Your DIY design crimes

A national pastime for decades

Homeowners spend thousands on alterations that can actually reduce the value of their property. Own up - send us your photos.

Imitation wood flooring. PVC windows. Fishponds. Fireplaces ripped out. These are but a few of the alterations that property experts say can knock off up to 5% of the value of a home. With the average property now worth £190,000, that's a sizable chunk.

But are we deterred? No. Almost half of Britons have carried out, or plan to make, such changes, according to research by Direct Line home insurance. With home improvers spending £6,800 on average, that adds up to a substantial sum spent "design crimes".

10 DESIGN CRIMES Laminate floors, uPVC windows, cheap kitchen/bathroom Remove period features or fireplaces Fishponds, dark decoration, knock down room partitions Concrete front garden, MDF partitions Nearly half mistakenly think these will add value 11% hope to pocket £10,000 more as a result

The most popular of these so-called improvements is to lay a laminate floor - one-third of those questioned by the insurer say they've installed one, or plan to. But it's a feature that surveyors Habitus says can knock 2% off the value of a home. Ditto replacing sash windows with plastic frames.

And while adding a new kitchen or bathroom suite can add value, using cheap fixtures and fittings can have the opposite effect (which is not to say that money can buy good taste). Also detrimental are design fads of past decades, such as pebble-dash, stone cladding and avocado bathroom suites.

So have you - or a past owner of your home - fallen into this trap? Send us your photos - see below for details of how to do this. We'll publish a picture gallery of notable examples next week.

How to send your pictures

The best way to send pictures is to e-mail them to us. Send them to [e-mail]. with the subject line DIY DESIGN CRIMES.

Don't forget to include your name and some background information about the picture.

If you want to send your picture from your mobile phone, dial 07921 648159. You can send them from any network or phone. Please send the large full size images (usually 640x480 pixels) taken by the mobiles otherwise they are too small to publish.

If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's Terms and Conditions.

In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. (See the Terms and Conditions for the full terms of our rights.)

It's important to note, however, that you still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News. This means you are perfectly free to take what you have produced and re-publish it somewhere else. Please note that if your image is accepted, we will publish your name alongside it on the BBC News website. The BBC cannot guarantee that all pictures will be published and we reserve the right to edit your comments.