Handyperson
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A handyperson, handyman, or handywoman is a a person competent in a variety of trade skills, inventive/ingenious repair, and maintenance work. The term often describes someone who is paid for the application of these skills around the home. Tasks for which a handyperson is employed may be as simple as a minor drywall repair, or as complex as remodeling a bathroom.
Some handypeople are more skilled than others and perform more than just general repairs. A good handyperson is skillful, dexterous, practical, clever, able, competent, and proficient in whatever it is they are doing. Some handypeople are licensed and insured. Some are not. There are different laws for different jurisdictions and licensing/insurance are not always required. For safety reasons, some jurisdictions disallow handypeople from working on plumbing (they can undertake minor works such as replacing taps, connecting up new sinks, fixing dripping taps or installing new washing machines etc.), electrical wiring or gas-fitting services without being licensed in the applicable trade.
While many handypeople can be found through the traditional methods (referral, search engine, telephone directory, newspaper etc.), some are hired as day labor from the parking lots of local hardware stores. Since a handyperson is often given access to the interior of a home, trustworthiness and general comfort level are of great concern when hiring one. Often, the best way to find a good handyperson is through referrals from friends and family.
Handyperson is a generic term used to describe a person with various skills in home improvement. Some handypeople are able to perform anything from minor to major home repairs, or even build an entire house. The latter is the least common among handypeople, and usually people expect services such as painting, minor plumbing, minor electrical, furniture assembly and other kinds of home repair. Furniture assemblers have grown in number ever since the furniture industry has moved toward compact delivery and boxes which fit through narrow hallways. Many skilled workers prefer larger jobs, and tend toward working for bigger Contractors or building their own Contracting company. The cost of hiring a handypersom will vary, but most often the best price comes not from the preliminary estimates and comparison, but from trying to find the best, honest handyperson available, and hiring him or her. It's usually the most efficient to search for someone local, since most handypeople willing to do a smaller job would have to add extra fees for travel time and expenses.
In many parts of the world, there are professional "handyman" companies - professional, for-profit, organizations that will perform these types of smaller home or commercial projects. They often claim the benefit of being properly insured and licensed (where applicable) and to provide scheduling and customer service functions for their staff of handypeople. They operate in a variety of ways; from some that have full-time handypeople as direct employees to others that act only as a matching service to sub-contracted, independent handypeople.
