Whether you're maintaining a family home or running holiday lets, repairs are an inevitable part of the year. When a fault appears, deciding who to call is the first hurdle — so here's how to settle it in about thirty seconds.
Book a handyman for a list of small, varied jobs and general repairs. Book a plumber or electrician when the work is specialist, certified, or hidden inside walls and floors. The deciding question isn't how difficult the job looks from the outside — it's whether the work legally requires a registered trade, and whether you'll need certification at the end.
Get that call right and you save money on every job. Get it wrong and you pay twice — once for the attempt, once for the qualified trade who has to put it right and sign it off.
Quick comparison
| Handyman | Plumber | Electrician | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Lists of small jobs, repairs, installs | Leaks, boilers, heating, drainage | Circuits, fuse boards, rewires |
| Typical UK hourly | £45–£70 | £55–£90 | £55–£90 |
| Multiple unrelated jobs | Yes — the main advantage | No | No |
| Issues a certificate | No | Gas Safe for gas work | Part P / EICR for notifiable work |
| Legally restricted work | Cannot do gas or notifiable electrical | Gas Safe required for gas | Registered scheme for notifiable work |
| Call-out charge | Often none, or a small visit fee | Usually charged | Usually charged |
The two questions that decide it
Forget how difficult or how important the job looks. The decision comes down to two questions.
1. Does it legally require a registered trade?
Gas work needs Gas Safe registration. Notifiable electrical work needs a competent-person registered electrician. If yes to either, the decision is made for you — a handyman can't legally do the work and shouldn't offer to.
2. Do you need a certificate afterwards?
If you'll need paperwork for a house sale, a mortgage application, a landlord safety check, an insurer or a tenancy, book the trade that can issue it in the first place.
If both answers are no, a handyman is almost always the faster and cheaper option — especially if you have more than one job on the list.
Where a handyman fits
The remit of a general handyman covers most of the day-to-day maintenance a home or rental property needs. In practical terms, that includes:
- General repairs — patching and making good, the jobs that never quite justify a specialist
- Carpentry and joinery — shelves, doors, skirting, decking, flat-pack, fitted furniture
- Painting and decorating — single rooms through to whole properties
- Visible, isolated plumbing — taps, waste pipes under sinks, toilet seats, sealant runs
- Non-notifiable electrical swaps — like-for-like sockets, switches, light fittings and ceiling roses on existing circuits, outside bathrooms
- Tiling, flooring and grout work
- Property maintenance — gutter clearing, external caulking, fence repairs, small groundworks
- Appliance repair and small electronics
- Wall-mounting — curtain rails, blinds, TV brackets
The pattern is simple: work that's visible, self-contained, and doesn't touch the gas supply or a new electrical circuit. A good handyman covers a wide range of small trades to a solid standard — that's the whole point. There's a full list of what we cover if you want the detail.
Where you need a plumber
Plumbing splits neatly into two categories: the visible bits, and everything else. A handyman can handle the visible bits. Anything else is a plumber's job. Specifically:
- Anything gas. Boilers, gas hobs and cookers, gas fires, flues. Legally requires Gas Safe registration.
- Central heating and radiators. Balancing, power flushing, replacing radiators, new heating circuits.
- Hidden pipework. Anything buried in walls or under floors — leaks, replacements, rerouting.
- Mains pressure and stopcock issues. Anything upstream of the incoming stop tap.
- Soil pipes and main drainage. Blockages that jetting or a camera survey won't fix on the first attempt.
- New bathroom installations where the plumbing is being redesigned.
Rule of thumb: if the water is coming from somewhere you can't see, or if the system is gas or pressurised heating, call a plumber. If it's a visible leak from a visible pipe with a visible joint, a handyman can usually fix it in an hour.
Where you need an electrician
The line here is drawn by law, not convention. Since Part P of the Building Regulations was introduced in England and Wales, certain electrical work has been legally "notifiable" — meaning it must either be done by a competent-person registered electrician, or notified separately to Building Control before it happens.
- Any new circuit
- Consumer unit (fuse board) replacement
- Any electrical work in bathrooms or shower rooms
- EV chargers
- Outdoor wiring, garden sockets, outbuilding supplies
- Electric underfloor heating
- Full or partial rewires
- Anything requiring an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) — mandatory for landlords in England every five years
- Like-for-like socket swaps on existing circuits (not in bathrooms)
- Light switch and light fitting replacements on existing circuits (not in bathrooms)
- Ceiling rose changes
- Fixing a cover plate or replacing an isolator switch
The reason for the strict line isn't fussiness — it's that badly done electrical work can quietly burn a house down years after the job. Certification exists to protect the next owner as much as the current one.
Common jobs: who to call
| Job | Who | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dripping tap | Handyman | Washer or cartridge replacement |
| Leak under the sink | Handyman | Visible, isolated pipework |
| Leak from a wall or ceiling | Plumber | Hidden pipework, needs tracing |
| Radiator not heating properly | Plumber | Heating system, may need balancing |
| Boiler fault or annual service | Gas Safe engineer | Legal requirement |
| Replace a light fitting | Handyman | Non-notifiable, existing circuit |
| New socket on a new circuit | Electrician | Notifiable under Part P |
| Any bathroom electrics | Electrician | Notifiable under Part P |
| Fuse board replacement | Electrician | Notifiable, needs certifying |
| Blocked sink or basin trap | Handyman | Accessible waste pipework |
| Blocked main drain | Drainage specialist | Usually needs jetting or a camera |
| Cracked or missing wall tiles | Handyman | Replace and regrout |
| Full bathroom refit | Multi-trade / renovation team | Several trades, needs sequencing |
| Kitchen refit | Renovation team | Several trades over 1–3 weeks |
| Removing an internal wall | Builder + structural engineer | Structural, needs sign-off |
| Gutter clearing | Handyman | Access plus basic maintenance |
| Laptop, IT, internet or email trouble | Handyman with an IT background | Plenty of us have a second trade — worth asking |
| Fence panel replacement | Handyman | Standard repair |
| Flat-pack and furniture assembly | Handyman | Standard handyman work |
| TV mounting | Handyman | Standard handyman work |
| EICR for a rental property | Electrician | Legal requirement for landlords |
| Gas safety certificate (CP12) | Gas Safe engineer | Legal requirement for landlords |
Where multi-trade genuinely wins
The real advantage of a handyman isn't a lower hourly rate — specialists aren't dramatically more expensive per hour when you compare like for like. It's that one person, in one visit, covers work that would otherwise need three separate trades on three separate days.
A typical maintenance visit might involve a leaking tap, a wobbly banister, a sticking door, a bath that needs resealing and a shelf to put up. Booked as separate jobs, that's a plumber, a carpenter and a general fixer, with three call-out charges and three days you need to be home. Booked as one visit, it's a morning.
For landlords especially, that's the difference between a property being ready for a new tenant in a week and being ready in three.
The false economy of booking the wrong trade
Booking a handyman for work that legally needs an electrician doesn't save money — it costs more. You pay for the attempt, then you pay for the electrician who has to redo it and certify it. Worse, uncertified notifiable electrical work can surface years later during a house sale or an insurance claim, and fixing it retrospectively is significantly more expensive than doing it correctly first time.
The reverse is equally wasteful. Calling a plumber out at specialist rates to change a tap washer, or an electrician to swap a like-for-like light fitting, means paying a premium for work a handyman handles as routine — and you'll still need someone else for the other five jobs on your list.
The mistake sits in the middle: hiring a handyman who offers to do notifiable work anyway. That's not a saving. That's inherited risk, and it's one of the clearest signals of a tradesman worth walking away from.
A good tradesman tells you when it's not their job
Worth saying plainly, because it's one of the clearest positive signals in the trade: anyone willing to take on gas work, or notifiable electrical work, to keep hold of your job is telling you something important about how they operate. The right answer to "can you also move this socket into the bathroom?" is no, and here's who you need.
Look for that answer. A tradesman who refers you out for the work they shouldn't do is a tradesman who takes seriously the work they should — which is the whole point of our guide on how to spot a good tradesman.
Frequently asked
Is a handyman cheaper than a plumber?
For small jobs, usually yes. Handyman hourly rates typically run £45–£70 versus a plumber's £55–£90, and for lists of unrelated small jobs the multi-trade advantage stacks up quickly. For specialist plumbing — boilers, heating, hidden pipework — a plumber is the correct choice and the ultimately cheaper one.
Can a handyman fix a leaking tap?
Yes. Tap washer and cartridge changes are standard handyman work. If the leak turns out to be inside the wall or under the floor, that becomes a plumber's job.
Can a handyman do electrical work?
Yes, but only non-notifiable work — like-for-like socket, switch and light fitting swaps on existing circuits, outside bathrooms. Anything else, including bathroom electrics, new circuits, fuse boards and outdoor wiring, must go to a Part P registered electrician.
Do I need a contractor or a handyman?
A handyman for maintenance, small repairs and small installations. A contractor for structural work, extensions, full rewires or any renovation that needs Building Control sign-off.
Is "handyman" a protected title?
No — unlike Gas Safe or Part P registered trades, "handyman" isn't a licensed title in the UK. That's exactly why insurance, experience and reviews matter more than the label itself. Our guide on how to spot a good tradesman covers what to check before booking.
Can one handyman do plumbing and electrical work on the same visit?
Yes, within the limits described above. Basic plumbing and non-notifiable electrical swaps can absolutely be done on the same visit — that's exactly where a handyman saves you money and hassle.
Do I need a plumber or an electrician for an electric shower?
Both, technically. The plumbing goes to a plumber; the electrical connection goes to an electrician, because bathroom electrics are notifiable. A single competent installer holding both qualifications, or a coordinated pair, does it in one go.