Maintenance fund maths, repair cost estimates, insurance rebuild checks, renovation budgets and honest upkeep guides — type your homeowner question and get a straight answer in seconds, with real numbers you can act on. The full detailed report costs less than a coffee: $2.95.
The DIY-versus-hire decision looks like a simple comparison — the quote versus the materials — but the honest maths includes your time, your skill and the risk if it goes wrong. This check runs all three: it values your labour at a modest rate, compares the true DIY cost with the professional quote, and then applies the gate that overrides everything — if the stakes are high (roofing, structural work, gas, major electrical) and your experience is low, the answer is hire, whatever the spreadsheet says. For the jobs where the maths points to DIY, the verdict says so with the saving spelled out; where hiring wins, it says that too. Either way you leave with a decision based on numbers and risk, not on the optimism of a Saturday morning.
Decide honestly whether a home project is worth doing yourself — comparing the full DIY cost including your time against the professional quote, and gating the high-risk jobs that should go to licensed pros regardless.
Rate yourself honestly at this specific job rather than at DIY in general — tiling a backsplash and rewiring a kitchen are different universes. First-timers on skilled trades typically take two to three times as long as a professional and often redo part of the work, which the calculator reflects in the time cost.
Whenever a mistake can cost more than the job: roofing and ladder work, structural changes, gas, and major electrical all carry fall, fire or damage risks that dwarf the labour saving. Licensed and insured professionals carry that risk for you — which is exactly what their fee buys.
Cosmetic, ground-level work: painting, landscaping, caulking, simple carpentry, and swapping fixtures like taps, toilets and light fittings. They are forgiving of mistakes, need no permits in most cases, and are where DIY saving is real rather than theoretical.
Every tool answers instantly from our own knowledge and calculators — no AI wait, no account. Honest maths and plain guidance, always educational and never alarmist: homes are built to be lived in, and these tools exist to keep yours safe, efficient and affordable — not to scare you into spending. Results are estimates and reflections, not appraisals or prescriptions, and nothing you type is stored. Want the deeper, personalised version? Each has a $2.95 full report.