Plumbing, drilling, sealing: home repairs Brits struggle with the most, study reveals

DIY home repairs: is there really a generational divide?

Generally, the two sets of generations compare fairly evenly, in that Millennials and Generation Z feel just as confident (or not as confident) as Baby Boomers and Generation X when it comes to carrying out certain tasks around the home - disproving the point that older age groups are more handy around the home than younger people.

DIY decorating

Cleaning with confidence

Car maintenance

It could be assumed that since older generations have more driving experience, including having owned vehicles for longer, that these age groups are more knowledgeable when it comes to car maintenance. 

However, our survey reveals that there is not much difference between these generations. Our data shows that while nearly all (93.4%) of our Gen X and Baby Boomers respondents said they would feel confident cleaning a car, 87.2% of our Gen Z and Millennial respondents would too. 

But the data doesn’t always match up like this. Just over half (52.3%) of respondents in the Gen X and Baby Boomer generations said they’d be confident if they needed to jump start a car, while 27.6% said they wouldn’t feel confident at all. In comparison, just 37% of our Millennial and Gen Z respondents would feel confident carrying out this task, while 34.4% wouldn’t be sure on what to do in this situation. 

Odd jobs

In terms of ‘odd jobs’ that sometimes need carrying out around the house, both sets of generations fared similarly For instance, 40.8% of our Gen X and Baby Boomer respondents and 39.2% of our Millenial and Gen Z respondents said they would feel confident enough to replace a door lock, while 34% of the older generations and 39% of the younger generations said they’d know how to confidently replace an entire door.

However, it seems that the younger generations might be lacking when it comes to intricate DIY skills - such as sewing a button. Although 68.4% of Millennials and Gen Z said they’d be able to carry out this tricky task, their older counterparts are more confident sewers, with 81.2% saying they’d be able to fix a button with no problem.

How does each age group really feel about DIY home repairs?

Now we know how confident the generations are, how do the age groups actually feel about home repairs?

Just how important are home repair skills?

When conducting our survey, we asked our respondents to tell us if they think home repair skills are important - and the results were pretty much split. Just over half (54.4%) of Millenials and Gen Zers, and over half (53.6%) of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, said that this skill set is ‘very important’. 

Meanwhile, 30% of the older generation and 30.4% of the younger generation said they feel these skills are ‘important’. From this, it shows there is no divide between the generations when it comes to valuing the importance of these skills.

DIY: love it or hate it?

The whole point of DIY is just that - you ‘do it yourself’. But how do people really feel about completing these tasks solo? In our survey, we asked our respondents to choose the statement that best describes their stance on carrying out home repairs themselves. 

The general response was that the majority of people from all generations feel reasonably positive about carrying out DIY jobs, with 62.8% of Gen Z and Millenials, and 69.6% of Gen X and Baby Boomers choosing ‘I may be able to do some home repairs on my own’ as their response.

Meanwhile, 24% of respondents from the younger generations and 22.6% of respondents from the older generations answered ‘I can confidently do home repairs on my own’, showing that the majority of people across all age groups are more than happy to get stuck into DIY tasks on their own.

What happens when you can't DIY?

While it’s possible to do home repairs yourself, some people prefer to leave it up to someone else - and our survey looked into why. We asked our respondents the reasons behind why they might not do home repairs on their own, and here’s what we found out. 

The majority of our respondents simply admitted ‘I don’t have the skills to do home repairs’, with 60% of Millennials and Gen Z, and 69.23% of Baby Boomers and Gen X, choosing this answer, showing that there is no big generational divide when it comes to DIY knowledge. 

Just 5.13% of Gen X and Baby Boomers admitted they don’t do DIY because they ‘lack patience’, while just over double the amount of respondents (10.91%) of Millennials and Gen Z said they avoid home repairs for this same reason.

Do it yourself or ask someone else?

Whether it’s a wall that needs a fresh lick of paint or a door that needs replacing, what do you do when you have home repairs that need to be done? In our survey, we asked our respondents the same question, and the majority said they would ‘try and give it a go’ themselves. 

Nearly three quarters (73.8%) of our Gen Z and Baby Boomer respondents would get stuck in, while over half (59.4%) of our Gen X and Millennials would do the same. 

Interestingly, each set of generations are just as likely as each other to hire someone to carry out home repairs on their behalf, with 10% of the older generation respondents and 10.8% of the younger generation respondents choosing this answer.

However, one big difference between the generation sets is that Gen Z and Millenials would feel more inclined to ask a friend or family member to help, with 27.8% of respondents picking this answer. On the other hand, it appears that the older generations are less likely to lean on their loved ones for assistance with DIY jobs, with just 3.6% of Gen X and Baby Boomers choosing this response.

Millennials and Gen Z: attitudes towards home repairs

As part of our campaign, we specifically targeted Gen Z and Millennials to see how they would best describe their attitudes when it comes to home repairs - and the results may surprise you.  

The majority (62.6%) of respondents from these generations said they ‘will learn how to repair something’ if needed, showing a willingness from this younger demographic to obtain new skills if it means fixing something themselves. 

Meanwhile, just over a quarter (25.6%) of respondents from these generations said they ‘actively search for upcycling or repair opportunities’. 

That leaves just 9.4% of Gen Z and Millennials admitting that they ‘do not like repairing things’ themselves but they ‘would like to learn’, while just 2.4% said they ‘do not like repairing things’ around the home. 

While it is often believed that older generations are more clued up on all things DIY, it seems that isn’t actually true. It appears that all age groups are willing to give it a go, and that there isn’t necessarily a generational divide when it comes to home repairs. 

How confident are you when it comes to carrying out DIY home repairs, and how do you feel about it? 

Join in the conversation using #HomeRepairSkills.