The Story Behind Los Angeles Handyman

Los Angeles is less one city than a long chain of neighborhoods spread across a basin, a few valleys and a lot of hillsides. Its houses are just as varied. There are Victorians on Carroll Avenue in Angelino Heights, Craftsman bungalows packed into Highland Park, West Adams and Eagle Rock, Spanish Revival homes from the 1920s in Los Feliz and Silver Lake, and miles of postwar ranches and stucco boxes across the San Fernando Valley. On top of that come dingbat apartments, courtyard buildings, downtown loft conversions and newer condo towers. Most of the year the weather is mild. Even so, the sun is strong, the Santa Ana winds blow hard and dry in the fall, winter storms can drop a season's worth of rain in a few days, and every house in the region sits in earthquake country.

That mix keeps a lot of small work coming. A plaster crack shows up after a moderate quake, a door that closed fine in August binds once the rains start, a gate sags on a post the sprinklers have soaked for twenty years, or a bathroom faucet gets crusted with hard-water scale. Big contractors in LA usually aren't interested in jobs that size, and getting anyone to drive across town for a half-day list can be harder than doing the work.

We focus on those smaller jobs. We're a local outfit, general liability insured, and we would rather earn your next call than make this one bigger than it needs to be. You get a clear quote before we start, and we try to finish the whole list in one well-planned visit. That includes the electrical and plumbing jobs a lot of handymen leave off the list: ceiling fans and the fan-rated boxes that hold them, light fixtures, dimmers and smart switches, hardwired doorbells and thermostats, faucets, toilets, disposals and supply lines. Our licensed electricians and plumbers handle those connections, so one call covers the whole list.

Our promises, plainly put

• The price you approve is the price you pay
• General liability insurance on every visit
• A real arrival time, not a half-day window
• Boots wiped, dust cleaned, trash hauled off
• Straight talk when a job belongs with a licensed trade
• Rooted here in Los Angeles and the towns next door