A handyman in Warwickshire typically costs £25 to £40 an hour, or £180 to £300 for a full day, going by the ranges the main UK trade directories publish for areas outside London. Mendwell has a service rate of £80 and no call-out fee, and we rarely use that rate at all, because almost everything we do is priced as a fixed written quote after a free visit.
What do handymen charge per hour in the UK?
Most directory guides put a handyman outside London at £25 to £40 an hour. Rated People’s guide gives £25 to £40 an hour for most of the UK and £35 to £55 in London and the South East. Checkatrade’s handyperson guide puts the UK average at about £30 an hour, rising to around £50 in London and the big cities. MyBuilder’s guide shows a similar picture, with a national average of about £30 an hour and a spread from £15 to £60.
Day rates follow the same pattern. Rated People puts a half day (three to four hours) at £100 to £160 and a full day at £180 to £300 outside London. Checkatrade gives a London day rate of around £350.
Two things to keep in mind:
- The cheap end is usually someone with basic tools, sometimes uninsured, priced by the hour with no fixed end point.
- The per-hour figure tells you nothing about how many hours the job will take, and that is what decides your bill.
Is there a call-out fee or minimum charge?
Many handymen charge a minimum that covers the first hour whether the job takes ten minutes or sixty. Checkatrade’s guide puts the typical minimum call-out fee at £40 to £50, and MyBuilder’s at £40 to £60, with some adding £20 to £50 for travel to a job a long way out.
Mendwell has no call-out fee. The site visit is free with no obligation, and there is no charge for turning up. Where a job is genuinely small and cannot be planned, we charge the service rate, and that is the only time a time-based charge appears on a Mendwell bill.
What is Mendwell’s service rate, and why do we rarely use it?
Our service rate is £80. It exists for the small, unplannable job: a door that will not latch, a cupboard hinge that has dropped, the kind of thing you want sorted on the day without a quote first. For that it is fair, because nobody can price a fault they have not yet seen.
We steer people away from it for everything else, and we are open about why:
- It is not cheap. A time-based charge means you are paying for every minute, including the minutes spent working out what to do.
- It means turning up without a plan. No list of materials, no checked measurements, no order of work. That is how a job runs over.
- It shifts the risk onto you. If the job takes longer than either of us guessed, you pay the difference.
A priced, planned job from a site visit is better for both sides. You know the figure before anyone picks up a tool. We know what to bring and how long to allow. If it takes longer than we allowed, the price you were quoted is the price you pay.
How does a fixed price after a free visit work?
We visit, we measure, we look at what is actually there, and then you get a written quote with a fixed figure. We do not price from photos, because a photo hides what changes a job: a frame out of square, a wall that is plasterboard over nothing, a floor that is not level.
The quote sets out what is included and what is not. Materials are priced against Wickes as the reference point for items they stock, and we supply and carry them as standard. You can supply your own if you prefer, though we cannot guarantee a material we did not choose, and a wrong or short delivery becomes a lost day. Where materials come to more than £60, we ask for 40% of the quote up front to cover them, with the balance on completion by bank transfer.
As a worked example, a new solid core internal door supplied and fitted into your existing frame is around £205 to £225 all in (see our internal door cost guide).
What makes it cost more?
Nearly always, it is something that was not visible from the doorway:
- Access. Working at height, in a loft, or behind fitted furniture takes longer.
- What is behind the surface. Old fixings, crumbling plaster, a frame that has moved.
- Materials. A heavier door, a better hinge or a longer run of skirting costs more and takes longer to fit.
- Finishing. Fitting is fitting. Filling, painting and decorating are separate priced options.
- Waste. Old doors, fence panels, carpet and packaging stay unless the quote says otherwise. If you want them gone, it goes on the quote as its own line.
- One job on its own. Several small jobs in one visit usually lowers the cost per job, because the travel happens once, so make a list before we come.
Can you save money by doing it yourself?
Yes, for a fair number of jobs. Hanging a picture, a curtain pole on a solid wall, a flat-pack wardrobe, a tap washer, a fence panel lifted back into its slots: all sensible DIY with an afternoon and a basic toolkit. DIY stops being a saving when the job needs a tool you would buy once and never use again, or when a mistake costs more than the labour would have.
Who this is not for
- Anyone who wants a price from a photo. We visit first, every time.
- Anyone who wants the lowest possible per-hour figure. We are not the cheapest, and we do not try to be.
- Gas or electrical installation work. We do not do it ourselves.
- Anyone who needs someone tonight. We work booked days, arriving between 9 and 10.
What happens next
We are based in Nuneaton and work across Warwickshire and the counties either side. The site visit and written quote are free with no obligation. Book at mendwell.co.uk/book or call 07472 281 663. If you are a little further out, ask anyway. More guides at mendwell.co.uk/guides.
Prices reviewed 11 September 2026.