Handyman in Arcadia, CA

About Arcadia

Arcadia lies about 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a run of adjacent parks: the Santa Anita Park racetrack, the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, and Arcadia County Park. The 2020 census counted 56,681 residents, and the city is named after Arcadia in Greece. (Source: Wikipedia, Arcadia.)

Housing by the numbers

The Census Bureau estimates about 21,000 housing units in Arcadia, with a median year built of 1965. By our count from the same table, about 41 percent were built before 1960, roughly 28 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, and about 16 percent since 2000, a higher share of new construction than most of its neighbors. About 58 percent of homes are owner-occupied, a little over half are single-family detached, and close to one in five units sit in buildings with ten or more units. Source: Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year data, tables B25034, B25035, B25003, B25024; see Census Reporter’s Arcadia profile.

Two kinds of house, two kinds of call

Older Arcadia houses bring the familiar list: tired shutoff valves, worn tub and shower cartridges, doors that drift out of square, and light fixtures from several eras. Newer houses bring a different list. Large homes built in recent decades often have more of everything: more bathrooms, more recessed lights, taller ceilings, bigger windows and more complex fixtures. Calls there are about high-ceiling light and fan swaps, recaulking several baths at once, adjusting large doors, and mounting big TVs on walls with metal backing or stone.

High ceilings and big fixtures

Two-story entries and tall family rooms make simple jobs harder: a dead bulb in a chandelier, a smoke alarm chirping eighteen feet up, a ceiling fan that wobbles high overhead. We bring ladders sized for the job and work like-for-like on existing boxes. A ceiling fan must hang from a fan-rated box. See ceiling fan installation, light fixture replacement and smoke and CO alarms.

Apartments and condos

Nearly a fifth of Arcadia units are in larger buildings. Condo owners call about fixtures inside their unit: faucets, toilets, garbage disposals, closet doors, and wall mounting. Anything on common pipes or the building’s structure goes through the HOA. We are glad to send photos and notes for your HOA when a problem sits on their side of the line.

Common Arcadia jobs

• TV mounting, including stone and brick walls.
• Recaulking tubs and showers in multi-bath homes.
• LED retrofits for existing recessed cans.
• Garbage disposals and under-sink filters.
• Door adjustments on large or heavy doors.

Near the foothills

Homes at the north end of town sit closer to the mountains. Wind and dust mean screens, weatherstripping and door sweeps wear faster, and outdoor lights take a beating. A yearly check of these small items keeps dust out and cooled air in. See fall home maintenance.

Booking

Text photos and your address to (310) 628-9399. We speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Free estimates.

Condo and townhouse checklists

For condos and townhouses, the most common inside-the-unit calls are a running toilet, a dripping faucet, a disposal that jams, sliding closet doors that jump their tracks, and smoke alarms that chirp. We handle these in one visit when possible. Before we start, it helps to know the HOA rules on work hours and parking, and where the unit’s water shutoff is, since some buildings have shared valves in a utility room.

Garages and laundry

Newer homes often have the laundry upstairs. A leak there can damage the ceiling below, so braided washer hoses and a drain pan under the machine are worth adding. In the garage, water heaters need their seismic straps snug and the area around them clear. A battery leak alarm on the floor beside the washer or the water heater is an inexpensive early warning, and it can save a ceiling or a floor from a slow drip that nobody notices for weeks.

Multi-bath homes and caulk

Homes with four or five bathrooms tend to have caulk that fails at different times. Recaulking every tub and shower in one visit is more efficient than one at a time. We remove the old bead fully, clean and dry the joint, and lay new silicone, then ask you to keep the showers dry for the curing time listed on the tube.

Big TVs and feature walls

Large living rooms often get large TVs, sometimes over a fireplace or on a stone or tile feature wall. Mounting on masonry needs the right bit and anchors, and a TV above a fireplace usually works best on a tilting mount so the screen angles down. We mark the position with tape so you can check the height from the couch before we drill.

Smart home devices

Video doorbells, smart thermostats on existing wiring, smart locks and smart switches on existing boxes are common requests in newer Arcadia homes. We install them on what is already there. New wiring runs or a new transformer location is not work we take on.

Before buying a smart lock, check that the door closes without pushing and the deadbolt throws freely; a lock that strains drains its batteries quickly. Before a smart thermostat, photograph the wires on the old one so we can confirm the new model will work with your system.

Older ranch houses

The older part of Arcadia’s housing behaves like the rest of the valley: original shutoff valves, aging water heaters in the garage, and sliding glass doors with worn rollers. A sliding door that drags is usually fixed with new rollers and a cleaned track. See slider roller and track repair.