26 | www.aycliffetoday.co.uk
AycliffeToday
DIY
Are you Do It Yourself,
or Don’t Involve
Yourself?
Unfinished DIY projects
affect 1.7 million households
in the UK. Is yours one of
them? We reveal why a job
half done makes a lot more
trouble than a job not done
at all…
How many times have you
eagerly started a DIY project full of
enthusiasm only to get half way into
it and get bored? If this sounds like
you, you’re not alone.
About 1.7 million of us are living
with a DIY or home renovation project
that’s remained unfinished for the past
two years or more.
If you think that’s bad, almost a
quarter of a million households are
so resigned to their ongoing DIY
nightmare that they have lived with
an unfinished project for more than
10 years.
For many of those DIY part-timers
a restful sleep is also out of the
question, as 38% have unfinished
projects in their bedroom, while
culinary creations will be difficult for
the 2.8 million of us who are living with
unfinished kitchen refurbishments.
You won’t even be able to wash the
DIY dirt off yourself if you are one of
the 2.5 million British households
living with an unfinished bathroom.
And you can forget that fancy dinner
party you’ve been planning if you’re
among the 15% of households
awaiting completion of a dining room
refurbishment. Make that another TV
dinner.
However, it’s not only your or your
spouse’s sanity you risk by taking on
sizeable DIY and renovation projects.
You may also risk invalidating your
home insurance policies, especially
if you take on complex electrical,
plumbing or building work that you are
not trained to complete.
If an unqualified householder causes
a fire with faulty wiring or floods the
house when installing a shower, they
may find they are left picking up the
cost of any claim.
A bad workman blames his tools,
or so the saying goes, but in the UK it
seems a bad workman blames lack of
time to complete the job. Half of those
living in a property with an unfinished
DIY or renovation project blamed too
little time for the project being left
unfinished. Almost a third blamed a
lack of finances for the incomplete
project.
If it isn’t time or money that’s
stopping us completing a task, it’s
other people, according to the study.
Disputes with tradesmen, planning
departments and neighbours have
called a halt to nine per cent of
unfinished projects.
Household appearance isn’t the
only thing to suffer as a result of
uncompleted tasks.
It seems that when our DIY projects
get left on the back burner, so do our
social lives, as a quarter of households
living with a never-ending renovation
drama (NERD), have been unable to
invite friends or family to visit their
property.
On top of this, unfinished DIY
projects provide a big source of
conflict. In a quarter of households
this has resulted in arguments
between partners. This is hardly
surprising when you consider that
in 10 per cent of all cases at least
one room has been left completely
uninhabitable.
As a result, ongoing DIY dramas
result in significant mental anguish,
according to the study. 9% of us with
unfinished projects have suffered
from insomnia, while 5% believe the
emotional stress has damaged their
performance at work.