July 29, 2009

Need to Hire a Handyman?

by: Joanna Harris

A handyman is a person who is specialized in repairing certain things in your household. Range of works he’s skilled at includes plumbing, electrical works, carpentry, metal works and others. In a way, a handyman is the jack of all. Mostly, a handyman is called to do the odd jobs in your house like repairing leaking taps, broken hinges, tiles and many others. They can be hired to do minor repair works, cleaning or painting works. Sometimes, you may try to do the tasks usually done by a handyman on your own. But you may not have time to do all the repair works or you might not have the right tools to carry out the work. It is always good to hire a handyman to save you from further troubles.

Before hiring a handyman, you must make a list of jobs you want to be done. While making it, keep in mind that every handyman is not adept at doing all the jobs of your house. It is the smaller projects or odd one time jobs for which handyman are hired. Handyman who can handle most of the jobs is more expensive. So, if you are looking for a certain task to be done then you can save money by hiring the person who is specialized at doing that particular job. Like, if you want to get your home painted, it is advisable to hire the person skilled at just painting. If you hire a person who is skilled at more than one task, then it would be an expensive deal.

If you have a long list of tasks, you should hire someone who is skilled at variety of works. It will save your time and money too. Before hiring the handyman, ask for his qualifications, experience and references. These are very important questions. Getting references is valuable and is of great importance when hiring a handyman. With right kind of references, you can save you from many troubles later on such as shoddy work or theft. To ensure that you hire a trustworthy person who does good work, reference plays a great role. You can ask you friends, relatives and neighbours about handyman. Happy customers will surely refer a handyman’s name to other people.

Another important thing is to get a written estimate. Let him check your work and prepare a rough estimate of time and price. If you take verbal estimate, you may end up paying more than expected. Let the handyman sign a written contract so that later on he might not deny, in case anything goes wrong. If a handyman gives written contract, then he is more reliable.