Will you connect a gas range or a gas dryer?

No. Connecting or disconnecting a gas appliance is licensed work in Michigan and it goes to a licensed fitter every time. We will deliver the machine, remove the old one and take it away, but the gas connection itself is a different trade and we say so before booking rather than on delivery day.

What should I measure before an appliance delivery?

The narrowest point on the route, not the appliance. Every doorway including the storm door, the turn at the top or bottom of any stair, and the gap it is going into. A standard fridge is about 36 inches and a standard interior door is 30 to 32, so the route is what decides whether it gets in.

Do you take the old appliance away?

Yes, including out of a basement, and it is priced as part of the work rather than treated as a favor. Getting a dead machine back up a stair turn is usually the hardest part of the job. Note that stores will often only take an old machine if it is already disconnected and standing clear.

Can you repair my appliance rather than replacing it?

No — we fit, swap and remove machines, not repair them. What is worth doing first is checking whether the fault is the appliance at all. A dishwasher that will not drain is frequently the waste connection or the disposal, and a washer tripping a breaker may be the outlet. Those are ordinary repairs and far cheaper than a new machine.

Why does the dryer vent matter?

Because lint in the duct is a fire risk, not an untidiness. A blocked vent makes the dryer run longer and hotter on the same load. If clothes need two cycles or the laundry room is noticeably hot, it is worth dealing with — and while the dryer is already pulled out is by far the cheapest moment to do it.

Can you fit it if there is no connection there yet?

Not as handyman work. Fitting to a water supply, waste, vent or outlet that already exists is ordinary. Running a new supply or waste is licensed plumbing, and hard-wiring or adding a circuit is a licensed electrician. You are told which one you have before anything is booked.

Measure the Doorway, Not the Appliance | Lansing, MI

The new machine is the easy half

Appliance swaps look like the simplest job in the house. Something died, a new one is on order, and all that is left is to plug it in.

What actually goes wrong is nearly always one of four things, and all four are knowable before anyone turns up. None of them is the new appliance.

1. It does not fit through the door

This is the big one and it is entirely preventable. People measure the appliance and the space it is going into. Almost nobody measures the route.

A standard refrigerator is about 36 inches wide. A standard interior door is 30 to 32 inches. The fridge gets through because the doors come off and it goes in sideways — but that only works if the hallway is wide enough to turn it, and a stair turn in an older house frequently is not.

What to measure, narrowest point of each:

Every doorway on the route, including the storm door, which is usually narrower than the door behind it.
The turn at the top or bottom of a stair. This is the one that catches people out, because width alone does not tell you whether a long box can pivot.
Ceiling height over the stair if the machine has to be tipped.
The gap the machine has to sit in, including whether the countertop overhangs it.

Send the smallest number you find. If it is under 30 inches, say so loudly, because that changes how the delivery is planned rather than discovering it with a fridge on a hand truck in the rain.

2. The old one is harder than the new one

The new machine arrives on a truck with a hand truck and a straight run from the curb. The old machine has been in place for twelve years, is full of whatever leaked into it, and has to come out through the same route backward.

Basements are the worst of it. Getting a dead washer, dryer or chest freezer up a basement stair turn is genuinely the hardest part of most appliance jobs, and it is why removal is priced as work rather than thrown in.

Worth knowing: many stores deliver the new machine but will only take the old one if it is disconnected, drained and standing clear at the point of delivery. If nobody has done that, the old one stays.

3. Gas is a different trade, and it is not a formality

This is the one to settle before anybody is booked.

In Michigan, connecting or disconnecting a gas appliance — a gas range, a gas dryer, anything on a gas line — is licensed work. It is not a question of confidence or of having done it before. A gas connection that leaks does not give you a second chance, and the licensing exists for that reason.

Haslett Handyman will deliver a gas machine, take the old one away and do everything either side of the connection. The connection itself goes to a licensed fitter, every time, with no exceptions and no "we can usually sort that".

So the question to answer before booking anything is simply: is the new machine gas or electric? It is printed on the box and on the listing. Knowing it on the day you order is worth a lot more than discovering it on delivery day.

The same line applies in two quieter places. A machine that has to be hard-wired rather than plugged into an existing outlet is an electrician. A machine that needs a new water supply or a new waste rather than connecting to one that is already there is a plumber. Fitting to connections that exist is ordinary work; creating them is not.

4. What is behind the old machine

Pull a dishwasher or a washer out and you find out what has been happening underneath it. Often nothing. Sometimes a slow leak that has been quietly soaking the floor for a year or two, because the one place in a kitchen nobody ever looks is behind the machine that is bolted under the counter.

This is the single moment it is easy and cheap to look, and it is worth taking. If the subfloor under a dishwasher has gone soft, fitting a new machine on top of it is putting good money on a problem — and it will have to come back out to reach it.

If your old washer or dishwasher has ever leaked, say so when you book. It changes what should be checked while the space is open.

The thirty-second photograph

If you can reach behind the old machine, one photograph showing the shut-off valve, the outlet, the waste connection and the vent answers nearly every question anybody would otherwise have to drive out to ask. It is the most useful thing you can send.

A note on dryer vents

While a dryer is out is the only easy time to deal with its vent, and a blocked dryer vent is a fire question rather than a housekeeping one. Lint accumulates in the duct, the dryer runs longer and hotter to shift the same load, and the thing that is accumulating is extremely flammable.

Signs worth acting on: clothes needing two cycles, the machine or the laundry room noticeably hot, or a damp smell. If the dryer is coming out anyway, clearing and re-connecting the vent properly costs very little extra at that moment and a great deal more as a separate visit.

We install; we do not repair

Worth being plain. This is fitting, swapping and removing machines. It is not appliance repair — no parts, no sealed systems, no diagnostics on the machine itself. A working machine with a fault goes to an appliance repair engineer.

The useful thing we can do is work out whether the fault is actually the appliance at all. A dishwasher that will not drain is often the waste connection or the disposal rather than the dishwasher. A washer that trips a breaker may be the outlet. Those are ordinary repairs and they are a lot cheaper than a new machine.

Before you book

Measure the narrowest doorway and stair turn on the route and send that number.
Say whether it is gas or electric. Gas goes to a licensed fitter.
Say whether the old one has to go and where it is — a basement changes the job.
Photograph behind the old machine if you can reach.
Say if anything has ever leaked under it.
Check your warranty — a new appliance sometimes requires its own installer to keep it valid.

Want it booked? Tell us what the machine is, gas or electric, where it is being collected from, and the narrowest point on the route in. Old machine disconnected, taken out and hauled away; new one fitted to the existing connections, run and checked for leaks before anybody leaves. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge. Appliance install & removal · Get in touch.