The jobs we hand to a licensed trade, and why.
Every handyman gets asked to swap a ceiling fan. In Florida it’s licensed electrical work, so we say no, name the trade, and leave it on your list at $0.00. This page is the whole list of those.
We’re a handyman business, not a contractor, and the difference is the law, not modesty. Florida lets a handyman take work that is small, under $2,500 in total, and not in a licensed trade. We’d rather tell you which of your jobs fall outside that than find out halfway through a visit.
When we refer a job, we name the trade, never a company, and we don’t take a fee for it. It stays on your list, marked, so nothing gets forgotten, and the rest of the list goes ahead.
Electrician
Ceiling fans, light fixtures, outlets and GFCIs, switches and dimmers, hardwired smoke and CO alarms, doorbells, in-wall TV power kits, anything at the panel.
- Why: Florida has no small-job exception for electrical work. The state’s own guidance says that if you pay someone for even the simplest electrical job, such as “connecting two wires”, they need an electrical license. A fan swap is two wires and a ground.
- What stays ours: A battery change on a battery-only smoke alarm. Bulbs. A cord cover on the wall surface.
Plumber
Faucets, toilets, supply lines, disposals, dishwashers, water heaters, and anything leaking inside a wall.
- Why: Florida’s licensing board names installing a dishwasher and replacing a water heater as licensed work, along with plumbing that connects to the drinking-water supply.
- What stays ours: The drywall, once the leak behind it is fixed. Caulk around the tub and the toilet. A toilet seat.
A/C contractor
The thermostat, the condensate drain line, the air handler, and the ducts behind the grilles.
- Why: Air conditioning is a licensed trade in Florida.
- What stays ours: Changing the filter, which the state names as work that needs no license.
Roofer
Anything on the roof: shingles, flashing, a leak, a tarp.
- Why: Roofing is a licensed trade in Florida, repairs included.
- What stays ours: The ceiling stain inside, once the roof is fixed.
Licensed contractor
Joists, beams, posts and load-bearing walls; stairs and railings; replacing an outside door or window; new fences, decks and shutters; anything that needs a permit; any list that adds up past $2,500 or is part of a bigger job.
- Why: Florida’s rule says work affecting structure, the way in and out of a house, accessibility, life safety, or anything needing a building permit is not “casual, minor, or inconsequential”, so the handyman exemption doesn’t cover it.
- What stays ours: Deck boards, pickets and rails between posts. Adjusting a door that sticks. Storm panels already made for the house.
Garage door company
Springs, cables and openers.
- Why: Specialist work under a lot of tension.
- What stays ours: Nothing on the door itself.
Mold remediator
Mold on a wall or ceiling past about ten square feet.
- Why: Florida licenses mold remediation above that size, and it usually means water behind it.
- What stays ours: Mildew in the caulk or grout.
The ones the owner looks at first
Some jobs sit on a line Florida’s rules don’t draw clearly. We take them down and say neither yes nor no until the owner has seen them: grab bars, gates and latches on a pool fence, toilet tank parts and shower heads, painted surfaces in a house built before 1978, outside work in one of Sanford’s historic districts, and any list likely to pass $2,500.
This is a demonstration, and none of it is legal advice. The split on this page follows Florida’s licensing board’s own examples, read conservatively. A real business would have a Florida construction attorney confirm the grey areas before publishing it.
Hand us the list anyway.
Mix in the fan and the faucet. The chat sorts them out, and the rest of the list is still ours.