Your friendly neighborhood handyman

About me

Hello!  I’m Allan Ayres, the Allan behind Allan Wrench Handyman Services.  I started this business as an outgrowth of many years of doing evening-and-weekend handyman work for clients around Oakland and the surrounding areas.  I have experience troubleshooting and repairing appliances, mounting TVs, hanging mirrors, replacing faucets and outlets, installing ceiling fans, putting up window treatments, fixing damaged plaster and drywall, installing grab bars and handrails, and much more.  It makes me happy to solve problems for people, and to get the job done right.  If you have a project that needs attention or a repair that needs to be done, please get in touch — I’d love to help!



Before this, I had a 26-year career as the Exhibit Developer and Museum Technical Lead at the Lawrence Hall of Science.  I designed a wide array of highly interactive, open-ended, delightful, curiosity-provoking, one-of-a-kind science exhibits, and also served as the technical supervisor for the museum and educational spaces at the Hall.  If you’ve been to the Lawrence Hall of Science any time in the past couple of decades, you’ve experienced my work already!

Services

Install/Replace

Light fixtures • Ceiling fans • Outlets • Smoke/CO detectors • Faucets • Disposers

Install

Grab bars • Handrails • Baby gates • Window treatments

Troubleshoot

Appliances • Devices

Repair

Plaster • Drywall • Doors • Gates

Hang/Mount

TVs • Mirrors • Art • Decorations

Miscellaneous

Assemble furniture • Strap water heaters • Secure tall furniture • And much more!

Request a quote or schedule a consultation

Request a quote
Replacement hose bib installed on house
Hose bib replacement
Open toilet tank showing newly installed fill valve
Toilet repair
Handyman lying under a sink making connections to a newly installed faucet
Faucet replacement
Steel brackets reinforcing a garage door that had broken apart after years of stress from the garage door opener
Garage door repair
Element from an electric dryer in the process of being replaced
Dryer repair
A hand holding two rubber boots from a dishwasher, the old, leaking one and the replacement
Dishwasher repair
A hand holding the new igniter about to be installed to fix a tankless hot water heater
Hot water heater repair
A handrail installed for safety at a staircase in a house
Handrail installation
A water heater strapped to the wall for safety
Water heater strapping
A wall with drywall being installed
Drywall installation
A patch on the side of a house where a gas heater vent used to penetrate
Exterior wall repair
A door being installed between two rooms in a basement
Door installation
A raised bed in a back yard
Raised bed construction
A ramp for dogs (and people) leading from a driveway to a porch
Ramp construction
Square pavers installed in a grid pattern with pea gravel in the gaps between them
Paver installation
Square pavers installed in a grid pattern with decomposed granite in the gaps between them
Paver installation
A selfie of a handyman with a newly installed gravel area behind him
Hardscape installation
A crushed rock area next to a driveway
Hardscape installation
Shelves with paint cans and other supplies neatly stacked on them
Building shelves and organizing storage
Three "floating" bookshelves mounted on a bedroom wall
Hanging shelves
A newly installed ceiling light fixture, with ladder and tools below
Light fixture replacement
A GFCI outlet and a protected outlet next to it
GFCI outlet installation
On the left, an outdoor outlet box with wires capped with blue wire nuts; on the right, the same box after the cover plate had been installed
Capping unused circuit
A gallery-wall style arrangement of seven small framed prints on a bedroom wall
Precision art hanging
An array of four prints on a dining room wall
Art hanging
A handyman's hand holding a level on a wall in preparation for mounting a wide mirror
Hanging a wide mirror