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PSA: That "handyman" I hired left me with a mess I'm still fixing | Home Improvement - nhfree.com

PSA: That "handyman" I hired left me with a mess I'm still fixing

So last spring I hired this guy off Craigslist to fix a leak in my roof... seemed nice enough, had a truck with a ladder rack. He patched it up in about an hour, charged me $200, and I thought it was fine. Then we got a heavy rain a few weeks later and water was dripping through the same spot again, plus two new ones. I get up there to look and he'd just slapped some tar over the old shingles without even pulling them up. Now I've got rot in the decking underneath that's gonna cost me a good 800 bucks and a full weekend to tear out and replace. The worst part is he called me back when I complained and just said "that's how I always do it" and hung up. Anyone else have a bad run-in with a cheap handyman that ended up costing way more in the long run?

3 comments

3 Comments

lilycraig4mo ago

Have you considered that maybe the real problem isn't just bad workers but that we've all forgotten how to tell good work from bad work ourselves? I grew up watching my dad fix stuff around the house, so I know a few basics. But my neighbor hired a guy to redo his deck and thought he was getting a great deal until he found out the guy used outdoor carpet glue on the railings instead of proper brackets. It's like we're all just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best because nobody taught us what to look for. A little bit of knowledge about what a job should actually involve can save you a heap of trouble down the road.

paule534mo ago

200 bucks for a patch job sounds steep even if it'd been done right. Did you get any other quotes before you hired the guy, or was he just the cheapest you found?

tessa3684mo ago

Do you ever feel like we're ALL just paying the "bad job tax" these days? It's like you either pay someone who KNOWS what they're doing and they charge an arm and a leg, OR you go cheap and end up paying someone to FIX the cheap guy's mess later. I've noticed this pattern in EVERYTHING from car repairs to hiring someone to mow the lawn. It's like there's no middle ground anymore where you feel like you got a FAIR deal for decent work. You almost have to budget for a redo right from the start.