Monster Handyman Services

Dan is a very nice kid, but on our job (which was started in early 2014) he appeared to still be learning. I had him do some other small jobs at our home which were reasonably priced so I thought I'd give him a shot at our basement. First, he charges by the hour. I know that all jobs are bid taking into consideration an hourly rate, but every week when I sat down to pay him I asked how much longer the job would be. He always said " probably another 10 days - no more than two weeks" That went on for over 4 weeks. I continued to ask him for receipts so I could see where we were in terms of budget. I would leave on business trips and come back to find little work done. When I told him I was going to have to stop the job he said, "I'll finish everything for $500 and even come back to paint the floor when you are ready." He screened and avoided my calls so I had to use my husband's cell phone to get him to actually answer. He said he was booked and would contact me when he had a few hours free. Bottom line, when I finally contacted him again (in October) he said he would charge me paint the floor. I had to ask him SIX times to return a Home Depot gift card - he finally took a picture of it so I could use it in store. IF you decide to use him get IN WRITING how much the job will cost. Doing general, very basic handyman work is all I would trust him for as his lack of attention to detail could ruin a large kitchen or bath remodel. i.e. he forgot to frame in an access for the water shut off, the doors he hung both had to be rehung properly, the garage man door he replaced never locked properly and poor finishing techniques. I am not new to construction, having remodeled several investment properties as well as our own homes. I partially blame myself for not getting a quote up front, but as I mentioned, the small jobs he did were very reasonable so I made a rookie mistake of not getting it in writing and not pulling the plug 1/3 into the project when it was clear that he was in over his head.

The work was okay. His guy messed up the dry wall repair and he tried to charge me additional to re-do it correctly. The final dry wall repair looks okay, but not great. He did well on the painting and other repairs. The final cost came out approximately $2,000.00 above the estimate (nearly double). His guy tended to show up late in the mornings as was always on a break whenever I showed up at the site. I am not convinced that his "breaks" were not counted in the hours worked. They did complete the work on time.

He is reliable, punctual, and has a very neat and clean appearance. He's soft spoken and nice to have around the house. He took his shoes off in my house and cleaned up everything. He is a very hard worker. He is terrific and I highly recommend him to anyone.

Dan Riggins was very professional from the start. He met us in March and gave us an estimate on the house painting. He painted the interior of our home and did such a great job that I decided to use him for my office. At my office not only did he paint 4 rooms but he built a storage cabinet and replaced a carpeted floor with tile. He did a superior job. He is a nice guy with a very positive attitude. Since he first started doing jobs for us he has repaired our deck and has replaced our deck steps leading to our back yard. He just recently did some minor landscaping. Dan is a hard worker and finishes the jobs without leaving you for days while he does other jobs. This has been a problem with other handymen we have used in the past. We have been so pleased with his work that our friends are using him. One family we recommended him to, has hired him to do build a long retaining wall around the back of thier home and another family has hired him to completely remodel thier bathroom their bathroom. I highly recommend him.