Youtube is a Landlord's Best Friend for Home Projects

In case you didn't know this, Youtube is pretty awesome.

Specifically, I love it for education.

Especially for doing home projects.

To be honest, it's hard to imagine how people tackled home projects before Youtube. It's made my life as a DIY landlord significantly easier. And, this feels like a harbinger of the future of education in general because it works so well.

I know Youtube's search is fantastic (thanks to Google) for discovering great videos, but I also wanted to highlight a couple channels who are my go-to for most home projects. I think you'll find them helpful as well.

HouseImprovements

Shannon lives in Canada and has a huge library of videos. What I love is that his videos are complete. He shows each step, the tools required, and best practices. All at a reasonable pace. My favorite example is a 45-minute video where he demonstrates installing a pocket door. I watched the entire video, and then re-watched it step-by-step while I followed along. Perfect!

Home Renovision DIY

This is a recent discovery for me, and I like it because a) Jeff focuses on the technical side of projects, and b) he does a good job of showing alternatives. For example, I was replacing some drywall and was interested in improving the soundproof rating while doing. In this video, he shows 4-ways to soundproof a room, along with the quantitative costs and benefits. Plus, he actually showed how to do it. That's a perfect video.

Matt Risinger

Want inspiration for your next project? Want to know what's on the bleed edge of construction trends? This is your channel. You get the sense that the primary purpose is customer lead gen (show potential customers how awesome they are), but it's still great. I don't explicitly search for projects, but use it to learn about new technologies/techniques/materials, and then search other channels to learn the step-by-step process to do it. His home tours are particularly good. Here's an inspirational one on the possibilities with home insulation.

This Old House

Sometimes all you want is an overview of a project. You don't need the step-by-step yet, but kinda want to know what's involved. For example, in this 5-minute video, you get a clear idea of what it takes to install solar panels. There aren't enough details to start the project, but enough to dive deeper with more specific technique/tools/material questions.




Thanks to these 4 groups for taking the time to share your knowledge (for free!) with the world. I've benefited from your generosity and really appreciate it.


And a bonus: this was the first video I watched when I realized how powerful Youtube was to teach me how to do home projects. I heard someone say you could remove an aluminum window without removing siding, I wanted to know how to do it and came across this gem. Enjoy.