Britons Spend £6.4 Billion Collectively Per Year Outsourcing Basic Home DIY Jobs

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New research has revealed that a third of British homeowners have hired professionals to assist with basic DIY jobs around the home – tasks they were more than capable of doing themselves. According to the poll, Britons will spend around £695 per year to get professionals to help with typical DIY jobs on an average of three times.

Men are more likely to call in a tradesman immediately for help with a DIY task they could easily tackle themselves, while women will get stuck in and save £695 a year by doing so according to new research.

The survey was carried out by www.web-blinds.com as part of an ongoing study into Britons’ attitudes about their home life. 2,394 Britons aged 18 and over, a 50/50 split of men and women all of whom stated that they owned their own home were quizzed about the DIY tasks around their homes.

Initially all respondents were asked ‘Have you hired someone to help with DIY you were capable of doing yourself?’ to which a third of respondents (34%) stated that ‘yes’ they had. When asked to estimate how many times a year they hired someone to carry out these tasks, the average response was ‘three’.

What’s more, when asked to estimate how much they spent per year on getting someone in to do this work, the response was revealed as £695. With the Office of National Statistics* stating that there are currently 27,100,000 households in the UK, this equates to 9,214,000 (34%) homes hiring help for jobs they could do themselves each year, reaching costs of £6,403,730,000.

All respondents were asked which jobs they were most likely to outsource, which they could do themselves. When provided with a list of possible responses and told to select all that applied, the top five outsourced DIY jobs for the home were revealed as follows:

Painting and decorating – 36%
Easy-to-fix plumbing problems (e.g. blocked toilet or sink u-bend) – 31%
Fixing shelves and units to the wall – 24%
Window cleaning – 17%
Gardening – 15%

According to the poll, 1% of respondents even stated that they’d brought a professional in to help them change a lightbulb.

When asked if they were likely to get stuck in and at least attempt DIY tasks around the home, 57% of women said ‘yes’, compared to just 39% of male respondents. When the female respondents were asked why they were willing to try their hand at the job, ‘to save money’ (62%) was revealed as the top response. When the male respondents were asked why they were less likely to be willing to try, the top responses were ‘I’d only make a mess of it, so better to get someone in straight away’ (40%) and ‘I’m too tired after a long day/week’ (35%).

Melissa Benedict, spokesperson for www.web-blinds.com, said:

“Some DIY tasks are daunting, but there’s a real sense of satisfaction from ‘doing it yourself’, not to mention saving a bit of money.”

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