Botched DIY jobs cost Brits £34 Billion a year

Brits spend a staggering £34 billion each year calling on professionals to help rectify botched jobs around the home, according to new research from Local Heroes.

The independent national research has highlighted that millions of people have had to call on professional help after a DIY job they tackled themselves went horribly wrong.

The average adult has messed up nine jobs around their home, and spent £650 in the past year on professionals to rectify their catalogue of errors.

The results show that hanging wallpaper is the job most likely to go wrong, with more than a third of people (34%) experiencing a wallpaper mishap, followed by putting up shelves at 30 per cent and painting walls at 29 per cent.

The findings also show that nearly one in five have failed when trying to fix a dripping tap, almost a quarter (24%) have been unable to unblock a drain and more than a fifth (21%) could not complete the task of bleeding a radiator.

Despite the abundance of DIY mishaps, the majority of people (57%) who said they currently have jobs that need doing in their home are reluctant to call on professional help because they are confident they can tackle it themselves.

Furthermore, seven in ten are motivated to get the job done themselves to save money, while nearly two-fifths (39%) said they do it because they feel they ‘should’ be able to undertake basic home maintenance tasks.