News 12 at 6, April 2, 2008

AUGUSTA--When it comes to home repair, sometimes it pays to do it yourself and sometimes it doesn't. But the key is knowing when to call in the reinforcements.

The name of this game is knowing your limits. If you don't, you'll spend a ton of money getting your mess fixed.

Doing it yourself sounds great. You save money, learn a new skill and improve your home. But for Don Burke, it's not worth the risk.

"I'm not a handyman." Don said.

And when the decision came to redo the bathroom, Don didn't even try to do the work himself, he brought in the professionals.

A big reason behind that is the location of the job. The bathroom. It's a place that involves a ton of water and that means a ton of potential damage to your home.

"Anytime you get into water areas, unless you're real handy, and know what you're doing, leave it to the professionals." Jim Siig of ReBath said.

If you don't have everything sealed up properly, water can seep into the walls, rot the wood and create an expensive mess.

If you're not real handy, you may want to test yourself out on painting or maybe hanging a medicine cabinet if you're feeling adventurous.

Those are relatively simple tasks for even the un-handiest person. By starting small, you can ease in to "do-it-yourself-land." Because just because you think you can do it, doesn't always mean you can.

"You may not save money by doing-it-yourself. You need to evaluate whether you have the right equipment or are you going to have to rent tools? If so, you've got to add that costs in. Keep in mind that contractors might get better deals on supplies than you'll be able to." Angie's List founder Angie Hicks said.

Of course, there are ways to learn to do the job yourself through books or websites. The whole idea is doing plenty of homework and maybe even bringing an experienced friend over to help.