Is The South East Home To Britain’s Best-Groomed Brickies?
Covers’ Builder’s Lifestyle Census
According to new research released today by Covers Timber and Builders Merchant, the great British Builder has changed beyond recognition.
Far from the days of beer guts and white vans, today’s builder watches his weight, wears designer clothes and has even been known to use luxury face cream.
Covers’ Builder’s Lifestyle Census reveals that builders confess to spending an average of three and a half hours per week on personal grooming – with a quarter of those in the South East spending 6-10 hours in the bathroom, compared with builders in East Anglia who spend on average just two.
The South East is home to Britain’s most metrosexual builders. Regularly using up to 13 beauty products, almost half (47%) admit to cleansing with body wash, two fifths (39%) apply hair conditioner, a quarter use hairspray, hair serum and hair gel, and nearly a fifth (17%) massage in body moisturiser. Builders in the South East are also three times more likely to experiment with make-up, and Londoners are three times more likely to use luxury brand face cream – which should sound alarm bells for wives and girlfriends in the region!
You Are What You Eat
Builders’ interest in looking good goes more than skin deep, with nearly half (45%) of builders actively watching their weight and calorie counting. More than half (54%) of those over 40 watch what they eat and 71% of builders in the South West mind the calories. More than one in five builders (22%) opt for a healthy salad or sushi ahead of the traditional pie or fry up, with the most health-conscious builders to be found in the South East, where more than one third (34%) opt for sushi or salad. The least healthy are to be found in Scotland, the East Midlands and East Anglia where more than 90% prefer a lunch of pies, pasties and fry-ups.
While lager (38%) and bitter (14%) remain a popular choice in the pub, more than 1 in 10 (13%) prefer wine, a figure which rises to more than 22% for builders in London, whilst alcopops is the preferred choice of more than a quarter (26%) of builders in the North West. Fourteen percent of East Anglian builders are loyal to local real ale, seventeen percent of Yorkshire builders opt for local stout and twelve percent of builders in the South West opt for cider.
Get Your Kit Off
All this grooming, it would seem, has for a purpose. Forty percent of British builders frequently work topless. Builders in the East Midlands are particularly partial to showing a bit of flesh with two thirds (67%) regularly working topless or in shorts. By contrast, builders in London are keen to maintain a professional image: nearly three quarters (72%) say they prefer to keep their kit on.
Forty percent of builders under 30 state that they work with their top off because they: “look good and want to attract attention”. The biggest show-offs are to be found in the South East where one in five work in a state of undress because they “look good topless”!
Whistle While You Work
Contrary to their randy reputation, nearly three quarters of builders (72%) claim never to have wolf whistled at a passing stranger. The UK’s sauciest builders are to be found in Yorkshire & Humberside (where 39% whistle) and Scotland (where 36% whistle). Meanwhile just 12% of builders in the South West and Wales confess to whistling.
Shy builders should perhaps take heart – the vast majority (58%) of wolf whistles generate a flirtatious response – with builders in London claiming an 80% success rate. Builders in the North West however should beware – women in the region are the most likely to respond with verbal abuse (29%) or informing their boss (14%).
Nearly a third of builders have been whistled at themselves (28%) – with 39% of builders in London being whistled at – compared with just 6% in the South West.
Steve Osborne, MD of Covers, said: “Today’s builders are not the beer-bellied, pie munching sexists of popular myth. Building is now a professional and indeed lucrative career, with the new generation of builders more David Beckham than Auf Wiedersehen Pet.”