Australian Franchise News – 22-02-12
THREE QUARTERS of Australian women believe men are less handy today than 50 years ago according to a survey conducted by national property maintenance company Hire A Hubby.
The survey revealed Australian men struggle most getting jobs in the backyard completed, with painting coming a close second, followed by minor repairs around the house.
Over 70 percent of respondents said the death of the Aussie handyman was due to ‘the rise of technology based careers over trades’, with plain old ‘laziness’ being the next most popular answer.
CEO of Hire A Hubby Brendan Green said the results of the survey, which sampled 500 women aged between 25 and 65 nationally, reflected what Hire A Hubby Franchisees see every day.
“Unlike in years past when men might have been unhappy about another bloke turning up to do jobs around the house, our survey showed most male partners today are just happy to see the job completed, with only 11 percent of women indicating their partner was resentful when a handyman was called in,” he said.
The survey also found it was the simplest jobs that were most often overdue around the house.
“When we asked what property maintenance job women most wanted looked at in the next 12 months, most respondents said general property maintenance, which included things like fixing a towel rack or a flyscreen, so very minor DIY work.”
“It’s interesting to see these little jobs coming in ahead of the big projects like tiling, paving, roof work and other renovations.”
Mr Green said some of the results of the survey should be worrying for home owners.
“One of the most surprising things to come out of the survey was that a third of people were waiting up to a year before getting some of these jobs done around the house.”
“Waiting this long can turn simple jobs into very serious ones.”
“Take cleaning gutters for example; if this is left too long the leaf litter will eventually erode and destroy your gutters which can cost thousands of dollars to replace, or a blockage will occur, leading to leaky ceilings.”
“So it pays to have your property maintenance jobs done when you notice them. You’ll save yourself significant time and money by doing so.”
TOP FIVE UNFINISHED HOUSEHOLD JOBS
1. Outdoor Maintenance: decking, garden clean up, spraying weeds
2. Painting: rooms, decks, fences
3. General Property Maintenance: weatherboards, floorboards, flyscreens, replacing toilet roll holders or towel rails & odd jobs
4. General carpentry work: Kids cubby house / sand pit/ dog kennel or other basic carpentry
5. General Home Makeover: bathroom / kitchen makeovers, outdoor areas, nursery
KEY FINDINGS
• 75 percent of respondents believe men are less handy today compared with 50 years ago
• Respondents indicated the primary cause of this was an ‘increase in technology based careers over trades’ followed by ‘laziness’
• When a handyman was called to the home 39 percent of respondents indicated their partner was ‘just happy to see the job finished’ while only 11 percent indicated their partner was ‘resentful’
• General property maintenance including basic household repairs ranked highest as the jobs respondents most wanted completed in 2012
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