One in four Britons can't do basic tasks like bleed a radiator or change a light bulb
They are the most basic of household chores - but the majority of Brits fail in their efforts to complete them.
Bleeding a radiator, changing a light bulb and locating the stopcock are the sort of jobs homeowners should do for themselves but in reality, tell themselves, 'out of sight out of mind'.
A quarter of Brits cannot complete these elementary home repairs and alarmingly many of us think our home 'is against us', according to a new poll.
Out of 2,000 people recently surveyed, half said they have had a row with their partner when one of them unsuccessfully tries their hand at bit of fixing.
The biggest bogeyman of the homeowner is the boiler with six in 10 of us admitting we only think about the contraption when it starts to play up.
A third of us accept should the boiler give out; we would have no idea how to get the thing running again.
Even more alarmingly a fifth of the general population have no idea where their stopcock is located and a quarter of us cannot change a lightbulb.
And just under one fifth of us haven't a clue when it comes to radiators and how to bleed them.
A quarter of Brits cannot complete elementary home repairs, such as changing a lightbulb, and alarmingly many of us think our home 'is against us', according to a new poll
Out of 2,000 people recently surveyed, half said they have had a row with their partner when one of them unsuccessfully tries their hand at bit of fixing
In fact, if something goes wrong 20 per cent of us prefer to pretend that nothing is happening and 15 per cent call for aid from mum and dad.
Peter Knowles, Engineer at British Gas responding to the survey said: 'Modern homes can be confusing, and it is completely normal not to feel confident tackling everything yourself.
'On top of that, issues don't always happen at convenient times, so we're committed to being there when customers need us.'
Of those brave enough to tackle domestic mishaps - 81 per cent of us admit to banging machines on the head in what is euphemistically called 'trial and error' in the survey.
Perhaps it is not all that surprising therefore that two thirds of Britons accept we are less practical than our parents- indeed just shy 10 per cent of those surveyed believe their home is 'out to get them'.
Arguably most worryingly of all 40 per cent of homeowners have no maintenance or cover in place for their boilers.
