A Handyman's First Duty

 There are a lot of people out there doing work and call themselves a handyman.  But they don't actually fix anything.  They are builders.  They will replace, remodel, and do new build work but they don't actually fix or repair things.

That's not a handyman,  that's a builder.  The reason they use the term handyman in most cases is so they can take "small" jobs when the work they prefer to do, building, is slow so they can try to keep up with the overhead. 

I'm not knocking them,  but I wish they would stop confusing people by using the term "handyman" wrong.

Before anything else, a handyman fixes things.  Our niche is preventive and ongoing maintenance and repair.  

One of the most common problems is that far too many people have not only bought into the "replace instead of repair" mentality,  they have made it a social shaming thing.  The vendors of replacement products have been very successful in selling the idea that repairing is never a good thing anymore. 

Which is wrong.

The important thing about repairing things is though, it has to be repaired correctly. That's the difference between a professional handyman and a not professional.   The professional will insist on repairing things properly,  correctly.   We will NOT just slap something together and call it good.  There are too many people out there who will do just such a thing and call themselves a handyman and make all of us look bad.

The professional handyman understands what it means to not void someone's warranty.   The professional handyman knows not to cause the customer more or bigger problems down the road just to get a quick fix, and a quick buck, up front.

A professional handyman doesn't generally do projects that require a special license or require a permit to be pulled where it's required.  That's what builders do.

Yes, very often we install, assemble, and affix things.  Just as often, if not more, we just, fix things.  Things that take perhaps a bit of elbow grease, some spare parts, and some knowledge to make it do what it's supposed to do again.  We move things, we haul things, we clean things.  But mostly, we fix things.