Sue Gidden estimates she has added $20,000 to the value of her house in Te Atatu Peninsula. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Sue Gidden estimates she has added $20,000 to the value of her house in Te Atatu Peninsula. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Kiwis have had DIY in their DNA since the first European settlers and, as the nation falls in love with home renovation, women are increasingly taking a lead role
Picture the average weekend handyman, heading to the hardware shop to buy supplies for a spot of DIY.
Do you imagine a middle-aged bloke, loading up the car to head back to his shed?
The Kiwi bloke, as deft with a hammer as with his roll of number eight wire, is a key part of New Zealand's collective self ideal, but new research shows it is now almost as likely to be his wife or daughter getting ready to roll up her sleeves.
Their biggest hurdle, though, might be getting the man in their lives to let them.
Research conducted 10 years ago by Mitre 10 found 61 per cent of women had done DIY in the past two years.
This year, the chain's research found almost 95 per cent of women said they did occasional, some or a lot of DIY. Just 5 per cent did none.
It found that 66 per cent of women disagreed or strongly disagreed that DIY was a man's job, compared to 38 per cent of men.
But while women were increasingly confident about getting stuck in, men were not in a hurry to hand over the tools. Almost 30 per cent of men still felt DIY was a task reserved for the bloke of the house.
Te Atatu Peninsula homeowner Sue Giddens didn't give it a second thought when she started work on her house last year.
Tackling the job herself was a way to save money and preserve equity in her home - a 1910 villa designed to be an investment stepping stone to buying a city centre property.
She tried to sell the house three-quarters of the way through last year but couldn't get a price she was happy with.
DIY was a way to add value without having to fork out as much money.
Giddens, who owns the home on her own, figured she could do the grunt work.
She wouldn't be as quick as a professional but it would save having to pay tradespeople $60 to $80 an hour - money she could save or spend on furniture or artwork.
Over the past six months she has dug up gardens, concreted, sanded, plastered, added skirting boards and hardware, and designed and stained a deck.
She estimates she has added $20,000 to the value of the house. "I've learned to use every tool, except a skill saw because I'm too afraid."
Giddens works full-time at the Neurological Foundation but will kick off her high heels each evening and change into shabby old shorts and a T-shirt to work for hours.
It's not unusual for her to put in 12-hour days at the weekend and she has racked up 20 hours' work a week on the house.
"I have loved it," she says. "I'm the type of person who likes to have a vision and see it through so I can tick it off the list."
It's been a hard slog but she says there's been a lot of reward in having done the work herself.
"Friends have come round and said 'crikey, that must have cost a lot' and I've been able to say 'I did it myself, actually'. There's satisfaction in doing the job yourself and doing it well."
Giddens says the idea of physical labour wasn't foreign to her.
As a child growing up on a Canterbury farm, she watched both parents pitching in and often joined them.
She struck up a relationship with her local hardware store and says she didn't encounter any negativity as a single woman tackling a major practical project.
It did take a couple of people by surprise, though.
"If anyone asked on Monday morning what I did at the weekend and I said concreting or whatever, I'd get a second glance or a raised eyebrow but everyone is capable of learning, with good advice."
She is unusual among her friends as she has done the work alone, but she says many of her friends haven't tackled DIY at all.
"Most of us are second or third-homeowners and have been here before, sat back at one point and paid other people to do a job and thought afterwards 'I could have done that and saved a bit of cash' ... "
She is already looking forward to doing it again. "I want to have a bigger project next time."
If the Mitre 10 survey is any-thing to go by, women are getting better at DIY with every generation.
It found 61 per cent of women think they are better at it than their mothers, compared to 47 per cent of men who rate themselves as being more skilled than their fathers.
But men are still more confident about their abilities.
Nine per cent of men rated their skills "excellent", compared to just 1 per cent of women and, while half of the men surveyed say they're "above average", just a quarter of women say the same about themselves.
Mitre 10 CEO Neil Cowie says the survey's findings still show a gender gap, but it is closing. "We started researching this more than a decade ago, and back in 2004 we saw a noticeable increase in women getting into DIY and acquiring more skills.
"Now we're seeing that the skills gap has closed, but women tend to underrate their knowledge and abilities."
Cowie says there are differences in how men and women approach their DIY work.
"Our research shows women are happy to ask their partners for help with DIY but men almost never do.
"Men are more likely to visit a home improvement or building supply website to get the information they need.
"We discovered that men are comfortable with a multitude of tasks across the board, in particular building and construction, repairs, and using power tools.
"Women, however, are happy tackling gardening, painting and wallpapering but otherwise don't rate their knowledge with other DIY tasks."
University of London senior lecturer Dr Rosie Cox has researched DIY and gender in New Zealand, and says mastering DIY is a big part of Kiwis' sense of identity.
"Home ownership and the tradition of working on houses - including building houses from scratch - is part of the history of European settlement of New Zealand," she says.
"There has been a tendency for this history to be told in male terms and this can mean women's contribution to the practical aspects of home building and home maintenance, and their proficiency at DIY, is overlooked.
"It turns into a simple story of New Zealand identity whereby what it means to be a 'proper Kiwi bloke' is to be good at DIY and there is little space for women."
But she says it should not be surprising that women are embracing the image of a New Zealander being someone who can mend anything.
"The question that remains is how Kiwi men will deal with this: will they cling to the idea that DIY is men's work or in 10 years' time will we see even more couples working on their homes together, enjoying the fruits of being the most 'handy' nation on earth?"
New Zealanders are more likely to get into DIY than people in other parts of the world.
We spend about $1 billion a year at DIY stores and it is a big part of our popular culture, reflected in television shows, such as Grand Designs, The Block and the newest in the genre Our First Home. Take a walk around some central-city suburbs and it seems every other house is undergoing renovation.
And with rapidly rising house values, many are using the extra equity in their home to renovate rather than searching the competitive market for a new property.
When Cox started her research, she was surprised at how much practical work Kiwi women were doing. "I had never been to New Zealand and I thought it wouldn't be different from the UK but it was."
Of the people she spoke to the only person who did not do any DIY was a woman married to a builder.
Younger people told her DIY was a part of their social life - a group of friends would come over and work on someone's home, pour the concrete for the driveway, then have a barbecue.
"People talked very much about how social it was. It was part of being a good family member or friend."
Couples talked about DIY in terms of building their relationships, "making a little world together". That was driven by how expensive housing in New Zealand is, she says. "It's increasingly common to find somewhere that isn't up to scratch and have to work on it."
One man told Cox that while his wife was pregnant, he felt painting the house was a way to make a contribution. Cox expects the gender split on DIY will become less apparent over time.
"If children see mum and dad working together on their house, they're more likely to think that's what you do."
Dr Virginia Braun, associate professor of psychology at Auckland University, says gender differences in New Zealand have traditionally been less stark than in some other countries.
"The first female European settlers pitched in to get things done in a way they might not have done in their home countries."
She says it's not surprising women are taking on more DIY, in part because there are fewer traditional heterosexual relationships.
"There are many contexts in which women are not in a relationship with a man and DIY might be necessary.
And that's aside from situations where women in relationships with men might want to do it as well."
Sheryll Hoskin-Wyber and her wife, Jenny, decided to build their own deck when they were quoted $14,000 for the job. "We couldn't justify $14,000. I'd just taken a year out of work to spend with our little girl."
The project ended up costing $500 and while Hoskin-Wyber says it isn't as tidy a job as a professional might do, they're very happy with it. The pair googled how to do it and Hoskin-Wyber did the bulk of the work in the three days a week their daughter was at daycare. Over six weeks, it slowly came together. "It did have its frustrations. Trying to get it level was a nightmare."
The couple have dabbled in DIY before but this was the biggest project they had tackled.
They are already thinking about what else they can do to their 1970s house. "Now we've done the deck we probably will attempt other jobs before calling in a professional."
Hoskin-Wyber feels more confident about DIY than she thinks her mother would. She couldn't imagine her mother wielding a power tool but she now has a full collection.
"I was nervous using a skill saw. I was fairly sure I was going to chop something off. But it wasn't scary enough to make me not want to have a go."
The accomplishment in having done it herself makes the experience more worthwhile, even if the deck has its quirks. "The feeling of pride in seeing the deck, even though it has a bit of a roll on, is cool."
She and husband Damo had built a light fitting out of pallet wood but Jo handled the logistical side and Damo put it together. "I was a bit of a newbie. I'd done some up cycling of furniture but I'd never used a paint roller before. I didn't have any experience."
Despite that, the Feilding couple won the People's Choice award in last year's show,which ended in November.
During the programme, she learned tips and tricks - including how to "cut in" edges on painting jobs rather than wasting time masking. She says there's nothing women can't do that men can.
"Things people used to pay other people to do, they are now thinking they can probably do themselves. Women are feeling more confident, they know other people have done it so why shouldn't they try it. Single women want to test their limits and find they can do it.
Jo, 35, says the split of work between her and Damo, 36, will be pretty even when they next tackle a DIY project.
"Damo is way better but with painting, decorating, decision-making, it's pretty 50/50. My dad said you should always try something,whether it's something you've never eaten or something you've never done, you should always try it before you decide not to do it."
Getting started
Start the job early. If it all turns to custard, you've got the rest of the day to sort it out and clean up. Photo / Thinkstock
1.
Do your research first - know what you need to do and what materials are required. Have a chat to an expert or someone with DIY experience. The better idea you have of what needs to be done, the more you'll know if it's achievable.
2. Plan the job and get as much knowledge as you can.
3. Start the job early in the day. If it all turns to custard, you've got the rest of the day to sort it out and clean up.
4. Don't underestimate health and safety. Make sure you have all the gear on hand to keep yourself and those around you safe. Keep sharp tools out of the way of little ones and ensure extension cords are used in such a way that nobody will trip over them. Remember to always use safety goggles and earmuffs - your eyes and ears are precious.
5. Get organised. Make a list of what you need and ensure all the tools are sharpened, batteries charged and ready to go. Measure twice, cut once.
