DIY or Hire a Landscaper

For many homeowners the international movement towards DIY (Do it Yourself) renovation has yielded significant benefits.  The cost savings can be significant and the sense of personal satisfaction accompanying an impressive renovation project well done can be exhilarating.  In addition, learning how to do things for yourself has become much easier.  You can search the Internet for “How to” articles on just about any topic.  The shelves of libraries and book stores are crammed with books on renovation skills from “A to Z”.

When it comes to landscaping, what should you take into consideration as you debate whether to do it yourself or to hire a professional landscaper?

How about talent, temperament, and time?  Outdoor landscaping projects can encompass a variety of needed skills, from horticultural, to carpentry, to masonry, to electrical, and to plumbing; depending on the scope of your project.

Almost all outdoor renovations involve plantings of some kind or another, so you’ll need to know how to select the right plantings for your situation as well as how best to plant them, space them, and get them started properly.  Retaining walls and built-in outdoor barbecues will require masonry skills.  Installing outdoor fountains and self-contained ponds will require electrical skills to add outdoor outlets.  Adding natural gas lines to your area for outdoor heaters or gas grills call for plumbing skills.  Finally, decks, fencing, and wood framed pathways require carpentry skills.

If you have none of these skills and you have neither the available time nor the temperament needed to learn them, you decision is easy.  Hire a landscaper whose skills match the needs of your project.

However, even if you have all the skill prerequisites and you are thrilled at the prospect of tackling this task, you need to step back a moment, take a deep breath, and consider the time needed to complete the task.

Even if you feel you will be able to devote every evening after work and every weekend to the project, large scale renovations typically extend over long periods.  Weather interruptions can extend the time even further.  Do you and your family have the temperament it takes to deal with that?

Landscaping is a dirty, back-breaking job that can create a massive mess that may be impossible to contain to the outdoor area under renovation.  This is not like renovating a basement or an interior room that can be closed off from the rest of your living space during the renovation.  You’ll be tracking mud into your home, possibly for months.  Can you handle that?

Perhaps you should consider a compromise involving a combination of do it yourself elements and the services of a professional landscaper.  For example, you could create your own design and hire a landscaper to do the rest.  Alternatively, you could have the landscaper involved in some of the tougher elements, like the removal of existing plantings and roughing out of new planting areas.  Finally, you could act as your own general contractor.  You create the design of the project and then hire the different professional trades to get it done.