With DIY season well underway following the long Easter weekend, new
research suggests people are at risk of paying out £3,000 to repair
home improvement disasters.
But it is not just small tasks that people are attempting to do themselves. Have a go individuals are also taking on large-scale, complicated DIY work, with millennials being particularly keen to take on risky tasks usually left to professionals – 19% tackling electrical wiring and 13% brave enough to attempt a house extension.
The survey from Towergate Insurance also found that for the 20% of DIY enthusiasts who resort to calling in experts to fix their mistakes, there’s a heavy price to pay for not getting it right. Millennials – people aged 16-34 – and men retrospectively outlay the most, with 39% of millennials calling in experts to fix a DIY disaster at an average cost of more than £4,000, 25% higher than the national average of just over £3,000; and men making mistakes costing 65% more to fix than the errors of their female counterparts.
Comparisons up and down the country reveal that those in London and the Midlands appear to be the most haphazard, forking out close to £5,000 and £3,600 respectively on rectifying DIY disasters.
Cost of repairing DIY disasters across the UK
| Region | Average cost |
| London | £4,764 |
| Midlands | £3,634 |
| North East | £3,486 |
| Northern Ireland | £2,751 |
| North West | £2,617 |
| South West | £2,533 |
| East | £2,519 |
| Wales | £2,398 |
| Scotland | £2,265 |
| Yorkshire | £2,231 |
| South East | £1,897 |
| UK average | £3,208 |
Natalia Freeman, from Towergate, said: “DIY season has officially begun and our research reveals people taking on ambitious DIY projects – resulting in some alarmingly expensive mistakes. We would urge DIY enthusiasts to carefully consider the potential dangerous and expensive repercussions of undertaking complicated DIY projects,as most DIY jobs are not as simple as they may seem and mistakes with electrical wiring, for example, could be fatal.
“Furthermore, accidents and mistakes aren’t covered by standard home insurance policies, therefore it’s crucial that prior to undertaking DIY work people check their policy exclusions and contact their insurer before they pick up their tools and get to work”.