When considering a home improvement project, homeowners must decide whether they should hire a professional or attempt the work on their own. Taking the DIY approach can save you money and give you the satisfaction of completing a renovation or repair with your own two hands. Of course, if you don't have the skills necessary for the job a DIY approach can backfire spectacularly, causing damage to your home and forcing you to spend even more on professional services to remedy the issue.

A recent survey of 991 adults by HireAHelper, a resource assisting homeowners with moving, looked into Americans' willingness to complete home tasks by generation. While a majority of respondents were comfortable taking on simpler repairs, a significant share of the youngest respondents said they would prefer to hire a professional.

Respondents were most likely to say they would assemble furniture on their own, with 86.5 percent saying so. HireAHelper noted how respondents were undaunted by such assembly despite the option of hiring someone through TaskRabbit or a similar gig platform for the work.

Most respondents—85.3 percent—said they would unclog a toilet on their own. However, one-third of Generation Z respondents said they had not completed this task before, and one in four said they would prefer to hire a professional rather than attempt it on their own.

A total of 77.1 percent said they would consider replacing a showerhead to be a DIY task. For the jobs of caulking a bathtub, patching a hole in the wall, or repairing a running toilet, roughly two-thirds—66.7 percent, 65.9 percent, and 65 percent, respectively—said they would make the repair themselves.

A considerably smaller share—40.3 percent—said they would be comfortable installing a ceiling fan on their own. This process is more complex than other repairs in the survey, as it involves the installation of a new electrical box.

Men identified handiness or DIY skills as the most useful skill type a person can have, beating out financial savviness and auto repair knowledge. Women were most likely to consider financial skills to be valuable, followed by auto repair and handiness.

However, home improvement skills rarely made the list of skills most likely to be identified as useful by respondents. Unclogging a toilet was the second most useful skill named among baby boomers, while Generation Z respondents believed assembling furniture was the third most useful skill they could have. Respondents were more likely to consider skills such as tracking spending, creating a budget, or changing a tire to be useful.

Younger respondents were less likely to say they have passed on handiness or DIY skills to their children. While 63.8 percent of baby boomers had done so, the share fell to 59.8 percent among Generation Xers and 39.7 percent among millennials. HireAHelper noted that millennials were less likely than older generations to say they have passed on skills to their children, but also that many children of millennials are too young to grasp such topics.

A similar survey of 2,000 people by the home improvement resource ImproveNet from November 2018 looked at the regrets of homeowners who had attempted a DIY job. On average, respondents had attempted eight projects, with 63 percent regretting at least one of those attempts and one-third having to call in a professional to redo their work.

Respondents in that survey were most likely to say they regretted trying to install floor tiles, replace ceilings, refinish a hardwood floor, or install carpet. They had more success installing lighting, adding trees or shrubs to their landscaping, or putting in countertops, moldings, or trim.

Fifty-five percent said doing the project on their own took longer than they anticipated, while half said it was physically harder than expected and 48 percent said it required more technical expertise than they realized. Among those who were disappointed with the end result, 55 percent said it didn't look good while 24 percent said it wasn't functional and 21 percent said it didn't hold up over time.