You may be like many individuals who have a burning desire to undertake improvements at your home. Towards this objective, you may be seeking inspiration from a number of different sources.

If you are also a person who enjoys travel, you may actually find inspiration when touring abroad. Of course, you certainly can find ideas for home improvement projects right here in the United States, you can truly expand your inspirational horizons if you have the opportunity to travel abroad.

Depending on where you do travel, you may be able to glean some really unique ideas for your home improvement project. You can really become the only person on the block who implements a particular design concept for your residence.

You may come across some architectural or other ideas that can easily translate back in the United States at your home. On the other hand, there may be some other concepts you encounter in buildings and homes abroad that do not translate well across the boarder and back in the United States.

Different Regulatory Requirements

One factor that you need to bear in mind is that something that you may have in a structure in some foreign country may be a concept that could run afoul or regulatory requirements in the United States. The regulatory requirements that pertain to construction and remodeling do differ from country to country. Depending on where you travel in your search for home remodeling or improvement inspiration, you may stumble upon something that will require some regulatory gymnastics if you try to pursue it in the United States.

Consider worker safety issues when it comes to design and construction in a foreign country versus in the United States. Although you may be able to undertake some of your home improvement efforts on your own, you may be able to do it yourself, there may be improvement elements that require professional assistance. This is when you might end up in the crosshairs of what worked abroad, but may not in the United States.

In the U.S.A., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration establishes fairly stringent safety requirements for different industries. This includes the construction industry, mandates that can impact what can and cannot happen in regard to your own home improvement project. In other words, a project that could be undertaken in some other country could not be pursued here because of OHSA safety considerations

DYI Home Improvements

Safety mandates associated with OSHA do no extend to you personally when you undertake a DYI endeavor at your home. If you discover some sort remodeling or construction concept abroad that may require activities that run afoul of OSHA restrictions, you might personally be able to undertake the task. You cannot engage a professional contractor or construction company to take on the job due to the fact that the workers would be placed in situations OSHA deems dangerous.

If you ever do have questions about OSHA requirements, the agency strives to make sure that its rules and regulations are easily accessible. The agency attempts to do this for taxpayers more generally and not just businesses it has the authority to regulate.

You can access OSHA resources via the agency’s internet website. You can also contact OSHA regional and local offices to garner information you may need. There is no charge for accessing informational resources of different types that are promulgated by OSHA.

Whether you do a remodeling or improvement job at your residence, or hire a professional to do the task, you need appreciate other statutes, regulations, and ordinances beyond what is required by OSHA may come into play.

You also need to bear in mind that there can be consequences when you have friends assist you with a home improvement project. While it is true that OSHA requirements do not come into play in such a situation, there are other issues you need to be aware of when friends assist in home remodeling and improvement.

If you round up a group of friends to assist you in improving your home based on some concept you saw abroad, you can be liable if one of your compadres becomes injured. This particularly can be the case if you go into a project understanding that some risks exist that fun afoul of OSHA laws. This is an issue not because OSHA applies, but because you are both aware of the potential danger and have an understanding that professionals would be precluded from doing some of the things you are asking of your friends.

Jessica Kane writes for Advance Online, a leading provider of web-based OSHA. DOT. and HAZWOPER training.