You decided to sell your home, and when you look around, it suddenly looks like it could fall apart any day now. Or maybe you had a real estate agent appraise your home, and they gave you a list of repairs needed to get your home up to the current market value of your Mississauga neighbourhood.
When selling your home in Mississauga, you want to get the highest price possible, but you don’t want to make a big investment in time and money and suffer the inconvenience for a minimal return. So, you ask yourself if you need to hire a contractor for certain jobs or whether you can save money and use a handyman instead.Â
There are many jobs where the answer is obvious – minor fixes like tile or drywall repairs, resealing your driveway or painting are easily handled by a competent handyman. On the flip side, major renos like a kitchen remodel, fixing cracks in the foundation and roofing jobs are best left to an experienced and reputable contractor.
But it’s those in-between jobs like building an extension to a deck, ripping the drywall down to the studs and putting up to put up fresh sheets or building new kitchen cabinets that can make you question whether the right handyman will do or whether it’s better to err on the side of caution and hire a recommended contractor.
A Handyman’s Background
A handyman is often referred to as a jack of all trades; this is not a coincidence. Professional handymen have often spent their careers working with contractors across several trades. Over time, their natural abilities combined with their experiences have given them the knowledge, skill and ability to use several different tools and handle almost any type of construction and repair work.
Contractors – Practice Makes Perfect
Licensed contractors, on the other hand, have usually gone through a formal training program, apprenticed for a significant amount of time and many, like plumbers and electricians, had to graduate through several stages and ranks. This means that they spent a good portion of their careers as specialists in their fields. Unfortunately, however, this is why their rates are so high.
So, while you’re fairly certain that the work you need to be done will look better if done by a contractor, there is also the possibility that a handyman can do almost as good a job at a fraction of the cost.
Questions to Ask Yourself That Can Help You Decide
For a job you have no clear cut answer for, ask yourself the following questions:
- Can this task be completed in a day?
- Are the quotes I find online for this type of work under $1,000?
- Is this a one- or two-person job?
If you can confidently answer yes to the above questions, then you can probably feel good about a decision to hire a handyman for the job. However, if you don’t feel comfortable answering yes to even one of those questions, or the answer is a flat-out no to one or more, it might be best to play it safe and hire a contractor.
Another helpful rule of thumb to follow is if your project requires a building permit or an inspection, you’re probably in need of a contractor. Before hiring anyone to work on your home, however, check out this Government of Ontario website to learn about your rights and protections when hiring someone for a home renovation project.
