From today's Telegraph:
"The maxim "if you want something doing properly, do it yourself" appears to be giving way to "if you want something doing properly, pay a professional".
Research out today claims that Britons are falling out of love with DIY. Householders who are working longer hours and who want a perfect home no longer have the time to do their own plastering, papering or building, the research shows. Instead, they spend an average of £4,500 a year on tradesmen, equivalent to almost a fifth of the average salary. The tradesmen most likely to be called in are builders and plasterers, followed by window fitters.
Almost nine out of 10 (89 per cent) of the 500 men aged between 30 and 50 questioned said that they would not attempt any DIY at all. Of those, 67 per cent said they were not up to the job, and 27 per cent didn't have time or were not interested.
Andrew Boddie, the head of marketing at Standard Life Bank, which commissioned the survey, said: "Whether it is a simple decoration job or more serious structural work, men across the UK are agree that DIY is no longer the thing to do." It seems that the magic of television programmes such as Changing Rooms and DIY SOS has finally worn off.
It has given way to a realisation that botched DIY can knock thousands of pounds off the value of homes, which it was meant to enhance.
DIY disasters can also lead to serious injuries. Figures released by the Department of Trade and Industry in August showed that 200,000 people a year are injured in DIY accidents, 100,000 of them seriously enough to need hospital treatment. About 70 people a year die in such accidents, most of which are caused by "a simple lack of knowledge", according to the DTI.
Justin Ryan, co-presenter with Colin McAllister of the BBC2 series Million Pound Property Experiment, said: "It seems the thirst for DIY may be drying up. The quest for home perfection is growing, but this time owners are doing it properly and professionally. "We've seen many people ruin their properties and knock off value by `having a go' when they didn't know how."
A spokesman for the DIY chain B&Q, which has between three and five million customers a week, said: "It's becoming well known in the industry that a lot of people now are very time-conscious and rather than doing a job themselves, they will call in professionals.
"People are increasingly taking on major projects like extensions and loft conversions that require more than a knowledge of DIY.
"Also, lifestyles and work patterns have changed, so unless DIY is a real hobby, people don't want to spend every weekend doing work themselves."
A spokesman for the National Federation of Builders said: "Our members in the domestic market are seeing their strongest order books for a long time. "People are interested in protecting the value of their homes and realise that they can jeopardise this by taking matters into their own hands."
In August last year, Sylvester Nseowo was jailed for three months for refusing to knock down a botched extension to his five-bedroom house in Telford. He had used seven-foot girders without any steel supports or concrete. And Chris Pendery, from Loughborough, was fined £15,000 for criminal damage to his housing association home in April after sawing through the roof supports in his loft to make more space."