ᐅ Self-performed work – Flooring, painting, tiling, and what else?

As someone with two left hands, and unfortunately my husband too, we really can’t imagine much when it comes to DIY work. However, I have two examples from builders I know well who were definitely much more skilled than us but still ended up struggling quite a bit with the idea of doing work themselves.

One couple wanted to lay tiles together with their (also handy) extended family, and how did that turn out? First, the timing was off—they couldn’t start tiling as planned, which upset the helpers who had set aside time for it, leading to the first arguments. Later, the final look wasn’t exactly what they had envisioned since they weren’t professionals. The disagreements continued. The conclusion: “We would never do it like that again.”

Another couple planned to do almost all the interior finishing work themselves. Given their professional background, this wasn’t entirely unreasonable, but evidently they also overestimated their capabilities. It didn’t work out as planned, they fell behind by several months, and rent kept accumulating... even if it was just 750 Euros per month (about $820), times four months... the current consensus here is: “Even if it had been a bit more expensive without doing the work ourselves, after subtracting rent and stress, it wouldn’t have been much more.”

I don’t know if these more negative points were desired, but I wouldn’t count too much on DIY.

Hi, I also think that painting work is not really worthwhile. Friends of ours excluded painting from their package. After buying all the materials themselves, they ended up saving about 1500 euros. But they spent 7 or 8 weekends working together full days on site, painting. So, 1500 euros for 14 full working days...

The problem with trades like painting or tiling is that professionals are usually much faster and hopefully provide better quality. As a DIY enthusiast, you usually can’t keep up.

Installing click laminate or parquet flooring as a floating floor is something you can probably do yourself. Assembling the kitchen also works well for self-builders. And following suggestions here in the forum, we will dare to take on the adventure of installing the ventilation ourselves... will it go well? Ask me again in a few months...

Best regards,

Andreas

Hi,

may I ask,

Payday schrieb:
50sqm (538 sqft) in 4 rooms took us 5 full days with 2 carpenters, and the floor coverings were very easy to install. (including skirtings)

what type of floor coverings were those? I have installed floating click laminate several times already, and you can easily cover 50 sqm (538 sqft) alone over a weekend?!? Unless your walls and floors are extremely uneven...

Best regards,

Andreas

Painting is definitely worth it – if someone could do the painting work for me for 1500 euros, I would be extremely happy.

I’ve now spent 1100 euros on paint and have 14 buckets of Brillux paint – at supplier prices. There’s also some plaster, textured roller coating, and finishing filler.

For a painter, we would probably have paid at least 8000 euros.

Still, it’s not a task I enjoy…

Electrical work is definitely worthwhile if you know how to do it yourself or have friends who do – officially, I would have paid more than 25,000 euros for that package. Now I’m not even at half of that.

andimann schrieb:




What kind of flooring was it? I’ve installed floating click laminate flooring several times, and you can easily cover 50m² (540 sq ft) alone in a weekend?!? Unless you have really crooked walls and floors...

Best regards,

Andreas

It was click laminate, correct, and when you do it for the first time, it’s not something you just slap together quickly. The installation only took 3 days (the hallway wasn’t that exciting). The skirting boards were nonsense because we tried to be clever with click-on trims. But the pieces couldn’t be slid on cleanly. The inventor should be shot. Even my incredibly calm father, a carpenter with 40 years of experience, got really angry. A total disaster. We actually wanted to throw the stuff back at the specialist dealer, but it was Sunday...

Of all the trades, flooring in the bedrooms is still the most sensible thing to do yourself. You don’t get in the way of other trades, and the effort is relatively manageable depending on the situation. Wallpapering isn’t practical as a DIY job; at best you can paint yourself (although sanding beforehand isn’t exactly a walk in the park either).
I didn’t factor in the longer rent period in my calculations. However, eventually there could be costs due to interest once the interest-free period on financing ends.
DIY work is great, but if relatives or friends do it, you shouldn’t complain afterward. Installing tiles isn’t easy. Many things can go wrong or tiles can just be unevenly hung, which leads to stress. As mentioned, we only did the flooring ourselves. In one corner of the bedroom, the click system came apart at one spot (you can feel the edge). That’s our bad luck and it will stay like that. Had a friend done it, we would have been annoyed.

andimann schrieb:
Hi,

may I ask,

what type of flooring was it? I've installed floating click laminate several times, and you can easily cover 50 square meters (540 square feet) alone over a weekend?!? Unless your walls and floors are extremely uneven...

Best regards,

Andreas

50 square meters (540 square feet) installed in one weekend – then you must have two left hands.
You can definitely do much more over a weekend, plus an additional day for the baseboards. Click vinyl is even faster since it’s easier to cut – today I installed a room in just over 1.5 hours. And I’m an office worker...