15 Jobs a Handyperson Can Help You With

If you’re looking to have something maintained, installed or repaired in your home, a handyperson could help you out with a range of tasks. In this guide, we’ll look at 15 jobs a handyperson can help with, and the potential costs involved.

Note: In each case, the prices given below are just labour costs. A handyperson does not usually supply materials and in a lot of the cases, they shouldn’t without proper qualifications or training.

On average, a handyperson is likely to charge about £20 to £40 per hour. That said, this can differ from region to region. For a full day’s work, they might set prices at around £160 to £200 per day.

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1. New Countertop Installation

Average Cost: £160 to £200

First up, you might want a handyperson to help with installing a new countertop. Having a new countertop installed can act as a helpful way to improve the look and feel of your kitchen, while certain types of countertops can be more durable and easier to clean/maintain.

For instance, a natural stone worktop would be a solid alternative for replacing a wooden countertop. It will often take about one workday to have a countertop installed, though the work could continue into a second day.

Whatever job you need to have done, you can hire a local handyperson to help out by completing small to medium tasks and often at lower prices than specific professionals like qualified painters or plumbers.

Just make sure that whoever you hire is genuine with sufficient experience and from a reliable source! Let’s continue on now and look at some other jobs a handyperson can do.

2. Removing Drain Blockages

Average Cost: £20 to £80

A handyperson can also help with certain repair jobs like unblocking a drain. They could address simple blockages though, in other cases, a qualified professional will be needed.

In general, a handyperson might offer services like removing a kitchen sink blockage or unblocking a toilet. This work will often take an hour, maybe two, though it shouldn’t take much longer unless the drain blockage proves more difficult than expected.

3. Leaky Tap Repairs

Average Cost: £20 to £90

If you’d like to have a leaky tap repaired, you might also find that a handyperson can do the job. Where fixing a leaking tap is relatively straightforward, this work shouldn’t take too long (often in less than an hour), although if there are issues like burst pipes going on, you’ll want to hire a professional plumber or a similar professional.

4. Maintain Your Property’s Exterior

Average Cost: £20 to £120

A handyperson can also address certain work to maintain the exterior of your property like cleaning your gutters (more on this soon), repairing roof leaks or swapping out roof tiles for new ones if the existing shingles are broken, missing or too worn down.

Certain more complex jobs such as having the exterior of your home re-painted or re-cladded, however, should be dealt with by a suitable professional.

5. Wall Painting

Average Cost: £320 to £1,000

A handyperson can also help with redecorating your interior in several ways including by painting your walls.

For a simple job (e.g. having one interior wall or a room repainted to top up the colours currently fading), a handyperson could do the work no problem. That said, for more complex work you might want to hire a professional painter.

A Jack or Jane of all trades is great for simpler jobs but a ‘master of one’ (i.e. a professional) is better for when the work becomes more complex and prone to mistakes that could be expensive to fix.

6. Certain Types of Plasterwork Repairs

Average Cost: £40 to £200

You can also have certain types of plasterwork repairs performed by a handyperson. For example, you might hire a handyperson to repair/top up a relatively small worn section of plastering. However, you should hire a professional painter, plasterer or similar for more extensive plasterwork jobs.

7. Gutter Cleaning

Average Cost: £20 to £40

It’s important to have your gutters cleaned at least once a year. This could be done ahead of the spring or before the autumn time or at another time if needed sooner, of course. Having your gutters cleaned can ensure that they continue to work properly as accumulating debris can damage the guttering over time while causing water to overflow and potentially damaging your property in the process.

Whether for safety reasons or/and to save the hassle of what can be a tricky and messy job, hiring a handyperson who cleans gutters can see the work dealt with usually within an hour, although it could take longer; up to two hours for larger homes.

8. Mirror Hanging

Average Cost: £20 to £40

You can also usually hire a handyperson if you need to have a mirror hung. They could also be hired if you need to hang a painting.

This work is likely to take just an hour or two, though it will depend on factors like the size and type of mirror and the installation area. For more complex installation jobs, consider hiring a specific professional like a professional decorating service.

9. Furniture Assembly

Average Cost: £20 to £40

Further, you can hire a handyperson if you’re looking to have furniture assembled too, like flat pack furniture.

On average, furniture assembly can take around two to four hours, though it will depend on the product and manufacturer of the furniture with the complexity of the product and its assembly also being important considerations.

10. Curtain Rail Installation

Average Cost: £20 to £80

If you’re planning to have a new curtain rail installed, you could hire a handyperson with the work likely taking one to two hours. This may be as part of an effort to revitalise one of your living spaces with a new curtain installation.

11. Garden Upkeep

Average Cost: £20 to £120

If you’re looking for some small garden maintenance work to be done, a handyperson will often be good for the job.

Types of garden upkeep that a handyperson could help with include:

• Weeding
• Add new plants
• Mow the lawn
• Mulching
• Strimming
• Flowers bed general care
• Prune different plants

By having your garden maintained, including in the small ways, you can better sustain its appearance, durability and practical value alike over time.

12. Other Small Home Repairs

Average Cost: £20 to £80

More home repairs you may want to have done can include repairing or replacing shelves, fixing broken doors (including damaged door handles), sealing window gaps and resealing a bath. Most of the time, these jobs should take an hour or less.

13. Home Decorations

Average Cost: £20 to £80

Some of the ways a handyperson could decorate your home includes by adding wallpaper, ceiling painting, mounting TVs and more.

If you’d like to redecorate your home, a handyperson is usually perfect for small tasks like those mentioned above.

However, you should hire an interior designer or/and specific professional(s) for more complex and extensive home interior redesigns such as those that may involve totally re-vitalising the appearance of one or more rooms, adding textured walls or installing new radiators.

14. Setting up New Shelves

Average Cost: £20 to £80

Looking to have new shelves installed? If you have the materials or plan to, you might want to hire a suitable handyperson to install these shelves.

A handyperson can install many simple types of shelves or repair/replace existing ones. Some of the more sophisticated types of shelves installations/repairs/replacement will require a specific professional.

15. Painting Woodwork

Average Cost: £20 to £80

In some cases, a handyperson can also help out with painting woodwork. This could take somewhere in the region of half a day and two days depending on the extent and type of work needed.

By having some of your home’s woodwork painted, it can protect it from moisture damage and, therefore, significantly lowers the risk of the woodwork swelling up, warping out of shape or/and eventually rotting over time.

Other processes and products are often used as part of the process to better preserve the woodwork. For instance, the woodwork may be sanded to start with, and a flexible wood filler could be used to fill cracks in the wood.