happyscooter
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Post by happyscooter on Aug 1, 2013 6:35:27 GMT -5
Formerly SK, we went to 2 building supply companies and priced siding and other things that went with it. It was cheap. That's when DH and I decided that we would do the siding ourselves. One company delivered for $50, we are about 15 miles away. We got started on Saturday morning and were finished with one side about 8 hours later. We gave away our old siding on Craigslist so we didn't even have to haul it off. We piled it up and as soon as we finished each side, I posted on Craigslist. The people were there within a day or two. It was very easy to do. I am glad that we did not spend the money to have that done by someone else and we were able to put that money toward another big project.<br><br>Oldtex, DH put down our tile floor. He did buy a tile cutter but what we saved by being DIYers more than paid for the saw. <br><br>I realize there are people out there who can't do things themselves for whatever reason. They work fulltime, have kids, physical restrictions, whatever. But none of those apply to us and we knew that we would take better care of our property and be more particular than someone else.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2013 9:30:41 GMT -5
Formerly SK, we went to 2 building supply companies and priced siding and other things that went with it. It was cheap. That's when DH and I decided that we would do the siding ourselves. One company delivered for $50, we are about 15 miles away. We got started on Saturday morning and were finished with one side about 8 hours later. We gave away our old siding on Craigslist so we didn't even have to haul it off. We piled it up and as soon as we finished each side, I posted on Craigslist. The people were there within a day or two. It was very easy to do. I am glad that we did not spend the money to have that done by someone else and we were able to put that money toward another big project. Oldtex, DH put down our tile floor. He did buy a tile cutter but what we saved by being DIYers more than paid for the saw. I realize there are people out there who can't do things themselves for whatever reason. They work fulltime, have kids, physical restrictions, whatever. But none of those apply to us and we knew that we would take better care of our property and be more particular than someone else. they enjoy being in one piece with no broken bones. 2 story house with a pitched roof....the thought of doing the roof or siding myself never even crossed my mind.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Aug 1, 2013 9:42:01 GMT -5
Windows were shockingly expensive to me.....but they needed to be done, so i paid it. I almost died when the first window company I called gave me a $20K quote. I have a small house - only 10 windows and a back door. I ended up getting it done for $6K, probably could have gotten it even cheaper if I really shopped around.
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happyscooter
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Post by happyscooter on Aug 2, 2013 6:24:40 GMT -5
singlemominmd, we put the roof on our 1 story garage, paid DS and his friends to help. We put the siding on our 1 story garage by ourselves. We put the siding on our 2 story house ourselves using ladders and rented a scissor lift. We DID hire out the house roof because of the pitch.
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on Aug 2, 2013 11:12:47 GMT -5
singlemominmd, we put the roof on our 1 story garage, paid DS and his friends to help. We put the siding on our 1 story garage by ourselves. We put the siding on our 2 story house ourselves using ladders and rented a scissor lift. We DID hire out the house roof because of the pitch. Just curious, what kind of siding? Because I could see potentially doing vinyl ourselves, but we're doing Hardiplank and there's no way I would do that myself. Also, it would be MUCH cheaper to hire someone than for DH to take a week off work to do the project. And we have two younger kids we'd have to put in FT camp or something to get them out of our way, so that is another expense. I guess my point is sometimes DIY is has a lot of hidden costs.
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happyscooter
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Post by happyscooter on Aug 3, 2013 6:24:46 GMT -5
Yes, it's vinyl. Our house is too tall and we hired out the soffit and downspouts/gutters.
Again, we had the time and no kids or obligations other than DH's PT job where he can schedule his own hours.
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KaraBoo
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Post by KaraBoo on Aug 3, 2013 8:28:13 GMT -5
singlemominmd, we put the roof on our 1 story garage, paid DS and his friends to help. We put the siding on our 1 story garage by ourselves. We put the siding on our 2 story house ourselves using ladders and rented a scissor lift. We DID hire out the house roof because of the pitch. Just curious, what kind of siding? Because I could see potentially doing vinyl ourselves, but we're doing Hardiplank and there's no way I would do that myself. Also, it would be MUCH cheaper to hire someone than for DH to take a week off work to do the project. And we have two younger kids we'd have to put in FT camp or something to get them out of our way, so that is another expense. I guess my point is sometimes DIY is has a lot of hidden costs. SK - we put Hardiplank on our house ourselves. It's not hard, but you do need to have the right tools to do it properly. The tools aren't very expensive, but necessary (the right saw blade, the right drill tips, etc). The right tools will make the job so much easier. You also need to do a little research on which type of material you are using. We used the 10" planks that look like wood siding. To make the siding look good, they recommend having an layer of plywood underneath the Hardiplank so that it doesn't look "warped" (wavy from where it's attached to the studs).
So far - we've done one whole side of our house and about 1/4th of another side (the way the house is designed, it was a good stopping point). We live in a 1950's ranch with no insulation. That part of the house is 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house because of the new siding and insulation we put in. I can't remember how much the siding cost us as we were doing a complete garage conversion into our master bedroom with bathroom and walk in closet - but the entire job (including siding and new tools to do all of the work) cost us $10k.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 3, 2013 8:34:10 GMT -5
Yes, and its hard not to feel like you are being shafted. But I always get a few quotes, and judge based on that. For home renovation, I have someone I use regularly. He does excellent work.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2013 9:31:55 GMT -5
Windows were shockingly expensive to me.....but they needed to be done, so i paid it. I almost died when the first window company I called gave me a $20K quote. I have a small house - only 10 windows and a back door. I ended up getting it done for $6K, probably could have gotten it even cheaper if I really shopped around. I'll be honest here. I feel that window replacement is in general the new legal way to rip people off. From a money stand point it usually doesn't make any kind of logic. Sure it may drop your utility bill some but will you ever see a break even point? Most of the time you won't. Also if you have air leaks most of the time it's a pretty quick, simple & cheap fix. Not always (nothing is always) but most of the time I think that's true. Back on our old house we talked about upgrading our windows. The house didn't have many & they weren't in bad shape or anything, it's just that we live in a hot climate & you did pay extra to cool that heat down coming from them. Well I priced it out & for the price of replacement I could have paid my total electric bill for 2 full years. Saving even 20% (& I'm not sure that they will come close to saving that much) I would have basically had to live forever to see a payback. Then there's the resale value. Sorry but maybe some people would be willing to pay extra for windows that are already installed in a house but I doubt that it will be anywhere close to what it normally costs to put them in. Lastly I'll say that there are a lot of other ways that are cost effective to upgrade your house. For less than 8,000 dollars we upgraded our main A/C unit plus did a lot of cheap stuff (weather stripping, etc). That dropped our energy usage by a hell of a lot more than even the window places claim & I doubt that the claims they make are accurate. Of course this is just my opinion & it also depends on where you live & the temps you experience plus the cost that you pay to heat & cool. Our main expense is cooling.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Aug 3, 2013 9:55:01 GMT -5
It probably almost never makes sense to replace windows from a utility standpoint. Especially in warmer climates where a really hot day might have a 30-40 degree temp difference between indoors and outdoors. In cool climates where you might have a 80 degree difference between inside and outside it might make a little more sense.
I am curious how much utility savings I will see, I don't expect much. There is none right now because I don't use ac, but I have noticed the house stays about 2 degrees cooler on the hot days.
I did it primarily for security and because 2 windows had cracks running all the way down them. Plus most were so fogged up between the panes you couldn't actually see outside. Which is why I had no interest in top of the line fancy windows that would be a tiny bit more efficient.
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