Handyman in Nieuwegein

Almost every house has a list like that. Usually not on paper, but in your head: the bedroom door you have to shove shut with your hip, the cupboard in the hall that has hung crooked since you moved in, the sealant behind the basin that has gone black, the skirting board that was never put back after the new floor went in. One by one they are half-hour jobs. Together they are a weekend that never comes. Below is why that list stays where it is, what is usually on it, and how you get it off the table in one visit.

Why that list stays where it is

There are three reasons, and laziness is not one of them.

The first is the barrier to calling. You do not call a tradesman out for one sticking door. That feels odd, and you rightly suspect the call-out costs more than the work itself. So you wait until there is more. Only “more” never has a moment. Something else always gets added, so the putting off has no natural end.

The second is tools. A lot of small jobs are not a question of being able to, but of having. A door that catches you adjust in five minutes if you have the right hex key in your hand. Without that key you are still improvising an hour later, or you drive to the hardware store for a tool you then never use again.

The third is the most annoying: the job that grows halfway through. You take off an old sealant joint and the tile underneath turns out to be loose. You unscrew a shelf from the wall and the plaster comes with it. At that moment you are further from home than when you started. People are afraid of that, and not without reason. On a list I simply count on a few of the points having something under them, and plan time for it instead of being caught out halfway.

What is usually on a list like that

Roughly it falls into four corners.

Doors, windows and hardware. Doors that catch or no longer pull shut, hinges that have dropped, a window that draughts because the rubber has gone hard, locks that run stiff, and the threshold or skirting board that was never finished after a new floor. This is the most common work on the list and usually the quickest too.

Water and sanitary ware. A dripping tap, a shower hose leaking at the connection, a loose toilet seat, a drain running slow, sealant that has gone black or come away. Sealant is the job that gets put off longest and does the most damage, because water runs into the wall behind a loose joint. If it goes further than a joint and tiling or pipework has to be involved, it falls under bathrooms and sanitary ware.

Hanging and mounting. Cupboards, shelves, TV brackets, mirrors, curtain rails, a flat-pack that has been sitting in the box for months. It rarely goes wrong on the hanging itself, and almost always on what is behind it. Plasterboard, aerated concrete and an old lime wall each want a different kind of plug, and you only see that once you drill. If it becomes bespoke, so a cupboard in an alcove or under a sloped ceiling, it is no longer a loose job but custom carpentry.

Outside and the rest. A fence that has gone out of line, a gate dragging over the paving, a gutter full of leaves, an outside tap, a garden bench falling apart. Outside work is the part of the list that gets worse quickest, because everything that is loose outside only gets looser with rain and frost.

How I work through a list in one visit

The difference between a list that is done in one go and a list you have to plan twice for is almost entirely in the preparation.

Send me the list as it is, with a photo per point. No neat description needed, just: bedroom door catches, kitchen tap drips, cupboard in the hall hangs crooked. From the photos I can see which hardware, which tap and what kind of wall it is, and that decides what I bring. That is the whole secret of one visit: the materials have to be in the van before I am standing at your door, because the trip to the hardware store is the most expensive minute of the day.

On the day itself I start with the points that could have something behind them, not with the easiest ones. If a sealant joint turns out to be tiling after all, I want to know that at nine in the morning and not at four in the afternoon. The quick points then move along on their own, because they cost no decisions.

And I say it plainly if a point on your list is not worth paying me for. You can hang a small shelf in a straight plasterboard wall yourself. I am not going to quietly take that on to pad the bill.

Handyman or builder: who do you call?

The practical distinction is not the size of the job. It is whether the jobs force each other into an order, and whether anything changes in the structure or the layout.

You call a handyman for loose points that sit next to each other. They have no order between them, they do not depend on one another, and if one drops off the rest is still finished. That work you plan per visit and settle per visit.

You call a builder as soon as the order starts to dictate the work. On a renovation of a room or a whole floor the tiling cannot come before the pipework, the floor cannot come before the plastering, and finishing makes no sense while dust is still being made. Then you are not buying hours but a schedule. The same goes as soon as a wall has to come out, something structural changes or a permit comes into view. That is the moment to call the bigger outfit straight away, not halfway, because undoing a half-finished job costs more than starting it properly.

The awkward part is that most work falls in the grey area in between. Fitting new window frames and closing up the plastering around them is too much for a single handyman day and too little for a builder with a crew. The same goes for replacing a front door and finishing the hallway afterwards. Because I do the work myself and do not farm it out, a job like that does not have to fit in either box. So you do not have to make that split yourself before you call.

Looking for a carpenter for one job?

That is possible. A lot of people are looking for a carpenter for exactly one thing: hanging a door, setting a frame, repairing decking, or making something out of wood you cannot buy ready made anywhere, like an outdoor table in charred wood. For a single carpentry job I do look at the travel time. An hour of driving there and back for two hours of work makes it needlessly expensive for you, and I would rather say that up front than afterwards on the invoice. Just say where you are and what it is, and you will hear quickly whether it fits.

When you are better off calling someone else

Not everything belongs with a handyman, and that is not modesty but safety.

Work on the gas pipe and changes in the meter cupboard belong with a certified installer. A certification is required for that, and the requirement is not there for nothing.

A leak that is running right now is an emergency and not a list. Turn the water off at the stopcock and call someone who can come the same day.

And in older houses: if you come across a board and you are not sure what it is, do not drill into it and do not saw into it. Have it looked at first. That costs you a day of patience and saves you a problem you can be dealing with for months.

One-off or regular maintenance

Most people start with a catch-up. Everything that has been left, gone in one go, and after that the house is up to date again. If it fills up more often with you, for instance with a rented property or an owners’ association where complaints from residents pile up, a fixed round per season is cheaper. Small faults you catch early stay small. A loose gutter, a sealant joint or a hinge starting to drop costs a quarter of an hour now and half a day in two years.

I work mainly in Nieuwegein and for a list I also drive to Utrecht and the places around it. Get your list ready, send it over with a few photos, and you will hear from me what fits in one visit and what is better done separately.