One visit, a list, a price up front
Most jobs in Newmarket get priced before I arrive, from your list and a few photographs. A picture of the tap under the sink, or of the wall where the television is going, answers the questions I would otherwise have to ask twice. You will usually hear back within one business day with a fixed price or an hourly rate to agree.
On the day itself, the number is the number. Materials I supply come with the receipts, or you can buy your own if there is a brand you like. The area gets cleaned before I leave, and if something is not sitting right afterwards, tell me and I will come back to it.
Houses from every decade the town has had
Behind Main Street South there are brick and frame houses old enough to have lived through several owners and their ideas of an improvement. Glenway, Bristol-London and Huron Heights are largely 1970s and 1980s, and the fittings in those are well past their first life. Stonehaven, Summerhill Estates, Woodland Hill and Copper Hills came later, and those calls are about finishing rather than fixing.
Newer apartment buildings along the Davis Drive corridor add a third type, with concierge desks, service elevators to book and set hours for anything noisy. Give me the building when you call and I sort that out ahead of time.
What the list usually has on it
Every house is different, but the pattern repeats. Something is loose, something drips, something never got hung, and something arrived in a flat box and stayed in it.
- Several small repairs cleared in a single booking
- Original 1980s taps and shower heads replaced
- Televisions mounted and the cables tidied away
- Flat-pack furniture built and anchored to the wall
- Light fixtures, dimmers and ceiling fans changed over
- Drywall dents and scuffs patched and painted out
- Tubs and showers re-caulked before water gets behind them
Bigger projects, and the line I do not cross
Not everything is a half-hour job. I take on multi-day work as well: flooring through a main floor with the baseboards and trim to finish it, a bathroom refreshed with a new vanity, fresh caulking and new cabinet hardware, or a basement wall properly patched and painted after a leak has been dealt with.
There is a line, though, and I am straight about where it sits. New wiring, a panel, anything gas, a structural change or a roof is licensed trade work, and I will tell you that instead of having a go. Changing a light fitting, a switch, a dimmer, a tap or a toilet that is already there is ordinary handyman work, and that fills most of my weeks.
