Own work - floor coverings, painting, tiling, what else?

Hello everyone,

I’m just wondering what you can do yourself in a single-family house to save some money. I don’t have two left hands, and I can imagine that I can do quite a bit myself.

What comes to mind right now is:

[*]Floor coverings
[*]Painting work (painting, filling, varnishing)
[*]Tiling/shower/bath (my father is a tiler)

What else could be done on your own?

Best regards
Marko

You could extend the list with the installation of interior doors, if you still have the patience for it

Laid 50 sqm over the weekend - but then you definitely have two left hands
On the weekend you can get a lot more done, then one more day for the baseboards. Click vinyl goes even faster (it's even easier to cut) - I laid a room in just over 1.5 hours today. And that as a desk worker...

So you just know how many rooms these are and what their condition is (for example, a 45° wall is already a bit more work). Sure, the sqm are fixed, but special cutouts do take some time (e.g. with floor-to-ceiling windows, chimneys, etc.) and it gets really interesting in the hallway and the stairs when the stairs are still missing and you don’t know how they will actually be attached (we were smarter after that...).
Still, a harmless DIY job.
PS: procurement and transport basically also count towards the total time. It's not easy to get all those packages up just using a ladder either.

I’m not exactly known as a DIY enthusiast – today we cut a countertop and installed a sink – not that difficult, but the Sunday afternoon was gone (well, there was also cake and coffee ) Yesterday we went shopping for it and assembled a table. Now the weekend is over and we have a fantastic countertop in the utility room... what I mean is don’t underestimate it – especially if you’re busy with work and feel like you need the weekend to recover or at least parts of it, I would keep the DIY to a minimum.

If you are really skilled in crafts, you can still talk to your electrician and cut the grooves and drill the boxes yourself. It is a dusty matter, but not technically very difficult and you save a lot. Just like plastering over the flush-mounted boxes afterwards, we also did that ourselves throughout the house following the electrician's instructions.

so you just know offhand how many rooms there are and what they are like (for example, a 45° wall is already a bit more effort). Sure, the square meters are fixed, but special cutouts do take some time (for example with floor-to-ceiling windows, chimneys, etc...) and it gets really interesting in the hallway and stairs when the stairs are still missing and you don't know how they will actually be attached (we got wiser afterwards...). Still a harmless DIY job. PS: procurement and transportation basically also count towards the total time. It's not that easy getting all those packages up a ladder

No, but in the last two years I have glued about 300 sqm of parquet, laid about 60 sqm of vinyl and quite a bit of laminate. So as a hobby craftsman I can estimate very well what is feasible and what is not. A 45 degree wall is not really more effort than a straight wall. Protrusions or similar also go quite fast. Especially laminate, which you can easily cut with a laminate cutter or vinyl simply with a cutter, goes incredibly fast. For vinyl, for example, I needed one day – including cutting around old chimney shafts, cutouts for heating pipes, slanted walls (60s old building). By the way, you didn't mention having to carry things yourself, so none of us could know that. That of course puts the time into perspective again.

It is all very subjective...

For example, I glued down all the parquet floors in our house...partially installed electrical wiring and all media cables in the house...then filled all the slots with putty...and connected and programmed all the KNX stuff...partially bought and installed sanitary fixtures...connected the ventilation system and did the plumbing in the utility room...and then with a painter friend, covered the whole house with painter's fleece and painted it multiple times...

However, I wouldn’t want to touch tiles or drywall...that’s better left to professionals who are faster anyway and the result looks better afterwards.

You can only do it yourself in what you are good at...otherwise you end up saving nothing and only have trouble...as often seen on all the home construction shows on TV