Odd job men

[Fnaar]

They still sort of exist... we had a leaky downpipe, rendering unusable an upstairs bog and bathroom (spare one, if you see what I mean)... quote to sort it out was in the hundreds of pounds... window cleaner sorted it for a fiver... result!

 

[beanzontoast]

My brother-in-law is one. Has helped us out a couple of times. Never seems to be short of work.

 

[swee'pea99]

You're lucky if you can find one though. Which is odd because I'm sure good ones are indeed never short of work. It's amazing what people can't/won't do. When I worked behind the counter selling electrical stuff, probably one customer in two paid us 50p to put a plug on (this was before the days of prefitted plugs, needless to say). A lot of people daren't change a lightbulb, and as for, say, fitting a bolt to the back of a door...

 

[gbb]

I made a fair living on the side odd jobbing years ago.
The trouble is, you're often delving into areas you dont really have the skills to do 100% competently. I gave it up for that reason....and the final straw was urgently trying to re-roof someones shed ...in a howling gale
Nuffs enough at that point, i just dont need it.

That said, 99% of what i was doing was straight forward DIY....something a lot of people are not capable, or prepared to do. But you're right...i cant think of anyone in our area thats doing this kind of thing now.

 

[longers]

A bloke at work reckons his dad is making a few quid (not many just a few) by replacing the locks on peoples gas and water meters outside their houses.
He's retired so it gets him a bit of beer money and also gets him out of the house.

 

[fossyant]

A bloke at work reckons his dad is making a few quid (not many just a few) by replacing the locks on peoples gas and water meters outside their houses.
He's retired so it gets him a bit of beer money and also gets him out of the house.

Both of ours are busted....the Elec/gas folk don't wanna know......

 

[tyred]

I've done quite few odd jobs in my time. I was brought up with a "if you broke it, you can fix it" mentallity and I am often amazed at the things people will call trades man in to do. How difficult is it to change a light bulb? I'll have a go at virtually anything really. The information is available on the net if you need it these days. My only problem is a terrible fear of heights so fixing roofs isn't for me.

 

[Arch]

A decent odd-job person is priceless. I know there are lots of little things my Mum could do if she had to, but would happily pay a few quid to get someone in to do - it's finding someone who'll take on a small job, and be reliable and generally nice, not patronising or grumpy. I guess if you are one of these, you build up a valued client base and it keeps you nice and busy.

 

[sheddy]

I'm just impressed that the Fnaar family were pissing in the roof gutter!

 

[HelenD123]

Do people seriously pay people to change their lightbulbs? It's understandable if you're infirm but otherwise just a huge inconvenience.

 

[tyred]

My brother in law used to do things like pay people to change a light bulb, call the AA to change a flat wheel on his car or even pay someone to assemble flat pack furniture. Now my sister does things like that for him.

 

[Arch]

Do people seriously pay people to change their lightbulbs? It's understandable if you're infirm but otherwise just a huge inconvenience.

My Mum has a light fitting which is fiddly to change the bulbs in, she always waits to do it until there's someone there to hold the stepladder, and I don't blame her - standing on a stepladder, with both arms abobve your head, getting the dome off, putting it down, changing the bulb, getting the dome back on.. I guess if someone was doing another little job anyway, she's ask them to help - really it's just having someone on hand in case she should fall.

 

[ChrisKH]

Do people seriously pay people to change their lightbulbs? It's understandable if you're infirm but otherwise just a huge inconvenience.

I can understand it. I spent an hour once trying to work out how to change a bulb in a car and eventually gave in and let a mechanic do it. Only then did I find out it was a fixed unit and you couldn't change the bulb.

I did replace an engine on a TR7 once though.

 

[Mr Pig]

A bloke at work reckons his dad is making a few quid by replacing the locks on peoples gas meters.

Why are there locks on people's gas meters?

Our meter has a plastic box over it. Next door hit it with a transit van so we needed a new one and the gas board charged us £90 for it! They wouldn't just send it out for me to fit, because it was 'gas' they had to fit it, despite the fact it doesn't even touch the meter or any gas pipes! :0(

The new box they fitted was dirty and not very well fixed to the wall so we just phoned them up and told them it wasn't good enough. If we're going to have to fork out £90 they can blinkin well do the job right. Next day they fitted a shiny new one.

Paying someone to change a lightbulb is a good one. Talk about easy money.

 

[Fnaar]

I'm just impressed that the Fnaar family were pissing in the roof gutter!

Well, needs must and all that
When I say "downpipe", I mean a pipe running from the top of the house (3 floors) to the bottom, going down, so to speak... which prob'ly gives an inkling of my lack of expertise in anything handy or technical... now, ask me to explain intonation contours, and I'm yer man!!!