Handyman in West Covina, CA

How we work in West Covina

West Covina is a big city by valley standards, stretched across three ZIP codes (91790, 91791 and 91792) with the San Bernardino Freeway cutting it roughly in half. Most of the houses we get calls about went up during the postwar building boom, when walnut groves and other farmland were subdivided into single-story ranch tracts. That history matters for repairs. A ranch house from that period usually has its water heater in the garage or a hall closet, galvanized supply lines that may have been partly replaced with copper over the years, and bathroom tile set in a thick mortar bed that is not easy to open up.

Sources: West Covina on Wikipedia and the Los Angeles Times on Woodside Village (1995) and Galster Wilderness Park on Wikipedia.

When you text us a photo, tell us the cross street and roughly which part of town you are in. Someone up in the South Hills neighborhood near Galster Park has a different driveway, slope and parking situation than a homeowner in a flat tract near Sunset Avenue. Knowing that ahead of time helps us plan parts and the right ladder before we head over, and we always text before we leave.

Neighborhoods and landmarks we know

• South Hills, the hillside area south of Amar Road, with larger lots, retaining walls and long driveways. Gates, fences and exterior hose bibs see a lot of wear up here.
• Woodside Village, a planned community on the city's southern edge with townhomes and shared walls, where a slow leak can show up in a neighbor's ceiling before you notice it.
• Plaza West Covina, the regional mall on the south side of the I-10, and the shopping strips along Azusa Avenue and Glendora Avenue nearby.
• Galster Wilderness Park, the hilltop nature park with trails off Cameron Avenue.
• Cameron Park and the Cameron Community Center, a regular stop for families on the west side of town.
• Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital on Sunset Avenue, a landmark most residents give directions from.

Background on the city's history and layout comes from the West Covina Wikipedia article.

What West Covina houses tend to need

Ranch houses here are now sixty or seventy years old, so the original parts that still exist are reaching the end. The jobs that come up again and again are corroded shower valves that no longer shut off cleanly, angle stops that weep under sinks, tank water heaters that rumble with sediment, and hollow-core interior doors that have swollen or split. Many homes also had a family room or patio added in later decades, which means a mix of old and newer plumbing behind the same wall.

Hillside homes in South Hills deal with soil movement, which shows up as cracked drywall at door corners and doors that start to rub at the head jamb. We patch the cracks and plane or reset the door, and if a crack keeps reopening we tell you, because that points to movement and patching it again will not hold.

Townhome owners in planned communities often need work done between the walls they own and the parts the association maintains. Check your CC&Rs before we start on a shared supply line or an exterior door, and send us the answer with your photos so the quote matches what you are responsible for.

Common requests from West Covina

A typical week of West Covina calls might include a 40-gallon gas water heater swap in a garage, a cartridge replacement on a single-handle shower that drips all night, a TV mounted over a brick fireplace, and a ceiling fan hung on a box that is already fan-rated. Electrical is limited to swaps on existing boxes and circuits. If a room needs a new circuit or the panel looks overloaded, we will say so; that part is outside our scope.

Before you text us

Find your main water shutoff now, before you need it. In most West Covina tracts it sits near the front hose bib or in a box by the sidewalk meter. If it will not turn, that is worth fixing on the same visit as any other plumbing job.

Garages, laundry and the side yard

In a lot of West Covina ranch homes the garage does triple duty as laundry room, storage and water heater closet. That puts the washer box, the heater, the main breaker panel and the hose bib for the side yard within a few feet of each other. When we come for one of them, we glance at the others: a washer valve that weeps at the stem, rubber hoses gone stiff, a heater strap that has worked loose, an exterior faucet that drips into the planter.

Pointing those out costs you nothing, and we always stop and ask before extra work. Garage entry doors are another common fix here. The door between the house and the garage takes daily slams, so the hinges loosen, the closer quits and the latch stops catching.

Tightening, a new closer and a strike adjustment get it shutting on its own again.