Should you DIY that home repair? Or hire someone who can do it fast?

For this week’s No More Ls column, we’re looking at the cost of hiring someone for home repairs versus DIYing it yourself—if you can. 

Pay Chen learned the hard way what ghost flushing is. In the middle of the night, the Toronto-based writer woke up to hear water running in her toilet. “It kept flushing every few minutes,” she says. This led her on a journey: to her condo building’s Facebook group, the local hardware store, and on to YouTube. All in hopes of avoiding a hefty repair bill.

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“I asked my concierge, because she knows what works, what’s been breaking down in the building and who’s had things repaired.” Chen was told to replace the toilet. But she was not in the market for a new toilet.

Living in a building that’s 10 years old means she and her neighbours are seeing several appliances come to the end of their service lives. Chen suggests it seems the appliances in the condo have started dying. “The washer-dryer is already gone. I can tell my dishwasher is about to go. My fridge will be next,” she says.

According to the most recent data collected by Statistics Canada, Canadians spent an average $6,014 on “household operations” (a.k.a. home upkeep) in 2023, and $3,390 on furnishings and “equipment” (you know, appliances). Both costs have steadily climbed since 2019.

The general rule is to set aside 1% of a home’s value for home maintenance each year, but there are ways savings can be found. On Canada’s average home price of $686,710 in July 2026, according to The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), that’s roughly $6,800 a year in a home-repair emergency fund. 

For Chen’s new toilet, she got quotes close to $1,000 to hire plumbers to replace her ghost-flushing toilet with a new one. Through chats with neighbours on the building’s Facebook page and dedicated online research, she figured out that she might just have to replace a small part in the tank. She managed to find the part online for $70, and then “I crossed my fingers,” she says.

She ignored those telling her she needed a new throne, and with a bit of sweat and 20 minutes, she fixed it. “Knock on wood, I’m going to get some more life out of it.”

Repairs you could DIY, according to an expert

Zoë Cameron, who runs Zoma Home, a design and renovation business in Toronto, is a firm believer in empowering folks to handle their own home fix-it projects. She teaches renovations at Sharpen, which offers skills-based workshops for everything from bike repair to upholstery in Toronto and Montreal.

“The worst part of my job is finding out about people who have been ripped off,” Cameron says. “So I’m always teaching best practices, but also I give them tips on how to hire someone and what to do to protect yourself from being ripped off.”

But, of course, not everyone has the time or even the patience (no judgement here!) to fix things at home. Here Cameron offers tips and advice for three common home projects below, and Penelope Graham, senior content marketing manager at Quartermaster, shares how much you can expect to pay to hire someone.

Fixing a broken backsplash 

The average quote for a tiling job via Quartermaster is $2,834, says Graham, who works at the online-platform connecting users to professionals for repairs and home maintenance. “Labour costs include cutting the tiles, grouting and sealing and surface prep. And the contractor may charge a flat rate or day rate if it’s a small job, or in a specific space such as a bathroom.”

But low-risk jobs like a broken backsplash could be tackled yourself, according to Cameron. If you have leftover tiles, you can use them. (There’s another tip: During any reno, save a few spare tiles, pieces or wallpaper, strips of flooring or anything similar for repairs later.) If not, you may have to retile the entire backsplash. 

If it’s your first time tiling, Cameron cautions against starting with a big job.b Showers need to be watertight, and a tiled bathroom floor requires moving the toilet and making many precise cuts. But “a backsplash doesn’t have to perform much, other than look nice,” she says. In other words, you can still use your sink if something goes wrong.

Ensure the wall you’re tiling is flat and even. Smaller tiles are easier to work with than big ones, and ceramic tiles are easier to cut than porcelain. You’ll want to ensure you use grout that doesn’t require sealing or take the additional step of sealing the group to prevent leaks. For bigger jobs, like floors, Cameron says the quality of a tiling job will be determined by the quality of the subfloor. “If you don’t have a good subfloor, and it has to be repaired, it’s not just a matter of screwing down boards,” she explains. “That’s the kind of job that you can split with a contractor. They’re very happy to come in and do half a job these days. They know you want the fun part, the tiling. They’ll come and do the prep work for you.”

Mudding a hole in drywall

No need to explain how it happened. We got you.

“Fundamentally, whether the hole is two inches wide or 20 inches, it’s treated the same way,” Cameron says. DIY repairs often go wrong, she says, when people use the wrong stuff. “Everybody buys drywall compound—even some professionals—and it is the wrong item to use 100% of the time,” she says.

Drywall compound is meant for installing new drywall. It’s soft and can be sanded easily. For repairs, use a hardening compound like Durabond, which hardens to secure and stabilize the pieces it’s attaching together.

She advises against quick-fix attempts of patching, and instead says to cut around a messy hole for a clean rectangle, back it with a stabilizing piece of wood, and “put in a nice solid piece of drywall.”

Calling in a pro averages $808 for the job, though Graham says the price can vary widely. “This depends on the specifics of the job, and how the contractor structures their quotes. Smaller jobs, like patching small holes and cracks, may be priced on a flat rate. The contractor may structure pricing on a per-hour basis for larger jobs, or may go with a per-square-foot price structure if they’re doing a full installation or complete wall replacement,” she explains.

Putting up photos 

Anchoring is something most anyone can do, says Cameron. “It’s not so much what you’re hanging, but whether it’s light, medium or heavy.” The key to a successful DIY job is to know the weight of the object being hung, and what you’re anchoring into. “In a condo, you could have several different wall material types: cement board, drywall, tile, plaster on brick,” she says.

Graham says the average price for a job like this is $392. “Depending on the job size, there may be a minimum service fee to cover their business overhead, such as driving to the site,” she explains. “The type of wall—brick, plaster, et cetera—can make a difference in price, depending on the tools needed to drill in and anchor to it.”

Know what you’ll be drilling into so that you can purchase the correct style of anchor. “Drywall is the most difficult, and that is where the failure is the highest. People don’t realize how fragile and weak drywall is,” Cameron cautions, adding that’s often why pictures fall off the wall.

Don’t get frustrated

Before starting any job, Cameron advises you consider your tolerance level for the work involved and time required to complete it. Graham cautions that you should consider safety—especially if there are heights involved or hazardous chemicals.

“If you’re the kind of person that wants immediate results and you’re talking about repairing drywall, maybe it’s not the best job for you,” Cameron says. But educating yourself on the work required never hurts, even if you decide not to DIY. “Learn how to do it, and then hire someone and make sure they do a good job.”

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. Are peptides worth the money? Should Canadians buy in? 
2. Cheap skincare products that actually work
3. What does “pay transparency” even mean? Aman Malhi knows
4. What exactly happens to your belongings when you pass away without kids or a partner in Alberta?