DIY Bodge Jobs Cost Brits an Estimated £34 Billion a Year

All tradespeople have experienced being called in to fix a DIY project gone wrong, but did you know

Published 29th January 2019

All tradespeople have experienced being called in to fix a DIY project gone wrong, but did you know that it costs Brits an astonishing £34 billion every year? The massive figure comes from recent research carried out by Local Heroes and highlights just how costly DIY mistakes are.

The research also found that on average, adults commit 9 acts of DIY disaster throughout their life, costing an average of £650 to fix each time. Which just goes to show how sometimes an attempt to save on costs can backfire massively and end up costing much more.

So, who makes the most out of these DIY mishaps? Painters and decorators apparently, with 34% of bodged jobs being cited as hanging wallpaper, followed by putting up shelves (30%) and painting (29%). Plumbers aren’t doing too badly either, with fixing a toilet flush (25%), unblocking a drain (24%) and bleeding a radiator (23%) all ranking highly!

It’s not just tradespeople that are kept in business by DIY fails either as, apparently, as many as 22% of Brits have injured themselves whilst trying to take trade matters into their own hands.

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