The allure of doing it yourself is intoxicating, but it isn’t smart to follow your DIY dreams in every case. Some services are worthy of hiring professionals to do, for a variety of reasons, from safety to convenience.
Owning a home anywhere in France is something that you should feel deeply proud of. It doesn’t matter if you have a small apartment in Paris or a luxurious farm in Provence. Deepening that pride is knowing that many of the aspects of that home are things that you’ve added, created or fixed yourself. It’s nice to know that it was done by you and done right. But not everything should be undertaken as a DIY project; for some things, it’s worth hiring professionals.
Often, the case for hiring a professional service is rooted in safety. Some aspects of construction or renovation are fairly dangerous, and having them done by a professional is the smart move; you can still pull all the strings and have things built to your vision, after all. Other times, getting professionals is more convenient by several orders of magnitude, such as if you plan to make a small move in Paris to a new apartment or townhouse.
Let’s take a look at some of the common activities French homeowners might want to throw in the DIY towel and get a professional to do.
Hiring Movers for a House Move
While you might be okay to handle a whole day of stressful lifting, carrying, loading and unloading in your early 20s, as you get older, the appeal of saving a bit of money and doing a move on your own dwindles drastically. Especially if you are planning to move furniture anywhere other than the ground floor, getting a professional is just a good idea.
France, like most countries, has a whole host of different professional moving companies, and choosing the right one for your location and needs can be a little overwhelming. Thankfully, there are services like Demenagement24, which offer the ability to quickly search through different professional services based on region and requirements. These services often let you compare different prices and services as well, helping homeowners get the best deals when they move.
For people who are moving into, out of, or across a tightly packed and busy city like Lyon or Paris, having a professional help with the move might be considered a necessity. Professional moving services will know which streets to take with their vehicles, the correct places to park and unload, and a million other small things that you could easily overlook if you try to go it on your own.
Before you look to hire a truck or van and get it done yourself, stop and think if the money you’ll save will be worth all the stress of moving everything yourself.
Handling Wiring and Other Electrical Work
Unless you yourself are a professional electrician, you probably shouldn’t mess around with wiring. Electricity is a wonderful tool that makes our lives easier, but if you don’t treat it respectfully, it can easily be deadly.
A professional electrician will be able to help you install whatever sorts of appliances or fixtures you want safely and efficiently. Apart from the safety concerns, French regulations around electricity installations, the NF C 15-100 standard, are fairly strict and non-compliance with these regulations can lead to a host of problems. Better just to hire a professional.
Water and Heating Work
Similarly to handling electrical work, unless you are a certified plumber or heating technician, it’s probably for the best that you don’t mess around with the pipes. Small tasks like changing a washer are relatively safe, but handling anything much more complex could spiral into a huge and expensive problem.
Plumbers won’t only be able to fix leaks, but they might also detect early signs of other issues that might be causing the leak, or caused by the leak. On top of this, as you know, annual servicing of gas heating systems is a legal requirement, so you might as well get it sorted by a professional.
Handling Gutters, Roofs and Other Height Work
Unless you are really, really keen to save some pennies, doing any sort of maintenance or work on roofs is not something we’d recommend. It might not be a factor for you at all if you own an apartment, or depending on the region you are in, but if you do need regular gutter or roof maintenance, hiring someone to do it is much safer.
Once again, safety is the main concern here. Any work at heights has huge potential to go badly wrong, and professionals are not only insured, but they are experts at staying safe at heights. On top of the safety concern, poking about with the gutters and tiles when you don’t fully know what you are doing could easily cause damage or set you up to experience expensive problems later down the line.
The Financial and Legal Side of Things
This one is likely to be something that many people won’t try to do themselves, but it is probably one of the most critical things to get right. Pretty much any time you are doing something major with a property you own, be that renovations, construction, selling and even when you first buy, consulting with a lawyer or a financial advisor could be invaluable.
Just like everywhere else, the French property law system is a complex one, and there’s no shame in having a professional break down what’s most important and what you need to do. Getting legal help in a preventive way might seem like an unnecessary expense, but it could save you a huge headache down the line. Prevention is absolutely the best cure when it comes to legal issues.
Final Thoughts
We love getting our hands dirty and doing things around the house ourselves, but there are limits. Knowing those limits and understanding when it’s the right time to call a professional is a key part of being a smart and successful homeowner, in France or anywhere.
