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Angie Hicks, Angie’s List founder: “A handyman will either charge by the hour or by the job. The key here: time is money! Be organized. Have a list of items that you want the handyman to tackle and have the area ready. So when the handyman arrives, he or she can get right to work.”

Sean McGill, McGill Handyman Services:  “Generally the way we charge for smaller projects where people have a lot of different things involved in their house that they are wanting done, we’ll just go off of an hourly rate which is about $65-$85 an hour and generally charge a trip charge. Other times if it’s a larger project requiring multiple hours on the job we’ll just charge it out by the complete job to get it done. Some of the things you can do to reduce your cost as a homeowner would be to go out and find the materials you are wanting to use in your home. If you are wanting lights replaced go out and look at those lights and find out the cost of those things and if you times that material cost by two you can generally have a good idea of what the labor and the material costs will cost you.”

Angie’s List Tips:

• Service fees:  Hourly rate + trip charge vs. project rate

• Buy your own materials

• Estimate the fee: cost of materials x2

• Check Angie’s List for local reviews on handymen