A handyman, also known as a fixer, handyperson or handyworker, maintenance worker, repair worker, or repair technician, is a person who is skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically for keeping buildings, shops or equipment around the home in good condition. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, are both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "side work", "odd jobs" or "fix-up tasks". Specifically, these jobs could be light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet or light electric jobs such as changing a light fixture or bulb.
A handyman working on a door frame
A handyman built this mailbox from particle board, with hinges, and exterior paint; the rounded edges were made with a sander.
This project replacing an air conditioning vent on a roof.
Installing kitchen cabinets is a medium-level handyworker job, with multiple steps.
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi-raw materials and parts to produce, transform, or reconstruct material possessions, including those drawn from the natural environment ". DIY behavior can be triggered by various motivations previously categorized as marketplace motivations, and identity enhancement.
Boy building a model airplane, Texas, 1942 (photograph by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration)
Shelves attached to a toy vehicle
Fiberglass dome house, California, in style of the Whole Earth Catalog building techniques
Electronics World 1959, home assembled amplifier