Los Angeles County, California
Small handyman jobs in Long Beach
Small handyman jobs in Long Beach, from pre-war bungalows and courts with plaster over lath to the stucco apartment blocks along Long Beach Boulevard. Send the whole list, from the TV mount to the dripping faucet, and you get a price agreed before anything starts.
The price in writingAgreed before anything is scheduled
One visit, several jobsThe drive costs the same either way
No surprise when we arriveThe number holds unless the wall says otherwise
Across Los Angeles CountyFrom the Valley to the South Bay
What goes on the list
The jobs, and what they look like done
Most visits are several of these at once, and the drive costs the same either way.
A lot of Long Beach walls aren’t drywall, and plenty of people renting them only find out when somebody drills. Most of the pre-war districts are plaster over wood lath. The stucco apartment belt is drywall, which is the easy case, and the converted lofts downtown are brick, so the first thing we ask is which one you’re in.
The jobs that come up most in Long Beach
A Long Beach list tends to mix a mount, a patch and something under the sink. The ranges come from our TV mounting, drywall repair, faucet and carpentry pages, and a firm price for your list comes first.
- TV into Rose Park or Belmont Heights plaster$250–$450slower than drywall and anchored to real framing
- TV on a stucco-block drywall wall$150–$300bracket straight into the studs
- Anchor holes filled before a walkthrough$150–$300a whole unit’s worth in one visit
- Faucet swap in an older kitchen$150–$300plus the shut-off valve if it has seized
- Sagging gate rehung near the water$200–$450with hardware chosen for salt air
Plaster, drywall and brick in Long Beach
Rose Park, Bluff Heights, Belmont Heights, California Heights and Wrigley are 1910s to 1930s bungalows, Spanish houses and small courts. Behind the paint is plaster over wood lath, which blows out in a cone under a rushed mount. Their doors have had ninety years to settle, so a latch an eighth of an inch out is usually the frame moving, and the door repair page explains why planing is the wrong first move.
The stucco apartments along Long Beach Boulevard and Anaheim Street, out toward Bixby Knolls, are drywall over wood studs. The converted 1920s buildings around Pine and the East Village are brick and concrete, where the anchor goes into the brick itself and never into the softer mortar joint.
Parking, the coast and a single visit
The bungalow districts mostly have a driveway or an alley. Belmont Shore, the Peninsula and downtown mean circling for a space, and on the canal side of Naples there may be no vehicle route to the side of the house that needs the work, so mention it when you write. Near the water, gate hardware, screen doors and window caulking wear out years early, and they are cheap to add to a visit that is coming anyway.
Work we pass to other trades
When a job runs past the exemption, on price, because it needs a permit, or because it is one piece of a bigger project, it is work for a licensed contractor.
- Anything on a gas line, down to the flex connector behind a range. We recognize the line, stop, and point you to a licensed plumber or the gas company.
- Electrical past a fixture swap, and plumbing past a like-for-like swap.
- Sanding or cutting old paint in a pre-1978 house without a certified renovator, which in the historic districts means most houses.
And if the job grows once we have seen it, we stop and say so, and you get a fresh price before any more work happens.
Sending a Long Beach list
- Cross streets. Fourth and Cherry and Second Street in Belmont Shore have different walls and very different parking.
- Roughly when the place went up, or what it is: pre-war court, stucco apartment, downtown loft.
- Photos of the wall, plus anything gas-fired in the room, added to the form.
Send the list and you get a price for the work before anything is scheduled, and before anyone drills into a wall that may or may not be plaster.
Where we work
The rest of Los Angeles County
What the walls are made of changes street by street in this city, and it changes the job.
Send us the list
However long it is. You get a price for the visit before anything is booked.