DIY - when it’s mostly labor. I figure I’m avoiding a gym membership and a maintenance expense at the same time. I have no problem raking leaves and mowing lawns even though they’re very time consuming. Any kind of project where mistakes have minimal consequences is also good.
PAY - when it’s a specialized skill, a dangerous task or time sensitive.
No. I’m dead center between a Home Depot and a Lowe’s. I’ve been known to bring the cordless circular saw and rough cut boards in the parking lot. That strategy has gotten me by most of the time, but if I ever need to frame a wall or something else requiring a bunch of 8’ 2x4s I’ll have to rent a truck.
That’s really the way I feel about it too.
As a kid, my parents were kind of cash-strapped, so we did nearly everything that didn’t require seriously specialized tools or know-how. We replaced bathroom sinks, toilets, bathtubs, retiled floors and showers, built fences, poured walkways, trimmed trees, worked on cars (at least nothing needing a lift or involving rebuilds), painted, mowed, edged, put in new ovens and new stovetops, etc…
We also did a fair amount of minor repair work on things like major appliances, toilets, plumbing, etc… Stuff like fixing/replacing the valve on a toilet, or replacing the valves in the shower diverter, etc…
Now that I’m older and have more money than my parents ever did, most of that stuff gets outsourced because I’d rather spend my time in other ways, and because it’s entirely likely that the other guy will do a better job than I will. I used to mow and edge myself, but when we had our first kid, I hired that out, and haven’t looked back. That’s like 2 hours a week that I don’t have to go out and sweat or deal with insects during.
The only real thing I don’t outsource is any sort of computer/network stuff, and that’s because I have actually done that professionally, and am still an IT guy with lots of co-workers and contacts who I can ask for help if I need it.
I have reliable locals:
This leaves me more time to earn the money to pay them. 
I recently hired someone to replace my main sewer line because I don’t like digging. Outside of that and roofing I pretty much do everything. Right after I retired I redid the plumbing in all copper so in my lifetime it should be good. I have built room additions, all the electrical and ceramic tile work which in the future I will hire out as I am not that good at the tile.
If I was wealthy I would hire everything out.
I have been thinking a lot about DIY lately. I’ve been a homeowner for 10 years. I did a lot more when I first moved in to my house. My family helped my paint the whole exterior! My friends helped me paint the whole interior! My cousin helped me rip out a ton of bad landscaping! My friends helped me cut down some trees! My dad and uncle helped me frame up flower beds with wood!
And in the following 10 years, everyone got 10 years older. My parents became “old age pensioners” and my friends all had kids. For a while there, after I lost all my help, I had a lot of extra money and put my Angie’s List subscription to good use and hired people to do most of my work.
I’ve come to the conclusion that DIY is pretty hard if you don’t have someone to help you. Even if the “help” is someone who is walking your dogs while you’re busy working, and getting lunch ready. I needed to paint my house’s trim and I just needed someone to spot me on the ladder plus vacuum up paint chips and I could not coordinate my mom to give me her time to do this.
When you live alone very little can get done simultaneously. Everything needs its own time in the day. If a project takes me 4 hours that’s 4 hours of my day where other stuff (laundry, dishes, dog walking, dinner) doesn’t get done and all of that stuff still needs to get done as well.
I ended up hiring out the house trim job, but I did do as much of it myself as I could (around the garage, no ladder). I actually kind of lucked in to finding someone I knew and trusted who could do it for a price I could afford. He was not a pro but I was happy with his work, as he did as good a job as I would have done.
I’ve been outsourcing some of my labor-intensive outdoor work to local teens. My friends don’t have teenagers yet but I’m on some Facebook groups with local moms who have kids looking for work.
I still do my own mowing and trimming. Yesterday I took on the task of breaking down the fenced-in garden my dad and I had made all those years ago. I was so wasted from sweating afterwards. Ack!
I’m with **dracoi **- if I’m doing basically the equivalent of a work out, I will do it DIY. Otherwise I just can’t fit it in to my schedule. And I don’t have the skills or tools - because I never acquired them since I don’t DIY 
Amen to this. I even like packing, purging belongings, organizing where they’ll go. But I will never carry a box further than the front porch again.
Last year, I moved into a new house that’s older than most of my family heirlooms and could use a fair amount of work. The plumbing and electrical were all updated before it was put up for sale, but there are still a lot of things to be done, and I’m slowly learning what I can do and what I can’t. Digging a patio in the backyard seems to be going well so far, but weather and availability of burly help is slowing the project down.
For me it depends on the specific job, and these are the factors I consider:
How badly I don’t want to do it.
How much it will cost me to do, and how much it will cost me to pay someone to do.
How long it will take me to do, and how long it will take the people I’d pay to do it.
For example, this past weekend I cut down three trees on the side of my house that were getting too big. I spent about $300 total on a chainsaw, some rope, gloves, etc. If I had paid someone to cut them down that weekend it probably would have been over a thousand. I spent about twelve hours on Saturday and another nine on Sunday felling them, cutting them up, stacking the branches and wood, etc, and it totally sucked, but it didn’t suck too bad because chainsaw, and cutting down trees is fun. Taking the stumps out would be free for me to do, and probably take me another weekend, but I’m going to pay someone to do that because it is no fun at all, and they’ll get it done in a few hours. I’m guessing I’ll pay about $500 to not have to do that, and it will be so worth it.
Wow, you folks are a lot more handy than me. I can change the brakes on my car and assemble IKEA furniture, but that’s about the extent of my skill real set. My DIY generally stops if it involves more than screw drivers, basic wrenches, and a drill. If a special tool has to be purchased, it goes the pay route, and likewise if it is a complex job. In general, if something breaks and the process involves disassembling it and putting a new one on its place, I will generally give it a shot if it can moved by one person and there is not a risk of being crushed, drenched, or electrocuted. That way, if I botch it, I haven’t created worse damage that will cost more. If I do have to hire someone, I will try to lessen the financial blow by purchasing some or all of the parts in advance. For example, when the water heater died, I bought a new one along with the pan and hoses in advance of his visit, so the guy couldn’t gouge me for both parts and labor.
I err on the pay side, especially if it requires a lot of time (time is money) and/or buying specialized tools. If you can fix it with duct tape and a screwdriver, I’m good with that. I have learned by watching my dad that DIY is often the most inefficient way of doing anything. Mostly because of the specialized tools and knowledge that experts bring to the table.
Happens most every time I DIY :D.
I should note that I got a very generous “D” in 8th grade wood shop.
Generally I prefer to do it myself, unless time, effort or special tools come into play. Like when we needed to repaint the bathroom in our old apartment, I just picked a weekend when my wife was away and just did it.
OTOH, when we were moving to our new place, we needed to repaint the new place and repaint the old place (except the bathroom of course) since we were going to rent that out. Since my wife had also just given birth to our son, we still had to plan a move and the fact that the new place has 15 foot ceilings, we just sucked it up and hired painters.
I’ll do real basic carpentry or plumbing. I love my wife too much to have her live in a house where I’ve worked on the electric.
For me, there is nothing so satisfying as making - with my own hands - enough money to pay someone to do it right.
I will get my own beer out of the fridge (unless the wife is standing right there), and I will plan and hookup my own electronics, but everything else I just have no interest in anymore. I rent my house mostly so I don’t even have to think about hiring out jobs. I just tell the wife to tell the landlord to get it done.
Can I get someone to do it my way? OK – I’ll pay and gladly. But some “these days we do it ----” and I’ll do it myself. For example I wanted the old plaster repaired and not replaced; me. I wanted the old water heater replaced; Mr Rooter.
A mix. On one hand, I value my own time greatly and would like to pay others to do stuff. On the other hand, my experience with contractors is that they’re lazy and incompetent. I will be unhappy with the results, so the question is if the cost+overhead of hiring people combined with my own efforts in fixing their shoddy workmanship is still lower than the value of my own time. So it all depends on the circumstances. But I do actually like DIY work so I generally tilt in that direction.
I don’t do very much DIY at all. Remember Tim “The Toolman” Taylor? He’s my role model.
If it would involve buying new tools, pay. I’m not buying any more new tools, as a lifetime of keeping multiple houses plus having been the recipient of “heirloom toolboxes” means I have a lot of low-quality tools but none of the real mighty ones. And for rentals, anything beyond hanging a picture is pay and with the agreement of the owner (the owners I’ve rented from held to the same philosophy; if renting homes was their main source of income they might have a handyman).
One of my brothers defines power tools as “those noisy things my siblings have”; he was very happy when I taught him about those little thumbtack hooks you can use to hang small pictures (no tools or siblings needed!). The other one used to be a construction site manager, owns a vanfull of mighty power tools and has redone a whole house inside and out.
Oh hell yeah. If I begin by saying “the floor is original hydraulic tile, I want to preserve the high ceilings and the new windows on the facade must be wood or wood veneer”, do not propose changing all floors, lowering all ceilings and replacing all windows with shiny-shiny aluminum. Or do, saves me the pain of dealing with you any further.
Where I am any wiring work has to be done by a qualified sparky who provides a certificate of safety afterwards. If you DIY and it causes a fire, insurance won’t cover it.
Similarly plumbing although they aren’t so strict on it.
I’ll do basic stuff like tiling, plastering, painting, ripping up carpet and polishing floorboards, removing or resizing internal walls, but I draw the line and call someone in where the job meets any of the following criteria:
Illegal to do myself
The quality of finish I want is beyond my skill set
I don’t have time to do it.