How LA Handymen works

Handyman is a job title that covers hundreds of unrelated tasks, and a blank box asking you to describe the work helps nobody, because a job nobody can picture is a job nobody can price. So we give you a fixed menu instead: TV mounting and shelving, drywall repair, interior doors, faucet, toilet and garbage disposal swaps, ceiling fans and light fixtures, flat-pack assembly, gutters, fences and gates, small carpentry, hanging pictures and curtain rails, weatherstripping and caulking, and small painting jobs. Pick the one that fits, answer two or three questions, and your job arrives specific enough to price.

• Your job arrives with the details you gave us. What, where, roughly when.
• A person reads it. If something important is missing, we’ll text or call you first.
• We line up someone who does that trade and works your part of Los Angeles.
• You hear from us directly, usually the same day.
• You agree a price before any work starts. Nothing gets scheduled until you have.

The trade comes first. Patching lath and plaster in a 1920s Craftsman is a different skill from hanging a TV on studs. Half the older housing stock here is plaster over wood lath, which reads as solid to a cheap stud finder and blows out in a dinner-plate-sized chunk if a lag bolt goes in on a guess. So we send someone who has done your kind of job before, not whoever is free first. Where you are counts too, because Highland Park and Torrance are an hour apart on a bad morning. Timing is the last piece. Tell us roughly when you want it done and we will work to that.

Almost all handyman work carries a minimum charge, because crossing Los Angeles County costs the same whether you need one shelf hung or six. A single loose cabinet hinge is an expensive visit. A loose hinge, a running toilet, a dead smoke alarm and two pictures hung are a sensible one. Walk the house before you send the list and write down everything, including the things you stopped noticing months ago. Adding a job to a visit costs far less than booking a second visit.

Where the work requires a CSLB license, a licensed contractor does it. You can look any license number up on the CSLB website in about a minute, and it is worth doing, because licenses lapse and the lookup shows you the date. Ask about insurance on your job as well. Ask what happens if something is not right a week later. Get those answers before you agree a price, not after the work is done.

Most homeowners have never been told this one. California has a narrow exemption for small jobs, in Business and Professions Code section 7048. It covers work that’s casual, minor or inconsequential, where the whole contract including both labor and materials comes to less than $1,000, and where the work needs no building permit. It doesn’t apply if the job is part of a larger project, or if a job has been split into smaller contracts to get under the number. Outside that, the work needs a licensed contractor.

Most jobs on our menu are small enough on price. Mounting a TV, patching drywall, swapping a faucet, assembling furniture, clearing gutters before the October rain. But price is only one of the conditions, and section 7048 carries two that catch people out. The exemption is withdrawn from anyone who advertises in a way that might suggest to the public they’re a contractor, and from anyone who employs another person to do or help with the work. Whether it covers your particular job is not something a web page can settle. It’s narrower than it sounds, so if you want a licensed contractor whatever the size of the job, tell us and we’ll send one out.

Some jobs are clearly going to run past $1,000, or need a building permit. A room repainted, a fence rebuilt instead of repaired, several doors replaced in one go. A licensed contractor takes those on, and nothing changes at your end. If a job grows once someone has seen it, we’ll stop and tell you before we carry on, and getting a licensed contractor out to it costs you nothing.

One more thing. In pre-1978 homes, sanding into old paint can disturb lead, and that carries its own rules. About half the City of LA predates 1960, so we factor in your home’s age.

Get the number before anything is scheduled, and get it in writing. A price should hold unless the job turns out to be different from what you described. A wall that’s plaster, not drywall. A shutoff valve that won’t close. A leak behind the vanity that has already softened the floor. When that happens, we stop and tell you what changed, instead of pressing on and handing you a bigger number at the end. Ask as well whether materials are inside the price or billed on top. Both are normal, and only one of them is what you assumed.

Tell us. The price felt off, the timing doesn’t work, you’ve changed your mind. Whatever it is, you don’t have to justify it. Nothing is booked until you say so, it costs you nothing to change your mind, and you’re never obliged to hire anyone who comes out to look at the job.

Your name, address and phone number are used to get your job done and for nothing else. We keep them while the job is open and while any question about it is still live. Want them deleted once the job’s done? Email us and we will.