How Much to Charge for Handyman Jobs in 2026

What a handyman quote needs to include

A text saying "should be about £150, I'll let you know if it's more" leaves the customer with no way to budget and no way to hold you to a number. Cover these ten things and there's nothing left to guess at:

1. 1Per-task pricing wherever the job is predictable — a customer approves a list of fixed prices far faster than an open-ended hourly estimate.
2. 2A half-day or full-day rate for bundled odd jobs, priced at roughly 60–65% of the day rate for a half-day, not a straight half.
3. 3A minimum call-out or first-hour charge, stated up front so a five-minute fix doesn't feel like a wasted visit for either of you.
4. 4Materials — supplied at cost with receipts, or marked up by a stated percentage — and which of the two applies.
5. 5Travel costs beyond a set radius, if you charge them.
6. 6Waste removal and disposal of old fittings, furniture or packaging.
7. 7A plain-English note on anything outside your legal scope — notifiable electrical work or any gas work — and that it'll be referred to a registered specialist rather than attempted.
8. 8What's excluded — structural work, working at height beyond a stepladder, plastering beyond a small patch.
9. 9Your guarantee on workmanship (30–90 days is typical for handyman work).
10. 10Payment terms and how to accept — a deposit for anything needing materials bought in advance, balance on completion.

Not every handyman job is the same job

The variety is the whole appeal of handyman work for a customer — one visit, several jobs sorted. Pricing it well means treating that variety as a feature, not an excuse to guess.

Per-task pricing beats an open-ended hourly bill

Wherever a job is predictable — mounting a TV, building flat-pack furniture, hanging curtain poles — quote it as a fixed price per task, not an hourly rate with no ceiling. Customers approve a list of fixed numbers almost immediately, because there's nothing left to worry about; an hourly estimate, however honest, reads as a blank cheque and pushes them to get two more quotes before they'll commit. Fixed pricing also rewards you directly for working efficiently, rather than penalising your best days with a smaller bill. Reserve hourly rates for genuinely unpredictable work — a "come and see what's wrong with this" call-out — and even then, attach a not-to-exceed figure so the customer knows the worst case before you start.

The legal boundary that decides what you can quote for yourself

Part P of the Building Regulations splits electrical work into notifiable and non-notifiable categories, and the split doesn't always match what looks "minor" to a customer. Notifiable work — which must go through Building Control or a registered Part P electrician — includes any new circuit run from the consumer unit, replacing the consumer unit itself (always notifiable, regardless of what else is involved), and critically, all electrical work carried out in "special locations" such as bathrooms, shower rooms and saunas — even something as small as swapping a light fitting or adding a shaver socket counts. A handyman can generally still carry out non-notifiable work: like-for-like replacements such as a socket or switch faceplate, and adding a socket or switch to an existing circuit outside a special location. Gas work sits on an even harder line — only a Gas Safe registered engineer may legally work on gas appliances, pipework or boilers, full stop, regardless of experience. None of this needs to shrink your quote. It needs a single honest line — "bathroom socket for the towel rail requires a Part P registered electrician, quoted separately on request" — that tells the customer you know exactly where your scope ends, which is reassuring in a trade where "have a go" reputations are common and expensive when they go wrong.

How to price the work

UK handyman rates vary by region and experience more than most trades, but these ranges are a fair starting point for 2026:

• Hourly rates average £25–£35 across most of the UK, rising to £45–£55 in London and the South East; self-employed handymen range as wide as £15–£60/hour depending on experience.
• A day rate (7–8 hours) typically runs £200–£260 outside London and up to £350 within it.
• A half-day is best priced at 60–65% of the day rate, not a straight half — travel, van loading and setup take roughly the same time regardless of how long you stay.
• Set a minimum call-out or first-hour charge of £40–£60 so a job that turns out to be a five-minute fix doesn't cost you the visit.
• Common task-specific rates: TV mounting £70–£100, flat-pack furniture £20–£30 per smaller item or £80–£150 for a wardrobe, curtain poles £20–£30 each, gutter clearing £50–£90 per property, and door easing or re-hanging £40–£65 per door.
• State clearly whether materials are supplied at cost with receipts, or marked up by a set percentage (10–20% is typical) — either is fine, but leaving it unstated is what causes disputes over a £15 bracket.

A worked example

A full day of mixed odd jobs for one customer, priced per task rather than by the hour:

£495 for a full day of six itemised tasks — the customer also asked about adding a socket in the bathroom for a heated towel rail, which was quoted separately and flagged as work for a Part P registered electrician, since all electrical work in bathrooms is notifiable regardless of how small the job looks. Nothing on the invoice was a surprise, because every task was priced on the quote the customer approved before any work started, and the one job that wasn't the handyman's to do was said so up front rather than attempted anyway.

Five details that get handyman quotes accepted faster

• Quote per task, not a vague hourly estimate. A list of fixed prices for TV mounting, flat-pack assembly and curtain poles is something a customer can approve in thirty seconds — an hourly estimate with no ceiling invites them to get three more quotes first.
• Say plainly what you won't touch, and why. A one-line note — "the bathroom socket needs a Part P registered electrician, since all electrical work in bathrooms is notifiable, so I've left it off this quote" — reads as competence, not a missed sale, and it's the detail that separates a professional handyman from someone who'll "have a go" at anything.
• Bundle small jobs into a day rate with a stated minimum. "Half-day rate covers up to four tasks, £X thereafter" turns a scattered list of odd jobs into one number the customer signs off once, instead of five separate decisions.
• Separate materials from labour. Letting a customer see "materials: £45, labour: £120" means they can supply their own curtain poles or TV bracket if they've already got them, without you having to re-quote the whole job.
• State your guarantee and payment terms in one line. "60 days on workmanship; 50% deposit on jobs over £150 for materials" reads as genuinely professional and heads off any awkwardness about paying up front for a boiler-lock bracket you had to order in.

The fastest way to do all of this

One TV mount is easy enough to price on the spot. A day booked solid with six unrelated small jobs for one customer — plus a seventh they've just remembered while you're already there — is exactly where a scribbled number on the back of an invoice pad turns into an argument about what was and wasn't included.

This is what QuoteRocket is for. Describe the day in plain English — "mount 65 inch TV, build a wardrobe and bedside table, hang 4 curtain poles, re-silicone bathroom and kitchen, ease 2 doors, clear guttering" — and it turns that into a branded, itemised PDF quote in under a minute, with every task priced as its own line. Your customer accepts it with one tap on their phone, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click, so the six jobs you actually did are the only thing you're chasing payment for — not a dispute over what "about £400" was supposed to cover.

Whichever way you produce the quote, the principle holds: price per task wherever you can, state your minimum and materials policy up front, and say plainly — before you start, not after — which jobs sit outside what you're legally able to do yourself.

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