We have the internet now. You can look up how to do these things.
But where do you get the knowledge to know that you picked the right guide off the Internet and that it isn’t going to violate housing codes that don’t exist in the area of the person who made the guide? Or how do you know that it isn’t going to have a long term chemical reaction with the floorboards because the guy writing the guide didn’t have such floorboards and didn’t bother to mention the possibility? Or any of many things that could go wrong? You need knowledge in the first place in order to know which source has knowledge you can trust.
And regarding renting from the hardware store: it seems to work out fine for most people
I didn’t even know that there is such a thing as renting from the hardware store.
I think you’re being too risk averse here. How do you know you hired a competent person? Can you really be sure that they didn’t do something stupid? Are you sure you won’t need the money you spend on them for something else? Obviously you should do a cost benefit analysis, but in the cases I mentioned, the costs are way too high for basically no benefit besides saving a small amount of time.
But where do you get the knowledge to know that you picked the right guide off the Internet and that it isn’t going to violate housing codes that don’t exist in the area of the person who made the guide? Or how do you know that it isn’t going to have a long term chemical reaction with the floorboards because the guy writing the guide didn’t have such floorboards and didn’t bother to mention the possibility? Or any of many things that could go wrong? You need knowledge in the first place in order to know which source has knowledge you can trust.
I didn’t even know that there is such a thing as renting from the hardware store.
I think you’re being too risk averse here. How do you know you hired a competent person? Can you really be sure that they didn’t do something stupid? Are you sure you won’t need the money you spend on them for something else? Obviously you should do a cost benefit analysis, but in the cases I mentioned, the costs are way too high for basically no benefit besides saving a small amount of time.
You know that you hired a competent person because they
have a reputation to lose if they screw up
have a reputation for having done competent business in the past
are going to stick around such that you can take them to court if they screw up
have insurance
have licensing that requires demonstrating some level of competency