I have used Mr. Handyman of SE Bellevue twice and have been very pleased with the results. They have done some paint touch-up and drywall and wood repair, along with a lot of work to fix a duct in my crawl space that was letting cold air pour into my kitchen. Both of the two handymen I have worked with arrived on time, were respectful, courteous, easy to talk to, and had a good sense of humor, knew their stuff, cleaned up after themselves, and fixed my problem. The drywall repair (a hole punched in the wall) was seamless, and my kitchen is warm and cozy again. I will definitely use them again.

UPDATE: (change from 1-star to 3-star)

I posted the previous review last Friday. By then, the project hadn't been completed yet. On the following Saturday morning, Bob came back with his crew and worked for 4 more hours to complete the project. The original proposal was to replace all four posts under the deck. In the end, they decided the last one didn't need to be replaced, so we ended up replacing three posts under the deck. The deck wasn't leveled very well before the project, they lifted one end of the deck about 2 inches to fix the problem.

They honored their original time estimate, didn't charge us for the Saturday hours, and apologized for the miscommunication. We paid $4100 in total for the entire project.

ORIGINAL REVIEW.

I now believe that reviews are not necessarily telling the true side of a company and how they treat their customers, and you don't see that until it happens to you. I normally don't write such negative reviews, but our experience with Mr. Handyman is simply too unpleasant not to share.

We had Mr. Handyman come and do a deck repairing project, the original estimate was $3500+tax for a two-day job. When we did our estimate, we were told it was a conservative budgetary estimate. By the end of the second day, we already got a bill of $4200 in total, and they still need to come back for a third visit because they didn't bring the right tool, and what's worse is that they still need at least half a day to finish the job, which I highly doubt at this moment.

On the beginning of the first day, they discovered an additional damage to fix, and we asked the project manager (onsite) whether this project could be completed on time, we got a YES. The original project scope includes replacing an entire beam under the deck, but the contractor decided to replace the beam partially without letting me or the project manager know (I was in the house all time). I called the project manager and he came back the next day. Finally we decided to compromise with the current approach to save some time, otherwise, they have to redo some of the work done on the first day. On the second day morning, we asked a SECOND time whether the project could be completed on time (by the end of the second day), we got a YES again. In the afternoon, I was told they need to come back again because they didn't have the right tool, and another half day at least is needed.

If there's anything that is fast and on time, that is the bill. They send bills for each day. For the second day, they arrived at 8am in the morning and left around 4pm in the afternoon. The second day's bill states they worked for 8 hours, but they were not there for about for at least one and half hours. I sent emails to ask for some clarification, but nobody replied. I called the manager to talk about the hours, the manager Bob argued with me: "the fact they're not there doesn't mean they're working on your deck." I was shocked when he said this. He didn't even say something like "OK, I'll check with them and get back to you." Fine, the closest HomeDepot is 3 miles away, I don't pay $300+ for an hour for two people to drive a 6-mile round trip to HomeDepot! Btw, I asked whether they have brought everything they need for the project on the second day morning. Again, I got a YES from them.

I had a conversation with Bob over the phone, he argued multiple times that the fact they need additional time is due to the additional damage discovered on the first day. OK, why did I get two confirmation from them stating that the project will be completed on time? He offered no explanation to that.

I guess I've said enough. We contracted with them because of the cost estimate and their relatively good reviews on some website. It didn't turn out to be a good experience for us. I just want to share my experience with everyone. The decision of hiring them or not is still up to you.