A survey conducted by www.homeadvisor.com, brought up some interesting findings about Americans- handymen.
How handy are they when it comes to things around the house?
The truth is, many homeowners don’t have a clue about how to fix household issues themselves, even if it’s something as simple as draining a water heater or restoring power after blowing a fuse.
If you don’t know your way around a toolbox, well, at least you’re not alone.
How Handy Are Americans?
Americans consider themselves pretty handy. Of those we surveyed, 19% reported that they were extremely handy. On average, Americans gave themselves a 3.7 out of 5 handiness rating, with men (3.8) considering themselves to be slightly handier than women (3.6).
Millennials think they’re the handiest generation, checking in at 3.8, while baby boomers think they’re the least at 3.5.
Most respondents (43%) picked up their home improvement knowledge from their parents. Their partners were a distant second at 18%, followed by the internet at 16%. Others looked for help elsewhere, including how-to books, trial and error and even their first boss.
But even though most Americans trusted their parents to show them the ropes, they tend to get their home improvement inspiration elsewhere.
More than three in four turn to social media and 82% even said they were satisfied with the result of a project they tried after seeing it on social media. In our survey, 85% said they enjoy home improvement shows on TV.
Even when Americans don’t consider themselves handy, it doesn’t stop them from trying and succeeding: 85% said they enjoy doing home improvement projects, and more than one in four have never had to abandon a project or ask for professional help. Moreover, nine in 10 say they’re comfortable in home improvement stores.
Do People See Home Projects Through?
Despite the confidence level of our respondents, they were willing to admit there were times when DIY tasks got the better of them. In fact, nearly three in four said they’ve had to either abandon a project or call in a local handyperson.
Men are more likely to throw in the towel than women (77% vs. 68%, respectively). Millennials were the most likely to give up at 77%, while baby boomers were least likely at 63%.
What Projects Are Americans Most Comfortable Completing?
People are most likely to unclog a toilet or drain or build a piece of furniture themselves, according to our results. However, they’re likely to hand off projects that require a bit more work, like mowing the lawn or mounting a TV on the wall. Respondents were likely to leave the more difficult jobs to professionals: installing wood floors, replacing an entire toilet and retiling a shower.
Changing a lightbulb topped the list of projects people in our survey most often said they’d succeeded in doing on their own.
Other common success stories were:
- Building a piece of “assembly-required” furniture
- Unclogging a drain
- Changing the batteries in a smoke alarm
- Unclogging a toilet
Projects people are most likely to try again include hanging a picture or piece of art, hanging curtains, using a pressure washer and steam cleaning a carpet.
And since you need tools to do many of these projects, here are the ones Americans are most likely to have in their toolkits. Pretty much the basics.
Fortunately, there are professionals out there who are ready and willing to do various jobs, whether you’re talking about more involved work like updating your home’s electrical system or more general handyperson services.
But our survey showed that the American do-it-yourself confidence is alive and well, even if we do occasionally admit defeat and find someone else to fix that leaky pipe.
Methodology
Between August 13 and August 28, 2021, we surveyed 2,084 homeowners about how handy they are using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service. Of the respondents, 60% were male and 40% were female; all respondents were 18 or older, with the average age being 39.
Fair Use
Thanks to and credit for this article to https://www.homeadvisor.com/.