Swiss Handyman

Arnold is a nice enough guy but we were very unhappy with the work he did. We had a leaking sun roof and asked him to take a look and apply a new sealant around the glass. He recommended scraping off all the old sealant and applying a new layer and quoted us at $ 1300. Not only did it cost more than this, the very next day the sun roof was still leaking in several places. He stated he could not guarantee his work (after he charged us and completed the work) and blamed the leaks on faulty design. He did assist us in putting a tarp over the roof but when our roofer suggested that more sealant be applied, he stated that he didn’t agree with this. We will have to pay someone else to redo this work.
Also with the other job we were disappointed as well because he splintered our vintage redwood. Had he drilled from the outside to inside this could have been avoided.
Arnold charged $ 95 an hour and he works slow. After talking with some neighbors, this seems like an exorbitant fee, considering the lack of quality.

Arnold Huber of Swiss Handyman was referred to me by a contact that I trust, mentioning «Arnold best great work!» I needed the outside wood casing around two of my windows replaced — removal, priming wood pieces and reinstalling. Although Arnold didn’t do the work himself, he sent two fantastic craftsmen, Mike and Ryan, and the job was top-​notch and done in two hours time. I was impressed. My only criticism was the follow-​up from initial contact to job completion, I felt that the time between calls and emails was too long. It got better when Christine (the administrator and Arnold’s wife) intervened, but I would have given higher marks for faster response time. All in all, I was very pleased.

I hired Swiss Handyman and they were the best price and did a great job. This was to hang a door (there were some problems with the existing wood and frame). I would recommend them in a second.
Negative comment about Swiss declined to work for person who wanted free advice: really seems a bit harsh to give a 1 star for that. I can see the owner’s viewpoint of not wanting to basically be your free construction consultant, I run into similar in finance/​accounting advice where I have people not agree to hire me but keep me «on the line» for advice for months. Whatev.

We had a completely opposite experience of the previous two reviews. We had a lot of lighting to replace — fixtures, wiring, the works — in two major rooms of our house. Swiss Handyman did the job conscientiously to perfection and when and how they said they would. They weren’t cheap, but they weren’t expensive either. I would say they were very fairly priced for the quality of work they did. We have a house with a very confused electrical wiring situation — that I was well aware of before they started their work — and Ken, the technician who did the work explained everything to me as he came across it, came up with a variety of ideas for how to fix it and ended up making a lot of sense out of the nonsense that had existed before he showed up. It helps that I work at home so he was able to consult with me whenever he’d come across something new and bizarre. (I know enough about household electrical to know that he was being honest with me.) We now have vastly improved lighting and wiring in three rooms of our house — the solution for the lights in the kitchen helped with the lighting in the dining room as well. The other room was our living room. I will be happy to use Swiss Handyman again.

After my wife and I bought a new home, we needed help installing and repairing a few items which we had been unable to do ourselves.
We are very satisfied with the work he did for us and he even did it for less than the estimate.
Also, he made a suggestion about one of the installations which ended up saving us over $ 300.

I had them do a repair that involved among other things removing a section of drywall, moving an electrical outlet, and replacing a 4’x4’ section of drywall. It. took. them. forever. If you were to look at the drywall and mud job they did you would laugh yourself silly, it waves and ripples, the mud has cracked in places. Lesson learned, I’ll have someone competent fix it.

My question to him was: «does Pasadena allow me to install a passive wind turbine on my roof?» I should mention that I asked him to quote me on a kitchen remodel and a front walkway remodel originally 4 months ago that I never got quotes for.
Actual email from the man himself:
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Hi Daniel,
I looked over our email traffic for the last 4 months. It seems I am giving you pricing and advice in many areas for free and I am not doing any work for you, except fixing some windows.
While I am very happy to help my customers and give them free advice, I do need to do some work for them to offset the costs. I am sure you understand.
If you give me the below job I will give you the answers.
This may sound a bit harsh, but I have spent hours in the past explaining and advising customers for free, just to find out they then hired unlicensed helpers to do the work that I had advised. And in one case they executed my advice in an off-​code way and I was finally called in to come and correct it. So I don’t do it anymore.
I hope you understand.
Best,
Arnold Huber
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