Any self employed handy men?

Telecaster

Telecaster

Telecaster

Soldato
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17 Jun 2012
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Reading and replying in the tradespeople thread and seeing the quality of work of some so called professionals has got me thinking about this, I come from a commercial setting but with a decent amount of knowledge on the domestic side.

Whilst having tried my hand at most things I do tend to have areas with less experience, how do you manage this or do you only take jobs in your comfort zone?

So for instance plumbing and basic electrical work, carpentry, decorating wouldn't be an issue, with plumbing probably being my most experienced skill, but I have little to no experience of building work or floor laying and tiling, and whilst I'd be happy to give them a go it would look a bit unprofessional learning on someone's job whilst they're paying for it.

Just wondering how you went about getting into it etc?
 
Start spending a fortune getting all the required qualifications to work on other peoples houses before you even concider touching someone elses plumbing or electrics.

Also get insurance
 
So you're saying that handy men who charge less per day than a qualified tradesman, are actually qualified electricians, plumbers and builders themselves?

Interesting. I wonder why they don't just specialise and double their money?
 
By law you cannot work on someone elses electrics unless you are part p qualified/registered.

FWIW my experience of handymen is not great.
employed 2, the first one was meant to repoint/rerender a verge on the gable end of a building and do some exterior painting, he made a COMPLETE mess of the pointing, so I sacked him off after that as it was such a poor job.
The guy I got in to replace him, had to then do the painting, he was quite argumentative when I questioned some mistakes he made, and had to be told about bits he had missed.
Didn't listen to me properly, I bought hammerite paint for metal shutters and exterior primer/paint for the wooden bits, I explained all this to him, showed him the paint and spent at least 30 minutes explaining the job to him. Unfortunately I wasn't "on site" the day he came to paint and he just used the hammerite on everything. :(
he also got paint everywhere, including part of a smart looking wooden fence, he did clean it off with a wire brush/drill attachment but that left a "clean" bit of wood in the middle of a piece of wood that had been in place for about 10 years so it looked odd. pressure washing it didn't even make it all match.
The 2nd handyman was tasked with covering up the first handymans mess with a verge cover and he commented on how weak the mixture was that the first guy had used, it was crumbling when he tried to drill in to it for a fixing (which he got around another way)
 
What it sounds like you're suggesting is competing with other handymen on quality. I think you'll struggle to win work though because the majority of people hiring a handyman are looking for the lowest price. Hence the low quality that you see.

I wouldn't hire a handyman on the basis that I presume them to be less skilled at everything they do than a tradesman who specialises in one particular area.
 
I meant seeing the work of a dedicated trade like plumbers and sparkies etc, not just a handyman. I've also worked on countless sites now where the standard of plumbing and other work has been shocking for a professional outfit.

MassiveJim said:
By law you cannot work on someone elses electrics unless you are part p qualified/registered.
Click to expand...

I think you're allowed to change like-for-like without being qualified, so changing duff sockets and light switches etc etc..
 
Telecaster said:
I think you're allowed to change like-for-like without being qualified, so changing duff sockets and light switches etc etc..
Click to expand...

I know you're allowed to do your own minor electrical work, but I'm not so sure I agree with you when you're talking about paid work for someone else.
 
My Father-in-law is a handy man, qualified as a stone mason 50 years ago spent 30 years as a building surveyor for the family business and now is a semi retired handy man, he works mostly for older people putting up shelves and gardening, always within his comfort zone and knows (thanks to being in the trades) lots of people who will take on the work he cannot do.

The big thing here is he knows his limits and is correctly insured to do all that he does.
 
As long as you had the necessary insurance then surely the best way to get into it is to advertise and start doing some jobs within your limits?

But like you said, as a customer i'm not sure I would want a handyman just giving something a go if he wasn't completely sure how to do it.

Also I can imagine it would attract certain types of people that want everything done on the cheap which would get on my nerves after a while.
 
Presumably when you mean handyman you’re talking about someone that does a few things on the side of their actual job rather than a general builder with years of experience with a multitude of trades?

There would be a big difference between the two, on price as well as quality.

One of the issues with those that specialize in one trade is it can make things more difficult for those working around them on smaller jobs. That’s if the specialist tradesperson is any good at their trade at all, which can be rather debatable depending on the person. There’s benefits and negatives to both specializing and generalizing.
 
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