Despite the UK having a stretch of dry, bright, and warm weather, perfect for doing home improvement tasks around the home and garden, a new report has revealed that as a nation, Brits are procrastinating for approximately 8.5 months before tackling much-needed DIY jobs.
The newly released report, compiled by indoor/outdoor paint brand Ronseal, reveals the habits, failings, financial losses, and what DIY jobs Brits would rather outsource instead of tackle themselves.
The 2025 Home and Garden DIY Report includes insights from 1,500 UK homeowners, tradespeople demand sourced from search insights, Ronseal sales volumes, and Reddit data.
Key findings from the report:
The UK is a nation of DIY-dodgers
- The national survey found that Brits delay DIY projects by 260 days on average or eight and a half months. For women, this average is 289 days, while for men the average drops to 230 days.
- Outdoor DIY is the most neglected task, with cleaning decking and paving being the most avoided job, avoided by 35% of UK homeowners who choose to repeatedly put it off.
When is it time to call in the professionals?
- When it comes to DIY, mistakes can cost homeowners in both time and money. When it comes to the most expensive DIY failings, the UK average cost of a failed DIY project was £491.50.
- This cost rises for younger generations, seeing 18-24-year-olds spend £809 on average on failed DIY attempts.
- Geographically, Londoners had the highest financial strain, with an average of £703 per failed DIY project.
- According to UK Google search data, gardeners and landscapers are the most in-demand trade, with 66,820 monthly searches on average.
Gloucester is home to the most broken fence panels in the UK
- Lisburn in Northern Ireland is the UK city home to the most well-kept fences (100%), while Gloucester has the highest proportion (21%) in poor condition.
- 20% of UK homeowners have replaced their fence in the last two years. The UK region with the highest percentage of newly replaced fencing is London (including Greater London), where 69% of homes have replaced their fence during this period.
- In 2024, Ronseal sold 18 million litres of fence paint, which is enough to cover the entire area of Bulgaria (109,000 km2).
Social media is teaching Gen-Z’s their DIY skills
- Social media is responsible for a quarter (26%) of 18 to 24-year-olds DIY knowledge, whereas a fifth (21%) learned their skills from their dad, versus 6% learning from their mum.
- In contrast, the older generation learnt their skills from their dad (18%) or their partner (8%), with the majority (56%) being self-taught.
- When tackling a home improvement project, most Brits (56%) enlist their partner to help, while a fifth (21%) prefer to DIY alone.
2025 has seen the majority of homeowners picking up their paintbrushes
- Armed with paintbrushes, two-fifths (41%) of UK homeowners have refreshed their interior walls and ceilings in the past 12 months, a quarter (25%) have painted exterior flooring, while more than a fifth (23%) have tackled painting their interior woodwork.
To explore the rest of the findings from the report, visit: https://www.ronseal.com/diy-
