Small jobs · Canberra & ACT
Small handyman jobs
The jobs that are too small for a trade to bother with on their own, and too annoying to keep living with. The trick is to save them up and knock them over in one visit.
Why one job costs almost the same as five. Getting to your place, parking, unloading and setting up is most of the cost of a small visit — and it happens whether there's one thing on the list or six. Nearly every tradie doing this work has a minimum charge, usually an hour or two. So write the whole list. Fixing the sticking door while someone's already there is close to free compared with booking it in on its own in March.
Things people put on the list
Doors that stick or will not latch
Shelves, TVs and mirrors mounted
Flat-pack assembly
Holes patched before an inspection
Curtain rods and blinds
Cupboard doors and drawer runners
Fly screens and door seals
Gate that drags on the ground
Silicone redone around a bath or sink
Child safety latches and furniture anchoring
Gutter clearing and a general once-over
Picture hanging, properly, into studs
What a handyman cannot legally do in the ACT
This isn't us being precious. These are licensed trades, and work done by an unlicensed person can void your insurance and has to be redone.
- Electrical work. Swapping a light fitting, adding a power point, anything behind a switch plate. That's a sparkie, and you're entitled to see the licence.
- Plumbing and drainage. A washer in a tap is one thing; changing a mixer, moving a pipe or touching hot water is licensed work.
- Gas. All of it. No exceptions and no good stories.
- Anything structural, or work over the value threshold where a builder's licence is required in the ACT.
- Asbestos. Drilling into old fibro is not a small job, whatever it looks like.
If your job turns out to be one of these, we'll point you at the right trade rather than leave it sitting there as a handyman lead nobody can take.
How to post a small job well
- List every item, even the ones that feel too trivial to mention. Especially those.
- Photograph each one. Small jobs are nearly impossible to price blind and dead easy to price from a photo.
- Say who's supplying materials. Have you got the shelf and the brackets already, or does someone need to buy them?
- Say when you're home, or whether there's access without you.
- House or unit, and what floor. A third-floor walk-up in Braddo isn't the same job as a place with a driveway.