Handyman in Dulwich: Period Homes, Local Rules, Same Day

London Handyman Pro is a fully insured handyman company that works across Dulwich, covering the SE21 and SE22 postcodes. We handle the everyday jobs Dulwich homes need: skirting and shelving, door and window adjustments, plaster repairs, guttering, tiling and outdoor tidy-ups. Same day visits are available when our diary allows, and quotes are free and come back within minutes. To book, call, message us on WhatsApp or use the quote form, Monday to Saturday from 9.00 to 19.00.

Dulwich is not one kind of housing. Around Dulwich Village and the roads near Dulwich Wood you will find large Victorian and Edwardian houses, many with original sash windows, picture rails, deep skirting and lath-and-plaster walls. Those walls do not take a fixing the way a modern plasterboard wall does. Head towards East Dulwich and the Lordship Lane end and the stock changes to two-storey Victorian terraces, Edwardian semis and a growing number of flats made from houses that were split up long ago.

Most people who call us here fall into three groups. Owners who have just bought a period house and want the snagging list cleared before furniture goes in. Landlords and letting agents turning a flat round between tenants around North Dulwich and West Dulwich. And households with young children who need a gate, a fence panel or a shelf fixed before the weekend. Most Dulwich jobs take a day or less. When a job is bigger, we quote it separately and tell you before anything starts.

The handyman jobs Dulwich homes most often need

Most calls in Dulwich are small repairs that have been put off for a while, plus fitting work that has to suit an older house. These are the jobs that come up most often.

• Skirting boards. Floors in older Dulwich houses rarely run level, so new skirting often needs scribing and packing to meet both the floor and the wall. Our skirting board fitting service covers old and new boards.
• Doors that stick or drop. Timber doors in Victorian frames move with the seasons. A planed door, a new hinge or a re-set strike plate often fixes the problem without replacing the frame.
• Shelving and picture hanging. Chimney breasts and internal walls in older houses usually need fixings suited to plaster, not plasterboard anchors. We check what is behind the wall before drilling. Our shelving and picture hanging work follows the same check.
• Plaster repairs. Cracks above doorways, ceiling patches after a leak and bulging plaster in back rooms are all common. Repairs are feathered in and painted to match, so the patch does not show in daylight.
• Curtain poles and blinds. High ceilings and deep reveals mean longer poles and heavier fixings than a standard flat needs.
• Guttering and downpipes. Terraces share parapets and gutters with neighbours, so a blocked outlet can cause damp in the house next door. We clear and re-hang gutters and fix leaking joints. Our guttering services cover the full range.
• Tiling and bathroom repairs. Bathrooms in period houses are often tiled over more than once, so the wall needs checking before new tiles go on.
• TV and wall-mounted fixtures. On a party wall or chimney breast we check the wall type first. A bracket rated for solid masonry can still fail on a hollow or lath wall.
• Patio, path and garden tidy-ups. Moss and algae build up on Dulwich patios and shaded side returns, and pressure washing and small deck repairs are common in spring and summer.

Period houses and conversions in Dulwich: what their age changes on a job

In Dulwich, the age and conversion history of a house change the method more than the task itself. The table shows the common home types and what we check first.

Conservation areas, estates and shared walls to check before you order

Before you order work on the outside of a Dulwich house, check two things: whether the property sits in a conservation area, and whether the lease or the estate has its own rules. Either can limit what you are allowed to change without asking first.

Parts of Dulwich are designated conservation areas, and Dulwich Village is one of them. In a conservation area, many external changes need planning permission that would not be needed elsewhere. Some streets are also covered by an Article 4 direction, which removes the normal right to change things such as windows, doors and front boundaries. Southwark Council's online planning map shows the designation for your address, so check it rather than relying on a neighbour's word. Replacing original sash windows with uPVC, painting a brick front or changing a front door are the changes that most often need a check.

Estates and leases are the second check. Some Dulwich streets sit on estates with their own landlord rules, and leasehold flats in converted houses or purpose-built blocks have managing agents who approve work in shared areas. If a job involves a roof, a shared wall, a communal hall or the outside of a building, we ask who must approve it and get that confirmed in writing before we start. We will not quietly begin external work we think needs consent. If you are waiting on approval, we can often do the inside work first.

Dulwich coverage and the neighbouring areas we also serve

We cover SE21 and SE22 in full, which takes in Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, North Dulwich, West Dulwich and the streets between them. The areas that border Dulwich are served by the same crews. Each has its own page: handyman Croydon, handyman Peckham, handyman Greenwich and handyman Lewisham.

Our London work also reaches well beyond south London. Crews regularly work in Chelsea, Kensington and Wimbledon, and we also cover Knightsbridge, Mayfair, Belgravia, Fulham, Hampstead, Richmond, Battersea, Clapham, Islington and Canary Wharf. If your address is not on this list, send it through the quote form and we will confirm coverage.

How a Dulwich visit runs from booking to tidy finish

Booking takes a few minutes, and the visit follows the same steps each time. You can book by phone, on WhatsApp or through the quote form on our site.

1. Tell us the job.