Handyman, Why Not? (2)

Date: 2011.08.23 | Category: House & Home, Tight Budget, Tips & Trick | Tags: budget,contractor,hendyman,house,saving,training

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Some of the larger handyman companies, with a couple of employees, will take on two or three jobs a week, including building an addition with the help of the appropriate subcontractors.

Most handymen want small jobs, however. They aren’t licensed electricians or plumbers and typically don’t handle work that requires a municipal permit. Handymen get most of their work by word of mouth, and most find that smaller jobs often lead to bigger ones.

Sometimes, if they are good, people are reluctant to pass on their names for fear they’ll get too busy. On the other hand, a bad name is easy to get, and a lot of fly-by-nights are out there, too.

People turn to handymen because they can’t afford to pay the higher prices that bigger guys charge for small jobs. Case in point: I had a three-sided bay on my old house where 22 inches of crown molding had rotted out.

Birds were nesting there in the spring. I called a roofer to repair it. When he finally arrived, the estimate was $1,600. I might have paid it. But another contractor was replacing a beam on my porch. He told me that the roofer was planning to hire a carpenter to do the job.

The carpenter was charging $800. The roofer needed to make some money, so he was doubling the cost. I borrowed a ladder, went to the lumberyard and spent $20 for the piece of molding. It took me a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon to install it.