Handyman Home Services

Homewyse is a great resource for determining average contractor pricing in your area.  This doesn't mean all contractors and service providers follow the rates Homewyse lists.  There are a variety of factors involved with pricing such as site conditions, timelines, scope, labor hours, materials, business expenses, experience and efficiency, customer expectations, etc.  When looking for job cost Homewyse  is a good reference for helping customers choose what rate is good enough for them without having to schedule several different consultations just to get an idea of cost and affordability.

Some jobs are hourly, and some are bid.  There are some types of jobs we are very efficient at and therefore, bid.  Some jobs may go one way or the other or have a combination of both.  The Handyman trade has a lot of odd, misc. jobs as well that don't fit under a typical service and are best to leave hourly i.e. small punch list items or odd jobs like fixing a door handle, wall hangings, straightening a shelf, re-adhering base boards, or adjusting toilet operation for example.  Call for specifics relative to the services needed.

There are pros and cons to both.  Some jobs are best for one price model over the other.  Many jobs in the trades run into unforeseen problems that may increase time and materials.  Estimating puts that liability on the customer to pay the difference.  Bidding a job puts that liability on the service provider.

Some tradesman are very good at what they do.  Bidding is the only way they can reward their skill and experience.  For example:  A toilet that takes an amateur 3 hours to replace at $100 per hour can make $300.  A more experienced person that can replace it in 30 minutes would lose to a less experienced service person.  Therefore, quoting a toilet replacement at $300 is wiser for the person with more experience that has earned his or her value.

Estimating:  Estimates typically involve a time and materials price.  The labor and/or materials for the job are estimated to the best of the estimators experience and understanding of scope.  However, unforeseen problems do sometimes arise, labor and material costs can increase if more of either is needed.  Consequently, if the job is completed in less than the estimated time the total cost is often reduced to actual time and materials involved.  With estimates some people worry about efficiency and feel like they have to pay attention to every detail of time and cost. i.e. How long was the service person on break?  Why did it take longer than expected getting materials?, etc.  However, reputable tradesmen communicate with customers throughout the job so they are in-the-loop and know what's going on.  Estimating can be great if the serviceman on site is efficient and/or there are no surprises, but also vice versa.

Bids/Quotes:  Bidding a job is sometimes the best course for taking worry away from customers and the person(s) performing the work.  As mentioned under Estimates it is also the only way experienced and efficient service persons can get paid what they're worth.  Bids tend to be higher, but that is due to the service company accepting the responsibility of hidden costs and reasonable surprises.  Customers have one cost regardless of whether the job goes well or turns into a nightmare, and regardless of whether the job site is left for a period of time or not.  Bidding sometimes requires greater details in the documentation of the bid, spelling out what is involved/included and what is not.  Scope changes can cause a bid to have a change order.  The change order can impact the total end price.  However, assuming no changes are requested bids are a nice way of agreeing that you only pay what you signed for.  No more, no less.

One important consideration when using a service provider is asking or verifying if they are licensed and insured.  Legally, Dwelling services are supposed to be performed by a licensed person or entity.  

Another important consideration is checking that the service company is insured.  Without insurance the homeowner becomes liable for accidents and damage for having approved service personnel to be on their property.

Being licensed and insured may mean a services pricing includes coverage of business expenses.  This is the same with any industry.  However, the piece of mind knowing you're working with a service that is protecting their crew and customers can save significant amounts of money when it matters most.

Skill-wise the short answer may be nothing.  Licensing, insurance, experience, equipment, company size and job size are where differences are revealed.   Contracting companies may include multiple trade services with licensed professionals for each trade.  A Handyman company may have limited licensure, and therefore, can't legally do certain types of work.  However, properly licensed and insured Handyman services are allowed to sub-contract other services making them able to still provide specialty services for a job.

Many contractors offer residential and commercial service.  Some Handyman companies may only offer residential.  However, experience regardless of the trade matters more than titles.  There are Handymen out there with high levels of experience and quality, and there are some that don't even realize they're breaking the law by servicing without proper credentials.  It is a spectrum of quality and value perceived by the customer.

Smaller jobs aren't very cost effective for larger companies.  Sometimes in order to make any profit they have to charge a higher price to offer their service. The Handyman trade/niche has developed out of this gap and service need.  A smaller company with less overhead can be profitable servicing small to mid-size jobs due to less overhead.

The size of the contracting company makes a big difference in their availability to perform certain types of jobs based on size and sale amount.  The larger the company the greater the cost of doing business.  This is the nature of running a business in general, and when you're servicing a large geographic area with a large staff it costs a significant amount of money for that company to be able to provide you with the help and services needed.