Don't Do It Yourself: When and How to Get Help with Your DIY Projects

via lifehacker.com

This is a great list of resources for getting help with what you want to attempt. Another suggestion - if you want to build something using power tools but you're not sure how to use power tools, try volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build. They're happy to teach you how to use tools and you'll meet fantastic people, eat delicious sandwiches, drink all the coffee you want and learn to love a Port-a-Pottie!

Comments

[Michael]

I don't know if it is because to are in a foreign land, but in the land of the free, my experience with Habitat for Humanity was volunteers were limited to using their own hammer to frame non structural walls. Anything else hard to contracted out to pros.

[ToolGirl]

Wow, we do it differently here - at least at the Toronto affiliate. Except for foundations, roofing, plumbing and electrical, all of the components are volunteer-built - that includes all framing, siding etc. and now the trusses will be built by volunteers in Habitat Toronto's new home-building 'factory'. I guess the U.S. culture is kinda litigious, so liability issues propel the decisions about who can built what, how.

[Michael]

I think there is a lot of corruption between the trade unions, local government and the inspectors. In my county, which is 400 sq mi (1,000 sq km) there are 81 code writing jurisdiction.

We have cases where only a commercial licensed tradesmen can pull a residential permit so residential tradesmen have to slip $500 to a commercial licensed tradesmen to get a permit.

I have licensed tradesmen friends being shake downed by inspectors who violate code compliant work and then offer to "fix" it on the cheap.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the unions and the government got together to restrict volunteers at Habitat for Humanity sites.

We have ourselves a pretty big mess down here.