DIY leads to £2.6 billion of accidents around the home

As a fifth of householders gear up to spend their Easter weekend painting, decorating and renovating, home insurer Churchill challenges householders to ensure they have adequate home insurance cover should they have a DIY mishap.

In fact, new research reveals that Brits are having £2.6 billion of accidents a year whilst doing DIY.

The research by Churchill Insurance, shows that a fifth of householders have accidentally damaged their home or its contents in the past year whilst doing DIY. One in 10 has caused accidental damage at least once. A further ten per cent have damaged their home on two or more occasions in the past year.

With the average accidental damage claim costing £540, householders are being urged to take stock of their home insurance policies to ensure they have the level of cover they require. Churchill provides cover for accidental damage, as an optional extra under the standard home insurance policy.

Martin Scott, Head of Churchill Home Insurance, said: “Householders who have elected to include accidental damage cover under their home insurance policy have the added reassurance that they are covered if a DIY accident causes damage in the home.”

Some examples of DIY disasters include:

Falling off of a ladder and breaking furniture
Spilling paint on the carpet and / or furniture
Getting white spirit on the sofa
Dropping a hammer on a glass table
Drilling into a water pipe
Hammering a nail into an electric cable

The research also shows over half of householders (51 per cent) admit they are not very good at DIY and household maintenance and eight in 10 (79 per cent) wish they were better at DIY. Nearly a fifth (19 per cent) said they haven’t had the time to learn skills properly and 18 per cent admit they simply can’t get the hang of it.