If you’ve got a job that’ll take a week, contractors will basically fight for it - but if it’s just something that takes a few hours, it’s apparently a real struggle to get anyone to show up.
I just installed a new kitchen sink and hooked up the faucet and dishwasher for a client. He said they had called eight plumbing companies, and all of them either refused outright or said they’d get back to it but never did. One company agreed to come install it but wouldn’t do the hole in the countertop for the sink, so they would’ve needed to hire a carpenter separately - and you can imagine how thrilled a carpenter would be about a job that takes less than an hour.
This is an incredibly common story among my customers. I’m a plumber by training, but when I went self-employed, I expanded my services to cover all kinds of handyman work. Clearly, I’m filling a niche, considering the amount of gratitude I’m getting from customers. I literally received a gift basket from one just last week. I should’ve made the jump a decade ago.
The handyman is more or less gone at this point, all the contractors near me expect big massive jobs, and I’ve had the same experience. While I can do a sink and other things, there are other tasks that I’ll contact multiple people that then just never respond.
It’s funny, I’ve found the most frustrating thing about owning a house is that surprisingly few people want my money
Yes!! It’s a nightmare. You’d think loads of people would want cash in hand work given times are hard right now. But that’s not the case.
On the other hand, people also don’t want to pay for your work anymore.
I am a homeowner and I wish there were more out there like you. It is very hard to find people who will do small jobs at any price.
Am self-employed electrician, I see the same thing. Everyone’s so covered up that they don’t want/need the little old lady jobs - they don’t pay well, typically. I can waste a whole afternoon for them fixing ceiling fans for a couple hundred bucks, maybe, or I can do a job that’ll make 4x that in the same amount of time.
I still take those gigs, I got into this to help people, and old folks and first-time homeowners need all the help they can get. But I’m not gonna lie to you, those gigs are the first ones to get rescheduled. I’d call em beer money jobs but I don’t drink lol.
I’m trying to keep an eye out for any other stuff I can help with, too. I’m not above working outside my trade a little if it means someone’s life improves.
That’s really kind of you. I’m in my 40s with zero DIY skills so I rely on people like you
I do everything myself, and it’s led to being able to handyman if I need some cash. Contractor pricing is insane for something that’s never as difficult as it seems. Hell last night I installed a side door on my garage because I had an extra door I ripped out of the house last year. It took three boards, a nailgun, a shim, and an hour.
The job you listed? A wrench, Teflon tape, some valves, putty, and a diamond hole saw. So like 70$ assuming you don’t already have those things.
Most maintenance, installs, or upgrades are the same way, and the next time you do it, you already have the tools. Get a rolling toolbox, a belt, a basic battery tool set, and pick up all the specialty tools as you need them, and you’re a handyman.
Yep,
I’ve got a part of the house which needs new render and new capping on a pallisade wall. Cannot for the life of me find anyone that wants to do it. Whole house render, no problem. Turn up and just render every wall in site, no problem.
I had a long discussion with a builder who suggested I remove any lead flashing from the pallisade wall so he could render that. After going and investigating what I could, the lead is what’s keeping water out of the house. No, no thankyou do I want to remove that.
As it goes, I might just have to learn how to render myself as it might be easier than learning how to find a reasonable handyman.
Got a (apparently) kinda special lock in our apartment door and the bolt doesn’t fully retract sometimes. SO wanted to get someone to look at it but of the 2 companies that the apartment management recommended (insisted), one cannot be reached and the other isn’t interested in doing residential anymore.
We’re running on WD-40 and hopes and dreams at this point.
Is it a lubrication thing? It’s sticky? Should use graphite as a lubricant for locks. WD doesn’t lubricate.
Cheers, I’ll give that a try
I try to do my own work, but I always have a stuck skrew and have difficulties where the tutorial video glosses over :(
That’s the fun part! It’s also why my motto is “nothing’s ever easy”
You call local general “handyman” for those jobs. Not contractors. Contractors and companies need economies of scale. There are better bigger jobs more worth their time.
For the small jobs, get a local solo person who just fixes random stuff.
Or watch tons of YouTube videos and do it yourself. Especially with the internet, it has become incredibly easy to do a lot yourself if you are decent at problem solving.
My son has talked about getting into the handyman business, but doesn’t know how to get started finding customers. I’ve always been in the corporate world and I have no idea how to help him get started. Any suggestions?
Since I didn’t have anyone to model from, I just went with what felt intuitive: I ordered a ton of flyers from an online print service (Vistaprint) and started stuffing mailboxes around the nearby homes. It was pretty slow at first, but the occasional call here and there kept me going. Whenever things quiet down, I just go out and drop off more flyers. I think of it like blowing on an ember - you do it a few times, and eventually the fire catches and starts sustaining itself.
Other than that, I haven’t really done much marketing. I do have Facebook and Instagram pages for my business, which I think are important - especially Facebook. I also made a website. I’m not sure how much that helps directly, but it does get some traffic, and if nothing else, it adds to my credibility.
Also, I played with the idea for nearly a decade, but I should’ve done it sooner. Starting a business is absolutely terrifying, and he’ll lose sleep over it - but it has the potential to be one of the greatest and most life - changing decisions he’ll ever make. Better to regret having tried than to regret never having even tried at all.
Thank you, that’s super helpful. It’s coming into the right season for where he lives, hopefully he’ll be able to make it work.
Post ads on craigslist/kijiji/facebook/etc. Have business cards printed with a catchy name, simple logo, brief list of services and contact info. Whenever he does a job, bring a handful of business cards, give a bunch to the customer, maybe drop a few in mailboxes in the neighbourhood. Having a simple website might help as well
Good question
My current problem is that I have a big job that I still can’t even get done.
I need a roof, as in I have an extremely old house with a very old worn roof that has actually developed a whole rotted into part of it. If I can get a roofing company to come out to do an estimate, they won’t even talk numbers with me unless I tell them I’ll file an insurance claim as storm damage and they’ll work with the insurance company. This isn’t storm damage. This is me not having money for too many years to get the job done when it should have been done, and now my roof is fucked, and I’m getting a run around by the people to replace it.
yeah, that’s well beyond what a roofer will do. You need a general contractor and a HELOC, that’s going to be a VERY expensive job.
Following those lines, I recently received some money from an aunt who passed away in January. It’s possible that I could straight up pay for the repairs, but I sure as hell don’t want to tell someone that before they give me a number!
Most of the companies I’ve had contact with start talking about claim numbers before they even come out. Of the ones that actually came out and looked at the roof, they wanted claim numbers “to talk it out with the insurance company” and then they’ll get back to me with what it would cost once they get it sorted out. It’s just so frustrating.
I had some guy come out and say he’d install a washer and dryer hookup for me but he wouldn’t patch the hole he’d make in the wall and he would charge $900 USD for the project. Yeah, no thanks. That’s more than the damn appliances and you won’t patch the hole in the wall when done? He was supposed to be a general handyman, type guy I found off Craigslist.
That was a few years ago and I still haven’t had it done because I just can’t find anyone to do it. I never realized that this was something that didn’t have people available to do. Local plumbers won’t do it, hardware stores advertise “we’ll hook up your appliance for free too!” But that is just hooking up to an existing connection…I just gave up on the idea of having a washer and dryer in my home at this point.
Yup, that’s why i do most stuff myself. Paint my own house, repair my own plumbing, repair electrical appliances.
Only if I need to have something done completely from scratch I will hire a contractor. And even then most of them are like, yeah maybe next year we’ll have a spot.
I’ve found that even if there was someone who would come out and fix things, they charge so much that it’s unreasonable anyway. YouTube has thousands of videos showing how to fix things and using the opportunity to learn to do it on your own is very beneficial long term. But I get it, because I don’t always want to learn.
Where I live ( the good old balkans ) we barelly ever call anybody for work, just because we are all handyman.
Just last year I painted my gradmas house and assembled a new kitchen for her ( was 20 at the time ).
And just in general all furniture and most work that’s done on the house we do ourself, except work that is only legally able to be done with professional’s or we didn’t have experience with before, but learn how it’s by watching the contractor and call another one for that kind of jobs.
Our average holiday’s and day off’s are just working on our houses because we are too cheap to pay a cont$actor for it.
Same here. It took me a long time to realise that other people just call someone to do things for them, since my dad did all that stuff by himself. I had a new friend group when i was 20 or so, and i was at a friends place where a contractor came over to hang up some guitar hangers. I was blown away, like whaaaat? You can call a guy to drill 6 holes? That’s nuts.
Yeah, I’d imagine it’s pretty much the same here in Finland. People tend to DIY it when ever possible. I even encourage them to give it a shot and will give free tips when ever possible.
Most of my customers are either elderly or busy career people. Plumbing is the only exception where even handy people tend to leave it for a professional.
Sounds like you found a good niche to operate in. Make yourself some money by doing what the contractors don’t want to.
I would rather work on appliances and basic carpentry than do plumbing myself anyway. Plumbing work is my least favorite of household upkeep and repair. Because the turds and everything nasty goes through those pipes. There should be no turds in the dishwasher or sink or other appliances to worry about.
