Small job or full renovation: how the booking process differs

What a small job actually consists of

An odd job is a self-contained task with a clear start and end: a tap that drips, a door that won't close, a shelf that needs mounting, a socket that's stopped working. One tradesman, one visit, usually finished within a couple of hours. You book it, we come out, we fix it, you get an invoice.

This is where our odd jobs service applies, priced from 39 € per hour with a minimum of one hour and 30-minute steps after that. For plumbing specifically — a leaking tap, a running cistern, a blocked drain — the hourly rate starts at 45 € because it's specialist work with its own tools and parts.

There's also a 25 € call-out fee within Tallinn, which comes off the bill if the job goes ahead. You don't need drawings or a written scope for this kind of work — you describe the problem on the phone or by photo, and we bring what's needed.

Where a proper renovation begins

A renovation starts where a single task turns into a sequence of dependent ones: strip old flooring, then level the screed, then lay new flooring, then refit the skirting. Or: retile a bathroom, which means removing the old tiles, checking the waterproofing membrane, then tiling, then reinstalling the fittings. Each step depends on the one before it finishing properly.

This is what our flat renovation service covers, priced from 180 € per job rather than by the hour, because a renovation is quoted as a fixed price once we've seen the flat or photos and agreed a scope. That quote stands for 30 days and is what you actually pay, regardless of how many hours it takes us.

The practical difference for you: an odd job you can decide to book on the spot. A renovation needs a site visit or a good set of photos first, because we can't give a fixed figure without knowing what's under the surface — old wiring behind a wall, the condition of a screed, what a previous owner did without a permit.

How to judge which one your case is

Ask yourself three things: does the work touch more than one room or more than one trade, will one step block or affect another, and would you be satisfied with the result if only that one thing got fixed. If the answers are no, no, and yes, you almost certainly have an odd job.

A leaking tap is an odd job even if it's been dripping for months and stained the cabinet underneath — fixing the tap fixes the problem. Replacing the whole kitchen worktop because the cabinet is also swollen with water damage starts to look like a renovation, because now flooring, plumbing and joinery all have to line up.

• One trade, one room, one visit — likely an odd job
• Several rooms or several trades involved — likely a renovation
• You could stop after this one fix and be happy — odd job
• Fixing it properly means opening up walls, floors or wiring — renovation
• You have a rough budget in mind and want a single number — ask for a fixed quote

The most common mistake when booking

The most common mistake is booking an odd-job call-out for what is actually the first step of a renovation. Someone calls about a leaking pipe under the bathroom floor, we come out on an hourly rate, and it turns out the leak has been running long enough that the subfloor needs replacing and the tiling has to come up anyway.

At that point the hourly clock keeps running on a job that's grown well past what a call-out is meant to cover, and the invoice ends up larger and less predictable than either side wanted. It's not that the work was done wrong — it's that it was booked as the wrong kind of job from the start.

If you already suspect a problem is bigger than it looks — old damp patches, a smell that's been there for a while, a floor that feels soft — say so when you call, and ask for a look with a fixed quote in mind rather than an hourly booking. It costs you nothing to ask which category fits.

When to stop and bring in a specialist

Two kinds of work sit outside what any odd-job or renovation booking should cover on its own. Electrical work always needs a qualified electrician, and if a job you called in for a tap or a cupboard turns out to involve rewiring, that gets scoped and booked separately with the right person doing it.

We don't do gas work at all, and we don't touch load-bearing walls — if your problem involves either, we'll tell you plainly and point you to a specialist who can confirm what's actually needed, including whether the city or the building register needs to sign off on it first.

Beyond that, the rule of thumb is simple: if halfway through a small job it becomes clear the fix depends on another trade or another wall coming down, it's worth pausing, getting a proper look at the full scope, and moving to a fixed quote rather than letting an hourly job run on assumptions.