Now that spring has officially landed many of us are excitedly looking at our spring cleaning and home improvement to-do lists thinking about how fun it’s going to be to finally get that section of the garage organized and de-cluttered and how satisfying it will be to install that ceiling fan in the living room.

Working on your home can be a rewarding experience, every time you pass by that new bathroom vanity cabinet you will remember installing it with your own two hands. However, some home improvement projects should be left to professionals. For instance, if you have a project that has an electrical component, and you’ve never done anything like it before, you should call an electrician for help.

While the internet has many websites with what seem to be very specific and step by step guides for various DIY projects – not all websites are reputable and some very important steps could be left out. Here are some other reasons to call a professional if you are going to be working with electricity:

Fire: Each year hundreds of home electrical fires are traced back to faulty wiring and improper connections as a result of a homeowner doing an electrical project without professional guidance. Licensed electricians are trained to know the codes, safety regulations, and industry standard materials for a wide variety of electrical jobs. They receive continuing education and daily on the job training.

Injuries: Electricity is a serious thing that is very dangerous to work with. It can cause serious bodily injury if a wrong move is made or if it is not handled correctly. During their training licensed electricians spend thousands of hours learning about how to properly handle electricity to avoid injury.

Damage: If the project you are working on is not done properly and you engage the appliance or fixture that you’ve installed, you could run the risk of frying or melting the wires inside of it. Or, even worse, you could destroy the wiring inside of the walls of your home. Depending on the state that you live in, your property insurance may not pay to have the wiring of your home repaired or replaced if it was damaged due to your own mistake

Electricity is nothing to take lightly. While your motivation for wanting to handle an electrical home improvement project might be to save money – in the long run hiring a professional is the cheaper way to go.