A professional windshield chip repair may come with a seemingly high price tag, but at least it's upfront about it. A DIY repair kit may have a high cost as well, but it claims to be ultra-cheap, so you may not realize how much it's costing you until it's too late. Here are three reasons the DIY solution may end up costing you more than you imagined it would.

1. It may require hours of your valuable time

If you have a busy schedule, you should probably outsource this job to the professionals because they have the experience to be able to complete the job quickly. If you have limited or no experience with windshield repair, you're right to take it slow and read the directions carefully before you get started. You may even do some additional research online for common mistakes made during first-time windshield repairs. This, plus the time spent actually doing the repair, could take you several hours, whereas a fully trained professional could get it done in minutes. 

2. It comes with no warranty or insurance

The companies that produce DIY chip repair kits don't know you and don't know whether or not you'll botch the repair job, so it's not in their best interests to guarantee results. This means that if the DIY job goes wrong, you could be out by the amount of money you spent on the kit as well as the time you spent on the job on top of the cost of a new windshield. If the repair shop botches the job, on the other hand, they're likely to subtract the price of the job from the price of a replacement windshield, saving you money. In addition, insurance won't cover a DIY repair, whereas in some cases it may cover a professional one.

3. It could mess up your one chance to fix your windshield

Did you know that once you've put the resin into the chip and it's hardened, there's no way to start over and try again? Even if you take it to a professional afterward, the most they can do is try to drill out some of the hardened resin in an attempt to allow their secondary repair to stick. It'll still cost you more money than going straight to a professional, too. If you're particularly unlucky, you could end up having to pay for a new windshield that you wouldn't have had to buy if you'd gone to the auto shop originally.

These three points show how it's possible and even easy to get much less than your money's worth out of a DIY chip repair kit and how it could actually end up costing you a lot of extra money. For more information about the benefits of professional windshield repair, talk to a company like Cambridge Collision & Auto Center.