70% of renovators will DIY

Renovating is a big business in Australia, and it takes a big chunk of savings to transform your home.
So many homeowners think they’ll save a few of their hard-earned bucks by DIY’ing some aspects.

What areas are homeowners happy to do themselves? And which services should you always outsource to the experts?

Seventy per cent of renovators admit to finishing some areas of their renovations themselves, with the most popular being painting. A whopping 82 per cent say they did at least some of the painting in their recent transformations.

“It is, without a doubt, the one thing most people think they can have a crack at. And some people have a nifty touch with the paintbrush for sure,” says ServiceSeeking.com.au CEO Jeremy Levitt. “But it can be time-consuming and picky work, so it doesn’t suit all temperaments. And a messy paint job can ruin an otherwise perfectly executed room. But when budgets are tight, it is definitely the first thing renovators tackle themselves.”

An impressive DIY paint job on House Rules

Landscaping (46%), demolition (43%) and interior design (77%) are also often tackled head-on by plucky homeowners.

The services that people tend to quite rightly outsource to the experts are electrical, plumbing, concreting, flooring, and tiling services.

But 14 per cent of respondents admit to doing their own electrical work, as did another 12 per cent who did their own plumbing work during their renovation.

“Hopefully, they were qualified electricians and plumbers doing their own renovation. Otherwise, that is alarming,” says Mr Levitt. “Not only is it illegal to work on electrical jobs without a licence, but it is downright dangerous. And an expert is only a click away.”