Lack of DIY skills halts makeover dreams

Thanks partly to the massive boom in popularity of makeover TV shows and associated design magazines seen over the past few years, a significant proportion of Britons have a fair impression of what their dream home would look like, both inside and out.

Indeed, celebrity designers such as Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen have helped bring cutting-edge design to millions, with growing numbers of homeowners no longer content to stick to the same old flat-pack furniture or wallpaper patterns.

However, in most cases, dreams of a perfect pad stand in sharp contrast to reality and, while in many cases financial considerations get in the way of people achieving their ideal home, at the same time, a lack of know-how is also preventing some from putting their plans into action.

For while past generations would have been forced to think on their feet when they moved into their own home soon after leaving school, often learning how to carry out everyday home improvement and maintenance tasks as they went along, buyers of today have failed to pick up even the simplest of skills, largely as a result of being in the rental sector for so long and thereby getting used to calling on the landlord or letting agency to sort out a problem rather than get their hands dirty themselves.

Recent research carried out by Screwfix found that just 49 per cent of men in their 20s are now able to rewire a plug, compared to 85 per cent of the over-50s.

What's more, even changing a lightbulb was found to leave 13 per cent of young men stumped, while one in three would be left in the dark should a fuse need changing.

Though this is certainly disconcerting, the good news for those stepping onto the property ladder after a decade living the easy life in the rental sector and keen to get to work on making their dream home a reality is that it's never too late to learn a bit of DIY.

"A lot of people are starting out on the housing ladder later. I think for a lot of people that's the trigger when they start to really get into DIY," Duncan Hayes, editor at Build It magazine, explains.

"A lot of people who are doing that will be buying magazines and there are a lot more courses where you can go to learn how to do things, so people are learning in that way. I don't think necessarily it is too late to learn, I think the time people are doing it in their lives is just different. It's changed, but there are still people doing it, definitely."

However, while it may indeed never be too late to learn simple DIY tasks, and thereby save hundreds of pounds a year in handyman fees, with TV property experts only too keen to encourage homeowners to knock down walls or install mezzanines it's unlikely that the abilities of the average Briton will ever be enough for them to achieve their dreams.

This means professionals will continue to cash in on the country's home makeover ambitions.