by Barry Williams

Created on: January 18, 2009

There is one thing I would insist upon if I was giving advice to anyone wanting to buy an existing house. I would insist they engage a building inspector to check the house out for any work done by a do-it-yourself person before signing a contract. Somewhere sometime some clown has fancied himself as a builder , decided to save heaps of money and has built a simple deck.

In reality the only thing simple in building a simple deck is the simple mind behind the construction. Honestly would you expect a dentist to know anything about carpentry? I would want to see the dentist build an acceptable doll's house before I would let him anywhere near my house if it involved structural alterations. Conversely would you allow a carpenter to drill and fill your teeth? I don't think so. To my way of thinking such work is best left to those who know what they are doing.

Most do it yourself people are what I call jacks of all trades. The trouble with jacks of all trades is that they never become master of any trade. If you want to be a carpenter then be carpenter and do your four years apprenticeship. If you want to design a deck then become an architect and get your degree to qualify. If you are neither a carpenter or an architect then you should leave the work to the people who actually know what they are doing.

I will say something for the do-it- yourself person . They will spend heaps of money on books and some may even attend a home handyman course at the local hardware store in simple building projects in the vain hope of compressing and acquiring the four years in takes to become a qualified tradesman into two weeks before they take their holidays to undertake their master project.

Submit plans and get prior council approval? You've got to be kidding. Who does that these days? Draw up plans to scale , work load strengths for timber as to the size of floor bearers etc and estimates of costs? What's wrong with a few ideas scribbled down on paper? What's wrong with getting a bit of advice from the timber yard? What's wrong with having no idea of costs and just buying things as you need them ? Such is the life of the do-it yourself person.

Against all advice from people who can relate several disaster stories of would be carpenters and the threats of divorce the do-it your self person commences the deck with a stubbornness that would make a donkey seem like a willing partner to mating with a high strung though bred. From his drawings he knows something about stumps for the deck.

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