Los Angeles County, California
Small handyman jobs in Santa Monica
Small handyman jobs in Santa Monica: plaster in the older courts, drywall in the Wilshire blocks, steel stud downtown, and salt air on all of it. Tell us what’s on the list and you get a price before any work 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.
Santa Monica fits three generations of building into a small city, and the anchor that works in one fails in the next. A bracket that holds in a Wilshire garden apartment can tear out of an Ocean Park court, and a toggle that grips plaster does nothing in a downtown steel stud. Say which you’re in and the price comes back close.
Santa Monica jobs and what they run
The figures are the ones printed on our TV mounting, door repair, window screen and grab bar pages. You get a firm price for the whole list before anything is scheduled.
- TV or shelves in an Ocean Park court$250–$450because plaster and lath take longer
- Cables hidden behind the screenadd $100–$250the HDMI run dropped inside the wall
- Closet bifold back on its track$120–$300hardware swapped if it is worn
- Sliding screen door rollers and track$110–$250where salt and sand have packed the track
- Grab bar through pre-war bathroom tile$325–$650diamond-cored and landed on framing
Three eras of wall in Santa Monica
The 1900s to 1920s bungalows, courts and small Craftsman buildings around Ocean Park and the Pico corridor are plaster over wood lath. A hand-troweled finish there gets matched by eye, and plaster filled with drywall compound alone tends to crack again inside a year, which our drywall repair page goes into.
North and south of Wilshire, and through Mid-City, it is fifties to seventies stucco garden apartments and dingbats: drywall over wood studs, where a mount goes into a stud and a patch disappears. The condo and podium buildings downtown and along Colorado have metal studs and some concrete, plus an HOA with rules about working hours.
Alleys, elevators and salt air
Many of the older Ocean Park courts are reached from the alley behind, which is often the easiest way in and the one nobody thinks to mention. The newer buildings need the freight elevator booked into a window and the HOA’s sign-off, both of which take a few days, so start them while the price is being worked out. Within about a mile of the beach, gate latches, door hardware, sliding door tracks and old caulking give up faster than they do inland, which makes them easy additions to a visit already booked.
Jobs for another trade
Once a job reaches $1,000, or needs a permit, or is one piece of a bigger project, it is work for a licensed contractor.
- New circuits, an outlet behind the TV, or knob-and-tube found in a pre-war unit, which belong to an electrician.
- Anything on a shared plumbing line in a stacked building, which is rarely the tenant’s to authorize anyway.
- Disturbing old paint in a pre-1978 court without a certified renovator.
If the work grows once we’ve seen it in person, we stop, say so, and re-price it before going any further.
What helps us price a Santa Monica job
- Your cross streets: Ocean Park and Fourth is a different job from Wilshire and Twentieth.
- Whether it’s a pre-war court, a stucco garden apartment or a newer condo, and whether you rent, own or manage it.
- A photo of the wall or the fixture added to the form, and a word on how we get in: alley, garage or elevator.
Send us the list, and if a line on it turns out to be bigger than a handyman visit, you hear that before anything is booked.
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.