How much to pay a handyman friend (recently retired)

[Donbon]

Hi there,
A friend's husband has recently taken early retirement and, having sorted out house and garden (of the friend), is bored at home and looking for odd jobs. My husband and I have a list ranging from assembling furniture, putting up blinds, odd painting (inside and out), etc - nothing really difficult - but just needing time (which we don't have). But - I have no idea what to pay him! I've googled and can see that rates for professional handymen range from about £13 to £25 per hour - or more in London. But he's not got a specific trade - just good enough DIY skills to be able to help out - and to have offered to do so. He'll also be cash in hand and probably tax free.

We won't want to charge per job - because he'll probably not be able to easily quote. We just want to be able to say how much we'll pay per hour or day - and I reckon we probably have a week of work or more.

We're in the West Country - so rates will not be as high as London!
Any advice is much appreciated so that I can give him a call and not feel too embarrassed!
Cheers.

He sounds just what I need! Ask him what he wants. He needs to have an idea.

Hi Lagoona - he's also embarrassed to ask too! I thought if I went in with a price that was not ridiculous but was based on his being a good DIYer who just wants to get out of the house then we'd be ok. Cheers.

My decorator charges for labour only £120 a day from 8 to about 4 but he is a skilled tradesman. Not sure if that helps!

That's £15 p/h for skilled - so maybe £12 p/h unskilled would be appropriate. Or about £100 p/d.

Sounds a very handy person to know. I would suggest £10 per hour. It's more than minimum wage but less than a pro. You need to take account of the fact he is likely to be slower than a professional and you don't want to inadvertently pay more for a specific job than getting a professional in iyswim.

I'd say between £10- £15 an hour for this sort of stuff. probably at the lower end. it is what I pay my friend for babysitting/housekeeping/cleaning/helping us move house work

Mine charges £15 anhour

We had a local handyman come to hang our stairgates he charged £10 insurance, £15 fuel and that is before he started then about £15 per hour, he wasn't a friend and was slow to do a job which never worked properly, so we ended up asking a build who was here doing something else to sort it who did it in about 10 minutes, with hindsight I would probably have someone skilled as this particular chap was poor value for money, but if you do use him I would suggest you pay per job rather than per hour. We had very skilled decorator do a lot of outside woodwork and he w
orked out to £150 per day, but had quoted for a job and did it brilliantly.

My youngest brother does something similar, he's a whizz at fixing and making stuff he usually charges £10 a hour he's not formally trained and we're in the south east and he always makes sure to say he will be stopping for lunch as well.

15 an hour for my handyman