• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 15, 2009

Lowe's says U.S. consumers are wielding hammers and pruning saws with a vengeance -- and that the new do-it-yourself derring-do is not all about the recession.

The Mooresville, N.C.-based home improvement retailer says 84% of homeowners are planning a lawn or garden project in the next 12 months, 82% plan to do interior painting, 65% will paint exteriors, 56% are putting in new flooring and 55% are either remodeling or adding a bathroom.

And while 35% concede the main reason they're DIY-ing is to save money, a surprising 32% gave "pleasure" as the main motivator. And yes, that extends to a complex relationship with the lawn: 80% cut their own grass, and intend to keep doing so.

That's good news for retailers, especially those like Lowe's and the Home Depot, which have been pummeled by the slump in the housing market. And while many like to tout the remodeling sector of the business as recession-proof, it isn't: Total sales in the home-improvement segment of the market fell 4.5% to $290.5 billion in 2008, according to the Home Improvement Research Institute, which is predicting an even sharper decline of 6.5% for this year.

But a recent study from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies does find that the downturn in this segment of the economy will be less pronounced than the housing market overall. "Lower mobility rates imply not only lower levels of improvement spending, but also changes in spending priorities," the study says. "With home prices falling, owners are shifting from high-end discretionary improvements to those that maintain the structural integrity and efficient functioning of their homes, as well as generate cost savings."

Among the growth spots: Increasing demand for green improvements, upgrades to the nation's aging rental stock, and the growing population of immigrant homeowners, whose home-improvement spending has been growing at about 13% a year since 2000, compared to 7% of native-born households.

Lowe's survey also noted an increase in people combining DIY with do-it-for-me. Among those who are planning kitchen remodeling, for example, 37% say that while they will hire professionals to do some part of the job, they will handle some aspect of the project themselves. The two tasks least embraced by the DIY crowd? Installing carpets and replacing roofs.