How to find a reliable value for money handy man?

[imcrapatdiy]

I live in Bedfordshire and am generally crap at DIY so I usually hire a handy man to do general maintenance. I have 2-3 days of general maintenance work that needs doing and submitted my job to Rated People website and only got one response but the review from the guy that responded was poor. So I removed it.

I've generally not had great experiences with handymen in the past with either having shoddy work done, or been quoted high prices. Where can I find a good value for money, honest and quality person? How do you find them? They seem hard to find!

 

[big-all]

so what you are actually asking for is a cheap job done well ??
cheap = unskilled not usually up to job
a man with his own tools and van will be around £15-30 an hour
any less he wont even make minimum wage
what price are you looking to pay ??
remember a trained man with the right tools will get the job done in a fraction off the time a handy man takes
apart from that ask people around you for recomendations
look for builder type vans and ask the homeowner or the builder

 

[Dave54]

The ones who are any good generally don't need to advertise. If you know a friendly estate agent / letting agent you could try asking who they use. They generally know people who can deal with the bits of property maintenance that come up. otherwise it's word of mouth, asking around, and talking to the people you meet.
The guy I use appears to have the proper kit to do most of the normal stuff. he is capable and honest. He charges at the lower end of the range big-all mentions and I reckon he's very good value for money. This is Cornwall though, and wages tend to be lower. Bedfordshire I'd expect to pay nearer the top end of that range for anyone who was good.

 

[ladylola]

Coming at this from the other side so to speak , after quite some time in restoration I now work locally in the handyman role. I did set up a Facebook page and take out a few adverts but in all honesty nearly all my work comes from the word of mouth avenue , one customer recommends me to another and so on.

 

[WabbitPoo]

Coming at this from the other side so to speak , after quite some time in restoration I now work locally in the handyman role. I did set up a Facebook page and take out a few adverts but in all honesty nearly all my work comes from the word of mouth avenue , one customer recommends me to another and so on.

Same for me!

 

[big-all]

my comments wherent ment to be derogitory to handymen
its more 2 or 3 days work tends to be better covered by a trade or 2
i know several handymen that can do a very good job as i am sure you do with pride
but they need say 3 times longer to make a meter cover with doors and shelves
the finnished result will be as good but i can make it in about 2 hours up to paint stage they will take 5- 8hrs

on the plus side there spelling will be better than mine

 

[ladylola]

I understand what you are saying big-all. As I say I worked for many years in restoration and to be honest speed wasn't always the most important factor. Couple that with the work being quite varied and a tendency to use joiners as almost glorified handymen in that it wasn't just timber work we were asked to do and I'll admit to not being the fastest in the world. Take door hanging for instance , there were times when I'd hang a handful a year and some years where I didn't hang a single door. Consequentially it takes me a bit longer and I've no chance of competing with some who reckon they could or have hung up to 12 in a day.

 

[pineapple]

I live near a village and there is a well known local handyman who advertises in the parish mag. That said most of the neighbours have used him so it's word of mouth as said. It's not necessarily about getting a cheap person to do a skilled job. He does jobs like cleaning out gutters (we aren't all able to shimmy up a ladder). Plus he will come out for the small jobs that bigger companies sometimes don't want to know about.

 

[Sam Gangee]

on the plus side there spelling will be better than mine

Hmm, but if I tell you that "there" always refers to a place (put the dictionary over there) and "their" always refers to a person (it was their poor spelling), how could you ever get it wrong again?

Anyway, back on topic: a "handyman" has to handle everything so he is an average plumber/ carpenter/ electrician and often good at nothing!

In addition, he can never afford to own or carry ALL the tools needed to do fast and accurate work, so he has to "make do", which means he'll be slower and possibly less accurate than a specialist.

 

[big-all]

so their is short for they are then ??

 

[Stivino]

Here and there both refer to places.
Heir and their both refer to people.
They and they are become they're.

 

[Sam Gangee]

so their is short for they are then ??

No, "their" is short for "belonging to them". (e.g. It is their house.)

"They're" is short for "they are". (e.g. They're nice people.)

If you are interested in discussing this stuff, send me a PM. Happy to help.

 

[big-all]

thanks for the help people
being a scot my english was my second worst subject after french lol
thank you for the offer sam g but i will decline as it would become very frustrating for both me and you as i forget things quite quickly unless they interest me
my spelling and grammer have actually come on in leaps and bounds on these forums over the last 10 years with only the finer points like punctuation paragraphs and full stops
inccidently only grammer and inccidently are showing as wrongly spelt so not to bad

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

I've had three people from CheckATrade, one unknowingly so. One was a dishonest incompetent cowboy, Trading Standards negotiated £1800 compensation, one was iffy (fitted boiler with undersized gas pipe requiring rework and used pipe sealant in the radiator water contrary to Bosch advice), and another was lazy (serviced boiler without taking off cover).

I've also had very good trades. A kitchen company was fantastic, lots of glowing reviews on an independent review site. A tiler did a nice job of the floor. He was recommended by the kitchen company. A stove company fitted a stove nicely. I spent lots of time chatting in the shop with the staff and got a very good impression: they gave me good advice, and did not push themselves.

So, word of mouth, recommendations from kitchen and bathroom installers, and intuition ie the vibe you get. Avoid those that are too friendly, good trades don't have to slime you! And avoid RatedPeople, CheckATrade etc.

 

[delmel]

id recommend you go with a recommendation, to many cowboys and untrustworthy people (sad but true). I also agree a good trades will complete works in a much shorter time and hopefully much better result.

Experience and tools = much quicker and therefore if paying per hour probably cheaper, but they generally go on a price.