The Average Cost of 57 Common Home Maintenance Projects

[EXLIer]

Saw this link on another forum I lurk on.  Just as we're downsizing and the thought of actually renting crossed my mind.

Interesting and pretty accurate if I say so.

http://lifehacker.com/the-average-cost-of-57-common-home-maintenance-projects-1771094630

[brandino29]

Thanks for sharing.  We've got a few projects coming down the road and I've been curious what to expect -- gives me a good ball park.

[bacchi]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

[EXLIer]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

Have you ever built a deck?  I thought that was cheap.

[SwordGuy]

It looks like they averaged the DIY cost and the hired contractor price together.   Pretty silly.

[Rural]

 Most way too high, some way too low – the only thing that was consistent was that all were wrong, generally by a LOT.

[JZinCO]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

Have you ever built a deck?  I thought that was cheap.

Agreed. I had a conversation with a friend of a friend who is a gen contractor and does alot of deck work. He says homeowners are always surprised that decks run 5-20K.

[music lover]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

Have you ever built a deck?  I thought that was cheap.

I do all my own renos and repairs...with $6900, I built 2 decks and a nice sunroom.

[Sylly]

Most of these numbers are kinda pointless since the extent of the project can vary quite a bit, and it doesn't look like that's taken into account. It would've been useful if they at least try to do some sort of per unit averaging or something.

[Northwestie]

May be accurate if you are always going to hire a contractor - if you can do it yourself, obviously cheaper.  I think it was probably about $1800 for my deck and fence, and me and a couple friends banged the deck up in a weekend.

[bacchi]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

Have you ever built a deck?  I thought that was cheap.

I do all my own renos and repairs...with $6900, I built 2 decks and a nice sunroom.

Exactly. I used fancy decking and it didn't come close to $6900.

[EXLIer]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

Have you ever built a deck?  I thought that was cheap.

I do all my own renos and repairs...with $6900, I built 2 decks and a nice sunroom.

Exactly. I used fancy decking and it didn't come close to $6900.

Sure, if you value your time at $0. 

[music lover]

Building a deck is $6900? That's quite a deck.

Have you ever built a deck?  I thought that was cheap.

I do all my own renos and repairs...with $6900, I built 2 decks and a nice sunroom.

Exactly. I used fancy decking and it didn't come close to $6900.

Sure, if you value your time at $0.

How do you figure my time was worth $0? 

Decks cost $5000 or more each and a sunroom will cost $20,000 to $30,000 if you pay someone to do them, therefore, the 6 or 8 weekends it took for me to build them suggest that "my time" was worth $2000 or more per day. Plus, I had fun doing it.

[Much Fishing to Do]

A house sure is work (for you or your money).  Spending time with family, keeping oneself physically fit and mentally stimulated, maintaining a home and holding down a full-time job is way too much for anyone to handle well.  Outsourcing any of them is depressing and/or dreadfully expensive, or just impossible. But cutting out the job part would seem to leave just enough time for the other 3!

[Lski'stash]

This is great- thank you!

[Friar]

The bit that jumped out for me was the expense for "installing holiday lighting".

Is that something that people do? What happened to hanging up a few strings of LED flashing lights over Christmas time?

[music lover]

A house sure is work (for you or your money).  Spending time with family, keeping oneself physically fit and mentally stimulated, maintaining a home and holding down a full-time job is way too much for anyone to handle well.  Outsourcing any of them is depressing and/or dreadfully expensive, or just impossible. But cutting out the job part would seem to leave just enough time for the other 3!

Maybe it's just you because I know several people who have no problem doing all those things well.

[EXLIer]

I've done a TON OF DIY projects in my lifetime.  Decks have been probably my favorite with the largest one being ~2,200 sq/ft.

With that said, we all know that time is a finite resource, and as much as I enjoy building things and seeing the fruits of my labor once completed, there are just many more things I'd prefer to spend my time with rather than building something that will only require more of my time in the future to maintain it.

Things in order I'd prefer to spend my time doing:

1.  Kids
2.  Family
3.  Traveling
4.  Exercising

Everyone is different.  I suppose if you were retired and alone, and loved building things, building a deck would be a better use of your time than a person such as myself.

[bacchi]

The bit that jumped out for me was the expense for "installing holiday lighting".

Is that something that people do? What happened to hanging up a few strings of LED flashing lights over Christmas time?

It's a big deal in $$$ neighborhoods. Installers are always hiring at the local climbing gym starting in mid-November.

[sistastache]

Cost vs value: http://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2016/ is another website that will allow you to look at minimum/ maximum costs for 30 different common remodel projects, and you can look at pricing on a national or more local scale. In addition, it lists the anticipated ROI for the project.

[music lover]

The bit that jumped out for me was the expense for "installing holiday lighting".

Is that something that people do? What happened to hanging up a few strings of LED flashing lights over Christmas time?

My neighbor has a truck with a bucket and does very well Christmas season stringing lights on 2-storey houses and tall trees.

[Prairie Stash]

I've done a TON OF DIY projects in my lifetime.  Decks have been probably my favorite with the largest one being ~2,200 sq/ft.

With that said, we all know that time is a finite resource, and as much as I enjoy building things and seeing the fruits of my labor once completed, there are just many more things I'd prefer to spend my time with rather than building something that will only require more of my time in the future to maintain it.

Things in order I'd prefer to spend my time doing:

1.  Kids
2.  Family
3.  Traveling
4.  Exercising

Everyone is different.  I suppose if you were retired and alone, and loved building things, building a deck would be a better use of your time than a person such as myself.

I include my kid in my work, which covers #1 and #2. Also a lot of handyman projects involve exercise, there's #4 on your list, so a project can hit 3/4 of your preferred list. Everyone is different but I think teaching kids how to build/maintain/improve a house counts as quality time. It doesn't really matter what you're doing, kids will want to help and the skills passed on are lessons learned for life.

Getting defensive and saying you like your family better isn't proving your point. Its not an either/or decision; I can love spending time with my kid and mowing the grass at the same time. I remember learning lots of skills from my parents, we accomplished work but I also built memories.

[MsPeacock]

Handy link - Thank you

I do what I can DIY - but some jobs are too big (e.g. floors needed to be refinished - as a single mom and smallish person there was no way that I had adequate time or physical strength to do this job) or too urgent (pipe spraying water everywhere) for me to DIY. My friends are impressed at the things I do - so at least with my peer group my competency is above average. So DIY is beyond what others can do due to time limits, other priorities, limited skill level, physical capabilities, etc. I don't think it is being defensive to note this. I greatly admire people who can tackle building a new deck or installing windows or doing a big remodel.

[GuitarStv]

Hey look, they have an entry for 'clean ducts'.  An entirely useless and unnecessary procedure.

[NonprofitER]

I've done a TON OF DIY projects in my lifetime.  Decks have been probably my favorite with the largest one being ~2,200 sq/ft.

With that said, we all know that time is a finite resource, and as much as I enjoy building things and seeing the fruits of my labor once completed, there are just many more things I'd prefer to spend my time with rather than building something that will only require more of my time in the future to maintain it.

Things in order I'd prefer to spend my time doing:

1.  Kids
2.  Family
3.  Traveling
4.  Exercising

Everyone is different.  I suppose if you were retired and alone, and loved building things, building a deck would be a better use of your time than a person such as myself.

I include my kid in my work, which covers #1 and #2. Also a lot of handyman projects involve exercise, there's #4 on your list, so a project can hit 3/4 of your preferred list. Everyone is different but I think teaching kids how to build/maintain/improve a house counts as quality time. It doesn't really matter what you're doing, kids will want to help and the skills passed on are lessons learned for life.

Getting defensive and saying you like your family better isn't proving your point. Its not an either/or decision; I can love spending time with my kid and mowing the grass at the same time. I remember learning lots of skills from my parents, we accomplished work but I also built memories.

Prarie Stash - It's great that combining those priorities works for you (although I'd argue "mowing" with your children playing outside represents a completely different time commitment than some of the home improvement projects listed here) . In many cases - at least in my experience with very young children - there's usually a trade off on quality on both ends (both in time spent as a family and the ability to get the job done quickly and well).  It could just be the age of our child, but we've tackled several DIY projects that pretty much made shot family time in toilet.  Have you ever tried to refinish cabinets/install drywall and kitchen backsplash with a 3yo toddling around? Or build a 100' french drain with a 4yo?  Sure, its super fun for them to "help" for the first hour, but young children (understandably) don't have a realistic picture of how long those projects take, and can easily get bored/frustrated.  And the last thing you want to do as a family is plop your kid in front of screen so they don't accidentally go walking through wet paint or get sunburned on hour 8 of a big outdoor project.  Parenting hasn't stopped us from DIYing, but it does often mean shipping kids off to grandparents for the day/weekend to actually finish projects in a reasonable amount of time (you know, so we can get back to actually using our kitchen, etc.).

While we're usually default DIYers, we've come to really value outsourcing when it makes sense - when we assume the project time is going to exceed 50+ hours and require significant upskilling/learning time. Maybe its possible to include our child more in DIY as she gets older, but at this age/juncture, we'd prefer our family time with a little less grout.  :)

[shotgunwilly]

Ha! I need to get in the deck building business.

[JoRocka]

A house sure is work (for you or your money).  Spending time with family, keeping oneself physically fit and mentally stimulated, maintaining a home and holding down a full-time job is way too much for anyone to handle well.  Outsourcing any of them is depressing and/or dreadfully expensive, or just impossible. But cutting out the job part would seem to leave just enough time for the other 3!

Funny because people have been doing it for years and handling it okay.