at what age did you stop doing your own work

[HFWR]

Offloaded mowing over twenty years ago. Offloaded bush trimming, ten foot holly “topiaries”, a few years ago. I didn’t retire to be a groundskeeper.

 

[pb4uski]

I still do stools and step ladders, but that's it. A guy who worked for me fell off a ladder and was disabled. Another friend fell off a ladder, had TBI issues for 20 odd years and is close to ok now. No tall ladders for me.

 

[rk911]

I stopped doing my own plumbing, electrical, etc. likely in my late 30's. I have no talent for any of that beyond the very basic repairs...replace an outlet or sink fixtures, etc. When we moved to our current home in 1988 we hired lawn maintenance and when we started going to AZ in the winter we hired snow removal to give the house a lived-in look. We now winter in our home but kept the snow removal service.

It's a good thing we made decent money, avoided long-term debt and lived way beneath our means.

 

[Tetto]

- spread the usual 106 bags of mulch,

OMG- and I complain about the 25 I have to do….and I’m 59. Good for you

 

[kgtest]

I hire out a few things here and there. Just paid $400 to have a large boxelder climbed, pieced out and the stem felled that was hanging over kids playground (I used to own a tree company, so I did all the ground work myself.)

Paid $275 to have my new cars windows tinted. I tinted the tail lights myself though (with a couple small bubbles hardly noticeable.)

Paid $5k to have a new A/C installed. But when my furnace condenser motor broke, I replaced that myself for $200.

I don't want plow blades scraping my drive...so I do my own snow blowing for now.

Mrs and I share mowing and leaf blowing duties.

I have a dump trailer, so I dump mulch between my yard and neighbors on either side 1 weekend and we have a "mulch party." lol.

I still climb on gutters to clean leafs out, but am considering hiring that out soon. I don't care about being a hero and its probably cheap to pay someone else.

I pay to have oil changed in all but 1 car. My new one that I won't trust other's to touch. SO I will do it myself.

I am 43. I have 3 little kids and time is greater than money in some instances and I will spend money to pay for my time back at this juncture. Pre children I would DIY almost anything I could...ahh the luxury of time.

 

[kgtest]

I'm 62. About 5 years ago I made a promise to myself no more ladders. I had trees cut down to eliminate pruning needs, and did whatever I needed to do to rid ladders out of my life.

So far goal met.

I am 43 and live in the woods, slowly getting rid of the trees that will be problems. Still a couple oaks over the house. Nothing a simple lift couldn't handle, but....I am done with lifts.

 

[kgtest]

A sad story. I own a tree company. 92 yr old neighbor insisted on doing some cleanup after I trimmed some trees for him as a courtesy. I told him multiple times to go in due to heat advisory.

He stopped by later with a check that he insisted I take, and cash. Passed away a day later after getting sick.

I didn't realize it and cashed that damn check. Haunts me to this day.

He SHOULD not have been out there working at his age. He was that type of guy though, old school and tough as hell and a young kid like me wasn't gonna tell him otherwise.

 

[gamboolman]

I'm 66 and while I may rarely still use a ladder - for the most part I hire out work nowadays.

 

[ksr]

I am 65 and do almost all my own yardwork. However, I stopped dragging mulch bags around about 2 years ago, and now pay a landscaper to put down mulch in the spring.

 

[Midpack]

I doubt there is a universal age, an individual decision, depends on your fitness among other factors. I’m almost 71 and do everything I can myself - mow grass, fix things around the house, work on our cars, rearrange furniture, etc. But like others I won’t do more than about 10 feet on a ladder and only if I’m convinced the base is secure. At age 66 to clean gutters I went 12 feet up a ladder on the front of our house across the roof to the back which is 18 feet off the ground. Looked over the edge, immediately went back and climbed down the ladder in front without touching our gutters. I’ll never try it again. I had a divorced co-worker who fell off his roof 8 feet onto his driveway, spinal injury that ended his career, forced him to retire early in his 50’s, and he was dead 9 years later after 9 solitary years of dismal quality of life…

 

[NameTaken2]

A sad story. I own a tree company. 92 yr old neighbor insisted on doing some cleanup after I trimmed some trees for him as a courtesy. I told him multiple times to go in due to heat advisory.

He stopped by later with a check that he insisted I take, and cash. Passed away a day later after getting sick.

I didn't realize it and cashed that damn check. Haunts me to this day.

He SHOULD not have been out there working at his age. He was that type of guy though, old school and tough as hell and a young kid like me wasn't gonna tell him otherwise.

Sad-
But 92 is a ripe old age and sounds like the kind of guy who'd probably have died sooner if he stopped living life his way.
I can relate to those who prefer to die with their boots on vs shutting down and passing in their chair.
YMMV

 

[Koolau]

I put up Christmas lights on the lanai this past year which required using a small step ladder. I don't like doing that - even though it's sturdy and well balanced. Something about ladders makes me think about my mortality.

 

[Norwood]

I am 78 and this past weekend I had some soffit blow off of my home. Usually I would get the ladders out, buy some materials and fix it. the soffits were about thirty feet in the air. I started to get uncomfortable with the idea of doing it myself when I heard of other people of my age trying to do they had done for a long time and ended up getting badly hurt or in a nursing home for recovery. How old were most of you when you came to the point where you think it is better to pay to have work done rather than risking an injury? I still do my own yardwork and most little repairs around the house, but getting into a situation where there is a chance of an injury is making me think twice about if it is really worth doing myself or trying to find someone to hire.

I'm 78 as well, hire it done.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I never climbed tall ladders- I am unsteady with heights. DH stopped 11 years ago at my insistence. in 2013 an 80 year old friend fell off a ladder at his home and died as a direct result of the fall. He was healthy prior to the fall.

 

[Venturer]

glad that ended as it did, wahoo.
Like many things, it is not binary. There is a continuum.
I did some work on both cars this weekend because I had access to the lift next door. Without that, I may have farmed both jobs out.
I did pay to have a bunch of suspension repair and service done to my truck.
At 64 I know my high ladder days are numbered, but I will still climb a well secured ladder.
It was not that long ago I was climbing up and down ladders on docks and the sides of barges and other sketchy locations.
100' tower crane climb, getting certified @56

We had a harness and clipped to that cable with a follower.
Looking down the infinity rungs.

 

[Venturer]

No sir not for any amount!!!

 

[street]

I'm 68 and do everything I possibly can do if I have the knowledge to do so. I did have a new hot water heater installed mostly because I needed it done right away and I would have had to purchase a unit first.

I planned on doing it myself in a month or so and it started a slow leak, so it beat me to being pro-active to the change out.

 

[Venturer]

I'll be 73 tomorrow and I stopped doing any tall ladders about 3 years ago. My COPD has gotten worse since we retired so I am slowly farming out more things around the house too. My lawn guy came yesterday and I decided to have him do all the mulching as well as the bush trimming this year. 3 of my classmates from high school have passed in the last 2 months and it has got me to really thinking, I need to get on with more fun stuff and less work type stuff.

 

[aja8888]

A sad story. I own a tree company. 92 yr old neighbor insisted on doing some cleanup after I trimmed some trees for him as a courtesy. I told him multiple times to go in due to heat advisory.

He stopped by later with a check that he insisted I take, and cash. Passed away a day later after getting sick.

I didn't realize it and cashed that damn check. Haunts me to this day.

He SHOULD not have been out there working at his age. He was that type of guy though, old school and tough as hell and a young kid like me wasn't gonna tell him otherwise.

I'm still doing my own work (no big ladders) at 81 1/2. I hope when I get to 92 I am still able to do most things and will continue to try. Heck, one can drop dead from a lot of things at 92.

 

[MarieIG]

DH was forbidden to climb ladders after age 50. He still mows the lawn and trims hedges and such. He seems to enjoy it. He wants to buy a larger property with a ride on mower. At that point I would probably hire someone at least part time to help out with chores.

DS, who should have know better (OSHA trained and such) stepped up on a rickety back yard bench instead of using one of those heavy duty step stools which would support a hippo doing ballet, fell off and sustained a full thickness tear in an ankle ligament. One simply cannot be too careful with climbing.

 

[Car-Guy]

I'm 68 and do everything I possibly can do if I have the knowledge to do so. I did have a new hot water heater installed mostly because I needed it done right away and I would have had to purchase a unit first.

I planned on doing it myself in a month or so and it started a slow leak, so it beat me to being pro-active to the change out.

Water heaters are pretty easy, except for wrestling them in and out of small spaces. I replaced ours about 5+ years ago and added an expansion tank and a pressure regulator. Actually pretty simple.

As far as climbing ladders, I'll still climb them but I take it slow and deliberate. Making sure it's on stable/level ground and take my steps up and down slowly. I don't mind using my 5 ft step ladder but think twice about using my 8 foot step ladder and I havent used my 28 foot extension ladder in over 3 years.

 

[Looking4Ward]

glad that ended as it did, wahoo.
Like many things, it is not binary. There is a continuum.
I did some work on both cars this weekend because I had access to the lift next door. Without that, I may have farmed both jobs out.
I did pay to have a bunch of suspension repair and service done to my truck.
At 64 I know my high ladder days are numbered, but I will still climb a well secured ladder.
It was not that long ago I was climbing up and down ladders on docks and the sides of barges and other sketchy locations.
100' tower crane climb, getting certified @56

We had a harness and clipped to that cable with a follower.
Looking down the infinity rungs.

In my 20's I would regularly climb 200-500ft comm towers to change the strobe at the top. We called that wire guide a "Deadman" - the scariest part was unhooking every 20 feet or so to move past the cable support.

When I FIRE'd almost 11 years ago, an older friend of mine shared his two secrets for enjoying a long and healthy retirement:

Stay off of tall ladders and don't jump out of perfectly good airplanes.

 

[imjustawarrior]

I still do everything I can. I do hirer exterior painters. I can do minor plumbing, but I hirer out the rest.

I have a no one over 60 on a ladder rule. As I approach 60, I think that rule may change. I can't imagine hiring someone to change a battery in a smoke detector or change a light bulb. Maybe no extension ladder after 60.

I wouldn't mind hiring people to do work, but I think it would be more of a hassle to hire someone than to just do it myself.

 

[skyking1]

My buddy Bill and I are painting the house from a lift. he's in his 70's. I have plenty time in lifts and not concerned about it.
The big thing with using boom lifts is site preparation and planning and it is easy driving all around.
Bill used to paint houses in and out and has a big airless.

 

[Idnar7]

Many years ago my GGM was impatient and attempted to put storm windows on her upstairs. Storm windows are very heavy and awkward. Standing on a ladder and attempting to hang the window, a gust of wind caught it and blew her off the ladder. It killed her. The window landed on her head. When I was in my 30's I would change storm windows on my two story house. Always scared the crap out of me. Now no ladders.