Handyman services

Every property has a list. A door that catches. A shelf that was never put up. A towel rail hanging off the wall by one screw. A blind that only goes half way down. Each one is ten minutes of work and eighteen months of meaning to get round to it.

The list is not a failure of character. It is that booking somebody for ten minutes feels absurd, so nothing gets booked, and the list grows until it is embarrassing.

The economics of a list

Handyman work is cheapest by the hour and most expensive by the visit. Almost all of the cost of a single small job is getting somebody to the property.

So: send everything. Eight jobs in one visit costs far less than three visits with one job each, and it costs less than you expect. Walk the property once with your phone and write down everything that annoys you, including the things you have stopped noticing.

What we do

Fixings and mounting. Shelves, rails, mirrors, TV brackets, blinds, curtain track, coat hooks, grab rails. Into drywall over timber, drywall over metal stud, or solid block — with the right anchor for that wall. Most failed brackets we are called to are the wrong fixing, not a weak wall.

Doors. Easing a door that catches, realigning hinges, handles, locks, closers, stops and thresholds. Sliding and pocket doors that have come off their track.

Sealing and caulking. Around tubs, showers, countertops and sinks, cut out and renewed properly rather than smeared over the old.

Small plumbing. A running toilet, a dripping faucet, a leaking trap, a slow drain, a wobbling pan. This is the part a general handyman has to leave for somebody else — we are licensed plumbers, so it gets done on the visit that found it.

Minor carpentry and repairs. Trim, thresholds, small patching, easing sticking drawers, cabinet doors that no longer line up.

Flat-pack assembly and installation, including fixing tall items to the wall.

Making good. Filling, sanding and touching in where something came off a wall.

What we will not do

Anything that needs a trade we are not. We will tell you plainly when a job is electrical, structural or specialist rather than having a go — a handyman having a go at a consumer unit is how people get hurt and how insurers decline claims.

How the visit works

Send the list first. With photos of the awkward ones. It decides what goes on the van, and it is the difference between clearing the list and clearing most of it.

We work through it in order, and tell you immediately if something turns out to be bigger than it looked — a wall that is not what it appeared to be, a fixing point that is not there.

Quoted in writing before we start. Time-based work is quoted as time, with what we expect to get through.

The property is left clean. Dust sheets down, holes vacuumed, old fixings taken away. You should not be tidying after somebody you paid.

Plumbing work is completed to the Florida Building Code, by a licensed Florida contractor, Lic. #CFC1433820.

For tenants and landlords

Tenants: if your landlord needs to approve the work, tell us at the quote stage and we will write it so it can be forwarded without being rewritten. Clear paperwork is usually what unblocks an approval.

Landlords and managers: a handyman visit between tenancies clears the snagging list before the next viewing, and a property that shows well lets faster. It pairs naturally with property maintenance plans.

How long things actually take

People consistently overestimate the small jobs and underestimate the awkward ones, which is why lists get postponed.

Genuinely quick, once somebody is there with the right fixings: a towel rail, a toilet roll holder, a door stop, easing a sticking door, changing a shower head, a new toilet seat, and most bulbs and batteries.

Longer than it looks: anything into solid block, anything at height, a TV bracket that has to miss a stud, a blind that needs the window measured properly, and any fixing where the previous one failed and left a hole to make good first.

Not a small job at all: a door that catches because the frame has moved, sealant that needs cutting out rather than topping up, and anything where the wall turns out not to be what it looked like.

Which is why we ask for photos with the list. It is how the visit gets sized honestly rather than optimistically.

What affects the cost

• How many jobs, and whether they are batched. This is the big one.
• What the walls are. Solid block takes longer than drywall.
• Materials. We will tell you what to buy, or bring it and itemise it.
• Access and parking. High-rise buildings with booked service elevators take longer than a driveway.
• Whether something turns out to be a bigger job. We stop and re-quote rather than absorbing it into the invoice.