Renovation expert lists five costly mistakes

Carlo Simone reported on May 16 that Kevin Brown, a renovation expert at The Heritage Window Company, had outlined five DIY mistakes he said can saddle homeowners with repair bills of about £10,000 or more. The guidance was published by the Herald Series and carried by syndicated outlets including Yahoo News UK. Brown said the warning came as longer evenings and holiday weekends can prompt people to start overdue jobs around the home. DIY disasters cost Britons £539 million a year, according to 2024 data cited in the report. The article drew a line between small jobs and more complex work. Painting, putting up shelves and bleeding radiators were described as generally safe to tackle, while plumbing, structural changes and window fitting were presented as higher-risk tasks when done incorrectly. Brown said errors in those areas can create financial and structural consequences that only appear months later. (heraldseries.co.uk) ### Which expert gave the warning, and where did it appear? Kevin Brown was identified in the report as a renovation expert at The Heritage Window Company. The Herald Series published the piece on May 16 under the byline of Carlo Simone, and the same copy appeared on other Newsquest titles and Yahoo News UK. The Herald Series listing described the item as a homes and interiors story, and Yahoo News UK showed it as published on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 11:04 a.m. (heraldseries.co.uk) UTC. That establishes the timing and the named source behind the advice. ### Which five mistakes did Brown single out? DIY plumbing was the first example Brown highlighted. (heraldseries.co.uk) He said homeowners often try to install bathrooms, move pipework or alter central heating without the right expertise, and that a loose joint can trigger water damage affecting ceilings, flooring and plasterwork. The report said repairs can reach £5,000 or more. Load-bearing wall removal was the second. Brown said that kind of work needs a professional assessment, a building control application and a steel beam, and the report said ignoring those steps can lead to sagging floors, cracked walls and structural instability. A properly completed job was put at £1,800 to £7,500, with further remediation potentially costing thousands more. (uk.news.yahoo.com) Window installation was another item on the list. Brown said the job requires precise measurement, correct fixings and a weather-tight seal, and the report said mistakes can allow cold air and moisture into the home. It added that upper-floor work can bring scaffolding costs of about £875 a month for a typical two-storey semi-detached house. (uk.news.yahoo.com) The Herald Series homepage listing described the package as “Renovation expert shares 5 DIY mistakes to avoid that could cost you £10,000,” but the accessible article text available through search excerpts and Yahoo only fully detailed plumbing, load-bearing wall removal and window installation. The remaining two mistakes were not fully visible in the retrieved text. (uk.news.yahoo.com) ### How large were the costs in the examples that were published? Water-damage restoration from bad plumbing was priced in the report at £500 to £5,000, with mould remediation at £500 to £1,500 and flooring, plasterwork and redecorating at £1,000 to £5,000 or more. Those figures were used to show how a small fitting error can grow into a larger repair bill. (heraldseries.co.uk) Structural work carried its own breakdown. The report put a structural engineer assessment at £300 to £700, steel beam installation at £1,300 to £5,000, plastering and finishing at £500 to £1,500, and structural remediation at £5,000 or more if damage had already occurred. The article’s headline language varied by outlet. Herald Series promoted the piece as mistakes that could cost “£10,000,” while the body text and syndicated versions said some of the five errors can cost “around £10,000 or more” and referred to mistakes that can cost up to £20,000. (uk.news.yahoo.com) ### What should readers watch for next? May 16 is the publication date attached to the Herald Series and Yahoo News UK versions of the advisory. (uk.news.yahoo.com) Readers looking for the full list of all five mistakes would need the complete Herald Series article or another full syndicated version carrying Carlo Simone’s report and Brown’s comments. (heraldseries.co.uk 1) (heraldseries.co.uk 2)