You should read the post again, I didn't say 40K for tools alone, That includes everything. The only way you can really say you saved on labour costs is if you don't value your own time. Take an oil change for example, my father can take his Toyota matrix into the dealer for regularly scheduled maintenance and it only costs him like $28 to get his oil and filter, plus the whole car washed and the inside vacuumed. If you were to buy these separately it would be much more, the car wash and vacuum would be $13-15 alone.

I'm not saying DIY is bad, sometimes it's more cost efficient to have it done by someone else, especially if you have it done while your at work making money. I'll be a DIY 'till I die just for the fact that I like having the knowledge of working on and fixing things, it's in my blood.

We are in the middle of painting the inside of the house and laying new floor, and this is a good DIY project because a monkey could do most of it and I'd take a weekend and do it myself instead of paying a "professional" monkey $30/hour or whatever to do it, it's not like we are in a rush, we'll work on it as time permits.

It's also very hard now-a-days to make something for less than it costs to buy it, and that's not going to get any better. (With the exception of some things)

In closing, I have no problem with DIY and I wish more people could have the skills to do more things around home, but that's not the case. In the meantime, I'm just goin' to keep on keepin' on and do my own thing and let everyone else do theirs.

 

Oh yeah I do stuff myself often, much like all the guys on here. I know my limits though and bring in the right people when it's called for. I guess my attitude stems from all the crap I've seen done where one guy thinks he did a great job and saved himself a ton of money but in reality he has put himself and others in a very dangerous situation, all the while badmouthing us for charging what we do to do it right.

My opinion might be on the far end of the spectrum just because of the nature of our work. I mean come on, it's just gas, fire, electricity, and fumes that kill you all wrapped up in a box inside your house. What's the worst that could happen if you don't know what your doing??

Don't get me wrong though, there are plenty of idiots out there masquerading as professionals that shouldn't be allowed to touch anything with a tool. My guess is that's why a lot of people turn to doing it themselves. All I can do is keep on doing what I do, and refuse to support the DIY'ers in my industry.