Why a list of small jobs costs less per job

Where the money goes on a twenty minute repair

On a twenty minute repair, the twenty minutes is the small part. Loading tools, driving out, carrying in, the walk-through, floor protection down and up, then vacuuming and packing out happens once per visit, not once per item.

Material runs work the same way. Four items needing something from a supplier is one stop on the way out, and handled separately it is four stops, one of them for a single tube of sealant. Five service calls is also five mornings arranged around being home.

Setups fill a day, not items

A setup is a place the work has to happen plus the gear to get there, and it costs the same whether one item uses it or four: the ladder out and footed, the crawlspace hatch open, the water off, dust sheeted into one room.

An item count predicts a day badly; a setup count predicts it well. Nine items along one hallway is a comfortable day. Three needing the ladder, a trip under the house and the water off are three setups for three small jobs.

Sort the list by setup rather than by room, which is the instinct:

• The ladder outside. A gutter to re-secure, a loose piece of siding, a soffit panel and a length of trim share one thing: setting and moving the ladder is most of the labor on any of them. That list batches better once the leaves are down.
• Under the house, or up in the attic. Getting in and back out again is most of the work in either, so it all goes on one trip. Damp down there is its own question.
• Water off. A faucet and a toilet swapped like for like on existing supply and waste happen in one shutoff rather than two.
• Dust first, then let drying set the order. Patching and sanding run before any finish coat, and compound, caulk and primer each have a wait built in.
• Ordered parts are the exception. A part that has to come in cannot be batched with same-day work, so it belongs at the top of the list rather than discovered at 3pm.

Writing a list that can be priced from a phone

One line per item: what it is, where it is, and what you want to happen. "Hall bathroom, towel bar pulled out of the wall, want it back up and holding" can be priced without a visit. "Fix towel bar" cannot, because it might be an anchor or a hole in the drywall behind it.

Walk each room once and look deliberately: eye level, then floor and baseboard, then ceiling. Most lists are missing a few items the owner stopped seeing. Note what you have already bought, since a faucet in the garage changes the quote, and anything carrying a date. Then mark which items you would drop if the list runs long, the most useful column you can write and the one almost nobody does.

Then photograph it. Two shots per item beats one: far enough back to place it in the room, close enough to show the damage, with a tape or your hand in frame for scale.

• A ceiling stain: whatever sits directly above it. The stain is the symptom and rarely the problem.
• A sticking door: the gap all the way around it with the door closed, plus the hinges and the strike plate.
• A soft board or a soft spot in a floor: shoot up at it from underneath if you can do that safely, because the photo from above shows the least.

What belongs on a different list

Some items are a different trade. Put them on the list anyway, because knowing early beats finding out on the day.

Two kinds of item sit outside general repair: work that is licensed as a trade of its own at any size, and work that belongs to another trade altogether, roofing and garage doors among them. Either way it is a trade question rather than a scheduling one, and answering it while the list is being written is what keeps it from turning into a second visit. Anything behind a cover plate is its own trade, so that item comes off this list and goes on its own.

What to knock off the list yourself first

Plenty of punch list items are a screwdriver and twenty minutes, and saying otherwise would be dishonest.

Cabinet doors out of alignment are the easiest win in the house. A European hinge has two or three adjustment screws, each doing one thing: the one nearest the door face slides it left and right, the one behind it moves the door in and out, and the screws through the mounting plate move it up and down. Turn one a quarter turn, close the door, and judge the gap against its neighbor rather than the door itself. A door dropped on the latch side wants the plate screws snugged first, since a loose plate reads exactly like a hinge out of adjustment.

Failed caulk at a tub or a backsplash is homeowner work too, with one rule: the old bead has to come all the way out. Cut both edges, pull it, scrape the joint, let it dry. Then run one continuous bead and tool it in a single pass with a wet fingertip, because going back over a bead that has skinned is what leaves the ridges.

Bifold and closet doors that catch are usually the pivots rather than the doors. The bottom pivot sits in a bracket that slides along the track and locks with one screw, and a quarter inch of movement there straightens a door that has rubbed its partner for years.

A door that will not latch is the most common item on any list, and the cure is nearly always at the top hinge rather than the door edge, so that is where to start before anyone reaches for a plane. Leave alone anything that pulled out of the wall and has to hold weight, since the right anchor depends on what is behind that spot.

Doing five yourself and leaving four is a good outcome, not a failed one. It may also shrink the list below the point where a visit makes sense, in which case hold the rest until something joins them.

Now, soon, or hold

Write the list now. One pass through the house turns a vague sense that the place needs attention into something that can be priced, and calling can then wait until the list is long enough to carry a visit.

Three things move an item into now whatever else is on the list: water going somewhere it should not, anything carrying a person's weight, meaning a handrail, a stair tread or a deck board, and anything letting weather into the building.

What decides the rest is whether the item gets worse on its own. A hole in the drywall will be the same hole next spring. A ceiling stain will not, because the stain was never the problem. Sort the list by that and the timing answers itself.

Questions that come with this one