6 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Handyman In Nashville

Maybe you need some help repairing your deck? Perhaps you’re looking to paint your living room? In any case, you need the assistance of a handyman. 

The only problem is: you don’t know how to find the right handyman. That’s where this article comes in. Without further ado, here are 6 questions to ask when hiring a handyman. 

1. Do You Have Relevant Experience?

Handymen take on a number of different tasks, some of which they’re more familiar with than others. For instance, a handyman might have tons of painting experience but relatively little experience in fixing siding. If so, he might not be the best option for siding repair projects. 

Generally speaking, it’s wise to choose someone with ample experience in the service you require. So, before hiring a handyman, make sure to ask what type of experience he has in the specific type of project that you need to have done. 

We advise choosing someone with at least a few years of related experience. He should have a number of similar projects under his belt and should know exactly how to approach yours. 

You don’t want to hire someone who has never worked on your type of project. In doing so, you would be making yourself a guinea pig. At that point, anything (positive or negative) could happen. 

2. Do You Have Insurance?

When you hire a handyman to work on something on your property, you are exposing yourself to potential legal trouble. This is true of any service worker, whether it be an HVAC specialist, a plumber, an electrician, or otherwise. 

See, each of these individuals has the potential of causing damage to your property. There’s also the potential of one of his or her employees getting injured on your property.

Should either of these things happen, you could end up on the hook for the expenses . . . unless the individual has insurance. If he or she does have insurance, he or she is much more likely to cover the cost of any mishaps. 

If a handyman doesn’t have insurance, he or she might try to avoid paying for such mishaps. This would require you to either bite the financial bullet or pursue legal action, neither of which is desirable. 

So, in short, you need to make sure to ask your prospective handyman whether he has insurance coverage. If he works alone, general liability insurance alone will suffice. If he has an assistant, he should have workers’ compensation insurance as well. 

3. Do You Have Images of Past Work?

When hiring a handyman, you don’t just want to take his word for it. You want to make sure that he can, indeed, do the job as intended. 

How can you determine this? One of the best ways is to ask for images of his past work. These will demonstrate the quality of his work and help you decide whether he’s worth a hire or not. Before/After images are ideal here, as they give you a good idea as to how much improvement he is capable of making. 

If a specific handyman can’t provide you with images, tread lightly. You don’t want to hire someone blindly without having seen what he can do. For all you know, this person could be a complete novice at this stuff. 

4. Do You Have Necessary Licenses?

Not all handyman work requires a specific license. Painting a wall, for instance, doesn’t typically require licensure. 

However, some services — like electrical work, for instance — require that the provider is formally licensed with the state. The same is true of HVAC work, plumbing work, and, in some cases, roofing work. 

Note, if your project costs a large monetary sum (like over $25,000), your chosen handyman likely requires a Contractor’s license. This proves that he is legit and that you will receive the service you’re looking for. 

If you’re looking for fully licensed and legitimate handyman services, click that link there. 

5. How Do You Accept Payment?

Another important thing to ask is how the handyman accepts payment. This can have a big effect on your ability to pay for his services. It can also dictate whether or not you end up choosing him. 

We recommend never paying with cash. Doing so subjects you to scams and could result in you losing large amounts of money. Ideally, the handyman will accept credit card payments, and, ideally, he’ll have a mechanism that allows you to submit these payments without revealing your card number. 

Note, you should never have to pay money prior to the work being done. Handyman projects typically take only a day or two. There’s no need to put a deposit down on a day-long project. 

6. What Do You Charge?

The last of our hiring a handyman tips is to ask the handyman what he charges. Prices can fluctuate quite a bit from handyman to handyman and you want to be sure that you’re not going to get hit with an exceedingly high bill. 

Simply ask the handyman for an estimate of the work that you need to have done. Any reputable handyman will provide you with such an estimate the second you ask for one.

If you’re not provided with an estimate, look elsewhere. The last thing you need is for your handyman to be shady about what you’re going to pay. At that point, he could charge you essentially anything. 

Hiring a Handyman Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

And there they are, the questions to ask when hiring a handyman. In truth, hiring a local handyman doesn’t have to be hard. Just ask these questions and listen for the answers you’re looking for. 

It’s really as simple as that. 

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