areas to focus on, such as identifying the scope of the work, tailoring a budget, knowing your limits and sticking with indemnified, professional help where needed. Picture: iStock
Where do I get the right advice for a DIY renovation? I’m getting nervous now we’re about to take down walls. I feel some Instagram Stories can make the process look almost like a birthday party!
Flush with success, it’s very common for homeowners (many of whom may only visit the building site periodically) to inadvertently step out in front of the accomplishments of their architect, quantity surveyor, engineer, tradespeople and interior design professionals.
Some with genuine experience of a single direct-labour project (commendable as it is increasingly complex) may present as skilled in ways their experience does not support.
Genuine muck-spattered, have-a-go heroes living and working onsite, building alone or renovating like Esther Foreman (RTÉ’s ) are actually very rare birds.
There are key areas to focus on, such as identifying the scope of the work, tailoring a budget, knowing your limits and sticking with indemnified, professional help where needed.
Bar a modest “buy me a coffee” gratuity (buymeacoffee.com), I believe you shouldn’t pay anything over €30 for podcasts, educational modules or publications in the area of planning, design or construction devised by any amateur who has survived one or even two projects. These offerings (and there are some super ones around basic budgeting) should be treated as lightweight introductions — well-intentioned, commonsense advice.
If you don’t have a trade or a skills-based background in the area of construction, for a highly specific input, you need a fat portfolio of professional, fully realised projects — if not a littering of qualifications (preferably both).
Celebrating excellence, a specialist might be a fully qualified RIAI architect, or someone offering you free CAD services for your kitchen design or bathroom flip in a showroom.
My point is, they have specialist knowledge, and dedicated expertise, and have repeatedly got a house/room/problem/bill of quantities off the drawing board to final finish dozens of times.
What you need to look for is insured, fully certified guys and gals with their boots or high heels directly in the trenches of construction and design, five days a week, 12 months a year.
As a member of multiple build and renovation forums, I see the same response to intricate design and build questions appear on posts, again and again: “Why are you Googling that and not asking your interior designer/plumber/builder/architect/leccy’ that question?”
So, my advice is this — find your team, find a payment tier that suits your budget, make your voice heard, and work collaboratively with seasoned pros.
This, I believe, is the sane, realistic way to spend your time and money, while still being fully engaged in your build or renovation project.
- Got a home improvement or DIY question for our Home team? Email home@examiner.ie
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