About Dom
A handyman grounded in building, growing and practical problem-solving.
Dom The Handyman brings together carpentry, horticulture, traditional timber framing, natural-building training, solar-electrical experience, arboriculture and years of hands-on garden work. The goal is simple: understand the project, communicate clearly and leave the customer with something useful and well built.
Builder behind the business
Carpentry is one part of a much broader hands-on background.
Dom graduated from the Capital Region BOCES Building Trades program with a Carpentry specialty in 2026. His construction experience also includes traditional timber framing, small-structure foundations, greenhouse and farm structures, residential solar installation, electrical pre-apprenticeship training and practical repair work.
His timber-framing training included a pavilion build in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, with hands-on participation in layout, mortise-and-tenon cutting, hand chiseling, fitting, pegging, assembly and raising. Later project work included cutting and helping raise a roughly 20-foot-wide hemlock patio frame in Pittsburgh using traditional joinery.
Training & experience
A practical mix of trades, land skills and systems thinking.
BOCES Building Trades, Carpentry
Capital Region · Graduate, 2026.
Plant Science, Urban Forestry
University of Maryland · B.S. Plant Science, Urban Forestry concentration.
Electrical & Solar
Electrical pre-apprenticeship plus hands-on residential solar installation experience.
Naturalist Training
One-year naturalist certificate with a concentration in wilderness survival.
Arboriculture
Tree-health, pruning and climbing experience; Certified Tree Climber training through Penn State.
Permaculture & Horticulture
Permaculture Design Certificate. Garden design, soil building, greenhouse systems, irrigation, native plants and food-growing systems.
Natural building
Training beyond conventional stick framing.
Dom has pursued natural-building and small-home methods alongside conventional carpentry: a hempcrete building class with Root Down Building Collective, multiple cob-building classes in Morelia, Mexico, a shipping-container-to-tiny-home class, and traditional timber framing. That training does not mean every natural-building method is offered as a standard flat-rate handyman service. It does mean larger custom projects can be approached with a wider understanding of materials, moisture, structure, site conditions and low-impact building methods.
Hempcrete
Hands-on building-class experience using hemp-lime construction methods.
Cob
Repeated natural-building coursework focused on earthen construction.
Timber framing
Layout, hand-cut mortise-and-tenon joinery, fitting, pegging and frame raising.
Small-home systems
Training that includes shipping-container-to-tiny-home concepts and practical small-structure work.
Training
The joinery behind the frames.
Chiseling a mortise at a 2021 timber-framing class, Upper Marlboro, MD. Training, not a customer project. 
Bench work at the 2021 pavilion class, Upper Marlboro, MD. Training, not a customer project. 
Pavilion frame assembly, 2021 class, Upper Marlboro, MD. Training, not a customer project.
Grower & garden experience
Gardening is not an add-on service. It is part of Dom's background.
Dom holds a B.S. in Plant Science with an Urban Forestry concentration from the University of Maryland and has worked across organic farming, greenhouse systems, permaculture, arboriculture and community garden projects. Past work includes managing a quarter-acre intensive urban farm with a 10x20 greenhouse, chicken coop, compost systems and more than 6,000 square feet of market-garden space; designing and managing a community garden; establishing an experimental teaching garden in Baltimore; supporting a Baltimore Recreation and Parks community-garden project; and doing permaculture-oriented farm design focused on native plants, low-input food plants and ecological function.
Permaculture
Permaculture Design Certificate plus hands-on site and farm-design experience.
Greenhouses & irrigation
Experience with greenhouse operations, growing-space layout, irrigation and practical growing infrastructure.
Native plants & trees
Arborist-in-training experience, certified tree-climbing training, plant identification and native-plant-focused design work.
Teaching gardens
Community and teaching-garden work centered on food access, growing skills and hands-on participation.
Why hire Dom
One call for the whole project.
The business is built around handling straightforward jobs efficiently and scaling up when a project needs more hands or specialty support.
You deal directly with Dom
No call center or rotating crew. The person discussing the job is responsible for getting it handled.
Bundle multiple small jobs
Furniture assembly, shelves, mounting and punch-list tasks can often be combined into one five-hour visit.
Broad practical skill set
Carpentry, assembly, moving, garden structures and growing-space experience help solve projects that cross categories.
Can scale when needed
Additional helpers and project-specific specialty support can be coordinated for moves, timber frames and larger custom builds.
Building and growing
Different materials. The same care.
Timber-frame projectPegged timber joinery, Pittsburgh, PA. 
Rain-garden projectRiver-rock channel and native planting, San Antonio, TX.
Community commitment
A business built to be useful to the community around it.
Dom The Handyman is a Black-owned business with an intentional commitment to keeping skilled help accessible while still building a sustainable business. That includes a self-selected Community Support Rate for customers facing meaningful financial barriers, alongside standard and pay-it-forward pricing. No income paperwork is required for the Community Support Rate.
The same principle shapes the work itself: communicate clearly, document the scope, avoid surprise charges and build long-term relationships instead of treating every visit like a one-off transaction.
Customer feedback
Professional work. Repeat customers.
Feedback Dom received from customers on a service platform he used before this site, quoted as he published it.
Five stars
“He was prompt, professional, and very thorough in his work… I will definitely be hiring him for future projects.”
Nadiyah M.
Review from a previous platform
Five stars
“He was on time, professional… Would hire again for moving or other work without hesitation.”
Jordan L., piano move
Review from a previous platform
Five stars
“Great professional, highly recommend.”
Kartik S.
Review from a previous platform
Start Your Project
Need a straightforward project handled?
Standard appointments run 8 AM to 5 PM. Same-day work may be available when the schedule allows and carries the standard $100 rush fee. Work before 8 AM or after 5 PM is after-hours service at 1.5x the applicable hourly rate with a two-hour minimum.
Send the full task list, photos and your ZIP code for the fastest quote. Dom reviews it and sends the written price himself.