Hiring a Contractor to Tutor You On Tricky Do-It-Yourself Projects

Deciding whether to take on a challenging job or call in a professional is a dilemma for passionate homeowners. But there is a little-known third option: Call in a pro and work together.
By: Gwendolyn Bounds: From The Wall Street Journal Online
For nearly a year, my guest bathroom languished in home-improvement purgatory. I had laid new wood flooring and ripped out the 1970s flowered tiles, no problem. But putting in the new tiles - that had me procrastinating.

I'd splurged on some pricey and fragile natural stone and glass mosaic tiles, and I was reluctant to touch them. Crack a $2 ceramic tile and it's no big deal. Not so with the iridescent green glass mosaics I'd bought for $32 a square foot for my tub face and backsplash.

It's a dilemma every passionate do-it-yourselfer can face when confronted with a challenging project: whether to jump in and risk messing it up or to bow out and call in a professional. But there's a little-known third option: Call in a pro and work with him or her to get the job done.

Increasingly, some experts are willing to consider letting you apprentice with them in your own home. For the professional, it's a paying job with a free - though potentially clumsy - assistant. For the homeowner, it's a chance to make sure a critical project is done correctly and learn the skills you need to do it yourself in the future.

As homeowners drop some $155 billion annually on renovations, and the fix-up industry pushes us to tackle ever-tougher tasks, we can turn to books and videos and in-store classes at retailers. But sometimes there's no substitute for hands-on experience. So for my languishing bathroom project, I broke down and hired a pro. For a week, I apprenticed myself to a local builder and worked alongside him in my own bathroom.

Such collaboration can take many forms: Tim Carter, who runs the Web site www.askthebuilder.com, extols sweat equity. He says homeowners can pick up new skills while being useful - and even saving money - if they do the dirty work, such as moving materials around a job site, demolition and cleaning up. "Even the laborer doesn't want to do that," he says.

Beyond that, you can participate in almost every part of the job, as I did, if your expert is open-minded. At day's end, it's like having your cake and eating it too: You can boast about "doing it" and still get a professional's touch.

Some pros are reluctant to take on proteges because of liability issues. Attorney Scott Gurney with Frost Brown Todd's Construction Practice Group in Cincinnati cautions that both parties should check insurance policies to be sure that injuries or damage are covered if a homeowner is helping out, and look at warranties on materials that might be invalidated if not installed by pros. What's more, you need to be free to work contractors' hours and not hold up progress to answer emails or pick up the kids. "The contractor's main concern is that he's not slowed down," Mr. Gurney says.

Nevertheless, working in tandem is gaining favor. In its March issue, This Old House magazine touted "partnering with a contractor" as a way to save on remodeling. "I think there are a lot of projects where this could work," says Tom Silva, general contractor for the magazine and "This Old House" TV shows. "We'll probably see more of this in the future," agrees Chicago remodeling pro Ted Welch. "I'd probably add two or three days to the time span and charge accordingly."

For my first apprenticeship, I called up Bobby Dodge, a builder in Garrison, N.Y., who'd done renovations for me. I trusted his skills and honesty; he knew he could trust me to pay fairly. Since I'd already purchased materials, Mr. Dodge charged just for his time ($45 an hour) and that of his assistant, Henry Casholle ($35 an hour). If I held things up, it was on my dime - but if I helped, I might save a few bucks.

On the first day at work, I learned I hadn't put enough screws into the cement backer board in my shower area to safely hold the weight of my heavy 12-by-12 marble tiles. What's more, my screws weren't all flush in the wall, which might affect how flat the tiles sat. I wouldn't have noticed the gaffes.

Then came the measuring. I wanted my marble tiles staggered, but didn't want lots of small pieces around the edges. Calculating where to lay the first tile while allowing for the 1/8th-inch grout lines fell to Mr. Dodge. I sat beside him on the tub edge while he explained his system, and his reckoning ended up perfect.

I finally got my hands dirty when we cranked up the wet saw, which uses a diamond blade cooled by water to cut tiles. After Mr. Dodge showed me how to hold the marble so it wouldn't crack, I slowly pushed a piece into the blade, tensing slightly at the high-pitched whine. Then I carried my piece to Mr. Casholle, who was waiting with the "thinset" mortar that would attach the tiles to the wall.

I thought slapping on mortar would be a no-brainer. Wrong. Spreading the mixture smoothly with a trowel without leaving gaps or dropping globs on the floor takes practice. Mr. Casholle patiently gave tips. He also taught me cool lingo - terms like "butter her up" (apply extra mortar on the back of a tile) and "cut it four and a quarter light" (a sliver smaller than 4¼ inches). After one pass, I returned with a tile for Mr. Casholle and proudly pronounced I'd trimmed it "just a blade" like he asked. "Perfect," he said, pressing it to the wall.

Sometimes, I felt surprisingly helpful. The men's hands were too big to install the tiny one-inch glass mosaics in tight spots, so they enlisted me. Every night, I cleaned up. I also did the final polishing.

I definitely got the hang of tiling, but the fellows saved me in many ways. Turns out, one wall bowed outward. That required more calculations from Mr. Dodge to avoid unsightly grout lines. And when the marble tiles kept breaking, he devised strategies to milk scraps so we'd have enough to finish the job.

Ultimately my labor saved me about $200, according to Mr. Dodge, who wrote me a report card on my final bill: "The homeowner assisted in each aspect of the project, providing the materials, cutting tile, applying cement, installing tile, grouting and clean-up."

The best part: My bathroom is done.