By Ben West

When Fifty Shades of Grey hit the cinemas DIY chain B&Q braced itself for a massive rise in demand for rope, cable ties and tape. It sent a memo to its entire 20,887 workforce at 359 stores, urging them to familiarise themselves with the book so that they could deal with related queries efficiently.

Most people visit Britain’s DIY stores for rather less racy reasons than that, simply in an attempt to improve their homes and increase their value. This is never so apparent as over bank holidays: indeed, the last May bank holiday saw a huge increae in sales of DIY items like plastering tools, sledgehammers and chainsaws at Amazon. Welding equipment sales alone were up 74 per cent compared with the year before. 

A combination of the rise of online tutorial videos that make complicated do it yourself look easy, coupled with the economic downturn, has triggered an increase in DIY projects generally. According to the Retail Forecast from the Centre for Retail Research, the DIY sector is set to do well in the coming months as a result of consumers having a little more to spend and the housing market set to achieve moderate growth. 

A recent survey of 17,000 householders across Europe by Kingfisher, owners of B&Q, found that two thirds of householders were improving their homes. This is a significant increase from the 17 per cent recorded in 2012.

However, it is vital if you are going to tackle a DIY job to know exactly what you’re doing as getting it wrong could put a large dent in the value of your home. 

A survey by TrustMark, the Government-endorsed scheme for finding tradesman, found that bad DIY can lower the sale price of a property by an average of 11 per cent. The survey found that 91 per cent of potential housebuyers would lower their offer if they discovered unacceptable home improvements and 54 per cent would lose interest in the property completely.

DIY can of course be dangerous too. Bodging DIY work can easily lead to serious problems, like drilling into water pipes and gas mains. Each year around 200,000 people require hospital treatment for DIY-related injuries, with more than 60 deaths. Most deaths are caused by such things as falling off ladders or electrocution from not using a circuit breaker while using a hand drill – so it is vital to read up on the project thoroughly before you start work.

A recent survey of 2000 homeowners by LV= home insurance revealed that more UK home owners are attempting DIY without professional help and two million have damaged their property as a result, paying out £67 million to correct things. 

The most common botched jobs are painting and decorating, applying bath sealant, plastering and tiling. But more worringly, 3 per cent of respondents had tackled repairs to gas appliances, 8 per cent had attempted roofing work and 4 per cent knocked through a wall. Twenty-nine per cent admitted doing potentially dangerous electrical work.

Most DIY jobs are not as simple as they may seem and mistakes with electrical wiring, for example, could be fatal. Not using properly qualified trades people is not only dangerous, it’s a false economy and could end up costing the homeowner thousands of pounds and a lot of hassle to put right.

Not only is not using professionals for specialist jobs involving electrical, gas, plumbing or structural work essential so that the work satisfies current safety and building regulations, but your home insurance policy may be invalidated  if there are problems. Indeed, 10 per cent of survey participants have made a claim on their insurance policy as a result of damaging their home through botched DIY.

Be realistic about whether you have the skills and the time to undertake such a task, and to take all the necessary precautions to avoid damaging your property or injuring yourself.

Estate agents and homeowners have very different opinions as to the impact of DIY improvements on the value. Many homeowners reckon that redecorating adds considerable value to a house, yet most agents disagree. They are wary of costly improvements that do not increase the value of a property enough to make the project worthwhile. An improved kitchen, bathroom or garden is only likely to add around 2.5 per cent extra value, for example.

When choosing what DIY jobs to tackle, anything that could affect the integrity of the structure of the property should take top priority, such as a leaking drainpipe, damp, broken roof tiles or rotten window frames. Safety is an urgent concideration: dated electrical wiring should be replaced without delay, for example.

Many householders neglect basic routine tasks such as gutter clearing, repainting the exterior, and treating exterior timber. Such tasks may seem less rewarding than installing a new kitchen or a jacuzzi in the bathroom, but neglecting them could cause substantial problems.

Many DIYers take shortcuts to save money and finish a job more quickly, but this can be deadly. Wallpapering around a light socket without turning off the electrical supply, for example, is dangerous as the current can travel through the paste and send an electric shock. And instead of using a ladder to paint the exterior of your house, it is much safer option to hire a scaffolding tower, costing only about £80 for a weekend. Plastic eye goggles are cheap, and protect your eyes from flying particles when using many electric tools. An inexpensive mask with an air filter stops wood particles from entering your lungs if you sand a floor.

Overall, the message is: if you are not certain of your ability and you cannot afford to get a professional in – go without. Concentrate on the jobs you can do, and leave the rest to the professionals.

The most off-putting inferior DIY in a prospective home, ranked by the  British public in the Trustmark survey

Visible wiring – 40%

Ill-fitting/unfinished kitchen units – 18%

Inconveniently or poorly placed electrical sockets – 10%

Ill-fitting/unfinished bathroom units – 5%

Squeaky floorboards – 5%

Badly painted walls or woodwork – 2%

Poor grouting/tiling – 2%

Poorly landscaped gardens – 2%

Dripping taps – 1%

Poorly fitted carpets – 1%

Poorly hung wallpaper – 1%

Don’t know – 12% 

Some top DIY blunders

* stripping old lead paint with a power sander or hot-air gun, risking poisoning

* installing polystyrene ceiling tiles that are a nightmare to remove

* building a shower cubicle with plasterboard walls

* removing period details

* raising ground levels next to houses by laying a new path or patio above an existing one, which can cause damp problems

* concreting over a drain cover

* coating external brickwork with inappropriate paint or silicone waterproofing fluids

* replacing a conventional staircase with a spiral one