How Much Should a Handyman Charge?
You're good at the work. Setting the number is the part nobody taught you, and it's the part that decides whether this job feeds you or just keeps you busy.
The answer
$60–$95 an hour, 2-hour minimum
Small towns sit near $60. Denver, Boston, and Seattle sit near $95 and above. The minimum is what protects you — the smallest invoice you send should be $120 to $190, not $45.
The minimum charge, and why it exists
Here's the math that new handymen miss. A job isn't the time you spend with a screwdriver in your hand. It's the whole block of your day it takes up.
Drive out. Park. Talk to the customer for five minutes. Carry tools in. Do the work. Clean up. Talk again. Load out. Drive to the next one. Write the invoice that night.
A 20-minute repair can easily be 90 minutes of your life. If you billed 20 minutes, you worked for about $22 an hour.
Real math — Tucson
A handyman in Tucson charges $70 an hour with no minimum. Tuesday he takes three small jobs: a running toilet flapper ($23), a sticking cabinet door ($23), and a smoke detector battery in a high ceiling ($35). Total billed: $81.
His actual Tuesday: 8:40am to 2:15pm, 41 miles driven, one $9 stop at Home Depot. That's $81 for five and a half hours and $6 of gas. About $13 an hour.
He sets a 2-hour minimum the next week. Same three jobs, now $140 each, and he tells each caller: "My minimum is two hours — $140. If there's anything else around the house, let's use the time." Two of them add work. Same day, $420.
Say the minimum on the phone, before you book. Never on the invoice. A customer who hears "$140 minimum" up front either books or doesn't, and both are fine. A customer who finds out afterward feels tricked, and you'll spend three texts arguing over $95.
The exact sentence to use: "I have a two-hour minimum, so it's $140 whether it takes twenty minutes or two hours. Most people use the extra time on other things around the house — want to walk me through what else is on your list?"
Hourly or flat rate?
Both. The rule is simple: flat rate what you know, bill hourly for what you don't.
You've hung fifty doors. You know it's 90 minutes. Quote a flat price and keep the money when you do it in 70. That's what getting good is supposed to pay you.
You've never chased this leak behind this wall in this 1948 house. Bill hourly. Nobody can price the unknown, and pretending you can is how you eat six unpaid hours.
Typical flat prices for common jobs
These are labor only — materials on top. Ranges are wide because wall type, ceiling height, and house age genuinely change the work.
| Job | Typical price | Usual time | What pushes it high |
|---|---|---|---|
| TV mount, drywall | $100–$250 | 1–2 hrs | Brick or concrete, cables hidden in wall |
| Faucet swap, kitchen | $120–$250 | 1–2 hrs | Corroded shutoffs, tight cabinet, garbage disposal |
| Interior door hang | $150–$300 | 1.5–3 hrs | Out-of-square opening, new hardware, old house |
| Drywall patch, small | $120–$250 | 2 visits | Texture matching, paint, mud has to dry |
| Ceiling fan install | $140–$300 | 1.5–3 hrs | No existing box, vaulted ceiling, new switch |
| Toilet replacement | $150–$350 | 1.5–3 hrs | Rotted flange, old shutoff, hauling the old one |
| Garbage disposal swap | $130–$250 | 1–2 hrs | Different size unit, plumbing rework |
| Deck board repair | $200–$500 | 3–5 hrs | Rot beyond the boards, matching old lumber |
| Grab bar / safety rail | $100–$200 | 1 hr | Tile, no stud where it's needed |
Notice the drywall patch. It's two visits — mud, dry, sand, paint. If you flat-price it like a one-visit job, you drive twice for one job's money. Price two visits or say "I patch today, come back Thursday to finish, and it's one price for both."
Don't flat-price a house you haven't seen. "It's just a faucet" over the phone becomes a 1974 shutoff valve that snaps in your hand, and now you're replacing a supply line inside a cabinet you can barely reach. Give a range on the phone and confirm on site: "Faucet swaps usually run $120 to $250. I'll give you the firm number when I look under the sink."
How to price "just a few little things"
This is the most common call you'll get, and the most common way handymen lose a day. The customer has a list. In their head it's 45 minutes. It's never 45 minutes.
Don't price it item by item. Price it as a block of time.
- Ask them to text you the whole list before you come — not "a few things"
- Put a time on each item in your head, then add them up
- Add 30% for the ones that go sideways. Something always does
- Round up to the next half hour
- Quote it as a half day or a full day, one number
- Say clearly what happens if the list grows: "Anything added on the day is billed at my hourly rate"
Real math — Charlotte
A customer in Charlotte texts a list: fix a leaky bathroom faucet, hang two shelves, replace a light switch, patch a hole where a dog scratched the drywall, and "look at" a sticking back door.
Her estimate: faucet 60 min, shelves 45, switch 30, patch 45, door 45. That's 3 hrs 45 min. Add 30% → about 5 hours. She quotes a full day at $560 ($70/hr × 8, discounted from $600 for the block).
Real day: the faucet cartridge is discontinued (Home Depot run, 50 min), the shelves go into plaster not drywall (extra 30 min), and the back door needs planing and a new strike plate (70 min). She finishes at 4:40pm. Seven and a half hours, $560, $75 an hour actual.
Had she quoted item by item off the text — $90 + $60 + $50 + $70 + "I'll look at it" — she'd have made $270 for the same day.
"Look at it" is the phrase to watch for. It is never free. Fold it into the block or say: "I'll diagnose the door as part of the day. If it needs a new door, that's a separate quote."
Put the block, the list, and the add-on rate in writing before you start. A one-page estimate takes four minutes and ends every "I thought that was included" conversation before it starts.
Materials: mark up, or don't?
Two honest ways to do this. Pick one and say it out loud.
Option 1 — mark up 10–25%
You paid for the gas to the store. You stood in the aisle for 20 minutes. You fronted the money and you'll be the one who comes back if the part fails. The markup pays for all of that.
This is what most trades do, and customers who've hired a plumber won't blink at it.
Option 2 — no markup, bill your time
Charge the receipt price exactly, and bill the store run at your hourly rate. Some handymen like this because it's easy to explain and nothing looks hidden.
The catch: an hour of shopping billed at $75 is more than a 20% markup on a $90 faucet. Customers sometimes prefer the markup once they see it that way.
Option 3 — let them buy it
Perfectly fine, and it saves you the trip. Set one rule and stick to it: if the customer supplies the part, you don't warranty the part. Say it before, not after the cheap Amazon faucet drips in three weeks.
Real math — Cleveland
A handyman in Cleveland replaces a kitchen faucet. Labor: 90 minutes at $80/hr, but his 2-hour minimum applies, so $160. The faucet is $148 at the supply house. He marks it up 20% → $178.
Invoice: $338. His actual day cost: 90 minutes on site, 35 minutes round trip to the supply house, $4 gas. The $30 markup covers the store run almost exactly.
The line on his invoice reads: "Materials (Moen 87014, includes 20% supply charge) — $178." Nobody has ever questioned it, because it's labeled.
Whatever you choose, itemize it. A lump "materials — $340" invites questions. "Faucet $178, supply lines $22, sealant $9" doesn't.
The licensing ceiling — read this before you bid big
This is the rule that catches handymen off guard, and it's worth ten minutes of your time today.
Most states cap the dollar value of a single job you can do without a contractor license. Under the cap, you're a handyman. Over it, you're doing contractor work, and doing it unlicensed can mean a fine, a stop-work order, and — this is the expensive part — no legal right to collect on the invoice.
The caps vary enormously. Some states set a low per-job figure. Some set a much higher one. Some have no dollar cap at all but flatly bar you from electrical, plumbing, gas, HVAC, structural, and roofing work regardless of price. A few also count materials toward the cap; others count labor only.
There is no national number, and anyone who tells you one is guessing. Search "[your state] contractor licensing board" and read the handyman or minor-work exemption page on the official state site. Not a Facebook group. Not a competitor. The board's own page.
Do not split a job to stay under the cap. Writing one $6,000 bathroom as four $1,500 invoices is the exact pattern licensing boards look for, and most state rules explicitly treat a split project as one job. If the work is over your cap, either get licensed, or partner with a licensed contractor and work under them.
Also check whether your state requires registration even when a license isn't needed. Several do — it's usually cheap and quick, and skipping it is a needless risk.
What to build into your hourly rate
Your rate is not your pay. Work through this before you set the number.
| Cost | Rough monthly | Per billable hour |
|---|---|---|
| General liability insurance | $55–$120 | $0.50–$1.20 |
| Truck fuel + maintenance | $300–$600 | $3–$6 |
| Tool replacement + blades/bits | $80–$200 | $0.80–$2 |
| Phone, software, invoicing | $30–$90 | $0.30–$0.90 |
| Card processing (~3%) | — | ~$2.25 |
| Self-employment + income tax | — | $15–$22 |
| Unbilled hours (quotes, driving, admin) | — | Cuts 100 hrs to ~70 |
That last row is the one that stings. If you work 40 hours a week but only bill 28 of them, your $75 rate is really about $52 an hour of working time — before tax.
Two fixes, and you should do both. Bill more of your hours (minimums, trip fees, block pricing), and stop giving away free driving. A tight service radius is worth more than a $5 rate increase.
Raising your rate
- Raise new customers first — existing ones keep their rate for now
- Give repeat customers 30 days' notice, once a year, in writing
- Keep the reason short: "Insurance and material costs went up." Don't over-explain
- Raise by a real amount. $5 costs goodwill and buys you nothing
- Expect to lose one or two people. That's the point — the rest pay more
- Do it after a run of good work, never after a complaint
Frequently asked questions
How much should a handyman charge per hour?
$60 to $95 an hour is the typical 2026 range. Small towns sit near the bottom, big metros near the top. Most established handymen also carry a two-hour minimum, so the smallest invoice they send is $120 to $190.
Why do handymen charge a minimum?
Because the drive eats small jobs. A 20-minute repair still costs you 25 minutes each way, plus setup, cleanup, and writing the invoice that night. A two-hour minimum makes the smallest job on your calendar worth getting in the truck for.
Should a handyman charge hourly or flat rate?
Flat rate what you know cold — TV mounts, faucets, door hangs. You keep the money when you're fast, which is how getting good is supposed to pay. Charge hourly for anything unpredictable: a leak inside a wall, or anything in a house built before 1960.
How do I price a list of small jobs?
As a block of time, not item by item. Get the full list in a text, time each item, add them up, add 30% for surprises, round up, and quote one number as a half or full day. Then say what happens if the list grows on the day.
Should a handyman mark up materials?
Most do, usually 10% to 25%. It pays for the store run, fronting the money, and standing behind the part. The alternative is charging the receipt price and billing your shopping time hourly. Both are honest — just pick one and say it before the job, and itemize it on the invoice.
Is there a dollar limit on handyman work without a license?
In most states, yes — a cap on the value of a single job you can take unlicensed. The caps differ a lot between states, and some states have no dollar cap but bar you from electrical, plumbing, gas, and structural work outright. Check your state contractor licensing board's own page. Don't take the number from a forum.
How much should a handyman charge to mount a TV?
$100 to $250 flat is typical, labor only. Drywall with a visible cable is at the low end. Brick, concrete, or hiding the cables inside the wall pushes it to the top. Over-70-inch TVs usually need two people, which changes the price.
Should I charge a trip fee?
Set a service radius — usually 15 to 25 minutes from home — and charge $25 to $75 outside it. It isn't a profit center. It exists so that a job an hour away is worth the two hours of driving it costs you.
Keep going
Also worth reading: the free invoice template so you get paid the same day, whether to form an LLC for the liability side of this work, and the pressure washing business hub if you're adding a summer service.
Rate ranges on this page are compiled public ranges as of August 2026. They're a starting point for setting your own price, not a quote. Licensing rules differ by state and city — confirm on your state contractor licensing board's official site before acting.