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At Home Repair Lab, we’re firm believers that no project is too scary with the right combination of knowledge, tool skills, and support from trusted contractors. Over the years, we’ve taken on all sorts of repairs and renovations and helped others do the same. Though we’ve had plenty of learning experiences, only a few keep us up at night.
In the spirit of Halloween, we’re sharing our spookiest cautionary tales with our fellow home repair enthusiasts. Reader beware — and save yourself from a similar fate.
Many years ago, we purchased a home that had sat unoccupied for a long stretch of time before it went on the market. Because of work and other life events, we weren’t able to physically attend the home inspection.
We read the home inspector’s report and everything seemed to be in order, so the sale went forward. It wasn’t until we took possession of the home that we made a startling discovery. One day, Chris was exploring the crawlspace while I (Mindy) happened to be washing dishes. Explicatives rang out from beneath the floor boards.
It turned out that the inspector had failed to notice that the kitchen sink wasn’t actually connected to the sewer, and dish water was draining directly into the crawlspace. Though we had planned on replumbing the house anyway, we hadn’t planned to have to wash dishes in the bathtub for months while the work was completed.
We haven’t missed a home inspection since, and urge you not to, either. Even though home inspectors are generally highly qualified, neutral third parties, the hard truth is that no one will have the same level of investment in your inspection as you do. If at all possible, be an extra set of eyes, ask questions, and call out anything that doesn’t look right before it’s too late.
The secret to building a truly useful tool library is knowing what to buy, what to borrow, and what to rent so you don’t end up overly invested in tools with limited usefulness. Often, the biggest consideration is financial, but sometimes, it’s just the burden of ownership.
Back before the days of Home Repair Lab, we made the decision to purchase a drywall lift to speed up a renovation project. The lift is designed to hoist panels of drywall and hold them in place so that one person can install them independently without needing an extra set of hands. At a mere $150, it would have cost almost as much to rent it for the duration of the project as it did to buy it. It became ours.
What we hadn’t accounted for was how unpleasant it would be to store, live with, and move such a big piece of equipment. Years later, it’s still in our home, occupying nearly 25 cubic feet of space and daring us to sell it lest we need it again one day.
If you’re contemplating a tool purchase, think beyond Can I afford this? Ask yourself how often you’ll use it, and what the heck you plan to do with it in the meantime.
When you ask a contractor or a repair professional to address a specific need and they start making a laundry list of unrelated suggestions, that’s a good sign they’ll try to suck you dry.
Once, we hired a chimney inspector who didn’t even make it onto the roof before trying to sell us thousands of dollars of upgrades and new components. We immediately lost all faith that he would provide an accurate report on maintenance issues and exorcised him from our home.
While it’s certainly true that everyone is just trying to make a living, aggressive upselling is a good sign that a contractor doesn’t have your best interest at heart. Remember that you’re paying that person to provide a professional opinion, which is useless if you can’t trust them. Listen to your gut and do the awkward work of dismissing anyone who feels predatory before they have a chance to get into your wallet.
When you don’t know essential information about the systems in your home and their components, it’s impossible to approximate how long a project should take or how much it should cost.
Sadly, many contractors tend to quote the person, not the job, and if they read you as someone who lacks a frame of reference for the task at hand, you’re likely to end up overpaying — or worse.
We still think often about what befell a friend of ours — a solo female homeowner who, despite having us in her life, hadn’t yet taken an interest in home maintenance fundamentals. She hired an electrician to install a new receptacle in her kitchen. When the job was “done,” he informed her that it would take 5-7 days for the electric company to “recognize” the new receptacle and supply it with power. Because she didn’t know that this was complete nonsense, she waited the recommended amount of time before discovering that the receptacle was never actually wired in. The ruse gave him just enough time for the check to clear before she realized she’d been taken advantage of.
While this is an exceptionally bleak story, it’s an ever-present reminder of just how much knowledge gaps put us at risk. Even if you have no intention of doing the work yourself, building a home repair vocabulary and gaining a basic knowledge of how these systems function will make you a much less appealing target for scams and price gouging.
Aim for three estimates on any job, and make sure the professionals you speak to are aware that you’re comparing estimates. Online reviews are a great starting point, but recommendations and referrals from people you trust are an even better way to start building relationships with contractors who do quality work at fair prices.
Don’t let your home maintenance journey turn into a campfire story. At Home Repair Lab, we’re here to arm you with the knowledge, techniques, and tool skills you need to spare yourself from misfortune.
Whether you have experience under your belt or you’re brand new to maintenance, our hands-on classes are guaranteed to make homeownership less scary, no matter what goes bump in the night.
We get it. Let’s hop on a quick call to help you feel confident about your next step.
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