Handyman questions, answered in Lafayette

If the washer in a Lafayette or West Lafayette house fills and then sits, the problem is usually not “the machine is dead.” Standpipes clog with lint. A drain hose kinks behind the unit. An older basement laundry sits below the main waste line and needs a pump to lift the water. Start with the easy checks: is the hose crushed, is the standpipe backing up into the tub, and does every drain in that room slow down together? If the whole wet wall is slow, that is a line issue, not a $20 washer part.

A laundry pump (or laundry tub pump) is the honest product when the washer sits lower than the waste it has to reach — common in Tippecanoe basements and older rentals. Installing one is a handyman-scale job when the plumbing is already there and we are adding the pump, the basin, and a clear discharge. It is a plumber conversation if we open a rotten stack, move a soil line, or find a collapsed pipe. We will tell you which one you have after a look at the standpipe and the elevation.

Do not keep running cycles into a standing tub. That is how you get a wet floor and a musty baseboard. Call or text (765) 551-7368, or send the quote form with a photo of the washer drain and the standpipe. Quotes are free — not a “free visual inspection.” Same-day and next-day are available when it is urgent and we have a crew. Hourly handyman work is $95/hr with an $85 trip credited to the job.

A GFCI that will not stay reset is doing its job or telling you the device is tired. In Lafayette kitchens, baths, garages, and outdoor outlets, moisture and a worn receptacle are the usual story. Unplug everything on that circuit — including the downstream outlets a GFCI often protects — then reset once. If it holds with nothing plugged in and trips when a specific appliance goes back, that appliance is leaking current. If it trips with nothing connected, the receptacle, the box, or the cable in the wall is the suspect.

Older Greater Lafayette houses daisy-chain several outlets off one GFCI. A damp basement fridge, a garage freezer, or a cracked outdoor cover can trip the bath outlet you never connected to that story. We trace which devices are on the device, replace a failed GFCI, and tell you if the wiring behind it is the real problem. That is ordinary handyman electrical — a new device, a clean box, a label so the next person is not guessing.

Call the same day if you smell heat, see scorch, or the breaker and the GFCI fight each other. That is not a “keep resetting it” job. For a stubborn trip with no burn marks, send a photo of the device and which rooms died with it. Quotes are free. Handyman time is $95/hr and the $85 trip is credited. We are not a full-service electrician for a panel replacement; we will say so if the next step is a licensed electrical contractor.

A drip at the kitchen sink is almost always a worn cartridge, a bad seat, or a sprayer valve that no longer seals. In a Lafayette house that still has a decent faucet body and matching finish, a repair is cheaper than a whole fixture — if we can get the part. Many big-box faucets are “replace the unit” products after a few years because the cartridge is discontinued. We will tell you that before we order a part you cannot return.

Replace the faucet when the body is pitted, the sprayer hose weeps inside the cabinet, the deck is rotting under a leaking base, or you already hate the fixture. That visit is faucet plus the shutoffs and supply lines if they are tired. Water under a Lafayette sink is how you get a swollen box and a musty kick plate. If the cabinet floor is soft, say so on the quote — that is a small carpenter job sitting under the plumbing.

Shut the stops under the sink if they still turn. Catch the drip in a bowl so you can see whether it is the spout or the handle. Then call or text (765) 551-7368 with a photo of the faucet and the under-sink valves. Quotes are free. Materials we supply are billed at cost plus 35%. Same-day is available when we have a crew, with the published urgency add-on — not a 24-hour guarantee.

A silent sump during a Lafayette storm is how a finished basement becomes a wet one. Check power first: a tripped GFCI, a dead battery backup, or a float jammed on the pit wall. If the pit is full and the pump hums without moving water, the pump or the discharge line is the problem — a check valve stuck, a line frozen at the outlet, or a unit that reached the end of its life. Do not stand in standing water to diagnose a live pump.

Wet-basement basics are simple. Stop new water if you can. Move what you can lift. Run a wet-vac only if it is safe and the power is dry. Then treat the remaining water as a timer. Mold can start in 24–48 hours in wet carpet and insulation. That is how moisture behaves, not a service-level promise. We handle homeowner-scale extraction, drying, and the carpenter work after — and we will say when the job is past a handyman crew.

Call or text (765) 551-7368 while it is still wet. Send a photo of the pit and the wet area. Quotes are free. Storm triage and photo notes for your insurance file are on our storm water page. We are not the insurance adjuster. Longer mold or dry-out work continues on the water and mold landing. Same-day and next-day when we have a slot, with the locked urgency fees if you need that window.

Greater Lafayette winters punish empty houses. A vacant single-family, duplex, or multi that sits dark through a cold snap is how you get a freeze-burst and a January insurance call. Winterize in September through November — after the last tenant, before the first hard freeze — so the unit is set on purpose instead of hoped-for. We set vacant heat at 55°F. If someone turns it down after we leave, that is outside the visit.

Locked pricing: single-family $199, duplex $175, multi $149 per unit. Rush is +$75 when you need the earlier slot and we have one. Spring reopen is $175 / $150 / $129. Winterize + reopen bundles are $349 / $299 / $249. Materials we buy are cost plus 35%.

What is not included: repairs we find (quoted separately), mold or water remediation, occupied-unit comfort heat above the vacant setpoint, and a promise the building stays freeze-proof if heat is changed later. The full table, exclusions, and Sept–Nov CTA live on the vacant winterization page. Quotes are free. Call or text (765) 551-7368 and write “winterize” plus the unit count.

Lafayette and Tippecanoe inspectors flag the same short list over and over: missing or dead smoke and CO alarms, GFCI outlets that will not hold in kitchens and baths, cracked covers, inoperable windows, missing drip legs or dirty furnace filters on a heating check, leaky faucets, soft floors at a toilet, and handrails that move. Student and long-term rentals near Purdue add the “someone painted over a device” and “the bedroom has no working egress” stories. None of that is exotic. It is a punch list if you catch it before the appointment.

We offer inspection prep at $175, prep plus minor repairs at $299, an extra unit on the same trip at $129, and a re-walk after the inspector at $99. The flow is prep → punch the obvious fails → a separate free quote if the repair is bigger → optional re-walk. This is not a pass guarantee. Inspectors work for the city or the housing authority. We do the work you hired.

Bring the fail list if you already had a walk. If you have not had one yet, send the address, the inspection date, and photos of the kitchen, bath, and furnace area. Quotes are free. Details and the locked table are on the rental inspection prep landing. Call or text (765) 551-7368.

Yes — same-day and next-day are available when the job is urgent and we have a crew in Greater Lafayette. That is not a 24-hour guarantee and not a promise we are sitting on a truck for every call. Call or text (765) 551-7368 and we will tell you the next honest opening. After-hours and Sunday work, when we take it, is a scheduled window — not a fire-watch desk.

Locked urgency add-ons on top of the quoted work: next-day +$75, same-day +$125, after-hours or Sunday +$175. Daytime handyman labor is $95/hr with an $85 trip credited to the job. HOA and small-commercial evenings are a different product: $190 for a 2-hour minimum.

Quotes are still free. Tell us what failed, the town, and whether the water is still running. A burst, a wet basement, or a dark GFCI kitchen is the kind of call we try to fit. A “sometime this month” punch list is not an emergency fee. If we cannot take it today, you hear that on the phone — not after you waited.

For Welcome Home Improvement LLC, daytime handyman labor is $95 per hour. The trip is $85 and it is credited to the job — you are not paying a dead fee on top of an hour of work. A defined punch visit is $145. Materials we supply are billed at cost plus 35%. Those are the locked public numbers. We do not publish a menu of every possible repair because a leaning fence and a dripping faucet are not the same hour.

Urgency, when you need it and we have a slot: next-day +$75, same-day +$125, after-hours or Sunday +$175. HOA or small-commercial evenings are $190 for a 2-hour minimum. Builder and flip punch lists use the punch and hourly rates on the builder punch page.

The quote is free. Call or text (765) 551-7368, email frank@welcomehomeimprovementllc.com, or send the form with the address and the list. We review it and send a number by email or text. You should not have to hunt a Lafayette tradesman or guess the bill from a national lead mill.

Shut the water if you can reach the main or the fixture stops without walking through live electricity. Kill power to a wet room at the breaker if the floor is standing and you can do it from a dry panel. Catch what you can with towels. Then get out of the wet and call. A Lafayette freeze-burst is usually a vacant, a poorly heated crawl, or a line in an exterior wall after a cold night. The first job is stop the water. The second is dry. The third is the rebuild.

Photograph the wet area for your file before everything is torn out — that is for your insurance claim, not ours. We are not the insurance adjuster. We do not file the claim and we do not promise the carrier will pay. We stabilize, extract, and leave photos, a scope, and moisture notes you can attach. Details sit on the storm water damage page. If the job becomes mold or a longer dry-out, continue on water and mold remediation.

Call or text (765) 551-7368 while it is still wet. Quotes are free. Same-day and next-day when we have a crew, with the locked urgency add-ons — not a 24-hour guarantee. Mold can begin in 24–48 hours in wet insulation and drywall paper. That is moisture science, not a service promise.

A single kitchen or bath sink that slowed down after grease, hair, or a dropped toy is usually a handyman drain cleanout. We open the trap, clear the line, and tell you what we pulled. If the same stack backs up in two fixtures, or the basement floor drain gurgles when the washer dumps, that is a main-line or vent conversation — still often our drain and camera work, not an automatic “call a national plumber ad.”

Call a plumber-scale repair when the pipe itself is broken, the stack is cast and collapsing, or a sewer replacement is the honest next step. We run drain cameras in Lafayette so you can see the clog, the belly, or the roots before anyone opens a floor. Guessing is how you pay twice. If the camera shows a repair we should not take, you hear that before we invent a snake-only invoice.

Do not keep chemical-dumping a Lafayette sink that already sits full. Send a photo of the fixture and say which other drains are slow. Quotes are free. Drain cleanout and camera inspections are on the services list. Call or text (765) 551-7368. Hourly handyman time is $95/hr with the $85 trip credited when the visit is billed that way.