Who Does the Maintenance

[muyongshi]

So, as I was once again taking care of one of those "things" that always come up in a house I started to think and was curious how others take care of there maintenance issues in the house.

P.S. I have put this up with expats in China specifically in mind due to the second language/culture issue and it may be those that are able or normally would do it one way, do it a completely different way due to living in China.

[gougou]

Well, I do the basic stuff only - which however amounts to about 99%. After buying a screwdriver, I was able to solve almost all of the problems we had. The one thing I haven't been able to fix is our gas meter, which doesn't accept the card, but that even the property management, their electrical engineer, the bank and the gas company together were not able to solve.

Our landlord is not an option as he has never been to Beijing - he bought the apartment based on pictures only.

[muyongshi]

Just thought of this and I'll just kind of ask in passing: is there anyone out there besides me that gets excited when something breaks or doesn't look too much at all the stuff that needs to get fixed as you move in because it's a chance for you to "get your hands dirty"? I was so excited when I moved into my current fixer upper place.

[gougou]

In China, there's enough occasions to get my hands dirty as is, so I wouldn't mind if the doorknob stayed in place for more than two weeks at a time.

And of course I always look for broken things when renting a flat - great ammunition for negotiations!

[muyongshi]

there's enough occasions to get my hands dirty as is

I am so deprived of stuff to do (at least compared to what I normally would do). My family is a build-it-yourself, fix-it-yourself, keep-it-up-yourself etc. type and so I would always be working on some project and there wasn't a day in my life we weren't fixing, repairing, maintenancing, building something new and so on. So I feel deprived.

[simonlaing]

China has cheap labor,

There are tool and repair shops a block away from my gate and it is so cheap (in comparison to the US or Europe). So if it takes any measure of skill then I get someone to come and fix it.

have fun,

Simon:)

[cdn_in_bj]

I guess I've been fortunate, I've not had many problems at the places I've stayed. At my last place, I had a leaky kitchen faucet which I replaced myself, and a broken washing machine which I let my landlord take care of since it was in the contract that he was responsible for it.

At my current place, when I moved in I wasn't getting consistent hot water (gas furnace, not electric boiler). I first called the building management who sent a maintenance person to come look at it - he decided it wasn't something he could take care of, and suggested that I call the furnace company. So I made an appointment with the furnace repairman and also my landlord, and the repairman ended up replacing an electrical switch in the furnace. It only cost 100 RMB to fix, but it was on my landlord's tab anyways.

One thing I do miss doing is working on my car. But as Simon mentioned the labour rates here are so low, and it also seems to be generally frowned upon here for you to work on your own car.

[Shadowdh]

In China I stay in a dormitory so ask the chaps at the main office... but with my house in the UK I do alot of the work... if its general maintenance then I do it, or some small building projects... if its big (like adding a second story) then I call in a pro...