Jasmine Roth Shares The Top Mistakes People Make When Renovating A Home - Exclusive
Home renovation shows, like those on HGTV, are super fun. Who doesn't want inspiration for their own kitchen or insider design tips for a new bathroom? However, these shows can also be a bit dangerous. No, they don't crawl out of the TV and club viewers with gorgeously textured throw pillows. Instead, they accidentally trick people into thinking that home renovation is a lot simpler and a lot easier than it actually is.
Jasmine Roth from HGTV's Hidden Potential, Help! I Wrecked My House, and Design Star: Next Gen has had years of experience in the home renovation industry. According to Realtor.com, she's been DIYing since she was just a kid, helping her carpenter dad build tree houses, sheds, and furniture. Roth also owns her own renovation company, Built Custom Homes, that she's been running since 2012. Even with all that experience, Jasmine Roth still knows when she's in over her head or when it's time to call for reinforcements. And she wants to share that knowledge with would-be renovators. Jasmine sat down with The List for an exclusive interview in which she dished on the biggest mistakes people make when renovating their homes — and how to avoid them.
Jasmine Roth says homeowners should never take a wall down on their own
What's the biggest mistake people make when renovating their homes? According to Jasmine Roth, it's trying to take down a wall on their own. "Taking a wall down is not sexy" she said. "It's not that cool in the sense that there are a lot of steps you have to do before. You can't just take it down." Because showing all those steps would not make for good television, viewers can get a false impression of what the job actually entails. "Nobody's going to sit and watch a show where I'm like, 'Now I'm waiting for the structural engineer. Now I'm going to the city and pulling permits,'" Roth told us. "That's not good TV." And that's where the accidental miscommunication often happens. As Roth explained, on most HGTV shows, all viewers see is the "let's take this wall down" moment, and the next cut is of the sledgehammers coming in.
"That's part of the confusion that people have," Roth said. "So, they just go for it ... And it's really scary. Walls are there for a reason. They don't just separate rooms. They actually hold the house up." Her biggest advice? Call an engineer. There's no need to risk the house coming down just to save the time and trouble of hiring a professional.
Jasmine Roth says electrical and plumbing should be left to the professionals
When it comes to home renovation, walls aren't the only things that require a professional hand. "The other things that I always leave to the pros, no questions asked, are electrical and plumbing," Jasmine Roth revealed to The List. "It's tough because you can go online and watch tutorials, and then feel sort of confident going into doing something," she said. But as she explained to us, what most DIYers don't realize is that they have to pull permits anyway — or at least they should. Why? Safety codes. And as Roth told us, not all safety codes are the same. "Every single area geographically has different codes," she said. And, as she explained, you could run into real problems if the video you were watching did not address the codes specific to your region.
She went on to use her home state of California as an example. "Our pipes don't freeze" she said. "It doesn't get cold enough. But there's a lot of places where if you plumbed a house, the way we plumb houses in California, it's going to be a major problem." In other words, if a homeowner from Maine watched a DIY plumbing video made in California, they would have some serious issues. Not to mention they'd probably have to spend double the money just to get the problems fixed. "So plumbing, anything to do with gas, electrical — leave it to the pros," she advised.
New episodes of Design Star: Next Gen premiere Wednesdays on discovery+.