Diy Disasters

The Home & Garden Survey was carried out in November and December 2009 by Homebase and surveyed a total of 208,257people.  As the nation gears up for a bank holiday weekend and paintbrushes, drills, hammers and pasting tables are dusted off, Homebase has revealed the causes of the most common DIY disasters following the biggest home and garden survey ever conducted in the UK.

Homebase, asked more than 200,000 people about their DIY experiences and were inundated with tales of hammer horrors, painting panic and far-from-fool-proof-flooring. The DIY disaster league shows that the number one project likely to cause a calamity is painting and decorating, followed by flooring, hammering nails, drilling and plumbing.
Men are most likely to find themselves in a spot of bother when hammering nails, while for women it’s decorating. One in ten women have had a disaster doing the painting and decorating while 15% of females claimed their biggest disaster when it comes to DIY is their husband! With more than 1,000 of those surveyed claiming to have sustained an injury as a result of a DIY disaster.
Despite a few problems along the way the vast majority of people are still keen to have a go at Doing-It-Themselves with only 10% of respondents saying they rely on the experts for the whole job and 80% of people saying they get pleasure from improving their home doing DIY.

The Homebase DIY disaster league:
1. Painting and decorating
2. Flooring
3. Hammering nails
4. Drilling
5. Plumbing
Examples of DIY disasters shared with Homebase in the survey:
• Drilling holes through brand new central heating pipes 20 minutes before the carpet fitters were due to arrive
• Cutting an overgrown garden with a strimmer and hitting a stone resulting in a smashed conservatory window
• Hanging floral wallpaper upside down, with the pattern not matching
• Hammering a new shelf resulting in a flat screen TV being knocked off the other side of the wall and falling to pieces on the floor

Simon Yeomans, DIY category marketing manger at Homebase commented, “Easter weekend is always one of the busiest of the year for DIY with plenty of time to tackle important projects around the home. People are more likely to try something ambitious and our advice is to make sure you prepare well. Homebase has a series of ‘How To’ guides available in store and online for all the most popular projects with step-by-step instructions, top tips and the tools you need for the job.”