Australians’ top DIY projects at home in isolation, according to new Bunnings and hipages data
Catching up with mates or going to the pub were cast aside as Australians hit up Bunnings and got stuck into these DIY projects which they will continue after lockdown.
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As COVID-19 restrictions increase the amount of time spent at home, Australians are turning to DIY and gardening projects that have been pushed to the wayside.
Just a few months ago catching up with friends, going for a camping trip or spending the afternoon at the pub were at the top of people’s to-do lists, but this has now been replaced by home renovations, painting and landscaping.
Research commissioned by Bunnings found 64 per cent of people surveyed were tackling DIY once a month and two in five were planning on sprucing up their gardens in the coming months.
“We’ve seen an increase in popularity across all plant types over the past few months,” said Bunnings national greenlife buyer Alex Newman.
“Our customers are tackling everything in the garden from growing their own food to updating their garden landscapes, as well as adding greenery inside their homes with indoor plants.”
According to data from tradesperson directory hipages, requests for lawn mowing were down 85 per cent nationally between March and April, followed by complete bathroom renovations which decreased by 66 per cent and home cleaning which was down 60 per cent as people take on jobs themselves.
In New South Wales, people were taking care of repairs themselves with requests for home cleaning services through the platform down 61 per cent, followed by washing machine repairs (59 per cent) and handyman jobs (53 per cent).
However skip bin hire was up 27 per cent, along with concreting (11.5 per cent) and rubbish removal (9 per cent).
Dr Vincent Candrawinata, 30, from Mascot turned to DIY for relaxation while spending an increased amount of time at home.
He said while his dietary antioxidant company, Renovatio Bioscience, had been busy amid the crisis he needed something to fill the void of socialising.
“Instead of going out to unwind or catching up with friends or having friends over, I got into DIY,” Dr Candrawinata
“Some people are doing it out of boredom, where I see it as a way to wind down.
“I am very happy that instead of going out I still get to relax in a way that actually improves my living space.”
Dr Candrawinata said he used tutorials on YouTube to help him build gates, fencing and trellises as well as paving and garden beds.
As for when society gets back to some semblance of normal, Dr Candrawinata said he would continue doing DIY and gardening work.
“Even when everything reopens and everything goes back to semi-normal I will probably dedicate at least two to three hours just doing some improvement,” he said.
Queenslanders were getting stuck into their gardens and cleaning with posts seeking tradespeople to look after lawn mowing and garden maintenance down 72 per cent and 61 per cent respectively.
Requests for bond and move-out cleans were also down 45 per cent.
Skip bin hire experienced a significant jump of 34.5 per cent, along with small rises in requests for concreting footpaths and appliance repairs which both rose 6 per cent.
Queensland Nutritionist and author Christine Cronau, 49, used her pandemic down time to start growing a food garden full of ketogenic diet staples at her property west of Brisbane [she has requested we don’t use her suburb for safety reasons].
Ms Cronau said she usually plants from seedlings, but with stocks sold out due to increased demand, she turned to planting from seed.
“I decided I wanted to start a keto garden project and grow all of our keto basics, like spaghetti squash, cauliflower, zucchini, all that sort of stuff,” she said.
“It actually went quite well, I had a friend in the neighbourhood who showed me how to do it.
“It was quite interesting to watch how quickly things started coming up.”
Ms Cronau said she wouldn’t have taken on her new gardening endeavour if not for the COVID-19 crisis, but the satisfaction from the project meant she would continue even after life went back to normal.
“I find that this gardening project has been very therapeutic and a great way to get more fresh air and sunshine,” she said.
Victorians were keeping busy painting and gardening, with requests for lawn mowing jobs and garden maintenance down 66 per cent and 60 per cent respectively, followed by interior painting which was down 56 per cent.
But they were leaving roof repairs and airconditioning up to the professionals with requests for those services up 53 per cent and 18 per cent.
Dentist Dina Celebic, 30, from Armadale bought her first apartment in March and with her work slowing due to the pandemic, spent her time off doing renovations and painting.
“It was good timing for a bit of DIY,” she said.
“Corona kind of came around and I thought, ‘oh no, I’m not working much’, but it gave me plenty of time to spruce the place up actually.”
Ms Celebic said she had “gutted” the apartment to get the flooring, bathroom and kitchen fixed up with the help of tradies, but she took on the job of painting with paint delivered by Tint.
She said the massive project helped her mentally by encouraging her to set a new routine.
“I think I haven’t been as busy or as productive in a long time,” she said.
“In the mornings I get up, I know what I have to do and what I need to prep.
“It gives you that motivation to get up and do stuff and see an end result as well.”
South Australians were trying their hands at plumbing maintenance and carpet cleaning, with requests for the services down 50 per cent and 45 per cent.
They’ve were also taking care of cleaning themselves with requests for home cleaners down 62 per cent.
Requests for roof repairs and gutter repairs increased by 55 per cent and 20 per cent, along with skip bin hire which went up by 50 per cent.
Social media manager April Burdett, 42, from Hove spent five weeks in full isolation with her family and used the time to finish a DIY project that had been years in the making.
After pulling up the kitchen floor seven years ago, the room had been left as bare cement, but has now had a makeover.
“We had a bit of a faux pas,” Mrs Burdett laughed.
“I wanted to paint it, so we started painting the floor and then that was terrible, my husband hated it.
“So we stopped that and laid down vinyl planks that look like floor boards, it was a pretty big job.”
The Burdetts then turned their attention to outside and got stuck into the garden.
“We’ve made quite a few changes in the garden and did a project with the kids building a rabbit hutch,” Mrs Burdett said.
“They didn’t really know what it for at first, they thought we were selling it because the rabbits were a surprise.”
Hipages chief customer officer Stuart Tucker said while DIY home improvement could be “rewarding”, it should always be “approached with great caution”.
“In many instances, it is better to get a qualified professional to help out, and a handyman can help with all these smaller odd jobs that people are spotting around their homes,” he said.
“Some jobs, especially plumbing or electrical works, often cannot be postponed and require a trusted professional, easily found on hipages.
“When these jobs are put off or ignored, they can snowball into bigger tasks or have knock-on effects that are often more costly than they would have been in the first place.”