DIY or DIFM?

(Do It Yourself or Do It For Me)

This was our weekend. We spent most of Friday and all of the weekend moving a very large, very heavy and very noisy bit of equipment around on our concrete floor.

We were trying to make it into a fantastic, shiny and glamorous bit of flooring goodness but it never go there!

The equipment was great and a big thanks to Kennard’s Concrete Care for helping us out. The first grinder died 90 mins into grinding and they went out of their way and swapped another one in 8pm on a Friday night!!

But here’s the thing with DIY – if everything goes well, it’s fabulous and you can save yourself a lot of money. But if you get that one job that has “special” requirements it is a nightmare as a DIY person. A DIFM expert would be able to read the situation, use their many years of skills and know the short cut to success.

This is where the DIFM expert earns their money. 

Our concrete wouldn’t grind. We changed to the medium bonding, harder diamonds as directed but still it didn’t grind. We Googled, YouTubed, and even read the instruction manual. It made no difference. We talked to others who had had some grinding done recently and something didn’t seem right.

So we kept on doing what we knew to be right (because we had hired the equipment for the weekend). What we were missing was the 20 years of experience to be able to “read” the concrete and know how best to attack it. The DIFM expert would have known.

I won’t say it was a wasted weekend (because then I would have no reason to feel this exhausted) and the finish we have is better than the raw concrete, but it is not even close to the vision.

What we do have is a unique concrete floor, loaded with character than in two or three years (when we have prioritised the money for it) will have a professional come and grind and seal it.

While DIY is good and can save you some money the DIFM professional undoubtedly gives a better experience, particulalry if an issue arises. It’s one of the main reasons I get booked as a corporate MC.

So what do you need to DIY and what do you need to get a DIFM professional in for?