About DiyOrNot

Welcome! We're glad to have you here and hope you find information to help you decide if you should do a project yourself or hire a contractor. You'll find the cost figures for over 300 improvement projects and you can adjust the cost for where you live.

For each projects we suggest a skill level, how much time is required and tool and material lists. We've been working on houses and writing magazine articles and books about home improvements for the past 30 years. This column has been in newspapers since 1987 and online since 1991 on HouseNet.com, the web site we founded. Our goal is to give you guidelines and information to help you make the right decision about home improvement projects.

In the News 2010

In the May 1 issue of Bottom Line Personal Gene and Katie Hamilton, the creators of DO IT YOURSELF OR NOT have a featured article "Save $3,000 and Improve Your Home's Value."

In the March issue of Money magazine DIYORNOT.COM is featured as one of "The 20 Best Money Web Sites." Their editors combed the Internet to find the best sites with tools you can use to help make better money decisions. The article is featured on their Web site at The 20 Best Money Web Sites.

The Sunday Home Section of the February 14th edition of the Wisconsin State Journal featured a story about DIYORNOT.COM.

On her January 19 blog, the Real Estate Wonk, reporter Jamie Smith Hopkins wrote about No Brainer DIY Home Improvement Work featuring DIYORNOT.COM. Here's a link to the story: Real Estate Wonk blog You can read more of her blogs at: More Real Estate Wonk blogs

Data Source - DIY Database

The DIY Cost of projects is based on national average cost data from major retailers in the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest and West/Mountain regions of the country and e-commerce web sites with home improvement products. For the DIY Time we use our in-the-trenches experience of having remodeled 13 houses and input from homeowners who share their time and experience with us.

The Pro Cost and man-hours to complete a project are determined by averaging cost and data information in several construction books that are updated annually and used by contractors to prepare job bids. We generate a regional cost for different geographic areas based on zip codes.