Cheap is expensive — Hand tools, such as these, account for more than one third of home improvement injuries that result in a trip to the emergency room. While doing a home project yourself can be satisfying, some projects are best left to the pros. Photo courtesy of Dreamstime.com. (Courtesy photo)

I used to think there was nothing sexier than seeing my husband walk through the house with a toolkit and ladder on his way to do a home improvement project for me. Not anymore.

Not since I saw a report about how many home improvement projects land amateur DIYers in the emergency room. Now I like to see other men walking through my house carrying tools and a ladder doing a home project for me because that means DC is not at risk of losing any critical body parts.

According to the new study, out this week from Clearsurance, an online platform that helps consumers shop for and compare insurance plans, home improvement injuries resulted in nearly 300,000 trips to the emergency room in 2020, the year the report used as a basis. That is a record high.

I share this news with DC to talk him off any future ladders.

“Do those numbers include injured pride?” he wants to know.

“If it did, every neighborhood would need a MASH unit,” I said.

“In the insurance business, we get a lot of claims from accidents,” said Laura Adams, an insurance analyst for Clearsurance. “Keeping people safe helps prevent claims and injuries,” she said of the company’s motive behind the report. “We wanted to remind them to be careful.”

Here are more of the report’s findings, which are based on figures from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission:

Since the report also found that total ER visits from DIY-related injuries had reached a 10-year high, and that Spring, as in right now, is when home improvement projects peak, I thought this would be a good time to have a little safety chat.

What all this boils down to is this: You want the sense to take on the home improvements and repairs you should do yourself, the humility to hire someone else when you should, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Here’s a clue. Before you tackle a project on your own, answer this question:

Injuries (and other bad outcomes) happen when a) we do something we’re not qualified to do, b) we don’t have the right equipment or protective gear, c) we are being cheap or d) all of the above.

You know the answer. To avoid becoming part of the next report’s statistics, here’s what Adams recommends:

Marni Jameson is the author of six home and lifestyle books, including What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want, Downsizing the Family Home – What to Save, What to Let Go, and Downsizing the Blended Home – When Two Households Become One. You may reach her at www.marnijameson.com.