You only need to have two cracked bathroom tiles replaced. Or a new doorknob put on a bedroom door, a different light fixture installed on your porch, your front door’s weatherstripping replaced. Maybe some shelves built in your kitchen.
These are small jobs, but your skill at home repairs is even smaller. You need a handyman, a carpenter or an electrician willing to take on jobs like these.
You may have a hard time finding one, according to Ron Hamblin, operations manager for the Better Business Bureau in Denver. When business is good, he says, “they pass on the smaller jobs and take the bigger jobs.. . .I hear more and more how tough it is , especially for smaller jobs.
“And don’t be surprised, if you find a good guy, that while he may take on the job it may take him a while to do it–especially in peak seasons.”
Often it is easier to find a good handyman in winter, when business tends to be slower. Then again, maybe not.
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“I’ve been trying to find somebody to weatherstrip my doors for three years, and do you think I can get anybody to show up?” says Charlotte Holmes, an office manager at the local office of the Home Builders Association. “And somebody referred a handyman to me, who said oh, yeah, he’d come right out, and I think it’s been four months now. So even if you get hold of them, they don’t show up.”
Word of mouth
Just keep searching, Hamblin advises. “Ask friends if they have found somebody or know somebody, ask relatives and acquaintances, ask your neighbors or people in community things you’re involved with,” he says. “Check the newspapers –not only the dailies, but also the little weekly neighborhood papers. Ask at the do-it-yourself lumberyards and supply stores, hardware stores–they usually know about guys that take on jobs like that, or they may have subcontractors they can refer.
“This question is most frequently asked of us by senior women, and I always suggest they go to the senior centers,” he says. “It’s a good place to network, and there may be senior men who do that kind of thing right there.”
Jim Brown of the Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents all of Colorado’s trade unions involved in building and construction work, says he frequently gets calls from people seeking workers for small jobs. But he can’t really help, Brown says, adding, “I tell them to contact the because when somebody builds a new home they have individual contractors or individuals that come in and do the doors or do just certain things,” Brown said. “Maybe they can get a referral that way.”
But at the Home Builders Association, it’s Holmes–who still can’t get her weatherstripping installed–who takes those calls.
“People call and ask us all the time, and we give them names,” she says. “But what we tell them is only that these people are members and we know they’re reliable people, but we know roofers, for instance, are likely to tell them they don’t do repairs, they only put roofs on in new subdivisions. So we suggest asking them for a referral–maybe they know somebody who does repairs and smaller jobs.”
Holmes also refers callers to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.
“Right,” says NARI executive Karen Hone, who takes those calls. “And I send people a free directory of our members.”
Plan ahead
About 100 members are listed in the directory, and roughly 40 percent of them are contractors; the rest are suppliers.
“Among them are some smaller companies that I think would be more likely to do small jobs,” Hone says. “But my advice would be to plan ahead; they’re all so busy right now.”
John Bennett, who owns Lifestyles Remodeling, acknowledges bigger jobs take priority.
“And it’s hard for somebody to just be a handyman for a living,” he says. “They have to be changing around from job to job, and for a handyman who’s sort of a jack-of-all-trades, it’s harder to make any money–he has to have all sorts of tools and little bits and pieces and parts in his van or his truck.
“He doesn’t make any money driving back and forth to the hardware store.”
Background checks
Once you find someone to build your shelves or install your new light fixture, be careful about the business arrangements you make, warns Russ Ader, criminal investigator in the consumer fraud unit of the Denver district attorney’s office.
His advice: Be sure you check out the person’s background before allowing them to go to work on your house. He recommends having the prospective handyman come to your home to give you an estimate. During that visit, record this information:
– The person’s full name, full address and current telephone number.
– Information from the person’s driver’s license: Name, address, date of birth, issuing state, license number. If the person won’t show you a driver’s license, find someone else.
– A description of the person’s vehicle, including the license plate number.
– Names, addresses and telephone numbers of some past customers.
– Proof of a government license to do this type of work, and proof of insurance.
– Get an estimate for the work in writing–even if it’s just a tiny job–and say you’ll think it over and be back in touch.
Then:
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– Call your city or county building department to find out if the person must be licensed to do the work you have in mind and whether the person holds a current license in good standing. Plumbers, electricians and major structural workers are required to have government licenses in order to work on your home. Licenses may not be required for very small jobs, however.
– Call the Better Business Bureau–which tracks even the businesses that aren’t members–and the appropriate local law enforcement office to find out if anyone has complained about this person.
– Telephone the references. Better yet, go look at the work done at their homes.
“Spend a dime. Take a ride. Go look at where he’s supposedly done this work,” Ader says. “It’s your money you’re trying to protect here.”
After the work is done, your work isn’t. Here are two more steps:
– Pay by check, never in cash. That–plus the other information you carefully gathered before hiring the person–might help law enforcement authorities find him or her if necessary.
– If you’re ripped off despite all your precautions, if the work is done badly, the person vanishes without finishing it or the bill is exorbitant, complain to the Better Business Bureau, to the local district attorney’s office and to your local building department. If the person who ripped you off can be found, you might get restitution; you also might help protect other homeowners from future problems.