Depends entirely on where you live. Work over $500 in California requires a license. Some locales want business licenses, some have specific handy-man licenses.

When all the dust settles,licensed companies are out there doing shoddy work,ripping people off and making messes with about the same frequency as handy-men. You want to be sure a handy-man doesn't get in farthur than he's qulified,especially with electric and plumbing. How you are supposed to know exactly where that line is remain's a mystery.

Totally a local issue. I was a handyman(had my own company) and was insured. I was supposed to have a license in several of the cities in the Greater Kansas City area(there are 33 or so class 1 or 2 cities in the metro), but never got one in any of them. There are handyman companies with multiple employees that do have licenses, but those are more a legal requirement than an indication of skill levels. And some of the license fees are in the hundreds of dollars.

Another area is building permits. If a handyman draws a building permit, he has to have an inspection, and the work has to pass the inspection. If the local laws call for a license, the handyman has to show that or have the work done by a licensed worker. I always had the home owner draw a Home Owner's permit. Anyone could do the work(the home owner included) , but the work had to pass the inspections.

Minor electrical work should be done by knowledgeable people, but a good handyperson(ladies can do that as well) is quite capable of doing work like that.

Permits for that sort of thing are a personal decision. I've renovated my house and not a permit in sight.

When all the dust settles,licensed companies are out there doing shoddy work,ripping people off and making messes with about the same frequency as handy-men.

Perhaps, but in my state, if the bill is over $600, and they are licensed (as they should be), you have some recourse you don't have with an unlicensed person. Check your states' website for information pertaining to who needs to be licensed as a contractor, or, if in a bigger municipality, their website. You can also call your local building department.

Ichabod I've yet to see a city or state official interested in helping consumers get quility work for their money. On occasions where public officials take action it usually consist's of a fine but the consumer doesn't get a share. A person must show more proficiency to legaly give $20 haircuts than is required for remodel contractors. You need only to read all the posts in hvac and plumbing by people wanting help to solve messes created by licensed companies to know how much license mean. Electricians are the exception but how offten do you hear about three different electricians charging for the same job and it's still not fixed? Plumbers,remodelers and hvac,all the time. You have a better chance of getting some bang for your buck from the guy who take's care of your landscape and he might not have license to drive his beat up truck,much less landscape. Did I mention I'm fed up with do nothing government bureaucarcies? LOL

I think the purpose of a handyman is to fix things / do small projects, and avoid red tape. What could a handyman be licensed for? He's not a electrician, nor a plumber, nor an engineer. Just sounds like a scam for the city / county to get money.

Exactly geoffrey,handyman licenses are simply a revenue stream for city/county supported by kool-aid drinkers.

lol^^^

If you can get someone unlicensed in Florida to do good work, have at it because you're under no legal obligation to pay them, no matter how code compliant or the excellent quality of the work. They can't put a lien on your home; their contract is unenforceable, however, your contract with them is.

Joseph,they have names for what you are hinting at,non are very flatering. Legal or not,pulling the wool on folks is risky business where I come from.

"If you can get someone unlicensed in Florida to do good work, have at it because you're under no legal obligation to pay them, "

Sounds like sour grapes, Joe.

klem1:

When you drive down the street, you have an obligation to know the speed limit whether it's posted or not. When you engage in the business of contracting, you have an obligation to yourself and your customers to know the applicable laws. Ignorance of the law is no excuse whether speeding or contracting without a license.

My Florida builder's license cost me about four thousand dollars and about a hundred unpaid hours. Soon I'll be spending $250.00 and a weekend at the Holiday Inn for my required Continuing Education Credits in order to keep it. I feel no sympathy for those who choose to ignore the law and not incur the same costs I have.

With all respect, are you a handyman? I know most of the local regulations(quite a feat as there are 33 different local cities, most of which have individual requirements over and above the International Building Codes). Any of the work I did/do meets or exceeds the minimum codes. I have 6 years of unpaid(45+ Saturdays a year) and one year of full time experience in building/punch list repairs while volunteering to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. I was often the POC for the city codes Inspectors.

I ran my own business where I set mobile homes on new lots, built storage sheds, elevated gardens, decks, porch roofs, replaced sub flooring, done electrical work(legally and to code), repaired plumbing, repaired sheet rock, painted exteriors and interiors, installed flooring, installed crown molding, built and installed doors, replaced door slabs, replaced door assemblies, installed storm doors, replaced windows and repaired windows. Have installed shingles on roofs, built dog houses, cat trees, doll houses(from scratch), picture frames, furniture, and decorative boxes.

I've had items I built sold on TV charity auctions, in art shows, and in commercial stores.

I have spent over $10,000 in acquiring the necessary tools for doing the above work. I did all that completely legally, being inspected when required.

I admire you for doing what you have done, but do not put others down for imagined differences.

Handy Mac:

I am not imagining the 4K and 100 unpaid hours. I am not imagining the weekend I'm spending at the Holiday Inn to keep my license. They really happened and are going to happen.

No sour grapes. Some of us play by the rules, some don't.

Here, it is illegal for anyone except a licensed electrician to do any electrical, for compensation. Even movers are not allowed to plug in lamps. Appliance delivery persons are not allowed to plug in appliances nor hook up water lines to refrigerators. It comes down to the insurance won't cover them.

Now I could pull permits to do my own electric and plumbing.

I held a GC license and 2 million liability. Each city has their own rules, like bonding etc, even when permits are required to be pulled. As a GC, I was limited on the work I could do, not saying I don't have the know how. One has to know their limitations, and rules everywhere they work. Each year for every city I was licensed in, the license had to be renewed along with proof of insurance, and a couple cities required bonding on top of it.

Joseph, I am not denegrating your training nor your experience. My point is not every city/locality requires that level of training/expertise to replace a fan or build a deck. Most of those places rely on inspections to ensure code compliance.

I played by the local rules.

Question? How much would you need to charge to replace a fan in a bedroom, just the labor? My charge was around $40, plus a service call charge if necessary(based on distance).

Remind me not to live where roof lives. "I need an electrician to plug in my lamp." woooow....

Hey Joe, I hope you aren't paying for all that continuing education and time, to compete with Handy Men. I'd figure you're doing that for much larger, lucrative jobs. You probably don't want those sales anyway.

Otherwise they should shut down all the Lowe's, Home Depots, Menards, Ace Hardware, etc cause I believe most of those supplies go into unpermitted work, and/or work done by home owners.

Vith, there is help for reading comprehension problems. Also I like the quote marks like I actually said that.

I knew you would like that. I need help. Can you help me?

@roof35: " Even movers are not allowed to plug in lamps. Appliance delivery persons are not allowed to plug in appliances"

I don't believe you. Appliances that can be legally sold in the US can be plugged in by anyone.

geoffrey, I really don't care if you believe me. I'll bet if you took as much time educating yourself with your building department, as you post your usually drivel on here, you might even learn something, But then, you'd probably not believe them.

Go ahead, make a 5 minute call and ask if anyone can be do electrical services and be compensated. And, they don't have to be a licensed electrician. This includes delivery people.

Now what I seen is, I've corrected you and Vith on other threads with facts. And both of you disappear.

So my challenge to you is, make a call. I stand firm by reply until you can PROVE me wrong.

roof35: Rant on!! An inane discussion about some imagined ordinance.

So who can plug in a lamp? The original purchaser? The owner of the lamp (is there an owner certificate for the lamp?). What happens if someone comes to your home and unplugs a lamp? Does your city have "lamp polize?" What happens if you sell the lamp? Is there a title of ownership?

This is all a lie.

"Question? How much would you need to charge to replace a fan in a bedroom, just the labor? My charge was around $40, plus a service call charge if necessary(based on distance)."

HandyMac:

I earn $270.00 minimum each time my butt hits my truck seat even if I drive across the street and stay 5 minutes. Or I don't go.

Anyone who doesn't know what to charge is losing money. They don't know how to successfully compute their true overhead, and profit. $40 is paying the customer to work.

Joseph, you just illustrated the reason there is a market for handymen. We charge a lot less for the work we do, because contractors either do not even bid/consider the jobs we do or the contractors cost is too high.

There is room for both your level of expertise and work as well as ours. Just seems a bit derogatory for you to accuse us of not following the same requirements you have to follow when we do not do the same work.

I did jobs for high end customers(and charged accordingly) and did jobs for a 'Story and a Hug' for those folks who were on fixed incomes and could barely pay their rent/food.

Examples: Treads/skirting/railing on stairs cost the customer $600 in labor and that much more in material. Took two days.

Replacing about 30 square feet of mobile home flooring so the HO could use her bathroom(the floor rotted, she fell through it and broke her ankle) instead of going to a neighbor's place. Took a day, materials were donated and my labor was compensated with several stories as I worked and a HUGE hug(with lots of happy tears). I worked a lot harder and had a lot more fun doing the floor.

If I had a big job, I'd hire a licensed contractor/electrician/plumber. But for small electrical, I have found a wonderful, very knowledgeable man who does excellent work - he's utterly meticulous about wiring. I pay him $45 a hour. I have used him for years, he knows my house well, I trust him in my house when I'm not home, and his work is impeccable. His brother is licensed as an HVAC person and together, they did my whole house generator installation, which works perfectly.

As the above poster said, there's room for both good handymen who will do small jobs at an affordable price, and for licensed contractors who are insured and will do big jobs or jobs that require extra skill. I don't allow my yard man to get up on a ladder as I don't carry workmen's comp on a man who works 4 hrs a week for me. When ivy etc needs trimming, my landscape guy does it and he IS insured.

In today's world, we need both.