Handyman in East Memphis, Memphis
East Memphis is the broad stretch of the city east of Highland Street and north of I-240, running out toward Germantown and Cordova along the Poplar Avenue corridor. In 1950 the city limits stopped about where East Memphis begins, and by the mid-1960s most of the area inside I-240 had been annexed, so the housing is overwhelmingly postwar: 1940s cottages and Tudors near High Point Terrace and Normal Station, 1950s and 1960s brick ranches through White Station, Sherwood Forest, Colonial Acres and Normandy Meadows, and larger homes along the Walnut Grove and River Oaks areas. Many of these houses still have their original slab or crawlspace foundations, steel or wood windows, hollow-core interior doors and builder fixtures that have been updated piece by piece. Most are well built and well loved, but they're now sixty to seventy years old, and that age shows up as settling cracks, tired doors, dated lighting and plumbing fixtures that are ready to be replaced.
Poplar Avenue is the spine of East Memphis, lined with Clark Tower, Laurelwood, Oak Court Mall and the office buildings near Ridgeway. To the south, Audubon Park and the Memphis Botanic Garden give the neighborhood its open green, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens sits just across Park Avenue, and the University of Memphis anchors the western edge along Central and Southern. Residential streets off Poplar, Park, Walnut Grove and Mendenhall are quiet, shady and full of mature oaks, magnolias and pines that drop leaves, needles and cones into gutters most of the year. Lots are usually bigger than in Midtown, with attached garages or carports and a backyard fence, which gives us room to park and work but also means longer gutter runs and more fence line to keep up.
ZIP codes we cover in East Memphis: 38117, 38119, 38120
What East Memphis neighbors book most
- Light Fixture Installation
- Ceiling Fan Installation
- Interior Painting & Touch-Ups
- Door Repair & Adjustment
- Faucet & Toilet Repair
- Gutter Cleaning & Repair
Jobs we handle a lot around East Memphis
East Memphis jobs tend to follow the age of the houses. We swap out builder-era light fixtures, replace noisy bathroom fans and old ceiling fans, rehang hollow-core doors that drag on new flooring, and fix the cabinet hinges and drawer slides that have worked loose over sixty years. Painting and touch-ups come up constantly as people refresh rooms or get a house ready to list. Outside, we clean and re-pitch gutters under the oaks and pines, reset fence posts after a spring windstorm, re-caulk windows and trim, and pressure wash the green film that grows on brick and concrete on the shady north side. We also handle plenty of garage shelving in the attached two-car garages, and smart thermostats and video doorbells for owners modernizing an older house.
Questions we hear in East Memphis
My 1950s ranch has cracks over the doors and windows — should I worry?
Usually not. Memphis soil shrinks in dry spells and swells after heavy rain, and a slab or crawlspace house that age moves a little with it, which shows up as diagonal cracks at the corners of openings. We tape and patch those so they stay closed far longer than a quick skim coat. If we see wide cracks, doors that have gone badly out of square, or floors that have dropped, we'll say so plainly and suggest a foundation specialist take a look before we patch.
Can you replace all the old light fixtures in my house in one visit?
Yes, and that's one of the most common East Memphis calls we get. We'll take down the old fixtures, check each box and its wiring, mount the new ones properly and haul off the old ones. If we find a loose box or wiring that's been patched together over the years, our licensed electricians correct it on the spot, and we can add dimmers, smart switches or an extra fixture over the kitchen island while we're there.
Do you work in the apartment and condo buildings along Poplar and Highland?
Yes. Many of the mid-rise and garden-style buildings in East Memphis have rules about work hours, elevator use and insurance certificates. Let us know your building's requirements and we'll plan the visit around them, send insurance paperwork ahead of time and keep the common areas clean.
Everything we offer in East Memphis
Nearby areas we also cover
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