04
Drywall & Painting
Per room
When the patch list grows into a whole room's texture and paint.
View tradeTrade 08 of 08 — Repairs & Punch-List
Every punch-list call starts at a half day, itemized, not billed by the hour with a stopwatch running.
This is the trade for the door that sticks, the hairline crack that opened up, the six things on a list that nobody wants to schedule a full contractor for. We walk the list, price each task, and work the half day.
What this covers
A list of small, unrelated fixes in one house, worked in one visit or a short run of visits. Not a remodel and not a single emergency repair — it's the handyman backlog: a door that doesn't latch, trim that pulled away, a faucet that drips, a fence gate that dropped.
- Price basis
- Flat call-out plus itemized tasks
- Minimum
- Half day, itemized, per call-out
- Scheduling
- Usually within a week, sooner for safety items
- Billing
- Per task, not per hour worked
Why the half day, and why itemized
An hourly repair call is a bad deal for both sides.
An hourly rate rewards a slow afternoon and punishes a customer who can't tell if forty minutes on a stuck window is reasonable or padded. We don't work that way for punch-list calls. Every call-out starts at a half day minimum, and before anyone picks up a tool we walk the house, write down each task on the list, and put a number against each one. You see the whole list and the whole price before we start item one.
Most punch-list visits run six to ten small tasks in that half day: a door rehung, two hinges replaced, a section of baseboard reattached, a window that won't stay up propped and fixed, a gate rehung square. If the list runs long enough to spill into a second half day, we say so up front, not at 4pm when the invoice would otherwise surprise you.
This is also where a lot of homeowners find out something bigger is going on — a sticking door that turns out to be a foundation settling issue, a crack that's more than cosmetic. When that happens we stop, tell you plainly what we're seeing, and point you toward the trade or the addition-scale fix that actually addresses it rather than caulking over a symptom.
Sample list
What a typical half-day call looks like, itemized
| Item | Task | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rehang interior door, sticking on latch side | Plane and reset hinges |
| 2 | Replace two worn cabinet hinges | Kitchen, matched to existing finish |
| 3 | Recaulk exterior doorframe seam | Old caulk cracked and pulled away |
| 4 | Reattach loose baseboard section | Living room, 8 linear feet |
| 5 | Fix dripping bathroom faucet | Washer and cartridge swap |
| 6 | Patch small drywall hole, closet | Texture-matched before paint |
| 7 | Rehang and square backyard gate | New hinge screws, adjusted latch |
Each item on your list gets its own line and its own number on the written scope. Nothing gets bundled into a vague "misc repairs" charge.
What's on the list, what isn't
Small and unrelated is the category. A few things route elsewhere.
Fits the punch-list
- Doors, hinges, latches and hardware
- Trim, baseboard and casing reattachment
- Drywall patch and texture match, small areas
- Faucet, toilet and fixture swaps that don't touch supply lines to a panel
- Gate, fence panel and small exterior hardware repairs
Routes to a different page or trade
- A full room's drywall or paint — see Drywall & Painting for coat counts and texture method
- New electrical circuits or panel work — licensed electrician, named on the estimate
- Gas line repairs — licensed plumber, same rule
- A repair that turns out to be structural — stops until there's an engineered plan, not a guess
Before you call for a punch-list
What people ask before booking a repair visit.
Can I add items to the list once you're on site?
Yes, within reason — if it adds meaningfully to the half day we'll tell you before doing the work, not after. Small additions usually just get folded into the visit.
What if my list only takes an hour?
The half day is the minimum call-out, the same reason a plumber or electrician charges a minimum trip fee. It covers travel, tools and setup regardless of how short the actual repair list runs.
Do you do same-day emergency repairs?
We're not a 24-hour emergency service. For a genuine safety issue — a door that won't lock, a leak actively damaging a floor — call and say so; we'll move you up the schedule where we can, but we don't promise same-day.
Is the itemized list a binding price?
It's the planning basis we walk the house against. The number firms up once we've actually seen each item — a "loose hinge" that turns out to be a rotted door jamb changes the task, and we'll say so before doing extra work.
Walk us through the list
Tell us how many items and roughly what they are, and get a planning estimate before you book the half day.