When To DIY, And When To Hire A Professional

Dan Medley is a contractor and the founder of Team Handy Dan. He also teaches people the basics of home repair. He offers tips from how to build a home toolbox to how to assess when you can do a job yourself, and when to call a professional. 

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC Studios in Soho. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. I'm really grateful that you're here. On today's show, what do you think the best movie of the 21st century is so far? The New York Times has a list, and reporter Kyle Buchanan joins us to discuss. We'll also talk about a new exhibit at the New York Historical that looks at how the Hollywood blacklist changed the film industry and the country. We'll wrap up our week-long series on beach reads with a thriller that examines wealth and privilege on the Upper West Side. We'll hear from Chris Pavone, the author of The Doorman. That's our plan.

Let's get this started with Handyman Dan.

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It's never too late to learn how to be handy at home, whether it's fixing that cabinet that's always kind of hanging off the hinge, installing your AC unit, or putting together a new piece of furniture. For those who aren't adept at using drills and hammers, we have a What the Hack? Segment for you. We're going to give you some tools in your toolbox to be more handy at home with the help of Handy Dan. Dan Medley is a licensed general contractor in New York and owner of Team Handy Dan, a small business and handyman company. We first heard of him when he called into the show a few weeks ago. He shouted out his handyman class during our occasional Friday segment, where we ask you what you're doing this weekend, and he's here with me now in-studio for an episode of What the Hack? Handy Dan, welcome.

Handy Dan: Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: Hey, listeners. We want to point out that this conversation is to inform and to give advice. For your safety, contact a licensed contractor or professional to help with your needs. With services like yours, with all the Internet advice videos we can pull up, why do you think it's important that someone have basic handy skills at home?

Handy Dan: Well, especially in New York City, everything is old and everything is falling apart. Knowing how to fix things quickly is valuable because you don't always have a good super. Luckily, I have a good super. It's just good to know basic skills and have a basic set of tools at home so you can get things done quickly and efficiently.

Alison Stewart: All right, tell me what should be in my toolbox.

Handy Dan: Good question. I have the smallest bag on the planet. I've got a mini hammer that's 4 inches tall. I try to be as compact as possible. You don't need a lot of things. A good hammer drill, if you have masonry, a multi-tool, a multi-bit screwdriver, just some pliers, WD40, duct tape; you can do almost everything.

Alison Stewart: I read on your website that when you were a kid that you used to take things apart.

Handy Dan: Oh, yes. I loved destroying my toys and putting them back together differently.

Alison Stewart: Why do you think that was so interesting to a young Handy Dan?

Handy Dan: I don't know. My dad and brother worked on cars for my entire childhood, and I didn't much care for that, so I wanted to do my own thing, so I took my toy cars and liked to rebuild them however I saw fit. Just learn things throughout the years.

Alison Stewart: What did your parents think of this idea of this kid who takes stuff apart? "Oh, and then he puts it back together."

Handy Dan: They loved it because they could buy me less toys. I would adapt my toys as I got older.

Alison Stewart: Before we go into specifics, what are a few big-picture ways that you think a person can get better at their at-home handy skills?

Handy Dan: YouTube. The University of YouTube. Watching tons of videos. You can hire us and watch me. I love to talk through it and teach people. Puts me out of business, but I think everybody should be a little handy. Take one of our classes. Yes, YouTube. I YouTube things occasionally because there's so many variables in New York City with building and all kinds of things.

Alison Stewart: What's one task in particular you think is simple? It's pretty easy, sort of a starter task.

Handy Dan: Anything. IKEA. If you can get something together from IKEA without stripping a screw or breaking something, that's great. Then I would move on to a shelf or a small picture. Nothing too heavy. Figure out your walls because you got plaster, brick, drywall. A lot of variables there. Assembly and basic hanging, nothing too heavy.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, do you consider yourself handy, or are you someone who maybe needs a little bit of help? You might consider yourself a little bit useless in the handy category. Our phone lines are open. 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. If you have a question about a problem at your home and you want a little bit of advice from a professional, our phone number is 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. You can call in, you can talk to Handyman Dan, or you can text to us as well. Here is a text already.

Question for Dan, "What would be the best way to clean the window AC after months of non-use, especially to be safe from molds, et cetera. Thank you."

Handy Dan: It's a tough one because you have to usually take the case off the whole thing. It's a whole ordeal. They make spray foam you can buy on Amazon. You don't even have to wash it. You just spray it in the grill and it cleans the things. Canned air, too, to get things out. It's better to cover them over the winter- they make covers- or take them out of the window because that's when things get in there, and it gets kind of gross over the winter. That spray foam is about all you can really do easily.

Alison Stewart: Here's another text. "I have a tap that I need to get the top off, but the little nut is too stiff for me to loosen. I have the correct Allen wrench, but it's not budging. I fear breaking the Allen wrench. Can I spray WD40 inside the tap structure or something else?"

Handy Dan: WD40 is okay. People use that for too many things. PB Blaster is great to break things free. You spray it on.

Alison Stewart: PB Blaster?

Handy Dan: PB Blaster. It's a bit like WD40, which is in a spray can, but it's good for anti-seize type things. It sounds like it's just a stuck screw. That and a little tapping with a hammer can maybe knock it free.

Alison Stewart: Why do you say WD40 is used too often?

Handy Dan: People use it on hinges and things, and it's a water displacement, so instead of lubricating, it dries it out more, oddly enough.

Alison Stewart: Oh, interesting.

Handy Dan: WD40 makes a lubricant version, a silicone lubricant. If you look at a different can that says WD40, it'll say silicone lubricant, I believe. That's what you should be using for most things people use traditional WD44 for. WD40 is a water displacement; it keeps things dry. If you're trying to oil things or make things not squeak, it's just going to temporarily work, but long term, it's not the right solution.

Alison Stewart: Got a little FYI. This text says, "FYI, the Brooklyn Library in Greenpoint has a tool library. You can check out tools there."

Handy Dan: I didn't even know that. I might have to borrow some of their tools.

Alison Stewart: Well, there you go. My guest is Dan Medley, owner and lead contractor of Team Handy Dan, a local handyman company. He's here to talk about how to improve our at-home handiness and take any questions you have about home repairs or improvement. It's a What the Hack? Special. Let's talk to Steve from Park Slope on Line 1. Hi, Steve.

Steve: Hey, how are you doing, Alison?

Alison Stewart: Doing great.

Steve: Dan, I was just wondering, I've got a faucet that I can't turn, and it leaks. What would be the easiest way I could stop that leak? Should I call angi.com, or should I try to get a couple of plumbers to give me estimates? What's the deal?

Alison Stewart: All right. A faucet that he can't turn all the way off.

Handy Dan: Legally in New York, I don't touch plumbing. I have a great licensed plumber I bring in for everything. I would always say at least get three quotes because some of them will come in with a crazy high price because they don't want the job, but at least get three quotes. I would do licensed all the time. Unlicensed work, if something happens, liability's on you, and that's not good. I don't really do a lot of plumbing, so I don't really have a good answer. I would just say find three good, reputable companies and get quotes. Choose what your gut tells you to choose.

Alison Stewart: We're talking about safety. We should talk about that as a priority. What are the precautions you should take when you work? What should people keep in mind?

Handy Dan: Protect your ears and eyes first, and lungs. Those things are very important. The biggest concern I have in New York is drilling into walls. Over the years, things have moved. Pipes are in the walls where you maybe aren't thinking a pipe should be. There's gas lines in walls. There's electrical everywhere. That's the biggest concerns. Air conditioners falling out of windows. I've seen people put them up with bricks and books, which is illegal. Get a good safety bracket. Drilling into walls and ACs falling out are my two biggest fears, personally, with my company.

Alison Stewart: Text for Handyman Dan, "How do you get a tricky jammed drawer unstuck?"

Handy Dan: If it's wood on wood, just grabbing a bar of unscented Dove soap or a candlestick and rubbing it all over the wood parts. If it's metal drawer slide, sometimes the bearings are wearing out, and you just measure the depth of it. They come in like 12, 13, 14, and you can order them on Amazon, Home Depot, or whatever. It depends on the type. Usually, WD40 silicone spray would work for that. If it's just wood on wood, unscented soap, or scented, if you like the smell.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Dan from Westchester. Hey, Dan, you're on with Dan, Handyman. Dan.

Dan: Hey, Dan. It's Dan.

Handy Dan: Hi, Dan.

Dan: My question that's been bothering me for a while is most electrical sockets, whether it's in a ceiling fixture, wall sconce, or something else, say maximum 60-watt bulb, but we all use LED bulbs now. I found that while the glass of the LED bulb is plastic, it's very cool; the base is very hot, maybe hotter than a normal incandescent bulb. Do you have any advice on how high you can go or whatever on a-- Because these LEDs are 4 watts or 6 watts.

Handy Dan: I always play by the rules, do what it says safety-wise. This is getting into asking a licensed electrician, so I don't really want to speak too much on it. I know bulbs don't get as hot as they used to, based on catching on fire and things like that, which you don't want. That's probably more of an electrician question that I shouldn't really speak on. I would say just play by the rules for safety purposes is what I always tell people.

Alison Stewart: This one says, "How do you mouse-proof your apartment without calling the exterminator first?"

Handy Dan: We do a little bit of bug proofing, but not really. We go through and find every hole and just fill it. You can use not steel wool, but copper wool. You shove it in the holes. You can just duct tape it in place. They make the spray foam stuff, but that's really gross and sticky. It's tough if somebody's got to work on pipes because most issues come from where pipes enter the wall, so finding those voids and filling them. I always say stick the little sticky traps everywhere in your apartment for a month, and then look at them and you'll see some have more bugs than others. You know that area is probably where they're coming in. Finding the entry point and then just digging deep behind your washer, your dishwasher, if you have one, stove, stuff like that.

Alison Stewart: Stuff that we should be careful of, because you said "licensed contractor" a couple of times. How do you know when it's time to move on from a handyman to a licensed contractor? You said electrician. What else?

Handy Dan: Electricians, plumbers, all the licenses in the city. I subcontract, bring licensed people in for bigger jobs. Anything electrical, anything water, you want to be careful with. Especially in the city. You don't want to flood your downstairs neighborhood; that would not be good. Usually, if you feel in your gut that you should not be doing it, usually trust your gut. Don't overextend yourself too much. Especially if you live in a nice big building. You don't want to mess things up for everybody. When in doubt, ask a professional, I would say.

Alison Stewart: Here's a question for you. "What is the best wall anchor for brick? I'm quite handy and I'm doing a built-in shelf unit in my living room, and the wall is old Latin plaster over brick."

Handy Dan: Beautiful wall. I would say TOGGLER brand ALLIGATOR anchors. Specifically, I think, AF8s. You get them for $12, $15 bucks on Amazon. I buy them in thousands. I use them all over the city. You need a hammer drill and a masonry bit that's the same size as the anchor, and those things could hold the house up. We've hung thousand-pound items on brick.

Alison Stewart: What is it about them that makes them useful?

Handy Dan: I think they're German-engineered. They're just really good. They're almost reusable, too. They're kind of the same ones you see in cheap furniture. The cheap plastic ones that I throw away immediately. All my guys carry these nice anchors. They just work. I've never had them fall out, never had them pull out, never had an issue with them. They're great. They accept so many screw sizes, too. They're not specific to one screw. It's like a wide range of screws. They're very adaptable.

Alison Stewart: For folks who are listening and think, "I didn't get the name of that," don't worry. We have transcripts of our segments, and they will be up later today. If you didn't catch it the first time, you can catch it on the transcript. Let's talk to Laura from Washington Heights. Hi, Laura, thanks for calling All Of It.

Laura: Hi, thank you for taking my call. Hi, Dan. We have an old apartment with an old bathroom and old grout. Our management had somebody come in because it was pretty nasty, and they were supposed to fix it. Basically, all they did was just put grout upon grout, so the grout has been falling off of the tiles bit by bit, and there's a big like 1.5 inch grouting around the tub where it meets the wall, that is now started to mold again and coming through yellow and black. I don't trust them to do it, and I would love to do it ourselves. What should we do?

Alison Stewart: Someone wants to grout for the first time.

Handy Dan: The biggest issue with that is most people put grout where caulking or silicone needs to go. Pretty much any transition where your tub meets the floor or your tub meets the tile, 90-degree angles, grout is not flexible. They shove it in and say they're done, and then it falls out because when water is in the tub, it flexes the tub. It sounds like where all that meets you're going to need some good mold and mildew-resistant silicone. You can get just white silicone. The other grout. If it's just grout on grout, you got to redo it. It's not a cheap, quick, easy job to redo it. If you're trying to patch it, you can always just put a little silicone so there's not a hole in the floor between your tiles. Mostly silicone is what people aren't using.

Alison Stewart: Use the silicone first, and then you can grout over the silicone?

Handy Dan: No, it's either/or.

Alison Stewart: Either/or?

Handy Dan: Usually, transition would be silicone, but if you want a quick patch, just there's like a hole between tiles and you don't want to do grout, you can just throw a little silicone in temporarily until you can do the right thing, which is not quick and easy.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Mark from Glen Rock. Hey, Mark, thanks for calling All Of It. You are on with Handyman Dan.

Mark: Hello. I have a hose attached to an outdoor faucet. I made the mistake of leaving it on over winter for a few years. Now I can't disconnect it. I need to remove that hose because it's kinked. Do you have any suggestion? I've tried spraying with WD40, which I know you said you shouldn't use. I've used wrenches. I just can't get it loosened at all.

Alison Stewart: I love that he said over a couple of years.

Handy Dan: Yes. That thing is probably seized on there. The WD40 or penetrating lube, they have too, I think, a different version. Heat, usually. If you're safe with it, you can kind of heat up the metal, and it can expand a little bit. You can usually get two wrenches, one on the spigot and one on the hose, and just work it off. If not, you can always have a plumber come in and just cut the spigot off and put a new one on in an hour.

Alison Stewart: Good luck with your hose. Let's talk to Sarah from the Upper West Side. Hey, Sarah, thanks for calling All Of It. What's going on in your house?

Sarah: Hi. I'm redoing my kitchen by myself. I have an under-counter refrigerator. It does a buzzing like a very loud humming every now and then. I googled. Is that the compressor? Should I get a new one or keep it? I don't know how much to invest.

Handy Dan: Sounds are tough without hearing it specifically or figuring out where it's coming from in the unit. How old is the refrigerator?

Sarah: I don't know. It's Facebook Marketplace. They said brand new.

Handy Dan: Oh, yes. They always say things. Without knowing the sound, it could be 1,000,0001 things.

Alison Stewart: Sarah, can you make the sound?

Sarah: [onomatopoeia] It's annoying. It's loud enough and buzzing enough to the point where I'm like, "I think I'll just stick with the fridge that came with the apartment."

Handy Dan: Yes, I'd probably do that. It could be the compressor. That's tough. There might be a fan back there. Something could be hitting the fan. I've had a thing where I pulled a refrigerator out, and there was a piece of cardboard on the back that was just hitting the fan when the fan would kick on. Without knowing the exact fridge and the sound, I can't really know.

Alison Stewart: All right. Well, look for something maybe hitting something first, and then move on to the next step of-

Handy Dan: -calling a refrigerator repairman.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Dan Medley, owner and lead contractor of Team Handy Dan. He is helping us out with listeners' questions. Are you someone who has a problem? Someone you want to ask a question? Our number is 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. We'll have more with Dan when we come right back.

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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. In-studio, I've got Dan Medley, owner and lead contractor of Team Handy Dan, a local handyman company. He's here to talk about how to improve your at-home handiness and to take questions you might have about home repairs or improvement. Talk to me about hanging frames. What's the secret to hanging frames?

Handy Dan: The biggest secret is knowing what wall you have. Drywall, super easy, but then you start getting into plaster, brick, concrete, cinder block, drywall that's been glued to plaster. There's just so many variables. Knowing your wall type; valuable first.

Alison Stewart: If I'm trying to hang something and I see that it is suddenly coming off, what does that mean?

Handy Dan: Probably used the wrong anchor or no anchor. Some people just put a screw right in a drywall and hang something heavy, and it just rips right out.

Alison Stewart: I need to get a Molly, if that's what it's called.

Handy Dan: That's one of them. There's so many. You could have a bucket full of different anchors. So many different ones.

Alison Stewart: I don't know if this is your territory, but what about framing them so that they'll be straight?

Handy Dan: Oh, yes. All of my guys carry a tiny little laser level. Ryobi makes this cute little $10 one. You stick it to the wall and it shoots a laser 20ft. Just follow the laser.

Alison Stewart: Follow the laser.

Handy Dan: Follow the laser.

Alison Stewart: All right, we've got a whole bunch of critter questions.

Handy Dan: Okay.

Alison Stewart: I'll try to put them into one big group.

Handy Dan: Sure.

Alison Stewart: They want to know how to get rid of large horse flies in the apartment. Is there a way to get rid of roaches that doesn't involve spray? Then I'll just read this one because it's kind of gross but also interesting. It says, "I have sewer roaches. The water bug cockroaches live in the building, in our very old building. How do I prevent them from coming up in the toilet through the trap, even though it drains from the sink? They seem to crawl right through the water into these traps. Gross."

Handy Dan: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Getting rid of roaches. Is there a way to get rid of them not using spray? Let's start there.

Handy Dan: There's a gel. I'm not a pest person. I just know about this thing. It's called Advion gel. You can find it online. Use it exactly the way it tells you to use it. It's just like a peanut buttery thing. They eat it and they go home and they eat each other and they die. It's great. It works wonders.

Alison Stewart: Wow. It's a horror movie.

Handy Dan: I can't use it myself, but I hear good things about it. That is the best thing you can use for roaches that I know about.

Alison Stewart: All right. This text says, "Do you have any tips for locating studs in the walls?" First of all, explain what the studs in the walls are.

Handy Dan: In theory, every 16 inches should be a stud, but in New York, things have been made so many wrong ways that where a stud should be isn't always normal. You can buy stud finders, but I find that they give me false positives often. My favorite thing is a neodymium magnet, one of the strong little magnets the size of a quarter. It's all you need. You stick it on your thumb, and you run it all over the walls if it's drywall. It'll stick to your screws that are hiding under your drywall, where they screwed the drywall to the stud.

Alison Stewart: Oh, that's smart.

Handy Dan: When it sticks to the screw, boom, there's a stud. Then you want to go up and down and find at least three in a row, because somebody might have put a screw and just covered it in spackle, and that might not be a stud. Finding the screw and then finding three vertically should be the center of a stud. That's my way of doing it, because those stud finders, they're hit or miss. They don't work great on plaster, any kind of messy walls. A neodymium magnet is my secret weapon.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Richard from Jersey City. Hey, Richard, thanks for calling All Of It.

Richard: Hi. Thank you for taking my call. My refrigerator leaves a puddle on the floor. It's my understanding that since it's defrosting all the time, it drains, and then it goes into a pan underneath the refrigerator, and that pan overflows. What's my fix on this? Any idea?

Handy Dan: I don't do a lot of fridge repairs. I love this is my second fridge question. I do know that sometimes people overload their fridges and they have to work really hard, and it makes a lot of condensation in the back on the compressor, I believe is how it works. It's supposed to go to that pan. In theory, that pan is supposed to evaporate, but if your compressor is working harder than your apartment is humid or whatever, it will just overflow a bit. You could also have bad seals on the fridge. If your door seal's not completely sealing well, your fridge is going to be working overtime, and you're going to be paying Con Ed more money than you should. All these bad things are going to happen. It could be a seal. It could just be you're overstocking your fridge. It could just be the fridge is too old. I don't repair fridges often. I just know these few things.

Alison Stewart: Those are three Good choices. Good luck with your fridge. Let's talk to Karen in Brooklyn. Hey, Karen, thanks for calling All Of It. You're on with Dan.

Karen: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. My question is, I live in, like, a pre-war building, and I have lath walls. I want to put in two lights over the bed so the wire drops down behind the wall, but I don't really know what the heck's going on back there, and if the wire would drop down, is that doable, and can you please explain? Thank you so much.

Handy Dan: Not easy, but doable. What I would do is bring in my licensed electrician, and he would just destroy your wall and run a wire through it and get your sconces where you want them or your lights where you want them, and then we'd have to come back and essentially rebuild your wall and cover it all in. It depends on, I guess, what type of wall. If it's an exterior wall, you're getting into things I don't really know because I don't run wires in the city, but that is usually how they do it. They have to create a channel. Just destroy your wall, and then we have to come in and fix it and close it off once everything's been running. It's not easy or cheap.

Alison Stewart: This is a text. "Hey, Nick from Greenpoint. We hired Dan to come and seal up our apartment for some building bug issues. Just wanted to add that he's the real deal, and we are super happy, and now we can say we have a famous handyman in our apartment."

Handy Dan: That's good to hear. Thank you.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Cybelle in Manhattan. Hey, Cybele.

Cybelle: Hi. I was just wondering how you would recommend finding a good handyman. I know the last caller hired you, but I think if everyone that was listening hired you, you probably wouldn't have time for me. I have this growing list of projects around the house, and I just don't know how to go about finding someone that I can trust.

Alison Stewart: It's good advice. You don't exist. Your business doesn't exist. You've retired.

Handy Dan: Best is referral. Friend of a friend. "I know a guy," type of thing. I have great Google reviews, but it's easy to fake that stuff. I've heard a lot of stories of people hiring people, like, "Oh, they have great, great, great, great, great, great reviews." Then they get there and it's just a disaster. It's usually referrals are best. Your local hardware store, going to the one on the corner, talking to them, asking for somebody in the neighborhood. If you don't need licensed things, they can usually tell you about a guy or a girl. Referrals, that's the best thing. My favorite clients send me referrals all the time. Trust your gut. You can read through emails. I communicate really well through email, and I can usually tell immediately when it's going to be a problematic customer. That goes two ways. How they handle the communication is very valuable. Transparent pricing, too.

Usually, if they're like, "Oh, I'll just show up," and they won't talk pricing, they're going to get there and they're going to upsell you. They're going to get you for a high invoice amount. Finding one that is like, "It's going to be x amount of money to do it," which is what we try to do, is be very transparent. I don't like surprises on anybody's front. Trusting your gut and asking for referrals is probably the first two.

Alison Stewart: Also, the pricing, that's really key.

Handy Dan: Yes. It's tough to price things in the city because there's just an immense amount of variables. Just so many.

Alison Stewart: All right, let's talk about installing our AC units. What can we do to make it easier?

Handy Dan: Hire us. It's just there's so much liability. You're putting a big old box out of a window. That was when I first got to New York. That was one of the first jobs I was doing that led me into getting insured and getting licensed and all this because I was like, "If I drop one of these units, it's going to be a bad day," but if you think you can do it, getting a safety bracket number one. Some people are like, "Oh, you don't need one." It's like, "They're like $30 bucks, just get one. Peace of mind. Just be slow and steady with it." If you're over a sidewalk, have a friend look down from another window and make sure nobody's below it while you're putting it out the window. A lot of people think it's easy, and it is pretty easy, but there's just a lot of liability when you're sticking a big box out of a window.

Alison Stewart: One of our producers wanted to know, "How do I go about unclogging a shower drain so it stays unclogged?"

Handy Dan: Ooh, you should hire my wife. She's really good at that.

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Handy Dan: Mrs. Handy.

Alison Stewart: Mrs. Handy. [chuckles]

Handy Dan: She's the one that fixes my drains at home. She uses, I think, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. Double-check that you can mix these chemicals. It froths it up.

Alison Stewart: It's good. I think that's what it is. You put something over it, piece of plastic over it so that the gas goes down?

Handy Dan: Yes. It lightly pushes that-- You can lightly plunge it. I'll stand in my shower with my feet and just kind of plunge it with my foot. You can get those cheap dollar pull things to get your hair out.

Alison Stewart: Those don't work. Look at this hair amount.

Handy Dan: Everything together works well. Not just one thing.

Alison Stewart: If you got curly, it's a hard go.

Handy Dan: I have almost no hair, so I don't--

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Alex from Brooklyn. Hey, Alex, thanks for calling All Of It.

Alex: Hi, this is great information. A number of years ago, I stripped completely the bathroom door in my apartment. It's about 100 years old, has this beautiful glass. I now want to put a new mortise lock into it. The mortise lock may also be about 100 years old. I don't think I need a locksmith. I think I could do it. Are there any tips?

Handy Dan: I was a locksmith for a decade, actually, so I love this stuff. I used to gut renovate mortise bodies all the time. You need a paddle bit. You got to cut the pocket out in the side of the door to the right size and mortise in the lock, because it's called a mortise lock. Mortise it in and then drill your hole through for your knob, and kind of screw it all together. I'm sure you could find a good YouTube video on it, or hire us.

Alison Stewart: We got another Alex. This one is from the Bronx. Hi, Alex.

Alex: Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. I have a gas oven that's about 13 years old now, and it started having a problem where it won't light reliably. Maybe about a third or half the time, the oven fills up with gas, but it doesn't light, so no heat comes in. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about at what point do you know that something like that is worth repairing, or is it time to just replace the whole oven?

Handy Dan: You can always call a repair guy. I would get it repaired sooner than later. You don't want just gas filling your apartment. That sounds terrifying, but usually, if it's an igniter, it could be a pretty inexpensive piece. I would call somebody. Call somebody that knows what they're doing with gas specifically.

Alison Stewart: Dan, you called in because we were doing a "Hey, what are you doing this weekend?" and you wanted to tell us about your classes. I want to hear more. What happens in your classes? People show up. Do they show up with any knowledge? Do they show up going, "What's a hammer?" Tell us about it.

Handy Dan: I've been doing like a Nervous to Handy Class in my shop in Long Island City. It's two and a half hours, six or eight of us. I provide everything. You come in with zero knowledge or a little knowledge. By the time we're done, you'll know how to use a drill and anchor some things into your walls. I walk you through my tool bag and just answer questions. Then you have my number, and you can text me. I've had students send me photos of things they did based on what they learned in class.

Alison Stewart: Like what?

Handy Dan: This one very nice lady, owns an RV, but in the Midwest, and she wants to fix it up. She went out there and made custom shelves and installed a bunch of wall hooks. Just good basic drilling and sawing things. Simple one-on-one-type things is what I'm trying to teach everybody.

Alison Stewart: When you have a nightmare about your job, what is that nightmare?

Handy Dan: Drilling into a water pipe in an apartment through a wall? Water, gas, or electric. Anything. Just because your kitchen is over here to my right doesn't mean it didn't used to be on my left. There could be pipes anywhere. If you drill into a wall and you hear something or you feel something that's pretty hard. It's probably something you should not continue to drill into. X-ray vision is the thing I need to figure out next.

Alison Stewart: When you walk into an apartment and a client says, "Can you do X for me?" You're thinking to yourself, "You could probably do that yourself." What is that thing?

Handy Dan: Assembling a chair. People hire us to put together a desk chair. That's fine. If you want to, please. Free time is more valuable sometimes than the money it takes to hire us, which I understand. I've done everything from put a rug down-- Mrs. Handy and I went to pick up a desk and put a rug under it, and that was it. No tools even. We'll do anything for you if within reason and legal.

Alison Stewart: And legal?

Handy Dan: Yes.

Alison Stewart: My guest has been Dan Medley. He's the owner and lead contractor of Team Handy Dan. We do want to remind you that everything you've heard will be on a transcript, which will be available later on, so you can get the name ALLIGATOR what-de-whats? Something?

Handy Dan: ALLIGATOR anchors.

Alison Stewart: Yes, those things. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking the time and coming into the studio.

Handy Dan: Thank you, all. Everybody's been so nice here. I want to come back.

Alison Stewart: All right. Come on back.

Handy Dan: Come on back.