Homeowners ask - Handyman or contractor, which should I use?

Many homeowners getting ready to try to sell their homes find that they need to catch up on lots of deferred (a polite way to say that you’ve been ignoring it) maintenance or, in some jurisdictions, to bring their homes up to current code, before they can sell. The question then becomes who will do this work. Many homeowners don’t have the skills, the tools or the time to take on many of those little projects. So, who do they get to do them – a handyman or a contractor?

Most states don’t require or have any provision for licensing so-called handymen. Michigan has some requirements (click here to read an article on that or check the requirements in your state) under the Handyman’s Association, which is a voluntary group that professes to have established some standards for handymen. You can also go to sites like Angie’s List and other services that claim to vet and track the performance of various service providers. The Better Business Bureau in your area might also have some information on handymen or have complaints on some, if nothing else.  Looking on sites like Craig’s List might be a mistake, since they do not appear to check their advertisers. Sites like homeadvisor.com and handymanservice.com claim to have ratings of local handymen.

general heading of Maintenance and Alterations, but they are far less strenuous than those required for skilled professionals or contractors. There is also a national

There are many small jobs that may need to be done around the house for which minimal skills and few tools are required – cleaning out your gutters comes to mind or raking leaves. Other small jobs, such as changing light bulbs or perhaps even replacing a fixture, come to mind; however, any job that requires that you pull a permit, especially if the finished job must be inspected by the building inspector for your local government, requires a licensed professional. Electrical and plumbing jobs in particular may require that the professional sign the work and put down their license number. Any work requiring any structural changes ot the house will require a licensed builder and will need to be inspected and approved by the building department. Tell them that you’re using a handyman for that job and see where that gets you.

A general rule of thumb, other than the need for a permit, should probably be that, if the job requires any tools more specialized than a hammer or screw driver, consider getting a professional to do it and not a handyman. Botched tile work jobs in the baths or poorly repaired and painted walls do not add to the value of your house.  Many times the handyman that you may have in mind looks back at you in the shaving mirror every morning. Take some more time to consider that. I have written other posts on DIY and why you maybe shouldn’t do it yourself. 

The bottom line is that many DIY’ers don’t have the tools or the skills to take on some of the jobs that they tackle. They end up with a mess that costs more to get fixed than it would have cost to have it done by a professional in the first place. If it’s just replacing the outlet cover on an electrical wall outlet, go ahead and do it yourself; however, if it involves running any new wiring or opening your electrical panel in the basement think about getting a professional.

Handymen provide valuable services and general are less costly than hiring licensed professionals, especially for small jobs that the licensed pros may not even want to take on. There are also many jobs that may need to be done around the house for which one doesn’t need to be all that handy, just available to do the work. Go for the handyman for those jobs.  But, if it involves your plumbing, electrical or HVAC systems, you’re better off with a licensed professional. For many, who are all that handy, almost any job is better done by someone else than giving it to the guy in the mirror. You just have to be handy with your checkbook in those cases. 

The Handyman Homeowner

Many homeowners fancy themselves to be pretty handy around the house and indeed many are pretty good at the minor maintenance tasks that come with owning a home. But, when the time comes to tackle a bigger job – maybe an update to the kitchen or bath or putting on a new roof or finishing off a basement – it’s time to take a real hard look at your skills and experience and think before you leap into those jobs yourself. Most people do those jobs for two reasons - 1. they plan on enjoying the results themselves for some period of time; and, 2. they think that the improvements will increase the value of the home, when it comes time to sell.

Certainly having a finished living area in a basement for yourself or your family to enjoy will bring you some joy and satisfaction while you’re there. But, if the job isn’t done correctly – electrical and any plumbing up to code, plumb walls, proper materials used – and/or isn’t done under the necessary permits, it can not only not add value to the house later, it may detract from the value of the house in the eyes of a potential buyer. If the buyers themselves don’t notice the less than professional job, certainly their home inspector will and will report it to them.

There is also a place on the Seller’s Disclosure that asks the seller if there have been any “structural modifications, alterations or repairs made without necessary permits or licensed contractors?” Some sellers try to interpret that line in their favor, by saying that finishing the basement did’nt modify the structure at all. It was, however, a very major “alteration” to the basement, as it existed when built, and thus should and must be reported on the Disclosure. Remember that the Seller’s Disclosure and the Lead-based Paint Disclosure are the two documents that you sign at the time of listing that can get you into legal trouble later, if it is shown that you misrepresented anything to do with the house.

Legal issues aside, there is also the impact that a do-it-yourself job can have on the perceived value of the home. Walls that are just a little off, corner molding that doesn’t quite meet at the corner, the use of door molding in place of floor molding, poorly trimmed or untrimmed roof shingles, electrical plugs of the wrong type or wired with the wrong polarity, use of the wrong type of vent pipe on a water heater, choice of the wrong materials for the job, popping nails or joint tape that shows through the paint - all of these things will be noticed by the buyers and their inspector and will cause them to pause and ask themselves what else may be wrong with the house because this marginally skilled “handyman” did it himself. You’d be surprised how fast a well meaning, but not well-trained, handyman homeowner can turn a $300,000 house into a $250,000 fixer-upper.

So what’s the homeowner to do to determine which jobs he/she should tackle and which to leave to the pros? A good rule of thumb to start with is this – if it normally requires a licensed professional and a permit, then you probably should’nt be tackling it. A second good guideline is – if it requires special tools that only a professional in the business would have, then, you probably should be doing it with just your home tools. You might be able to rent a tool that is just like what the pros use, but ask yourself, “why do I think that in my first use of this tool I’m going to be able to achieve a result that is as good as what the professional who uses it everyday gets?” I think you see the gist of this line of reasoning. That’s why there are professionals to do those jobs. They are beyond the capabilities of the normal homeowner and even beyond the skills of the very handy homeowner.

One reason that I feel relatively good about trying to write this piece and give this advice is that I’ve been there and done that. Everything on the “oops” list above I did to my first two houses. I look back on those days and ask – “What was I thinking?” I’ve always been pretty handy, but I’ll admit I’ve taken apart many more things that I ever got back together again. When I got into my current home, I tackled a few projects, the biggest being refinishing my hardwood floors. I did that only because none of the professionals that I had in would do it – the house was built in 1885 and the old floors are thin enough that they were worried about sanding off too much and leaving exposed nail heads. I ended up buying a belt sander and sanding it on my hands and knees (something that I won’t and likely could’nt do now). That job turned out OK, but there are areas that I’m not happy with and likely the next buyer won’t be either. I wrote off most of these as “adding character” to my old house at the time, but that will probably come back to haunt me.

When it came time to completely gut and redo the upstairs bathroom, I had it done. And when I wanted to put nice crown molding into two main rooms, I hired a very good carpenter. I had the electrical box redone and had a second box installed on the second floor – by professional electricians. I hired a professional plumber to put in a new hot water heater. I hired a builder to come in and replace my upstairs windows. And, all of the jobs that required a permit from the Village had one. I did lots of wallpaper removal, wall repairs and painting and other redecorating tasks, but I left the “heavy lifting to the pros. I’m still fairly handy, but I’ve learned how to recognize where my limits are and which jobs I should just not tackle.