4 Jobs you can do without the pros

(Money Magazine) -- Some tasks you definitely shouldn't tackle yourself. Laser eye surgery is out of the question, and so is pulling your own wisdom tooth. Even around the house, you're wise to hire a pro for jobs requiring highly technical expertise, such as adding skylights or boosting electrical service.

But plenty of home improvement projects look more intimidating than they really are. If you take them on yourself, you can cut the cost in half. The reason: "Materials generally account for 30% to 50% of a contractor's fee," explains Claude Minnich, owner of Clarke Hardware, a 102-year-old shop in Culpeper, Va. Unlike standard DIY fare - painting, tiling, planting - these four jobs aren't covered in classes at the home center. But if you're comfortable with the tools required and can follow a manufacturer's instructions, you'll be fine going solo.

Plumb some benefits

Replacing a sink, toilet or faucet is easy because you don't have to run new pipes or attach new fittings. Just remove the old item and put the new one in its place.

Potential savings: $100 to $300

Time required: One to two hours

What's involved: Shut the water main and open the house's lowest-lying faucet to drain the pipes. Then remove the old fixture (reverse the installation instructions). If a connection won't loosen, spray it with WD-40; use two wrenches, one to undo the nut and the other to hold the pipe steady, to prevent breakage.

What might drive you crazy: One slip of a wrench and you'll mar that gleaming new porcelain fixture. Protect finishes near your wrench with an old towel.

Tools needed: A basin wrench ($10) for removing and installing faucets; pipe joint compound ($3) or Teflon tape ($1) for watertight seals that can be reopened later

Stonewall - your yard

With a man-made faux-stone kit - it's really concrete (unilock.com) - anyone with a strong back can lay a retaining wall.

Potential savings: $1,000 to $3,000

Time required: One to five days, depending on the condition of the site and the size of the wall

What's involved: To create a base for the wall, you have to dig out a few inches of soil, lay down a bed of gravel, compact it, then lay down sand and compact that. Afterward, building the wall is a snap: You just set the "stones" in place one row at a time, applying a special glue between each row.

What might drive you crazy: Lugging around heavy chunks of cement

Tools needed: A masonry chisel ($15) and rubber mallet ($40) for cutting stones, plus a gas-powered plate compactor ($80 a day) to make quick work of laying the base

Lighten up

Your fear of electricity is well founded. Misguided DIYers can cause fires or even zap themselves. But you don't need an intimate knowledge of circuitry or voltage to replace a light fixture, change a wall switch for a dimmer or swap new outlets for old ones. If you can turn screws and twist a few wires together, you're good.

Potential savings: At least $100 (the minimum electricians charge for a visit)

Time required: 10 to 30 minutes for each electrical item

What's involved: First, turn off the power at the circuit breaker. (Tip: Throw the main switch for the whole house to be perfectly safe.) Then back out the screws holding the switch, fixture or outlet in place and loosen the screws or wire nuts (colorful plastic caps), attaching the item to the house wiring. Then you'll have to reconnect that wiring to the corresponding contacts on the new unit you're installing and fasten it in place.

What might drive you crazy: Deciphering the instructions, like figuring out which way to wrap wires around screws (answer: clockwise)

Tools needed: A noncontact voltage tester ($11) to confirm that power is off and a circuit tester to show whether you've wired an outlet correctly ($6). Then let there be light.

Hustle and floor

You already know about the kind of laminate flooring (such as Pergo) that snaps together without glue, but, says Gene Hamilton, author of "Home Improvement for Dummies," "there are now carpet, cork and linoleum products that are just as easy."

Potential savings: $300 to $1,000 (based on a typical charge of $2 to $7 a square foot by flooring installers)

Time required: Four to six hours for a large (12-foot-by-12-foot) room

What's involved: For cork or linoleum tiles, place the first row against one wall of the room and gradually move across to the other side, snapping the tile edges together, working right over the existing floor. With carpet tiles, start by measuring out and marking two guidelines that divide the room into even quadrants. You then lay the tiles against those lines and work toward the walls.

What might drive you crazy: You'll need to pry off baseboards before beginning the job and replace them at the end. Proceed slowly. If you break them, you'll have to cut new pieces later.

Tools needed: For tiles, you'll need a chalk line ($10) to mark those guidelines and a framing square ($10) to make sure they're straight. For linoleum or cork, use a handsaw ($15) or, even better, spring for a power circular saw ($50 to $150).