MODERN LIVING: Don't Do It Yourself

For many a helpless housewife and hapless weekend handyman, life's most nagging little crisis is an encounter with a leaky roof, a broken window or a clogged drain. Professional repairmen are hard to find, harder to pay. The do-it-yourself books often produce only frayed tempers, flayed thumbs. Last week, from Los Angeles to Long Island, the unhandy were entrusting chores to a new and spreading U.S. service: the home-repair club.

The new clubs supply homeowners with good repairmen around the clock, guarantee their work. When Hurricane Donna swept across Long Island's Nassau...