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When Repairs Need More than Elbow Grease

US Department of Education
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McAnally says shows home improvement shows, like Property Brothers, give people a false sense of confidence when remodeling their homes.

A pipe springs a leak. A window won’t close. You’ve got water in your basement. What do you do?

When it comes to home improvement, our expert Bill McAnally thinks that people have gotten a false sense of security from watching TV and YouTube. 

The problem, McAnally says, is that people don’t realize that those shows’ creators “took actually twelve hours to do that half hour show to make everything look good, and they didn’t show all of the things that did go wrong.”  

Even if you do decide to take the plunge into DIY home improvement, McAnally advises consulting a building inspector. 

"You may wanna' just stick with the real simple, you know, basic-- like, you know, the caulking, building a deck or something. But there again, you know, you have to go to your building inspectors and maybe have to get a permit to do certain things."

In this episode of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks to McAnally about when it's the right time for a do-it-yourself approach and when you should call a professional.  

Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa