General Handyman
General Handyman in Vancouver
This is the category most people actually want when they search for a handyman: a competent person for half a day who can work down a list of unrelated small jobs without needing a specialist for each one.
Hourly and half-day rates
Work in this category is charged by time rather than by task, because the tasks are too varied to price individually and pricing them individually would cost you more. The rate is $145 an hour with a 2-hour minimum, a half day is $540 and a full day $1,020.
The minimum exists for a straightforward reason: travel, parking, unloading and setting up cost the same whether the job takes twenty minutes or two hours. That is why we push people towards saving jobs up rather than calling us out for each one as it appears — the second and third task in a visit are dramatically better value than the first.
Jobs that fit a single visit
A realistic half day covers something like eight to twelve small items: adjusting doors that have dropped, hanging mirrors and shelves, fitting cabinet handles, sealing around a bath, putting up curtain rods, replacing a failed toilet seat, tightening what has worked loose. None of these are difficult individually. Collectively they are the reason the list never gets done.
What consumes the time is almost never the work itself — it is access. Moving furniture out of the way, finding framing in an unusual wall, working above a stairwell, and clearing up properly at the end. Jobs that involve drilling tile, or where the previous fixing has already failed and torn out the wall, take substantially longer than they look.
Building your punch list
Write down everything, including the items you assume are too trivial to mention. A list of fifteen things done in one visit is far better value than three separate callouts, and the trivial items are usually the ones that take five minutes each. Photographs sent with your enquiry help us more than descriptions do.
We work in whatever order you set. If you have no preference, we start with anything that is a safety issue, then anything that is actively getting worse if left, then the cosmetic items — so that if we run out of time, what is left unfinished is the part that does not matter.
General Handyman pricing
$290 minimum callout · $145/hr · $540 half day
Charged by time, not by task. Most lists of small jobs land between the two-hour minimum and a full day. All figures exclude GST. See the full rate card.
Common questions
What is the minimum booking?
Two hours, which is $290 at our standard rate. It exists because travel and setup cost the same regardless of job size — so if you only have one small task, it is genuinely worth waiting until you have three or four and booking them together.
Can several small jobs be done at once?
That is the intended use of this category, and it is where the value is. Eight to twelve small items in a half day is normal. Send the whole list when you enquire, including anything you think is too small to bother mentioning, and we will tell you what realistically fits.
Do you supply materials?
We carry standard fixings, anchors, sealant and common hardware. Anything specific to your home — a particular finish, a matching part, a fixture you have chosen — is better bought by you in advance, so nothing has to be guessed at or substituted on the day. Materials we do supply are passed on at cost.