Finding the motivation to do the chores is sometimes difficult. After a busy week, the last thing you want to worry about is doing the dishes or vacuuming the floor.
But sometimes, there is literally no point doing chores yourself. You’re either not qualified, or even if you attempt them, you’ll do a bad job. Moreover, there are occasions when doing chores is downright dangerous. You could be putting yourself and your family at risk.
In this post, we take a look at some of the jobs around the house that are worth hiring a professional for. Check them out below.
Cleaning Out The Chimney Stack
Technically, you can clean out your chimney stack yourself. All you need is a long brush. However, it’s notoriously difficult to get right. What’s more, you’ll invariably cover yourself and the rest of your home in soot. It’s hard to clean up, and it can cause respiratory issues if you inhale too much of it.
The good news is that cleaning out your chimney stack is relatively inexpensive. You just call up professionals, they put some sheets down around your hearth, and then they get on with removing the dust, usually placing vacuum devices strategically around the fireplace to minimize ash. It takes a couple of hours, and once it’s done, you don’t have to worry about it for six months to a year.
Removing Debris From The Gutters
Gutters collect debris over time, particularly in the fall. When they do, they can overflow during rain storms, damaging your property’s brickwork.
Most homeowners will ignore the problem, hoping it will go away. However, some will try to fix it themselves by getting a ladder out of the shed and clearing the mess away.
Again, this is one of those jobs that’s really not worth doing yourself. It’s not difficult. It’s just dangerous. Putting a ladder up against your gutters and then moving your hand from side to side to remove the debris can easily cause falls.
Most people use handymen for this job. It doesn’t require a high degree of skill. But it does need someone with experience.
Cutting Back Your Trees
If you have a harness and some chainsaws lying around, you can trim back your trees yourself. But, again, as with cleaning out your gutters, it’s dangerous. You’re often many feet in the air, and there’s no place to safely put your ladder.
It’s also technically challenging. Tree trimming required a deep understanding of how trees grow and distribute their weight. If you start randomly cutting down branches, you will eventually find yourself in trouble.
Again, this is why people go to professionals. It’s just not worth the risk. Getting the job done properly gives you peace of mind.
Removing Mold From The Basement
Most hardware stores sell mold removal kits for drywall. These are usually powder-based. You sprinkle them on the wall, let them draw out and kill the mold, and then brush away any debris.
What’s nice about these kits is that they seem to work, at least initially. However, over time, that musty mold smell will return, and you’ll have to repeat the process all over again.
The reason this happens is simple: mold thrives on damp. Therefore, if there is a dampness issue in your basement, it doesn’t matter how many times you clean away the mold, it’ll keep coming back.
Removing mold from your basement is usually a professional task. Specialists need to place new membranes behind the drywall to prevent moisture from getting in again. Then they can clear away the mold and prevent it from coming back. If you go down the DIY route, you’ll wind up having to do the same work over and over again.
Putting Up A New Fence
Erecting a new fence around your property seems simple enough. You just bash a few stakes into the ground and then join them together with panels.
The problem, though, is that stakes don’t stay in the ground for long. Soil moves and shifts over time, causing your fence to eventually topple over – not what you want.
Professionals take a different approach. Instead of using stakes, they pour concrete into holes first and then place posts in them to keep them sturdy and steady. Fences made in this manner last much longer and can withstand knocks and scrapes, even by motor vehicles.
Cleaning Your Carpets
Vacuuming your carpets every weekend is a chore you should do yourself. But giving them a deep clean is a task best left to the pros.
There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that carpet-cleaning tools are expensive. You can often find yourself spending thousands of dollars for something you’ll only use a couple of times a year.
What’s more, consumer-grade devices aren’t particularly effective. Sure, they remove some dirt, but the vast majority of it remains in the carpet fibers.
Professional cleaners have better equipment. Plus, you only pay for the services you use. You don’t have to buy all of the tools outright and then store them away somewhere.
Fixing Your Air Ducts
Air conditioning systems rely on air ducts. These transport warm and cool air around the home, making it comfortable in the summer and winter.
Air ducts, though, can fail. Small gaps can appear in the joints in the metal, causing air to leak out, reducing the efficiency of the system.
You can try to fix these gaps yourself, but it’s usually not worth the effort. Actually closing all the gaps is virtually impossible, unless you examine every inch of your ducting system with a magnifying glass.
It’s much easier, though, when you go to professionals. They don’t actually examine your ducting. Instead, they pump a type of gas into it which automatically forms air seals in any holes (as long as they are small enough). This way, you can easily plug all the gaps without having to go over your system with a fine tooth comb.
Cleaning Your Upholstery
Homeowners sometimes believe that they can clean their upholstery themselves. And while it’s possible, it’s not advisable. Cleaning your upholstery is challenging. It often involves specialist equipment, and you need to know the right techniques. There’s a certain order of play. Getting it wrong can permanently damage your fabric.
Professionals, though, know precisely what to do. And they don’t run the risk of damaging your property. Furniture continues to function and has a normal life cycle.
Cleaning Your Oven
Cleaning out a dirty, greasy oven is a challenging task. However, many homeowners take it on.
Is it a good idea? Probably not. Cleaning out your oven isn’t just hard work. It also takes a long time. What’s more, many over-the-counter solutions simply don’t work. You scrub and scrub, but the black marks don’t come out.
Professional cleaners solve this problem. They have powerful cleaning products that get into the dirt and lift it from your oven’s surfaces.
Finishing Your Hardwood Floors
Mopping your floors isn’t particularly difficult in the grand scheme of things. Yes, you’d probably rather be doing something else with your Saturday mornings, but that’s okay. It’s all part of running a home.
Finishing your hardwood floors, though, is a different story. It’s back-breaking work, and unless you’re a professional, it’s hard to do.
What’s more, there’s a small margin of error. If you don’t finish your floors correctly, they will be susceptible to damage. However, if the finish is too thick, it’ll ruin the look and feel of the underlying wood.
Again, you’ll want to contact the pros. They have machinery that can finish the job to a high standard and do it much faster than DIY manual application.
Cleaning Your Windows
Lastly, you can technically clean your windows yourself, but it is better to get the pros in to do it for you. Windows can appear visibly dirty rather rapidly, particularly if you live in a polluted city. Grime and water marks build up, and you wind up with glass that isn’t see-through anymore.
These days, professionals don’t climb ladders to clean your windows with cloths. They use long poles and force water under pressure up to the cleaning brush at the top. Any cleaning fluid they use is streak-free.
Conclusion
While doing chores is good practice for keeping your home healthy and happy, it’s not always essential. In fact, it can be downright dangerous and reduce your property’s value.
In many cases, you’re much better off leaving certain jobs to professionals. They have a much better understanding of the issues you face and can stop you from wasting your time.
In many cases, trying to save money by doing a job yourself is a false economy. You actually wind up worse off financially than if you had just paid a specialist to do it in the first place.
Always use your instinct. If you feel uncomfortable about a certain job around the house, get in touch with people who can do it for you. Don’t feel like you have to take the risk, just to save money. You probably won’t.
