Although most people contact 247 Home Rescue to arrange repairs they cannot conduct themselves, such as gas safe work in the event of boiler breakdowns or emergency electrical repairs, many people seem to have a strange idea of what a home emergency consists of, and contact us for a wide range of simple manual tasks.
Brits reluctant to do it themselves
A recent study by secured loan and mortgage broker OceanFinance.co.uk found that 57% of UK adults would hire a contractor to complete a range of simple repairs, DIY jobs and home improvements. A surprisingly high number (9%) would get in touch with a contractor to bleed a radiator - something anyone can do with a few minutes of time and a cheap radiator key - while 7.4% admitted they'd get in touch with a handyman if they needed to assemble flat pack furniture, and 10% said they'd pay someone to put up a shelf for them.
Of those who said they would hire a contractor, the most common reason to do so was to clear guttering, with 54% saying they'd pay someone to do this for them - not surprising if you've ever cleared guttering yourself. It is also easy for inexperienced people to mess up a design scheme and waste sheets of paper when wallpapering a room, and the stress of learning on the job might not be worth it, so it is not a surprise that 41% of those who pay for DIY said they would hire a handyman for this task However, 46% of people who pay for straightforward home improvement work said they'd hire someone to install a washing machine, despite the fact that this is not a complicated job at all, with the same percentage said they'd pay a professional to fix a leaking tap.
When you learn that 11% of people have tried to do-it-themselves but have ended up hiring a professional to fix their mistakes, people's reticence to DIY becomes more understandable. It is not necessarily a false economy to call in the experts if this means you avoid home emergencies and don't have to pay tens of thousands of pounds for repairs after accidentally putting a nail through a water pipe!
Nonetheless, you are strongly advised not to conduct emergency electrical repairs and gas boiler repairs yourself - you should leave this dangerous work to the experts! With home emergency cover and boiler breakdown cover, you simply have to make a claim through 247 Home Rescue's 24/7 claims hotline any time of the day, any day of the year.
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