A: Home Advisor is a professional home improvement referral service and my primary function is advising property owners about the most appropriate professionals to consult or hire to repair, maintain, improve, or construct their homes.

If you are intent on doing it yourself, I recommend buying an instructional book or perhaps a videotape from a home improvement or online construction book store. A helpful site to reference is DoItYourself.com. Also, home improvement stores often offer Do-It-Yourself classes and you can even get information from websites by typing your subject matter directly into a search engine.

However, after more than a decade in this business, I firmly believe that hiring an experienced professional is usually the best, most timely, efficient (and even economical) way to get a project done right the first time. Poorly done "improvements" can actually detract from a property's value and I couldn't count the number of consumers I've talked to who could have saved money by hiring a pro in the first place.

At the very least, let me suggest that you compare what you would spend on the tools and materials (and time and possible frustration) you'd need to do it yourself against a couple of estimates from professionals before deciding what to do. To get some bids, visit Home Advisor, type a keyword relating to your project into the search box and submit a service request to be matched with the ideal service professionals in your area.

by Kathy Maynard, reprinted courtesy of HomeAdvisor.com