Just finished my first window replacement and learned where the limit is

I learned the hard way with a set of Jeld-Wen casements last summer. I thougth the rough opening was the hard part, but I spent four hours just fighting with the sill pan and making sure the slope was exactly right so water wouldn't pool. You're spot on about the flashing tape; I used that Grace Vycor stuff and if it touches itself even once, it's basicly permanent. It’s a specialized kind of frustration that makes you question why you didn't just pay the $600 labor fee per opening.

I draw the line at grading and drainage though. I tried to DIY a French drain along the side of my garage using a rented trencher, and I ended up hitting a buried PVC line I didn't know was there. Between the mud and the emergency plumbing repair, I realized that if the water isn't moving away from the foundation correctly, the stakes are way too high. Windows are manageable if you're patient, but once you start messing with the literal ground or the peak of a roof, the margin for error disappears.

I actually found the opposite when it came to the drainage stuff. While I agree that window flashing is a nightmare of sticky tape and precision, I’ve had great luck handling my own French drains and grading. Last fall, I rented a Bobcat MT100 for a weekend to fix a swampy spot near my foundation. It cost me about $450 for the rental, wich is a fraction of the $6,000 the local waterproofing company quoted me.

As long as you’re willing to sweat, laying out NDS catch basins and 4-inch perforated ADS pipe is mostly just physics. I spent a Saturday digging the trench, lining it with geotextile fabric, and backfilling with about three tons of 3/4-inch washed stone. Because it's outside the house envelope, the stakes feel lower than a roof leak. If I messed up the pitch slightly, I’d just have a puddle in the grass instead of a ruined attic. The one thing I won't do myself again is asphalt repair. I tried to patch a 4x4 section of my driveway using that cold-patch bag stuff. No matter how much I compacted it with a hand tamper, it never really hardened properly and ended up sticking to my tires in the summer heat. That's a mess I'm happy to pay a paving crew to handle with hot mix and a real steamroller.

This is all so helpful because I'm just starting out! I'm actually looking at my driveway right now and wondering if the same hire a pro rule applies to resurfacing. Has anyone here ever tried to DIY an asphalt patch or even a full sealcoat? I’m super stoked to get my hands dirty, but I’m worried about the mess! Also, totally tangential, but does anyone know if a pressure washer can actually damage the concrete if you use the wrong nozzle? I want to clean everythign before I even think about repairs!

Regarding the inquiry about asphalt patching, one must acknowledge that the typical cold-patch products available at big-box retailers are merely temporary solutions due to their inherent inability to achieve the same compaction density and thermal bonding as a profesional hot-mix application. While a DIY sealcoating project appears manageable, the common error lies in failing to adequately emulsify the coal-tar or asphalt emulsion or ignoring the ambient humidity levels which can catastrophically inhibit the crucial polymerization process, ultimately leading to a finish that flakes off within a single season. I personally find that unless you are prepared to invest in a propane-fired crack filler kettle to address longitudinal fissures, the structural integrity of a DIY driveway repair rarely justifies the labor-intensive preparation.

Spot on about the hot-mix vs cold-patch. I tried a DIY patch last year and it crumbled by February because I didn't realize the importance of the vertical edge prep. Most people just dump the mix in, but you relly have to clean the vertical faces of the existing asphalt and apply a tack coat of liquid asphalt first to get it to actualy bond. Without that 'glue' on the sides, water just seeps into the seam, freezes, and pops the whole patch out in one season.