We’ve often discussed the importance of getting expert assistance for complicated DIY tasks. Many people have not only damaged their home while attempting to renovate or refurbish their home or resolve home emergencies, but have injured themselves and even their family members.
If you have appliance cover and an appliance covered by your service contract stops working, then there’s no need for you to try to repair it yourself, when you will be able to receive a professional’s assistance through us! And if you have home emergency cover, give us a call at any time of the day or night should an emergency arise and we’ll send one of our contractors round to deal with it.
Some home repairs should never be attempted by inexperienced and unqualified people; in many cases, electrical work can only lawfully be completed by a Part P electrician, while gas appliance servicing, maintenance, repairs and installation must only be completed by Gas Safe-registered engineers. This makes our home emergency and boiler cover service plans especially valuable!
Research from LV= Home Insurance has found that 4% of Brits have damaged their home or property after attempting DIY – this is the equivalent of around two million people in this country alone. The most common DIY damage was found to be spilling paint, representing 49% of all cases, but 26% of these DIY disasters led to water damage, 16% led to electrical breakdowns and faults, and 16% caused damage to the fabric to the property.
While 85% of British DIY-ers said they tried to do-it-themselves in order to save money, this is clearly a false economy in many cases, especially considering how affordable a 247 Home Rescue appliance, home emergency and boiler breakdown cover plan can be. LV= Home Insurance claimed that overall, 15% of British households have had to call out the experts to fix a botched DIY job, with this costing an average of £119 at a time. This has seen people collectively spend £67 million on repairing botched DIY work so far this year.
The most commonplace DIY disasters were found to be errors in painting and decorating (32%), sealing a shower or bathtub (18%), mistakes while tiling (16%), problems plastering (13%), and difficulties filling a crack or hole in the wall (12%). Of those that admitted making a household problem worse, 36% said they didn’t know what they were doing, while 18% argued the task at hand was simply too complicated. The old maxim ‘a bad handyman blames its tools’ may not necessarily be true 100% of the time, but surely it is relevant among at least some of the 24% of DIY-ers who blamed their tools for the disaster.
The internet may be partially to blame, too; while websites such as ours are packed full of handy step-by-step DIY guides to help people handle a range of home emergencies, LV= Home Insurance suggested this type of content may have exacerbated the issue; 8% of Brits who have had a go at DIY said they did so because online content made the job seem easy.
Of course, the jobs aren’t necessarily easy, and worryingly, many people are attempting hazardous tasks, with 29% of DIY-ers attempting electrical repairs, 8% having a go at roofing work, and 4% knocking through walls. Some said they would even have a shot at asbestos removal (2%) or gas appliance repairs (3%) without the help of a professional!
Clearly, this work is far too dangerous for unqualified people to attempt. Don’t damage your home, injure yourself, or potentially harm a loved one just to save a bit of cash, especially when a 247 Home Rescue service contract is so affordable! You can even cut-price boiler or appliance repairs if you sign up for a plan with us at the time you arrange your repair.
