I live in a small end unit townhome. I want to put a small deck on the 1st floor. I'm great with my hands and tackeled several home improvment projects including installing a front entry door. However, The deck that I'm doing would be small roughly 15ft by 17Ft notthing too big. Is it worth it building it yourself....
2006-10-23 07:21:09 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
It will almost always be cheaper to do it yourself. IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. All you are paying for is material. If you don't know what you are doing hire someone.
2006-10-23 07:43:31 · answer #1 · answered by mailler_mike 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You definitely would save money by doing it yourself. My drafting teacher used to charge $25/hour whenever he did carpentry work. Another thing I would recommend is that when you go to the store to buy all of your supplies to see about buying all of the supplies as a package. Get together a list of all the supplies you need, a Bill of Material, and have that ready to hand to them. You will be able to get it a lot cheaper that way. You can also tend to get stores bidding against each other for your business. The bigger the project, the more you save. Just make sure you study up about how to build a deck, if you don't think you can do a good job building it, then have a professional do it. It's better to not go the cheap way than to build something that falls apart in a year or two.
2006-10-23 09:51:15 · answer #2 · answered by devilishblueyes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's alway cheaper to diy rather than hire the labor. You also will be more cost concience in planning and buying the supplies to build with, unless you can find a good honest hardworking contractor that's not trying to get rich off of others. Also, think of the reward of when you're enjoying the deck later and knowing that you built it yourself. Even if you mess up a little and it's not perfect, at least you didn't pay someone else to screw it up.
2006-10-23 08:25:54 · answer #3 · answered by GloryB 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on how many mistakes you make! ;)
My company builds fences and decks - the materials are usually about 40 - 42% of the total cost.
If you can keep your dimensions to multiples of 4', or at least 2', you'll not have as much scrap.
But even if it takes you longer than a "pro", you'll have had the pleasure of building it yourself and will have learned some lessons along the way.
2006-10-23 14:13:28 · answer #4 · answered by WindWalker10 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I just bought a deck building book from a big box store. it was fairly easy. i had someone else drill the holes and set the posts-he did the fence posts at the same time. the hardest part was doing it on my own without a 2nd set of hands. the deck is small, 8'x12' and 5' off the ground. make sure you get a permit and get the local building codes. the cost was 1/2 what i was quoted.
2006-10-23 07:34:42 · answer #5 · answered by tr6canuck 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You will definitely save money if you can do it yourself! We were quoted $10,000 for the deck we wanted built. We ended up spending $3000, and doing it ourselves. We just had a friend who does contractor work come and help us. It turned out great!
Our's is 10/12ft by 30ft
2006-10-23 08:01:52 · answer #6 · answered by rtlsimpson 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, if you have the time and know how - do it yourself!
It will be cheaper no doubt!
If someone else did it, you'd have to pay them labor to put it in... PLUS materials. (which could be at a marked up price).
2006-10-23 07:28:31 · answer #7 · answered by InnerBeauty28 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you can do carpentry work, then do it. The hardest thing is to square it. Think Pythagoras, you wondered why you took geometry, now you will know.
2006-10-24 12:56:48 · answer #8 · answered by Polyhistor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it is cheaper to build it your self.
2006-10-23 07:30:03 · answer #9 · answered by MADHU V 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is nice to do something your self. then you can take pride in what you have done.
2006-10-23 08:00:53 · answer #10 · answered by Thomas S 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋