THE THIRD WAVE
I lnok at the dramatic changes that have hit other parts of the »!n H-yourself industry. Do-it-yourselfers have always put- tered away at fixing cracked windowpanes, broken light fixtures, or chipped flagstones. Nothing new about that.
What’s changed—and changed astonishingly—is the relationship between the do-it-yourselfer and the professional builder, carpenter, electrician, plumber, or what have you.
As recently as ten years ago in the United States only 30 percent of all electric power tools were sold to do-it-yoursel ers; 70 percent went to carpenters or other professioi craftsmen. In a short ten years those figures have been versed: Today only 30 percent are sold to professionals; 70 percent are bought by consumers who, more and mot are doing-it-themselves.
An even more significant milestone, according to Frost Sullivan, a leading industrial research firm, was passed in United States between 1974 and 1976, when “for the time, more than half of all building materials . . . were pi chased directly by homeowners rather than by contractors dc ing work for them.” And this did not include an additionalj $350,000,000 spent by the home craftsman for jobs costing] under $25.
While overall expenditures for building materials rose 31 percent during the first half of the seventies, those bought b} do-it-yourself homeowners rose over 65 percent—more th? twice as fast. The change, declares the F & S report, is “bot dramatic and continuing.”
Another Frost & Sullivan study speaks of the “skyrocketii growth of such expenditures and underscores the value shil toward self-sufficiency. “Where working with one’s hands looked down upon (at least by the middle class) it is now sign of pride. People doing their own work are proud of it.”
Schools, universities, and publishers are busy offering at avalanche of how-to courses and books. Says U.S. News & World Report: “Both rich and poor are caught up hi boom. In Cleveland, home-repair instructionis offered public-housing projects. In California, owner-installed saum spas and decks are popular.”
In Europe, too, the so-called “DIY revolution” is way—with a few variations based on national temperamer (German and Dutch do-it- yourselfers tend to treat then* prc ects very soberly, set high standards, and equip themselve carefully. Italians, by contrast, are just beginning to discove the DIY movement, many older husbands insisting that it degrading to do the work themselves.)
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