Roger K. Lewis - Some Jobs Around the House Are Just Matters of Detail

Some Jobs Around the House Are Just Matters of Detail

By Roger K. Lewis
Saturday, January 19, 2008

You can find plenty of telephone listings under "Auto Detailing." These firms specialize in making your car look new inside and out. Detailers rigorously clean, burnish, polish and make minor repairs.

But you won't find any Yellow Pages listings for "Home Detailing." That's potentially a large untapped market.

There are countless firms that renovate homes. Some remodel kitchens and bathrooms; some do electrical, mechanical or plumbing work; some repair or rebuild roofs; some replace windows; and some repaint inside and out. A few home-improvement display ads boast that "no job is too small."

In fact, many jobs are too small, and no home-improvement firms specialize in "detailing" as such. Few companies want to spend only a couple of days at someone's house performing a long list of often cosmetic tasks. Homeowners themselves could do some of that work, but it can be easy to defer or neglect such work when schedules get hectic.

The construction industry's fragmentation by specialty means that you might need members of several trades to fix every minor thing that cries for a bit of attention. Missing are firms or individuals whose business is devoted to performing those numerous and vexing but minor home tasks.

Should someone offer a home-detailing service, likely exterior tasks would include:

Caulking and cleaning windows.

Cleaning and repairing gutters and making minor roof repairs.

Sealing around windows, doors and other penetrations; straightening flashing; replacing missing shingles.

Securing loose or misaligned shutters, light fixtures or railings.

Cleaning portions of masonry walls and repairing minor masonry defects, such as crumbling or missing mortar, loose bricks or stones, and clogged weep holes.

The list of interior detailing needs could be extensive:

Thoroughly cleaning hard-to-reach places, including removing mold.

Repairing minor drywall defects and touching up wall and ceiling paint.

Adjusting poorly closing doors and door hardware.

Adjusting cabinetry door hinges and latches, as well as drawer hardware.

Removing scale (calcium salt) on and around faucets and plumbing fixtures.

Removing scale and soap residue from bathroom wall and floor tiles.

Replacing washers in leaky bath and kitchen faucet valves.

Adding insulation around electrical outlets and switches in exterior walls to reduce heat loss and air infiltration.

Replacing light bulbs in high, hard-to-reach light fixtures.

Home-detailing teams or individuals would have to be experienced jacks-of-all-trades armed with a variety of equipment and supplies: ladders, tools, strong cleaning solvents, sealants, adhesives, and a wide assortment of fasteners and light bulbs. They also would have to know where to quickly obtain supplies and materials for out-of-the-ordinary situations.

Detailers would not undertake work requiring specialized construction-trade licenses. Although they could thoroughly clean faucets and perhaps replace washers, they would not install new faucets. They would not rewire electrical circuits, but they could replace a light switch or remove and reinstall a plug on a frayed lamp cord. And they would not take on major renovation work, such as repainting or reroofing a house.

I suspect that there are thousands of homeowners who gladly would hire a qualified home detailer for a few days to help make their houses look almost as good as new. And I would be first in line.

Roger K. Lewis is a practicing architect and a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland.

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