DIY projects bring measurable risks involving falls, cutting tools, lawn equipment, chemicals, and electricity. The figures below use U.S. emergency-department estimates, occupational injury records, and fire-loss estimates from different periods, so each measurement date and scope matters.
Contents
- DIY injury burden
- Ladders, stairs, and access
- Workshop tools and cutting hazards
- Yard and garden equipment
- Chemicals, fuels, and cleaning hazards
- Electrical DIY and fire losses
DIY injury burden
The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s NEISS Data Highlights—Calendar Year 2023 reports national estimates of people treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for consumer-product-related injuries. These are not direct counts of DIY activity. A single injury can be associated with up to three product groups, so the categories should not be added together.
Home structures and access areas were prominent exposure proxies in 2023:
- Stairs, ramps, landings, and floors were associated with an estimated 2,724,786 emergency-department-treated injuries.
- Ceilings and walls were associated with 336,068 injuries.
- Non-glass doors and panels were associated with 246,260 injuries.
- Porches and open-side floors were associated with 112,997 injuries.
- Fences were associated with 99,859 injuries.
- Glass doors, windows, and panels were associated with 95,743 injuries.
- Counters and countertops were associated with 72,989 injuries.
- Handrails, railings, and banisters were associated with 47,241 injuries.
These categories describe where or around what an injury occurred, rather than proving that a person was performing a home improvement task. They are useful for identifying common project settings: flooring, painting, wall work, door installation, porch repairs, fencing, and railing work.
The distinction between an exposure proxy and a confirmed DIY injury is important when reading every CPSC number in this article. NEISS estimates cover people treated in hospital emergency departments, so they do not represent all injuries, near misses, first-aid cases, or incidents that received care elsewhere. They also describe consumer-product-related injuries at the national level rather than a particular household, project type, or tool brand. A large estimate for a structure or product group therefore signals a broad safety concern, but it cannot show how many people were actively renovating, repairing, or building when they were injured.
The product groups also have different levels of specificity. A ladder-and-stool estimate is closer to a recognizable access hazard, while a floor, wall, door, or countertop category can include ordinary household incidents unrelated to construction. The same caution applies to cleaning products, fuels, batteries, and garden equipment. These figures are most useful as reminders to assess the work area, equipment, and people who may be nearby before starting a project—not as a precise ranking of DIY activities.
Ladders, stairs, and access
Ladders and stools were associated with an estimated 228,875 emergency-department-treated injuries in 2023, according to the CPSC source above. People aged 25–64 accounted for 116,676 of those ladder-and-stool injuries, while people aged 65 or older accounted for 80,542. Males accounted for 147,993 cases and females for 80,849. An estimated 46,318 ladder-and-stool cases ended in hospitalization or death on arrival.
The wider access problem is also substantial among older adults. People aged 65 or older accounted for an estimated 1,209,978 emergency-department injuries associated with stairs, ramps, landings, and floors in 2023 (CPSC, NEISS Data Highlights—Calendar Year 2023). This is a broad product-group estimate, not a count of falls during DIY work.
Older occupational data adds context but should not be treated as a household estimate. The CDC’s Occupational Ladder Fall Injuries—United States, 2011 reported 113 work-related ladder-fall fatalities, an estimated 15,460 nonfatal injuries involving at least one day away from work, and an estimated 34,000 emergency-department-treated injuries in 2011. Those figures concern work-related ladder falls, not home projects.
| Measure | Estimate | Period and scope |
|---|---|---|
| Ladder-and-stool emergency-department injuries | 228,875 | U.S., 2023 consumer-product estimate |
| Ladder-and-stool cases ending in hospitalization or death on arrival | 46,318 | U.S., 2023 consumer-product estimate |
| Work-related ladder-fall fatalities | 113 | U.S., 2011 occupational estimate |
| Work-related ladder-fall injuries with at least one day away from work | 15,460 | U.S., 2011 occupational estimate |
Workshop tools and cutting hazards
Workshop categories recorded by the CPSC for 2023 show how many different tools can create injury exposure:
- Workshop manual tools were associated with an estimated 119,798 emergency-department-treated injuries.
- Power home workshop saws were associated with 70,930 injuries.
- Power home tools other than saws were associated with 27,582 injuries.
- Welding, soldering, and cutting tools were associated with 10,556 injuries.
- Batteries were associated with 19,971 injuries.
- Nails, carpet tacks, and similar items were associated with 82,478 injuries.
Males accounted for an estimated 105,013 workshop-manual-tool injuries and 66,849 power-home-workshop-saw injuries in 2023. People aged 25–64 accounted for 44,139 power-home-workshop-saw injuries. An estimated 5,858 power-home-workshop-saw cases ended in hospitalization or death on arrival (CPSC, NEISS Data Highlights—Calendar Year 2023).
Construction-worker data provides a separate occupational benchmark. The CDC’s Nonfatal tool- or equipment-related injuries treated in US emergency departments among workers in the construction industry, 1998–2005 estimated 786,900 such injuries among construction workers during 1998–2005. This legacy work-related figure was not independently verified here and is not a household DIY total.
Yard and garden equipment
Outdoor projects involve both powered equipment and hand tools. In 2023, lawn and garden equipment was associated with an estimated 76,137 emergency-department-treated injuries. The CPSC categories included 70,381 injuries associated with lawn mowers, 35,660 with hand garden tools, 23,159 with chain saws, 23,131 with other power lawn equipment, 20,726 with trimmers and small power garden tools, and 12,110 with hatchets and axes.
People aged 65 or older accounted for an estimated 36,326 lawn-and-garden-equipment injuries in 2023 (CPSC, NEISS Data Highlights—Calendar Year 2023). As with the other NEISS categories, these are national estimates of emergency-department-treated consumer-product injuries. They are not a direct count of DIY sessions, and the listed categories should not be summed into a single injury total.
Chemicals, fuels, and cleaning hazards
Home maintenance can expose people to products used for cleaning, painting, lubrication, fueling, and repair. The 2023 CPSC estimates include:
- Non-caustic cleaning equipment and detergents: 45,261 emergency-department-treated injuries.
- Soaps and detergents: 44,357 injuries.
- Cleaning agents excluding soaps: 38,465 injuries.
- Paints, solvents, and lubricants: 16,325 injuries.
- Gasoline and diesel fuels: 11,245 injuries.
- Home fires, carbon-monoxide poisoning, and gas vapors: 25,501 injuries.
Children aged 0–4 accounted for an estimated 9,439 cleaning-agent injuries in 2023. People aged 65 or older accounted for 3,731 paints-, solvents-, and lubricants-related injuries (CPSC, NEISS Data Highlights—Calendar Year 2023). The overlapping product-group structure means these values are indicators of exposure categories, not additive counts.
Electrical DIY and fire losses
Electrical equipment involvement is a fire-safety concern, but it does not prove that a DIY project caused a fire. The National Fire Protection Association’s Home Fires Caused by Electrical Distribution and Lighting Equipment reports annual U.S. estimates based on municipal fire-department reports and NFPA’s fire-experience survey.
For 2015–2019, home structure fires involving electrical distribution or lighting equipment averaged 32,620 fires per year. They averaged 430 civilian deaths, 1,070 civilian injuries, and $1.333 billion in direct property damage per year, with the dollar amount in nominal dollars.
Specific equipment and circumstances were also measured for the same annual-average period:
- Extension cords were involved in 1,780 electrical-distribution-or-lighting home fires per year and 110 civilian deaths per year.
- Generators were involved in 510 such fires per year.
- Battery chargers and rectifiers were involved in 660 such fires per year.
- Electrical failure or malfunction contributed to 26,130 home fires, 330 civilian deaths, 760 civilian injuries, and $1.012 billion in direct property damage per year.
- Unintentional ignition caused 17,600 home fires, 240 civilian deaths, 670 civilian injuries, and $865 million in direct property damage per year.
- Cord- or plug-involved fires averaged 3,210 fires, 180 civilian deaths, 190 civilian injuries, and $130 million in direct property damage per year.
The NFPA figures are rounded annual national estimates for 2015–2019, not forecasts for 2026 and not a DIY-specific fire count. They indicate the scale of electrical fire losses associated with home structures and lighting equipment while leaving the cause of any individual fire separate from the presence of a home project.