Examples of less frequent home maintenance that should be regularly forecast and budgeted include repainting or staining outdoor wood or metal, repainting masonry, waterproofing masonry, cleaning out septic systems, replacing sacrificial electrodes in water heaters, replacing old washing machine hoses (preferably with stainless steel hoses less likely to burst and cause a flood), and other home improvements such as replacement of obsolete or ageing systems with limited useful lifetimes (water heaters, wood stoves, pumps, and asphaltic or wooden roof shingles and siding.
When you use the Handy app or website, you’ll be connected with local handyman professionals who can take care of this work for you. In addition to freeing up your time for the more important things in life, booking a handyman through the Handy platform will give you the security of knowing that things are being handled by an expert. If the sight of a hammer or screwdriver fills you with anxiety and you’d rather leave things to a professional, the Handy platform is ready to help.
Intimidated by this seemingly daunting project? Don’t be. If you have the will and a whole day (or two) to yourself, you can refinish the hardwood floors in the major areas of your home. You don’t necessarily need to sand, but if the floor is damaged enough to warrant buffing, check out your local hardware store and rent the equipment for anywhere from 4-48 hours. Here’s how to refinish your hardwood floors.
Inspect and replace your engine air filter. Just unscrew or unclip the air filter box retainers and remove the old filter. Then hold a shop light behind the filter to see how much light passes through. If the filter blocks 50 percent of more of the light, replace the filter. If not, put it back in, secure the air filter box cover and keep driving. Get the full step-by-step on changing your air filter here. It’s one of the easier things you can do to fix up cars.
How to DIY it: Take off the loose bar by removing the screws on each of the posts that mount the bar to the wall. (If one side is solidly attached, leave it alone.) With the mounting plate now exposed, try tightening the screws in it. If that doesn’t work, remove it. Chances are you’ll find two plastic anchors underneath. Poke them with a screwdriver and let them fall inside the wall. Replace with bigger, stronger metal toggle anchors (above), sold at hardware stores. Just drive them into the existing holes with a drill or a screwdriver, and then reattach everything.
Risk: The range hood sucks cooking fumes up and out of the kitchen. As grease splatters, it builds up and clogs the filter in the underside of the hood, keeping the fan from working as it should. This could cause your smoke alarm to go off, attract fruit flies, and leave potentially harmful pollutants from your gas or electric range lingering in the air. And if you have to replace the motor, it will cost around $200.
Upholstery shops charge almost $200 to fix tears in your seats. You can do it yourself in a few hours with a vinyl and leather repair kit (less than $20) from any auto parts store. You’ll have to practice a bit to get the right color mix and it might not be a perfect match when you’re done, but it’s a heck of a lot better than driving around with torn seats. Start by gluing reinforcing fabric onto the underside of the torn vinyl or leather. Then mix the heat-set filler to match your fabric color and apply it to the tear. Next, find a textured mat that most closely resembles the texture of your vinyl or leather and place it onto the liquid filler. Heat the patching tool with a clothes iron and press it onto the textured mat. Remove the patching tool, but leave the textured mat in place until the patch cools. Then peel it off. Get the full story on repairing leather here.
Everyone has a different skill set, and not everyone was put on this planet with the same aptitude for manual labor. And that’s okay! Whatever your needs, the Handy platform can connect you with the right professionals who won’t be daunted by your task, whatever it might be. Whether you need help with a door that won’t close, a squeaky hinge, drywall repair, or fixing a broken table leg, we’ve got you covered. You can’t go wrong with Handy—let us connect you with a top-rated handyman with the right skills for your job.
Need your garage door repaired? Odds are, once you account for materials, labor and unforeseen hiccups, you’ll be writing a check for a grand. Your sump pump died? A new one could cost you around $600 for parts and labor, which doesn’t seem so bad considering the alternative is a flooded basement. But then the plumber might discover that the pipe carrying the water from the house to the street is clogged with years’ of debris and needs to be flushed out. And maybe there’s a blockage somewhere. There you have it: $1,000.
Grandma’s Handyman Service provides homeowners and businesses with superior handyman services at affordable prices. Our happy customers give us lots of repeat business and lots of nice compliments. But don’t take our word for it! Click here to read what our happy handyman customers have to say. And then call us today for minor or major repairs, small remodeling projects or just to finally get that honey-do list completed!
Hi reader in the U.S., it seems you use Wikipedia a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but this New Year's Eve we need your help. We depend on donations averaging about $16.36. But 98% of our readers in the U.S. are ignoring our messages, and there are only a few hours left in 2018 to help Wikipedia. If you donate just $2.75, the price of your coffee, Wikipedia could thrive. Thank you.
How to DIY it: There are lots of ways to clear a drain, so start with the easiest one. If your sink has a pop-up stopper, remove that and clean it. If that doesn’t do the trick, fill the sink with 3 or 4 inches of water and use a plunger to plunge the sink (plug the overflow hole with a wet rag first). Still slow? Try snaking the drain pipe with a metal hanger or a pipe-cleaning tool (sold at hardware stores for about $2).
Sussex County Habitat for Humanity offers a Home Repair Program that performs repair services to help low-income homeowners impacted by age, disability and family circumstances reclaim their homes with pride and dignity. Volunteer teams work to improve the condition of homes by painting, landscaping, and performing minor repairs at minimal costs to homeowners who would otherwise be unable to complete home repairs on their own. In addition, SCHFH now offers home repair and renovation services on a larger scale that aim to alleviate critical health, life and safely issues. Able-bodied homeowners are asked to work alongside the volunteers in a cooperative effort.
Owning a home can be a dream come true, but the world of home ownership is more than just relaxing weekends on the deck and intimate evenings in front of the fireplace. It requires a commitment to keeping your private oasis safe and running smoothly. Making occasional repairs is part of the bargain, and even if you aren't a dedicated do-it-yourselfer (DIY), there are a few around-the-house fixes you should become familiar with.
I sent them a message about some repairs to my home. They responded quickly and agreed to come out and take a look and give me a quote. Very professional and nice. Quote was what I was expecting and we agreed to the timeframe for the work to be done. They delivered exactly what they promised and we are very happy with the work. Will be definitely using them again for any house repairs
The handyman image recurs in popular culture. There have been songs about handymen recorded by Elvis Presley in 1964, Del Shannon in 1964, James Taylor in 1977.[22] There are femme-fatale TV characters who fall for handymen.[23] Handymen have been portrayed in books and films, generally positively, as do-gooder helpful types, but not particularly smart or ambitious. In a book by author Carolyn See called The Handyman, a handyman is really an aspiring but discouraged artist who transforms the lives of people he works for, as well as having sexual encounters with some of his clients, and his experiences improve his artistic output.[24] The book suggests handymen discover "the appalling loneliness of the women who call him for help" whose needs are sometimes "comic," sometimes "heartbreaking," and deep down "sexual".[25] A 1980 movie called The Handyman was about a carpenter-plumber who was "good at what he does" but is "too honest and trusting," and gets taken advantage of by "women who find him handsome and understanding;" the movie earned negative reviews from critic Vincent Canby.[26] Other movies have used a rather tired formula of sexy-handyman meets bored-housewives, such as The Ups and Downs of a Handyman, a 1975 movie in which "Handsome Bob also finds he's a fast favorite with the local housewives, who seem to have more than small repairs on their minds."[27] In Canada, there's a television show called Canada's Worst Handyman which is a reality show in which handyman contestants try their best on jobs in order to not be labeled worst handyman. Home Improvement is an American television sitcom starring Tim Allen, which aired 1991 to 1999. On the children's television show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Handyman Negri was one of the characters residing in The Neighborhood of Make-Believe, as well as the neighborhood Mister Rogers resides in. Handy Manny is an American/Hispanic preschool television show that airs on Disney Junior and stars a handy man cartoon character named Manny. The Belgian comics and media franchise The Smurfs depicts Handy Smurf with traditional handyman's accoutrements, such as overalls, carpenter's pencil and work hat. Happy Tree Friends also has an orange beaver named Handy who is a handyman.
You may qualify if all of the following apply to your household:A child under six resides in your home or spends at least six hours per week in your home on a regular basis You have owned and lived in your home for more than one yearYour home was built before 1978You live in one of these city neighborhoods:Bond Hill, Westend, Over-The-Rhine, Mt. Auburn, CUF, Corryville, Madisonville, Avondale, South Cumminsville, North and South Fairmount, West, East and Lower Price Hill, Walnut Hills, Evanston Northside or Carthage
Don’t let your toilet be a mysterious device in the corner of your bathroom: Toilets actually operate by very simple mechanisms that are easy to understand. The majority of toilet issues—clogs, continuous running water, loud noises, etc.—can be solved with the quick purchase of a replacement part and some tinkering in the tank. Don’t be afraid to open it up and take a look. Also note: These are the things you should never, ever flush down a toilet
Don’t fall for a shingle shakedown! Not all local handyman services have your best interests in mind. Instead of repairing damaged roofing or siding, they recommend a full replacement, which doesn’t always make financial sense. At Brothers Services, we believe in treating people fairly and making sure you know your options, including affordable ways to extend the life of your roofing and siding.
