Nearly half of modern Edinburgh residents struggle with DIY and have given up hope of ever being able to do it, according to a new study from Bosch Home and Garden. As a result, today it is launching its ‘Pass It On‘ campaign to help encourage the next generation to learn vital new skills and become amateur home DIYers themselves as part of their New Year’s resolutions.
Researchers polled 1,500 people across the UK and discovered that 35 percent of Edinburgh residents have resigned themselves to being hopeless around the house, with a further 33 percent admitting they have never put up a shelf and 29 percent insist they can’t even change a plug.
A whopping 77 percent said they still ask their parents to come over to help out with practical tasks including putting up wallpaper, painting a wall or fixing a broken toilet seat.
Of those polled from Edinburgh, 24% said they have tried and tried but have given up ever being able to master basic home maintenance.
The research showed that seven in ten respondents said that as a nation, Brits have lost the art of DIY and a third of Edinburgh adults feel immense pressure to be able to perform basic home improvements – but can’t. Bosch Home and Garden feels this is now the perfect time to address these issues before DIY and gardening skills and know-how are lost forever.
To coincide with the launch of the Pass It On campaign and as part of the nation‘s New Year’s resolutions for 2018, it has introduced a new inspiration hub,allaboutdiy.com to help pass on essential DIY and gardening knowledge and skills to consumers. It provides expert step-by-step guides, DIY advice for learning new skills, as well as detailed projects to encourage people to make items for themselves and give them the confidence they need to get hands on.
The poll also revealed 51 per cent have never attempted to tile a bathroom, almost half couldn’t fix a dripping tap and 29 per cent would be clueless about fitting a toilet seat.
In addition, 22 per cent of all adults have never had a stab at painting or varnishing a fence.
Ironically 88 percent of Edinburgh adults have a toolbox with an average of £290 worth of tools and equipment gathering dust in our houses.
A spokesperson for Bosch Home and Garden, which commissioned the study said: “We have been concerned that as a nation, we haven‘t been passing DIY skills on to the next generation and this research confirms the urgent need for our ‘Pass it On‘ campaign.
“Many adults are lacking the basics and it‘s our role as market leader to help re-educate the nation and encourage, inspire and enable generations to pass on those DIY skills in 2018 and beyond.
‘‘By pledging to learn a new skill or sharing an existing one, we’re encouraging people to pass on their DIY knowledge and expertise to generations to come so that the nation can be proud of their own home improvements and gain that sense of satisfaction and personal achievement.“
The poll found the average Edinburgh resident calls in help between two and three times a year with 22 percent feeling awful for having to rely on elderly parents to tackle their home improvements.
Almost one third admitted to never learning any practical skills from their parents or grandparents and over half said the previous generation was far more practically minded than they are.
Over a third of those studied said they have experienced a DIY disaster, with 47 percent confessing to taking a chance and just drilling through a wall.
It’s no wonder then that 29 percent of Edinburgh adults pay a professional tradesman to tackle their home improvements and six percent pay a friend to get their hands dirty.
Almost one in five confess to just trying to muddle through by doing the odd job themselves and a laid back 18 percent claim that nothing ever gets done in their home and they are happy to leave it to rack and ruin.
DIY JOBS WE WON’T TACKLE
Re-tiling the bathroom
Hanging a door
Cleaning out the guttering
Fixing a dripping tap
Hanging wallpaper
Changing a plug
Fitting a new light
Putting on a new toilet seat
Putting up a shelf
Filling in a crack in the wall
Paint / varnish a fence
Painting a room
Hanging a picture
Assembling flatpack furniture
To help kickstart gaining those essential DIY and gardening skills and make it part of your New Year’s resolutions, take a look at our website, allaboutdiy.com and get inspired. This DIY hub will help you find step-by-step guides, DIY hints and tips, inspirational project ideas and seasonal projects. If you already have the skills and feel able to help others by passing on that knowledge and know-how, then get in touch through our Facebook page and share your expertise.
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