Don’t get me wrong. I did a lot of stuff right this year. As a handyman I’m doing so many different things in my job that there are quite a few opportunities for big mistakes if I’m not paying attention. And many jobs worked out wonderfully. However there are three that stick out in my mind – three too many – that I wish had gone the other direction.
- Glass insert in door falls out: I replaced an oval glass insert and frame in a front door. A month or two later a good gust of wind sent it toppling to the floor. I had forgotten the silicone bead on the outside.
- Round-up on some cedars. I read the directions on the bottle fairly carefully but somehow missed the part about watering it down 50 to 1. I very carefully applied roundup to a bunch of weeds. Somehow despite my care, a little bit got onto some nearby cedar trees (young ones) and caused some branches near the ground to turn brown.
- Fireplace glass falling out on a gas fireplace. I cleaned the glass on 4 gas fireplaces in one house. Four months later, one of them fell out suddenly. I checked them and none of them were seated properly. Fortunately no one was hurt.
I was lucky, or blessed, that there was no lasting damage from any of these things. There certainly could have been. All of my customers were gracious with me. After learning about the problems, I made every effort to show up, fix what I could, as fast as possible. What makes it worse is that they were all small, fast jobs – half an hour each – with a low payout for me at the time, but in hindsight, high risk.
The other thing these had in common is that the problems all took time to show up. They were fine for months, and then suddenly I got the call. (What else is waiting to bite me??)
Anyway, so far I haven’t had to use my liability insurance. I hope to keep it this way!
handyandrew.ca 