Fox article on projects a DIYer should never attempt

[RicodJour]

Painting is on the list? Painting?! Sheesh.

R

[Nate Nagel]

hah. I've already done half the stuff on that list at least. And IMHO correctly, too.

nate

[hallerb]

FROM THAT ARTICLE!

Wiring is a whole other ballgame,=94 says Frank Rudy, owner of Rightway Home Improvements in Babylon, New York. =93We have opened up walls where there is wiring just hanging there with no electrical tape, and they are live. With older houses, these things happen.=94

Wiring can pose a great risk to homeowners; although most appliances in the home are only around 110 volts and won=92t kill you, items like a stove will have more power, gas lines can also be a big concern, warns Rudy.

No electric tape should be used in home wiring, and 120 volts can kill. Lets say your well grounded:(

110 volts hasnt been the norm for 40 years.

people who write articles should at least get a knowledgable person to proofread for content accuracy......

[Jim Elbrecht]

I think that might be good advice for folks who are reading the foxbusiness pages. Time spent painting is better spent researching investments.

Jim

[Bill Gill]

quote: "Ceiling fans get heavier when they are running as the downward pressure of air adds more weight when the fan spins."

Amazing, when the fan is blowing air down it causes the fan to try to move in the same direction as the air. Here I thought that Newton told us the reaction is in the opposite direction. We may need to completely revise all of our physics texts.

Bill

[dadiOH]

But of course, silly! It's there for the same reason as cleaning gutters...LADDERS.

As you no doubt know, ladders are the devil's own device. People fall off them. People get hurt when they fall. When people get hurt - or even KILLED - they need medical attention (well, not if they were killed) and medical attention costs money and that raises the premiums for all of us innocents who wouldn't touch a ladder with a ten foot pole. About the only people who like ladders are slip-and-fall lawyers 'cause they get to sue.

I hope all of you reading this will heed my advice: as you travel through life and encounter someone on a ladder, insist that they desist. Unless it is a laywer; in that case, just kick it out from under him or her. In the case of a her, it is permissable to glance - glance, NOT stare - up her skirt briefly before kicking.

[Tony Miklos]

I think they should add hanging a picture. The homeowner might hit his thumb while attempting to put a nail in the wall.

[Kurt Ullman]

They would, most often require medical attention to make sure they are dead. Ambulance at a minimum and usually transport to the ER unless the head it 6-8 feet away from the body.

[Cindy Hamilton]

We've done everything on the list except tiling (don't like tile) and roofing (don't have the knees for it). We've done small roofing projects, including a penetration for a kitchen vent.

We've done a ton of stuff that isn't on the list (spray foam insulation, heating and air, concrete, et flaming cetera). I'll hold up our siding against any 10 crews. We weren't getting paid to rush, so we took our time and did it right.

Pish tosh on foxbusiness.

Cindy Hamilton

[Peter]

What do you expect from a website that promotes BUSINESS?

DIYers, be afraid, be VERY afraid. Call the "experts". It's good for the business world.

I may not do my own roofing or tile work, but why should I pay a plumber $100+ to come out to my house to replace the gasket, or even the entire cartridge in my sink's washerless faucet? The article makes it sound as though I'm foolhardy if I don't call an electrician every time I need to change a light bulb.

If these rabidly pro-business policies impoverish potential customers, those customers won't have the $$ to purchase the goods and services the businesses are selling.

Henry Ford was a highly bigoted jerk as a human being, but he got at least 1 thing right - he paid his workers well above the prevalent factory wages because he wanted them to afford to buy his cars.

[Larry Fishel]

Most ceiling fans are reversible (for circulating air in winter without creating a draft). When running "backwards", the statement above is true. Possibly a case of a clueless editor removing the useful context.

[RicodJour]

When taken in context there is no useful context in that article.

R

[Frank]

>

My poor neighbor that died a few weeks ago was lacking a few teeth when my wife saw him several months ago and his wife said he had fallen off the roof. Probably not a good idea for an 84 year old to climb on his roof.

A few years ago, we had a 75 year old neighbor die when cutting a partially downed tree had it fall on him.

Getting older myself, I'm starting to leave more for the pro's to do.

But generally the article is BS. They got the advice of professionals. One of my plumber's workers told me the boss got pissed at him when he told a customer how to change a Moen cartridge. He did not want to lose the business. Neither do those professionals that advised this naive author.

[aemeijers]

>>

Marvelous quote I stole from AHR a few months back- 'because I don't bounce worth a damn anymore'. I, too, have cut way back on the high work I'll do. And what little I do, I do it a whole lot more carefully now. My inner ears (or some other part of my body) started talking to me a few years ago, when I got close to any dropoffs. Even standing at the balcony rail 20 feet over the main lobby at work makes me a little woozy now. I carry the extension ladder around the house and set it up on the deck, now, rather than pull it out to 20 feet and have that long bouncy climb up from the driveway right by the garage door. Going up wasn't too bad, but that first step back onto the ladder was getting to be Not Fun. I'm sure I've previously mentioned the 2 guys near my age at work, who will never walk quite right again, after their ladder accidents. And just recently we had one guy only a few years older, who ended up in a box, after his fall.

As a kid, I used to free-climb the rock faces and stacks at the local swimming quarry, and work on barely-tied-off 6 unit high scaffolds. Those days are long gone.... :^(

[dadiOH]

And I used to jump off the garage roof for fun. If I tried that now both knees would wind up somewhere near my chin. In fragments. Old age sucks!

[The Daring Dufas]

Would you consider hopping on a 4 cylinder motorcycle and zipping down a deserted stretch of highway at 150mph like I would have 35 years ago when I suffered from sophomoric dementia? How in the heck am I still here? :-)

TDD

[Tony Miklos]

I saw that, it depends on how you decipher it. Either way the difference in the load from the air pressure is minuscule compared to the weight of the fan.

[RonB]

Well, for craps sake. The key to the entire article is the second paragraph:

"We checked in with contracting experts nationwide to find the home improvement or renovation projects you should not attempt without the help of an experienced contractor."

Do you expect contractors to say they are a bunch of unskilled idiots who don't need the money? Granted many folks should compare the job with their skill set and weigh in the possible risks. But painting? Tile? Cleaning your gutters?

We are becoming a society of helpless doofus's anyway. We don't need help like this.

[SteveB]

Well, for craps sake. The key to the entire article is the second paragraph:

"We checked in with contracting experts nationwide to find the home improvement or renovation projects you should not attempt without the help of an experienced contractor."

Do you expect contractors to say they are a bunch of unskilled idiots who don't need the money? Granted many folks should compare the job with their skill set and weigh in the possible risks. But painting? Tile? Cleaning your gutters?

We are becoming a society of helpless doofus's anyway. We don't need help like this.

reply:

Well, you must admit, a contractor is a licensed person, having worker's compensation, training, testing, and experience. So what if they pick up their workers daily from the local flop house or in front of Home depot. At least one of them is licensed. And usually he can be found at the local bar until fifteen minutes before quittin time when he comes back to pick up the "crew". Then the "crew" comes back some night when you're out for a pizza and cleans you out.

Sheesh. Most painters I ever knew were alcoholics. I think that back and forth, back and forth, 89 zillion times drove them to it.

SteveB

Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Download the book $10

[aemeijers]

I never noticed anything weird about most of the painters, but I learned at an early age to give the the tile setters a wide berth. This was just after the mud-bed era, before backer board came into common use. We still had faith in green drywall at that point, and acres of tile went up with mastic. No OSHA then, so no masks or added ventilation. Usually several work lights keeping things nice and warm. Walk in there, and the smell would knock you over. And there was the tile man, happily tiling away, usually smoking a cigarette to boot, with a crazed expression and babbling something incomprehensible.