10 Small Jobs You're Putting Off (& What They Actually Cost to Fix)
Key Takeaways
- 10 common small home jobs - from picture hanging to mastic resealing - typically cost between £15 and £220 in the UK, with most falling under £150.
- Booking these together, not one at a time, is the real money-saver: bundling two or three small jobs into a single visit means paying for one call-out instead of two or three.
- The cheapest jobs (draught-proofing, loft hatch insulation) are also the most commonly ignored, despite costing as little as £15–£95.
- Delaying small jobs usually costs more later: a dripping tap wastes money on bills, a cracked tile risks damp, a loose hinge can wreck a door frame.
- Most of these jobs take under an hour on-site - which is exactly why it makes sense to group several into one visit rather than booking a tradesperson out for just one.
Every home has their "list". The wobbly hinge. The tap that drips just enough to keep you awake. The fence panel that's been leaning awkwardly since March. None of these jobs are big. All of them get put off for months, sometimes years, usually for the same two reasons: it feels like too much hassle to book someone for something "so small," and there's a nagging worry the cost will be more than the job deserves.
Neither is really true - especially if you stop thinking about them as ten separate jobs. Most of the jobs on this list take under an hour and cost less than a takeaway for four. We pulled real prices from jobs booked through Hey Alfie, plus UK trade cost guides, so you can see exactly what's involved. But the biggest saving on this list isn't in any single row of the table below - it's in booking several of these at once instead of calling someone out for just one.
Why these small jobs are worth doing now
Small jobs rarely get worse slowly. A dripping tap becomes a bigger water bill. A cracked tile gets a damp patch behind it. A loose hinge becomes a door that won't close at all. Fixing the small version is almost always cheaper than fixing what it turns into.
There's also the fact that it's easier than you think to get it taken care of: most take one visit, one tradesperson, and under an hour on-site. That's exactly the kind of job that's easy to keep bumping down the list - and exactly the kind of job that's wasteful to book on its own.
Book the list, not the job
This is the part most people get wrong: they wait until one thing on the list becomes urgent, then book a single tradesperson out for just that one fix. That's the most expensive way to work through a list like this.
A tradesperson's time is priced around the visit, not the task. Whether they're on-site for 15 minutes or two hours, you're paying for their travel and their time to be there at all - the call-out. Book the tap washer on Monday, the hinge in a fortnight, and the fence panel next month, and you've paid for three call-outs to fix maybe 90 minutes of actual work. Bundle the same three jobs into one visit, and you pay for one call-out and get all three done in an afternoon.
It's also simply a better use of everyone's time. A tradesperson would rather do a productive half-day covering four or five small jobs at one property than four separate 20-minute visits spread across a month. That efficiency shows up in the price you're quoted.
So before you book anything on this list, look at the rest of it first. If there are two or three things you've been meaning to get round to, that's not "adding to the job" - that's the whole point.
What these 10 jobs actually cost
Here's the full list, with a short description of what's involved and a realistic UK price range for each. Remember - these are per-job prices assuming a standalone visit. Bundle two or three together and the total comes down.
A closer look at the trickiest ones
Leaky tap washer: cheap fix, expensive delay
This is the job people put off the longest, usually because "it's just a drip." A dripping tap left for a year can waste enough water to notice on the bill, and the washer itself costs next to nothing. Most of the price is 20–30 minutes of a plumber's time and the call-out - which is exactly why it's worth pairing with another small plumbing or bathroom job if you have one, like a mastic reseal.
Cracked tile replacement: why matching matters
The tricky part usually isn't the tile itself - it's finding a match. Cracked tile repair costs typically range from £70 to £150, and that range mostly reflects how easy (or not) it is to source a like-for-like tile without retiling the whole wall or floor around it.
Mastic resealing: the job nobody notices until it's black
Silicone around a bath or shower has a working life of a few years. Past that, it stops being watertight and starts growing mould, which is a bigger problem than the reseal itself. A single reseal is usually a 30–45 minute job once the old bead is removed and the area's properly dried out - plenty of time left in a visit to also fix that tap washer or cracked tile in the same room.
Key Numbers at a Glance
- Picture hanging & TV mounting: £45–£175
- Draught-proofing (per door or window): £15–£50 - whole-house draught proofing usually costs £225 inc VAT (£150–£300) if you do everything at once
- Curtain pole / rail fitting: £45–£220
- Door hinge adjustment: £45–£150
- Leaky tap washer: £80–£165
- Cracked tile replacement: £70–£150
- Garden fence panel (single panel): £90–£220
- Letterbox / door furniture: £45–£150
- Loft hatch insulation: £45–£95
- Mastic resealing: £65–£150
- Bundling: booking 2–3 of the above in one visit means paying for one call-out, not two or three
Prices are 2026 UK estimates. Ranges reflect typical variation in access, materials, and property type - always confirm with a fixed quote before booking.
How Hey Alfie Handles This
None of these jobs are big enough to justify weeks of chasing quotes, and none of them are so small that they don't deserve a proper price upfront. That's the gap Hey Alfie is built for - and it works best when you bring the whole list, not just the one job that finally annoyed you enough to act.
Tell Alfie everything that's wrong - "the fence panel by the shed's fallen over, the bathroom tap drips, and the spare room door won't shut properly" is exactly the kind of message we want - and we'll put together a Scope of Works and Initial Estimate within 24 hours covering the lot, so you know the total price before anyone's on site. From there we'll line up trusted tradespeople (strong reviews, proven work, proper insurance) for one visit that covers everything, book it, and handle the back and forth. Every job is backed by the Hey Alfie Guarantee, so if something's not right afterwards, we'll put it right (T&Cs apply).
If you've only got one thing on your list right now, that's fine too - but take a minute before you submit it and check the rest of the house. The fence panel, the sticking door, the drip you've been ignoring: if two or three of them have been sitting there for a while, this is the moment to add them all in, not book them one at a time over the next six months.
