WITH THE country spending a lot of time staring at the same four walls, as you do in lockdown, it should come as little surprise that there’s a lot of home improvements going on.
According to a recent survey commissioned by waste removal company HIPPO, a fifth of adults in the UK were planning to make the most of last Easter weekend to do some DIY jobs.
And the pandemic has made us a nation of home fixers as 29% of us are doing more DIY jobs than before.
In the South East, 39% of us are planning to revamp the garden, and 19% want to give a room a complete makeover.
But sometimes jobs get started and not finished: on average, people in the South East have three DIY jobs waiting to be completed, with 23% of people delay DIY jobs due to lack of time and nearly 34% of us are put off by the cost.
And with there being a charge for depositing DIY waste at re3 recycling centres, it should be little surprise that 25% admit to using their bins, which goes to landfill,
Original Changing Rooms presenter Linda Barker, who completed a big DIY job on her kitchen during the lockdown, offers her advice for sticking to time and budget: “It is all too easy for time and cost to escalate on DIY projects. My advice is to have a clear and detailed plan with generous time scales and realistic costs attached.
“Also, while money may not always stretch to paying an expert, it is important to know where your time simply isn’t worth the cost-saving.
“So, for example, it makes sense to hire a HIPPOBAG with collection rather than head to the tip yourself; or buy ready-painted skirting boards and save time on painstaking painting.
“Finally, I always recommend building in a contingency. With the best will in the world, DIY projects often overrun in terms of time and money.
“By keeping a buffer in your budget and allowing a little extra on timescales, any unexpected surprises will already be accounted for.
“Better still, you might find that you’ve got a bit of time and money left over at the end to celebrate your new creation.”
