Forget handymen, I’m a handy-them – a safe pair of hands for women in London

El started their DIY business after hearing a number of horror stories from female friends (Picture: El Melbourne) There are approximately 2.7 million tradespeople in the UK – and roughly 96% are male. This means that if you need help putting up shelves, painting a bathroom, or fixing a boiler, the likelihood is that it’ll be a man who arrives at your front door. And for a number of women who live alone, this can be incredibly daunting. In 2018, a survey conducted by the Federation of Master Builders found that more than a third of London’s home owners would rather hire a female builder as opposed to a male builder. Enter El Melbourne, 31, aka your friendly neighbourhood handy-them. El, who uses they/them pronouns, launched their ‘women-centred handy person service’ Safe Hands back in April after hearing horror stories from female friends who’d been scammed or intimidated by handymen. Now, just five months later, El has quit their full-time job as a tenant consultant, telling Metro they’re having to ‘turn down business’ due to the overwhelming interest they’ve had. ‘I’ve always been really obsessed with architecture, bricks, and wood – I really love different materials’ (Picture: El Melbourne) El has been practically minded since childhood. Despite taking what would be considered by some as the ‘right’ path, going to university and landing a series of stable jobs, El found desk work totally ‘stifling and draining’. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. So, after years of helping friends and family with DIY jobs around the house – not to mention completely renovating the home they bought with their partner three years ago – El decided it was time to take a leap of faith and put those practical skills to good use. While El charges by the job, their pricing works out at around £300 a day on average, emphasising that they ‘would never say yes to a job that [they] didn’t feel confident that [they] could do’. Aside from a carpentry course, El is completely self-taught. Although they’ve already began to expand their skill-set, reinvesting large sums of their profit into training. I’ve been scammed myself, I know what it feels like ‘The idea to start Safe Hands partially came from stories I’d heard from friends’, El shares. ‘One of my close friends recently had a situation where she bought a two bed flat, moved in on her own, had a tradesman come in to do some work and when she questioned him on elements of the job he got quite aggressive with her and she found it really scary. ‘After that experience she asked me if I could come round and help with some small jobs because she didn’t trust inviting someone else into her home.’ Just last year, El and their partner Kath were similarly scathed by a handyman. ‘We wanted to get some work done on our garden and it was going to be a massive job so we had someone come round to quote us and order all the materials.’ But then, after paying a deposit of £1,700, the worker disappeared. Thankfully, they were able to get a full refund through their bank, but the feeling of being taken advantage of lingered. I’ve had many handymen over-explain basic things to me Right now, El has around 40 clients – 70% of whom have previously had a negative experience with a tradesman. Dominique Gibson, 44, is one of these clients. Based in Camberwell, they first came across Safe Hands when it was shared in a queer South East London WhatsApp chat, telling Metro: ‘I have genuinely been looking for a service like El’s since I moved out on my own. ‘Of course I’ve had some good experiences with handymen, but unfortunately the negative ones have far outweighed them. ‘There’s a safety dynamic that I don’t think many men ever have to consider. ‘If you live alone, you can’t necessarily be completely honest when you’re unhappy with work that has been done. You find yourself smiling, being pleasant and managing the interaction regardless of the quality of the work, because you don’t know how a man you barely know will respond to criticism or confrontation. When that person is already inside your home and knows where you live, there is an inherent power imbalance.’ El has travelled to peoples’ homes to change lightbulbs or tighten screws – anything that might help (Picture: El Melbourne) Dominique adds that it’s previously been exhausting having to listen to tradesman over-explain basic things to her. As a disabled and femme-presenting person, they explain that ‘there is still a pervasive assumption that I won’t understand this kind of work and therefore won’t know whether I’m being overcharged, oversold or given a poor solution’. Then, El came round to put up some towel rails and spice racks that had been sitting in boxes for over a year. ‘El felt more like having a friend round who happened to know how to fix things than having a contractor in my home,’ Dominique says. ‘They were clear about what they could do and where they would recommend bringing in somebody else rather than pretending to have expertise they didn’t have.’ Another one of El’s former clients, Vanessa Dubreuil, 20, South Kensington, had never hired a handyman herself before working with Safe Hands. When she first posted the job on a few different trade platforms she received ‘loads of messages with really unrealistic quotes’. Vanessa wanted a custom shelf built inside her fireplace. ‘It was an awkward, irregular shape, and I wanted it finished in black, so it wasn’t something I could just buy ready-made,’ she explains. A before and after shot of the shelves El fixed for Vanessa in her South Kensington home (Picture: El Melbourne) ‘People were quoting anywhere from £600 to £1,500, which definitely made me feel like some people were trying to take advantage. El was the only person who came back with a price that actually felt reasonable.’ Would you feel more comfortable with a handy person as opposed to a handyman? While their clients boast glowing reviews, El admits it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. There have been a few occasions where they’ve been taken advantage of and had to walk away from people refusing to pay, but that’s unfortunately not too surprising. In 2024, research by industry platform, Rated People, found that more than a third of tradeswomen feel they are not taken seriously because of their gender. There’s also a rather shocking pay gap. While self-employed tradesmen typically value their time at around £23 an hour, tradeswomen often set their rates lower, at around £16 an hour, finds TaskHer. The hope is that businesses like Safe Hands can help play a part in closing that gap. Overall, El’s experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive – so much so that they’re currently in talks to become the long-term handy person at Dorothy’s, a new lesbian and sapphic pub coming to Camberwell this autumn… Watch this space!