Handyman in Johannesburg

Working in Johannesburg

The older suburbs of Johannesburg have houses with real age to them. Melville, Parkhurst, Emmarentia and Greenside are full of homes from the early and middle 1900s, many with wooden sash or casement windows, high ceilings and front stoeps. To the east and south, Kensington, Bezuidenhout Valley, Rosettenville and Turffontein have rows of older houses and semis set close to the street.

Age brings its own repairs. Wooden windows swell, stick and rot at the sills. Ceilings crack or sag where the roof above has leaked. Many of these houses have flat roofs, parapet walls or verandas that collect water when the summer thunderstorms hit, and the damp works its way into the walls. Owners who love these homes usually want the original features kept and repaired.

Character homes in the older Johannesburg suburbs

Much of Johannesburg’s older housing went up in the first half of the 1900s: brick houses with corrugated iron or tiled roofs, wooden floors and windows, and front verandas. Flats from the same era line the streets in places like Killarney and Yeoville. Over time many of these homes were extended with flat-roofed rooms at the back, and those joins are often where leaks start. Owners and landlords here need someone comfortable with old timber, old plaster and tired ceilings.

Getting to Johannesburg

From Muldersdrift, Innocent drives south-east along Beyers Naudé Drive, past Northcliff, to reach Melville, Emmarentia and the suburbs around them. Jobs in the eastern and southern suburbs mean carrying on through the city. It is a decent drive, so send your whole list of repairs in one WhatsApp, with photos, and Innocent can quote it all and aim to finish in one trip.