A handyman handles small, self-contained repairs and installations that do not need a permit or a licensed trade: TV and shelf mounting, drywall patching and painting, doors and trim, light and plumbing fixtures on existing connections, tile, grout and caulking, blinds, furniture assembly, and deck and fence repairs. New circuits, re-piping, gas and structural changes belong to licensed trades.
The most expensive thing about a handyman is not the hourly rate. It is booking one for a single job when you had eleven, because you were not sure what was in scope. We see it constantly: a homeowner calls about a TV mount, and while we are there, mentions the bedroom door that has not latched since spring, the hole behind it, the grey caulking in the ensuite, and the blinds still in a box in the garage. All of it was in scope. All of it could have been quoted as one visit.
So here is the plain version — what a handyman actually does, 25 jobs we routinely handle in one trip across Toronto and the GTA, and the short list of work that should always go to a licensed trade instead.
The short answer
A handyman handles small, self-contained repairs and installations that do not require a permit or a licensed trade. That covers mounting and hanging, drywall and paint, doors and trim, light and plumbing fixtures, tile and grout, caulking, blinds, furniture assembly, and deck and fence repairs. The defining feature is not difficulty — some of these jobs are genuinely skilled — it is that the work does not alter the structure of the house or the systems the city and the ESA inspect.
25 jobs a handyman can handle in one visit
Mounting and hanging
- Mounting a television — flush, tilting or full-motion, on drywall, plaster, brick, concrete or metal-stud condo walls, with the cabling concealed
- Mounting a soundbar, centre speaker or surround speakers to match the screen
- Installing floating shelves and shelving units into real anchoring rather than drywall plugs
- Hanging heavy mirrors, framed art and full gallery walls, levelled and spaced properly
Walls, ceilings and paint
- Patching drywall holes — doorknob dents, TV bracket holes, anchor damage from the last mount
- Repairing cracks at door and window corners, taped and blended so the repair does not reappear
- Repainting a room or an accent wall, including proper prep, masking and floor protection
- Painting trim, doors, baseboard and ceilings where the room itself does not need redoing
Doors, trim and carpentry
- Adjusting a door that drags, sticks or will not latch — usually hinges in newer homes, the opening itself in older ones
- Installing a new interior door, hung and shimmed square to the existing opening
- Replacing door hardware, handles, locks and deadbolts, including strike-plate alignment
- Installing or repairing baseboard, casing and quarter round, mitred and caulked to finish
Light and plumbing fixtures
- Swapping a kitchen or bathroom faucet, including the shut-off valves underneath
- Replacing a toilet, seat or fill valve, and stopping the quiet running that wastes water for months
- Installing a light fixture, pendant or chandelier, including two-storey foyer heights
- Adding or replacing a dimmer, switch or receptacle cover on an existing circuit
- Replacing a ceiling fan on an existing fan-rated box
Floors, tile and seals
- Replacing loose, cracked or hollow-sounding tiles without redoing the whole floor
- Cutting out failed grout and re-grouting a bathroom or backsplash
- Cutting out grey, shrinking caulk and re-sealing tubs, showers, sinks and counters with mould-resistant caulk
- Fixing squeaky boards, lifting laminate and broken transition strips between rooms
Furniture, windows and the outside
- Assembling flat-pack furniture — beds, wardrobes, desks, dressers, office setups — and anchoring tall pieces to the wall so they cannot tip
- Measuring and mounting blinds, shades, curtain rods and drapery hardware, including wide and bay windows
- Replacing cupped or split deck boards and re-securing wobbly railings
- Straightening leaning fence posts and re-hanging gates that drag after a winter
Why bundling is the real saving
Every trade visit carries a fixed cost that has nothing to do with the work: travel, parking, loading in, setting up protection, and the administrative time around the booking. When you book one job, you pay that overhead once for one result. When you book eleven jobs in one visit, you pay it once for eleven results.
That is why our quotes are flat-rate per visit rather than per item. A list of six or eight small jobs almost always comes in dramatically lower than the same six or eight booked separately — and it is one afternoon of being home instead of six.
What a handyman should not do
This is the part a good handyman volunteers before you ask. Some work is off-limits not because it is hard, but because it legally requires a licensed trade, a permit, and an inspection. Doing it anyway creates a real problem at resale, and a worse one with your insurer if something goes wrong.
- New electrical circuits, panel changes and anything requiring an ESA permit — licensed electrician
- Re-piping, main stack work, moving drains and anything on a gas line — licensed plumber or gas fitter
- Removing or altering load-bearing walls, beams and anything structural — engineer and permit
- Work that changes the footprint of the home, or a basement suite that has to meet egress and fire separation — permitted contractor
- Roof structure, chimneys and anything at height that needs proper fall protection and equipment
We handle the fixture side of electrical and plumbing — light fixtures, dimmers, fans, faucets, toilets, valves — and we route the permit side to a licensed trade. If someone quotes you a new circuit as a casual handyman job, that is the moment to get a second opinion.
How to write a list that gets you a tight quote
The quality of a quote is almost entirely determined by the quality of the description. Four things make ours much tighter, and much faster to come back:
- Photos of each item, including one wide shot of the room so we can see access and ceiling height
- Sizes where they matter — the TV in inches, the window width for blinds, the approximate size of a wall patch
- Whether you are supplying the materials and hardware, or you want us to
- The priority order, in case the whole list does not fit in one visit
The GTA-specific things worth mentioning
Two local details change a job more than people expect. The first is what is behind your walls. A 1950s bungalow in North York or an older Woodbridge or Unionville home is plaster and lath, which patches and anchors differently from drywall. A downtown or Vaughan Metropolitan Centre condo is metal stud and concrete, which needs different fasteners entirely and often has building rules about drilling hours. Telling us the building type up front means we arrive with the right hardware.
The second is access. Condo work usually means booking a service elevator and a loading dock window, and those bookings decide when the work can happen rather than the other way around. Mention it when you enquire and we will plan the visit around it instead of losing a trip to it.
Send the whole list
If you take one thing from this: do not filter your list before you send it. Send everything, including the items you assume are too small or too odd to ask about. We will tell you what is in scope, what we would honestly recommend leaving alone, and what needs a licensed trade — then quote the rest as one visit, flat rate, before we start.
Frequently asked questions
Either works, as long as what you buy fits the job. Check the details that stop a visit cold: the VESA pattern and weight rating on a TV mount, the rough-in measurement for a replacement toilet (most are 12 inches from wall to drain, though older homes can differ), the number of holes in the sink for a new faucet, and that every box contains its hardware. Keep receipts in case something has to go back.
It depends where the water is coming from. A dripping faucet, a running toilet, a loose trap under a sink or a failed supply line to a fixture is handyman work. A ceiling stain below a bathroom is often failed caulking or grout around the tub, which is also in scope. Water inside a wall or coming from the piping itself needs the source traced, and usually a licensed plumber.
Many, yes. Swapping a dishwasher or garburator on existing connections, mounting an over-the-range microwave and levelling appliances are routine. Anything on a gas line — a gas range, dryer or fireplace insert — must be connected by a TSSA-certified gas technician. If a new appliance needs a dedicated circuit or a different receptacle that is not already there, that is a licensed electrician’s job.
Clear the work areas and move fragile or valuable items away from walls being drilled or painted. Know where your main water shut-off and electrical panel are. Have any materials you are supplying unboxed and checked, keep pets in another room, and sort out parking. In a condo, book the service elevator and confirm permitted work hours with management so the visit is not cut short.
Alan
Project Manager, FixitPlus Inc.
Alan has spent more than 20 years building in the Greater Toronto Area — custom homes from foundation to final trim, second-storey additions, and full-house renovations. He runs every FixitPlus job as the single point of contact, from the first quote through the final walkthrough, and writes the advice on this site from what actually happens on site.
- 20+ years of custom-home building across the GTA
- Project manager on new builds, additions and whole-home renovations
- Single point of contact on every FixitPlus job
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