5 Basic Repairs That Handymen Hope You’ll Never Learn To Do Yourself
Hiring a professional to swing a hammer or turn a wrench has never been more expensive.
Recent data shows that the average handyman service visit now typically falls between $175 and $680, depending on your location. By the time the actual repair is done, you’re usually looking at a bill north of $400 for jobs that require no special skills and very few tools.
Inflation in the service sector remains strong, and as labor costs rise, the gap between the price of parts and the price of technology continues to widen. However, common household headaches do not require a master plumber or licensed contractor.
If you can follow a few minutes of video instruction, you can save hundreds of dollars in your pocket by mastering home repairs that you can do in minutes.
Here are five basic home repairs that should stop outsourcing immediately.
1. To replace a leaking toilet flapper
If you hear your toilet “blowing” or running constantly, the culprit is always a worn-out rubber blower. It’s a job that sounds intimidating to the uninitiated but actually requires zero tools and 10 minutes of your time.
A new flapper costs less than $20 at any hardware store. Meanwhile, a plumber or handyman might charge you $150 to $200 for the same 10-minute fix. To do it yourself, you simply turn off the water valve behind the toilet, hit the floor to empty the tank, and replace the old rubber piece with a new one. This is one of the many DIY skills that can save money in the life of your home.
2. To clear a blocked P-trap
When the bathroom sink begins to drain slowly, many people reach for a bottle of caustic chemicals or the phone. Chemical cleaners often fail to remove heavy clogs and can damage your pipes over time. A better solution is to manually clear the P-trap — the U-shaped pipe directly under your sink.
The trap is designed to be removed manually. Simply place the bucket underneath, loosen the slip nuts by turning them counter-clockwise, and dump the waste into the bucket. Once cleaned and tightened back into place, your sink will come out like new. You just saved $150 on plumbing service for the price of a little soap and water.
3. Replacing the old shower head
Upgrading your showerhead is one of the easiest ways to improve your daily routine, but some homeowners pay for installation when they buy a new unit. Unless you’re running plumbing lines behind a wall, this is a simple screw-in, screw-in job.
All you need is a paw and some marking tape, which usually costs about $2. You wrap tape around the shower arm to ensure a water seal and hand-tighten the new head in place. It takes less than five minutes and avoids the $150 minimum fee that many charge for small installation jobs.
4. Patching small drywall holes
Small holes from doorknobs, nails, or stray furniture don’t require a professional to sand and mortar for hours. With less than two-inch holes, a piece of self-adhesive mesh and a small tub of lightweight spackle is all you need.
You install the patch, spread a thin layer of spackle over it with a putty knife, let it dry, and lightly sand it smooth. While a professional may charge $75 to $250 for a small drywall repair, staying on top of a simple five-minute repair keeps your walls clean for the cost of a few lattes.
5. Replacing the furnace filter
This is the last maintenance job that HVAC companies like to charge during the annual inspection. While the filter itself can only cost $15 to $30, having a professional do it for you can easily double or triple that for a service call.
Finding the location of your filter is usually as easy as looking in the return air duct or on the side of the furnace cabinet. Slide the old one out, check the airflow arrow on the new side, and slide it in. Forgetting this step is one of the most common home maintenance mistakes to avoid, as a clean filter prevents $1,000+ repair bills from a clogged system.
