If you can't stand the heat: One in four reach boiling point over kitchen renovation

Newly released research from loans broker, Norton Finance, has found that when it comes to home renovations, the kitchen is the room most likely to cause an argument.

Related topics:  At Home
Warren Lewis
28th January 2020
Kettle 552

Norton asked 1,000 new homeowners to reveal which renovations caused the most arguments and stress in their family. According to the data, one in four couples who revamped their kitchen will reach boiling point before the work is completed and argue with their loved ones.

Understandably, disruption caused by work in the bathroom (23%) was the second most common cause of rows, while choosing the colour of paint or wallpaper was the cause of arguments for nearly one in five couples, leaving them both seeing red.

Top five home improvements for causing an argument:
1. Kitchen renovations
2. Bathroom renovations
3. Selecting paint colour and wallpaper
4. Painting and decorating
5. New furniture

Overall, couples aged between 25-34 years old were the most argumentative, with 43% of 25-34-year-olds admitting to arguing over what they want in their kitchens compared to only 7% of those aged 65 and above.

In terms of stress and behaviours caused by renovations, gender matters most. Men were found to be more than twice as likely as women to record the highest possible levels of stress across all of the home improvements covered by the study.

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why nearly 40% of men said they had undertaken improvements without their partner’s knowledge, while only 20% of women admitted to doing this.

Paul Stringer, Managing Director at Norton Finance, said: “Moving into a new house is exciting, but once the boxes are put away and you start investing in making your new place feel like home, things can get stressful.

“As our research shows, it’s not just the highly disruptive changes to whether we cook and wash that can cause arguments, but little things like picking out paint or wallpaper that can descend into a row.

“We hope our research can help families understand where the pressure points are so that they can do their best to avoid arguing with the ones they love.”

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