The Story Behind Gainesville Handyman FL

Gainesville grew up around a railroad stop, a county courthouse and, after 1906, the University of Florida, and its houses show every chapter. Close to downtown, the Northeast and Southeast historic districts and the Pleasant Street neighborhood hold wood-frame Victorians, Queen Annes and Craftsman bungalows from the late 1800s into the 1920s, many raised on brick piers with heart-pine floors. Around UF come the 1920s through 1940s streets of University Park and Golfview, then the postwar concrete-block ranches with terrazzo floors and jalousie windows that fill neighborhoods like Florida Park and the Highlands. West and northwest of town, the 1970s through 1990s subdivisions near the Millhopper and Hunters Crossing give way to planned communities such as Haile Plantation, Tioga and Oakmont, while thousands of student apartments and townhomes line Archer Road and SW 20th Avenue.

The climate is what ties all of that together. Summers run long, hot and humid, with afternoon thunderstorms that roll in nearly every day from June into September and put down most of the area's roughly four feet of yearly rain, along with more lightning than almost anywhere in the country. Live oaks and laurel oaks shade most streets and drop leaves, catkins and a yellow-green coat of pollen every spring, pines shed straw into gutters year-round, and termites and mildew are always looking for a way in. Winters are mild, but a hard freeze still shows up every few years, and hurricane season, even this far inland, can bring down trees and knock out power, as Irma did in 2017.

That adds up to a long list of small repairs, and small repairs are exactly what's hard to get scheduled in a busy college town. We fill that gap. We're a local Gainesville outfit, general liability insured, and we'd rather earn your next call than stretch this one. We quote clearly before we start, work through your list in one organized visit, and repair for this climate: keeping water and bugs out, using hardware and finishes that stand up to the humidity, and treating old heart pine and plaster with care. Wiring and plumbing connections are made by licensed electricians and plumbers, so a new ceiling fan, a light fixture swap or a replacement toilet gets done alongside everything else on the list.

Our promises, plainly put

• The price you approve is the price you pay
• General liability insurance on every visit
• A real arrival time, not a half-day window
• Boots wiped, dust cleaned, trash hauled off
• Straight talk when a job belongs with a licensed trade
• Rooted here in Gainesville and the towns next door