AIBU to think basic DIY and car skills are being lost?

[Thechaseison71]

Are skills being lost through the generations?

Following on from the battery thread, when I was younger usually a friend of family member would show a youngster how to go basic car maintenance and then they then know. Yet it seems the ability is being lost the amount of people insisting it's a paid for job . Not just batteries but bulbs )( I know some are a pig to fit) wiper blades etc

And stuff in the house Mum taught me how to plumb in washing machine, hang wallpaper etc. Dad taught me wiring plugs and fitting ceiling lights. These are all examples. I then taught my kids to do all this stuff

Yet it seems many people have never been taught or bothered to learn, therefore they can't pass skills down

Eventually will it get to the stage that unless you train in a trade no one will be able to do basic stuff? Surely people would want their kids to learn stuff rather than having to pay others constantly

I must be very good at it then 🤣 I think it looks fab once finished. I have also done more adventurous stuff recently like geometric shapes in my boys rooms and am currently doing a sun wall/mural in the room I am decorating for our new baby due April. I don't do ceilings though, we did get someone in for that because I hate painting ceilings. Ditto plastering, because it's like an art and professional plastering looks much better than what either I or DH can do. Although I do small fixes with filler/ready made plaster.

But at 45 I've only ever had one bathroom fitted anyway. And I had the holidays I wanted that year. Plus, I was talking about my dad. The plumber 😂 your average person can’t fit a bathroom can they?

besides the better the fitting the longer the bathroom suite will last so it’s a false economy to have a go yourself. You could be taking 10 years off it.

Or an adaptor you can buy for a quid.

Also- why don’t you wonder how much earlier my dad could’ve retired if he’d known how to do basic investing or used tax efficiencies?! Yet I should worry about buttons and windscreen wipers to help me retire younger 🤨

My uncle- who is maths teacher 😂- is excellent at decorating. It looks professional. His house is the only example I’ve ever seen of decent DIY decorating though.

I have an older car which is very reliable but it’s by no means considered vintage yet everything on it is simple to fix.
I can change the battery myself without having to
” code it in”, I change the light bulbs and wipers myself.
I think modern cars need an electrician to fix them now and to be honest, I think they’re a ticking time bomb of expensive repairs. Many parts on modern cars are made with a built in expiry date now, so that they fail and need replaced after a set time. It’s all about making money and fleecing people.

Regarding in the home, I’m of the generation that was taught the basics like painting, decorating, changing lightbulbs and basic plumbing. I even made my own shed out of pallets. I’ve taught my kids a lot of diy too.
I agree, most people now cant do anything without needing a tradesman.

I wasn't having a go honestly. I genuinely meant that if someone is able to do a range of tasks to avoid paying for work to be done then any money saved can go towards treats or making life easier rather than paying bills. Whether that's your dad investing or you doing a spot of plumbing is immaterial.

DH and I are average people and have fitted several bathrooms in houses we've renovated. We'd learned some skills from our parents and researched the rest.

Having a range of skills has been a benefit to and helped us retire earlier. It also gave us a sense of self sufficiency and the comfort of knowing that should we ever find ourselves short of money we could still sort out our own practical problems. None of this seems to apply to you but it might be relevant to others.

Are the pipes connecting to the main water supply already there or are you plumbing them from scratch?

if the latter than that is fantastic I wouldn’t mess with the water supply. If the pipes are already there is it not just twisting and turning the connections in?

I was well happy when I saved myself a whole £15 for not getting John Lewis to install my new condenser dryer. How happy was I when he plugged it into the plug socket for me free of charge 😂

Yeah pipes there Most houses will have previously had a machine fitted I guess. DD sorted out pipework to add dishwasher to her system also. also

Idm amazed they'd have the cheek to think of charging £15 to plug the dryer in though Pure pisstake

I’ve never undertaken car maintenance, it costs just a few pounds to get them fitted at the shop. I do know how to wire a plug. Washing machines basically plug in but I’d never touch ceiling lights, that’s a job for an electrician and I don’t have wallpaper

Cars, I could and have changed a wiper blade but it is so important that your car is in good working order that I would always want a fully trained mechanic to do the work.

I do get your point and some people would have paid the £15 for the dryer install without thinking about it

i plug my own dishwasher in but will admit I paid them £25 to plug the washer in. This is because it’s under the stairs and is really hard to get the plumbing in behind the washer (well for me it is)

I used to do a lot more DIY and maintenance when I was a lot younger in my first house but I’m older, fatter and a bit more rich (not much) now

I LOVE DIY, I hope I've spread my knowledge to the kids.

I agree that skills are being lost through the generations but on the other hand, new ones are being learned and we can’t all be experts at everything. My parents didn’t teach me any of the things you mentioned. I remember my Mum having a flat tyre in the 80s and waiting for the AA to come out as she had no idea how to change a tyre. But she had a wealth of knowledge on gardening and cooking. I learned how to change a plug in physics lessons at school round about year 9, same as they learn now. Car stuff - I check my tyre tread depth and wiper blades before the MOT every year. Wiper blades I change myself. Tyres I usually order in pairs which means you often get free fitting on your driveway which is much more convenient and probably safer. I don’t have a spare wheel anyway. But I have changed the touchscreen on my car with the aid of a you tube video - now there’s something that previous generations wouldn’t have done.
I think the internet has played a big part in this as you know that the information you need is available with a few clicks pretty much wherever you are, rather than having to be pre-armed with the knowledge in case you ever needed it. So for a lot of DIY and basic car maintenance this would be my first port of call. Generally for electrical work such as the ceiling light example you have, you are advised to leave it to the experts unless you’re sure what you’re doing.

Exactly. Using an adaptor is faster and can be used with other plugs.

As for the ceiling lights, I leave to a qualified electrician to fix. Keeping safe. Every man or woman to their own trade as the saying goes.

We've decorated 3 houses from top to bottom. I don't know anyone who actually pays to have their house painted inside. Ours looks good, because dh, who is slightly blind to general grubbiness, is like a hawk with any painting errors or sloppiness. The prepping takes longer than the painting.