Handyman in Waterloo, Ontario

Waterloo has a particular shortage: someone who will show up for a job that takes two hours. The contractors are busy with renovations. The licensed trades are busy with the work only they can do. And the list of small things — the bathroom door that will not latch, the hole behind the bedroom door, the TV still in its box, the loose stair rail, the twelve items a tenant left behind in a Northdale rental — sits there. This is the booking line for one vetted, insured Waterloo handyman who takes those jobs on, from the older homes around uptown and Mary-Allen to the 1970s and 80s streets of Lakeshore and Beechwood, the family houses in Laurelwood and Columbia Forest, the new builds in Vista Hills, and the student rentals along Columbia, Lester and University Avenue. The line is drawn in the open. A handyman here replaces a faucet but does not re-pipe a bathroom, hangs a plug-in light but does not touch a wire, and will not go near anything gas. Those go to a licensed electrician, plumber or gas fitter, and the quote says so item by item.

Student-rental landlords near the University of Waterloo and Laurier. The blocks between the two universities — Northdale, the streets off Columbia, Lester, Hickory, Albert and University Avenue — turn over on a fixed calendar. Leases end at the end of April and the end of August, and the punch list that comes back from a house with five bedrooms is always the same: holes behind doors, missing door stops, closet doors off their tracks, towel bars pulled out of drywall, a cracked toilet seat, a bedroom lock that no longer works, blinds down, smoke alarm batteries gone. The City of Waterloo licenses many of these rentals and inspects them, so small deficiencies are not just cosmetic. A landlord with three or four houses needs someone who will take the whole list, do it in a day or two between tenants, invoice it once, and flag the items — a dead outlet, a leaking shutoff — that need a licensed trade instead.

Uptown condo owners who cannot get a contractor for a two-hour job. The towers and mid-rises along King Street uptown and around the ION stops have filled with owners who have a short list and no one to do it: a TV mounted on a wall that might be concrete, a closet organizer assembled and anchored, curtain rods, shelving, a bathroom mirror, a sticking balcony door. Condo work means booking the service elevator, keeping noise inside the building's hours, and knowing what the wall is made of before drilling. It also means being careful about scope: in most condos the pipes and wiring inside the walls are shared systems, and anything beyond a fixture swap belongs to a licensed trade and the property manager's approval.

Lakeshore, Beechwood and Lincoln Village: staying in the house you own. The neighbourhoods built through the 1970s and 80s north of the Conestoga Parkway and west of Westmount have a lot of original owners who intend to stay. The work that makes that possible is small and specific: grab bars anchored into studs or solid blocking, not drywall anchors; a second handrail on the basement stairs; a threshold ramp at the side door; a hand-held shower on a slide bar; lever handles in place of knobs; a raised toilet seat fitted properly; motion lights that plug in; loose railings on the front step tightened. None of it is a renovation. All of it matters. The handyman also sees the things an occupational therapist's list sometimes misses — the loose carpet edge on the landing, the closet shelf that is too high — and will say so.

Vista Hills, Clair Hills and Laurelwood: after the warranty. The newer subdivisions on the west side were built fast, and the first few years after the Tarion warranty coverage ends produce a familiar list: nail pops and corner cracks that were not fixed in time, doors that have settled and rub, caulking that has split at the tub and the window trim, a garage door weatherstrip that has torn, closet shelving that has pulled out of the drywall, the deck gate that no longer latches. Laurelwood and Columbia Forest houses from the 1990s and 2000s have the same list ten years further along, plus fences that have started to lean and deck boards that have cupped. These are half-day and one-day jobs, and doing a whole list at once is far cheaper than calling someone out five times.

How the booking works, and what we ask you. You call or send the form with the list — the actual list, item by item, with a photo of anything you are not sure how to describe. Say where the house is, whether it is your home, a rental or a condo, and whether there is a date: a tenant moving in, a listing, a parent coming home from hospital. You get a written quote that prices the list, groups it into the fewest visits, and marks the items that need an electrician, a plumber or a gas fitter. For small jobs the quote can be an hourly or half-day rate with the list attached. Materials are itemised, and you can supply your own hardware if you would rather.