Published 30/10/2026 1 min readSavings
What You Can Do Yourself and What to Leave to Professionals (Electrical, Gas!)
Which renovation tasks can you do yourself and which require certification? A list of DIY tasks and work you should always entrust to professionals — including costs and risks.
Doing renovations yourself can be a saving — or the most expensive way to save money. The line is drawn not at "I can vs I cannot," but at the law and risk.
What you can do yourself
- Painting — savings of £3–£5/m² of surface area.
- Filling and smoothing small imperfections — patience + YouTube = a decent result.
- Assembly of furniture, shelves, and decorations.
- Removing old floors and tiles — the least rewarding but cheapest job.
- Priming and surface cleaning.
Always leave to professionals
- Electrical work — replacing installations requires specialized certification and measurement protocols.
- Gas — only a licensed installer; doing this yourself = risk to life and loss of insurance.
- Plumbing inside walls — flooding a neighbor is more expensive than a plumber.
- Ventilation and chimneys — improper interference can reverse the draft and lead exhaust fumes inside.
- Structural work — demolishing walls without a structural engineer is Russian roulette.
A quick calculation
DIY work saves on labor costs — but takes 2–3× longer. If your hourly work is valuable, it is sometimes cheaper to hire a company.
You can compare small and large orders on LocalTrader — from minor jobs to a complete renovation.
Looking for a reliable crew?
Publish your job for free and get offers from verified construction companies.
Publish a job
