Across South Perth, Como, Kensington, Manning, Karawara, Salter Point and Waterford, the work we are asked to do has a clear shape. Doors and their hardware come first. The outside of the house is a close second. And a good share of it arrives as a list, often from someone getting a property ready to sell. This page goes through each of those, and is straight about the parts we hand to someone else.
Doors, handles and latches
More enquiries from these suburbs are about doors than anything else, and they are rarely about one door. A common request is a full set of handles changed through the house, sometimes with a few of them lockable, sometimes with double or French doors in the mix. Done together, that is one visit and one price, and every handle ends up at the same height and working the same way.
The rest are doors that have stopped doing their job. A timber front door jammed on its frame. An internal door that will not close and needs a few millimetres taken off the bottom. A pair of double doors that no longer meet in the middle, or a door that swings shut but never latches. A flyscreen door off its track. Nearly all of these are adjustment, planing or rehanging rather than a new door, and we will tell you which before quoting. See door repairs.
Gates belong here too. A gate or sliding door that has to close and latch on its own from any position, as a pool barrier must, is a hardware and alignment job: hinges, closers, latch height, and a frame that has shifted over time. We set it up so it closes and latches every time, not just most times. See fences and gates.
The outside of the house
Almost as many enquiries are about the outside, and timber is the common thread. Wooden window frames that need repairing, restoring and repainting. A pergola that needs stripping back and recoating. Weathered fascia boards, and the odd timber panel that has rotted and needs replacing.
After timber it is the parts of the house that keep the weather out. Patio roof sheets that have cracked or been holed. A gutter that has dropped and no longer falls towards the downpipe. Cracked roof tiles. A hole through the render on an external wall, patched and textured so it disappears into the rest of the wall.
Painting follows the repair. We paint a restored window frame, a patched section of render or a recoated pergola, and we do not quote full exterior repaints. See painting.
Water getting in
A smaller group of enquiries is about moisture: a shower leaking into the bedroom wall behind it, or damp working its way through a wall from outside. The order matters. Whatever is letting the water in gets dealt with first. Sometimes that is drainage or sealing we can do ourselves; sometimes it is a leaking pipe, and that is a plumber. Once it is dry, we repair the plaster, skirting and paint so the room is back to how it was. See wall and ceiling repairs.
If water is coming in right now, read how we decide what can move quickly.
Getting a house ready to sell
Several enquiries from these suburbs come from owners preparing to sell, and they read much the same: a list of small things that were easy to live with for years and suddenly matter. Grout and silicone in the bathroom and laundry. A cracked tile or two. Skirting boards to refix. A mirror coming away from the wall. An old aerial or satellite dish to come off the roof. A door that has never quite closed.
Send the whole list at once, with photos. We quote it as one job and flag anything on it that needs a licensed trade, so you know what is covered and what is not before the house is listed. See general maintenance.
Shelves, storage and taking things out
The rest is fitting things in and taking things out. Garage shelving and storage racks, fixed to the wall or floor so they stay put. Storage worked into a small bedroom where every centimetre counts. Blinds, mirrors, pictures and privacy screens. If you have already bought the item, we fit it. If you are not sure it will suit the space, send a photo first and we will tell you.
Removals come up more often than people expect: built-in cupboards, old wall panelling, a door and its frame taken out to open up a room. The wall behind is then patched and made good so the change looks intended. Where an old gas heater is part of it, the gas has to be disconnected and capped by a licensed gas fitter first. The surround, the cupboards and the wall repair after that are ours.
What we will not do
Some of what comes in from these suburbs is licensed work, and we do not take it on: replacing or servicing taps, anything involving mains power or a light fitting, gas, suspected asbestos, and tree trimming. If one of those is on your list, we name it in the quote, suggest who to call, and price the rest. If you think sheeting behind tiles or under eaves could be asbestos, have it tested before anyone disturbs it, us included.
Getting a quote
Use the form below: your suburb, what needs doing and a few photos. Most jobs in these suburbs are quoted from photos, and you get one written price, valid seven days, with no charge for the quote. We work Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 9am to 3pm, and we are closed Sunday.
We would like to be doing more in Karawara, Salter Point and Waterford, so if you are there, send it through. For the other areas we cover, see where we work.
Handy Home Heroes is based in Ardross. ABN 88 948 290 829, $10M public liability, GST registered, rated 5.0 from 150 Google reviews.