When Fifty Shades of Grey hit the cinemas in early February, B&Q braced itself for a huge rise in demand for rope, cable ties and tape. It sent a memo to its entire 20,887 workforce at 359 stores, urging them to familiarise themselves with the book so that they could deal with related queries efficiently.
Most people visit DIY stores for rather less racy reasons, simply in an attempt to improve their homes and increase their value. This is never so apparent as over bank holidays.
Over the 2014 May bank holiday there was a huge increase in sales of DIY items on Amazon such as plastering tools, sledgehammers and chainsaws. Welding equipment sales alone were up 74 per cent on the year before.
A combination of the rise of online tutorial videos that make complicated DIY look easy, coupled with the economic downturn, has triggered an increase in DIY projects generally.
According to the Retail Forecast for 2015-2016 from the Centre for Retail Research, the DIY sector is likely to do well in the coming months as a result of consumers having a little more to spend and the housing market predicted to achieve moderate growth.
A 2014 survey of 17,000 householders across Europe by Kingfisher, owners of B&Q, found that two-thirds of householders are improving their homes. This is a significant increase from the 17 per cent recorded in 2012.
Bad DIY can knock £50,000 off your house’s value
However, caution is needed. A November 2014 survey by TrustMark, the Government-endorsed scheme for finding tradesman, found that bad DIY can lower the sale price of a property by an average of 11 per cent.
That currently equates to a reduction of £22,880 on the price of the average UK home, rising to £56,100 in London. (That’s based on figures released by the Office of National Statistics last week that gave the average UK house cost in January 2015 as £208,000 nationally and £510,000 in London.)
The survey found that 91 per cent of potential housebuyers would lower their offer if they discovered unacceptable home improvements and 54 per cent would lose interest in the property completely.
The danger and the insurance cost of bad DIY
It is vital, therefore, if you are going to tackle a DIY job to know exactly what you’re doing. If if you’re not selling right now, getting it wrong could put a large dent in the value of your home. It can, of course, be dangerous too. Bodging DIY work can easily lead to serious problems, such as drilling into water pipes and gas mains.
Around 200,000 people a year require hospital treatment for DIY-related injuries. There are also more than 60 deaths, most caused by such things as falling off ladders or electrocution from not using a circuit breaker when using a hand drill. So it is vital to read up on the project thoroughly before you start work.
A 2014 survey of 2,000 homeowners by LV= home insurance revealed that more UK home owners are attempting DIY without professional help, and two million have damaged their property as a result, paying out £67 million to correct things.
The most common DIY disasters
The most common botched jobs are painting and decorating, applying bath sealant, plastering and tiling.
More worringly, three per cent of the survey’s respondents had tackled repairs to gas appliances; eight per cent had attempted roofing work; four per cent had knocked through a wall. More than a quarter (29 per cent) admitted doing potentially dangerous electrical work.
“Most DIY jobs are not as simple as they may seem and mistakes with electrical wiring, for example, could be fatal,” says a spokesperson for electrical trade body the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC).
“Not using properly qualified trades people is not only dangerous, it’s a false economy and could end up costing the homeowner thousands of pounds and a lot of hassle to put right.”
Not only is not using professionals for specialist jobs involving electrical, gas, plumbing or structural work essential, so that the work satisfies current safety and building regulations, but your home insurance policy may be invalidated if there are problems.
Indeed, ten per cent of survey participants had made a claim on their insurance policy as a result of damaging their home through bad DIY.
“Be realistic about whether you have the skills and the time to undertake such a task, and to take all the necessary precautions to avoid damaging your property or injuring yourself,” says Selwyn Fernandes, managing director of LV= home insurance.
The DIY jobs that most devalue your house
Stripping old lead paint with a power sander or hot-air gun, which puts you at risk of poisoning
Removing period details
Installing polystyrene ceiling tiles that are a nightmare to remove
Building a shower cubicle with plasterboard walls, making it a bigger job if/when someone wishes to remove it later
Raising the ground level next to a house by laying a new path or patio above an existing one. It can cause damp problems
Concreting over a drain cover
Coating external brickwork with inappropriate paint or silicone waterproofing fluids
Replacing a conventional staircase with a spiral one
Home improvements that don’t add value
Estate agents and homeowners have different opinions as to the impact of DIY improvements on the value of a house. Many homeowners believe redecorating adds considerable value to a house, but most agents disagree.
Agents are wary of costly improvements that do not increase the value of a property enough to make the project worthwhile. An improved kitchen, bathroom or garden is only likely to add around 2.5 per cent on to the value, for example.
When choosing what DIY jobs to tackle, anything that could affect the integrity of the structure of the property should take top priority, such as damp, a leaking drainpipe, broken roof tiles or rotten window frames.
Safety is an urgent consideration: dated electrical wiring should be replaced without delay, for example.
How to make DIY less dangerous
Many householders neglect basic routine tasks such as gutter clearing, repainting the exterior, and treating exterior timber. Such tasks may seem less rewarding than installing a new kitchen or a jacuzzi in the bathroom, but neglecting them could cause substantial problems.
Many DIYers take shortcuts to save money and finish a job more quickly, but this can be deadly. Wallpapering around a light socket without turning off the electrical supply, for example, is dangerous because the current can travel through the paste and send an electric shock.
Instead of using a ladder to paint the exterior of your house, it is a much safer option to hire a scaffolding tower, costing only about £80 for a weekend.
Plastic eye goggles are cheap, and protect your eyes from flying particles when using many electric tools. An inexpensive mask with an air filter stops wood particles from getting into your lungs if you’re sanding a floor.
Overall, the message is clear: if you are not certain of your ability and you cannot afford to get a professional in, go without. Concentrate on the jobs you can do, and leave the rest to the professionals.
The bad DIY that most puts prospective buyers off*
Visible wiring: 40%
Ill-fitting/unfinished kitchen units: 18%
Inconveniently or poorly placed electrical sockets: 10%
Ill-fitting or unfinished bathroom units: 5%
Squeaky floorboards: 5%
Badly painted walls or woodwork: 2%
Poor grouting or tiling: 2%
Poorly landscaped gardens: 2%
Dripping taps: 1%
Poorly fitted carpets: 1%
Poorly hung wallpaper: 1%
*As ranked by the public in the Trustmark 2014 survey
