Holmes On Homes

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

Any one ever watch Holmes on Homes on Discovery? Did any one happen to see the episode were he fixed the bathroom and the basement those shady contractors did. It makes me sick to see contractors do that **** to people.

Ed the Roofer

Please expand on what occurred.

Ed

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

You would have to see the episode to see what these shady contractors did to these homeowners.

1. They did not use a level when installing anything...
2. Electrical nightmare. (live wires all over behind walls etc.)
3. No Glue on all the plumbing the installed...
4 The drywall taping looked like a little kid did it.
5. Stucco all over everything.

The list goes on


When Holmes fixed it looked great...

Stone Mountain

Mikey is a local boy. He's not too shabby, but he also makes mistakes. He's not as perfect as he says. J\However, some of the sleaze he turns up is unbelievable.

Steve

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Mrmac204

we try to watch mikey when we can- wow he sure finds some complete disasters. He says that he get emails and letters all the time begging him to come and fix up the homeowners mess. I guess they choose the most outrageous job, and then try to go fix it up. I don't know who pays though, the production company? or does the home owner get tagged a second time? its kinds discouraging to see how some shysters can give all of us a bad name- sorta like being a used car salesman...
I think I know how some guys get into that though- you go out, fix up some little thing- then the HO says hey can you build me a deck/addition/basement suite/ etc? and you think, how hard can this be? then its a nightmare, but you are committed, and you didn't bid enough to CYA.. so ?? I guess you have to be diligent at the outset, and be brutally honest wiwth yourself... can I do this? am I qualified?
People are almost desperate to find an honest qualified tradesman right now, most of them are so busy, and how do you know if a guy is qualified or not?

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

Holmes seems like he is a dick but he makes a lot of good points. 1 out of 2 people we do jobs for always has past contractor horrior stories to tell us.

George Z

He works for Home Depot Installation Services.

That sums up his credibillity.
Considering the consumer complaints against them,
why would he be a spokesman for them?

Come out and say it Mr Holmes:

"I love Home Depot Install services, I am their spokesman"

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George Z

However, some of the sleaze he turns up is unbelievable.

He works for Home Depot Installation Services.
That's only a few complaints, there are thousands:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/clip...ces-217858.php

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mahlere

george,

i loathe HD and their installation program....but how many installs do they do and how many complaints? what's the percentage? and is it better or worse than your avg contractor?

blindly bashing like you are does not serve your purpose well. makes you look bad.

George Z

Not so blindly, why would you say that?
There is a lot of insight in how they operate.
Home Depot is the competition, they want us gone.
Do I have an axe to grind? sure I do, so does our trade group:

http://pdca.org/Articles/2006/NewImagePainting.pdf

Could you tell me how under this business model, great customer service can be had?

I assume there are some satisfied consumers too.

Holmes squeeky clean image I am questioning.
How many of these Home Depot complaints did he investigate?

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mahlere

i don't know. i'm not defending them, i'm just asking for some substantiation for you incessent (sp?) bashing of them.

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

Home owners are getting ripped off by the Depot. We were painting a house and the home owner was getting the roof done by home depot. He told us he paid $10,000 we told him he should have asked us we would have done it for $5,000. The crew of 5 did the job all in one day.

mahlere

hve,

simple question- why are you only charging $5000 then?

if you raised your rates - and it's apparent that the people will pay- you could:

give your help raises
provide health insurance
buy more/newer/better equipment
save it to carry you through the slow times (weren't you talking about having no work lined up just a month or so ago?)
etc.

why be proud that you would be cheaper than the HD?

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

it was only a 5000 dollar job

mahlere

no, apparently it was a $10,000 job...

Ed the Roofer

Does Home Depot pay the subcontor enough profit on the install program for that subcontractor to be able to afford to pay for the benefits you mentioned?

I don't know, since I have never worked in any of their programs.

I quite agree though, that if they are able to secure the Home Owners "Peace of Mind" enough to warrant a 100 % increase in price, then, other qualified contractors MUST step up to the plate and reassure their client the same security, and then they too, can make the desired profit to take care of their employees properly.

I am sure that every single project I contract for, someone else can come in, after the fact, and claim they can do it cheaper, even half as much. They do all the time and either learn and raise prices or they fade away.

HD, like Sears and Lowes, continue to provide us all by actual example, that Home Owners are not only buying on price alone. Learn from their example. Do your prepatory groundwork, so that you can be the "star" contractor in your region.

Ed

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

The guy was paying double for Home Depots 10 year warranty. It makes since for a homeowners to choose Depot because most roofers might not even be around that long to provide a warranty if they offered 10 years. But I don't even think he got other estimates.

HUDSONVALLEYEXT

This dude having a TV show about how he saves home owners must be good for business. But then again I just saw this guys show for the first time the other day and hes been on since 2004. I think im going to order a copy of this DVD for this basement job and give it to customers when doing estimates. They need to see why you don't always go with the "cheaper" guy that says no permits they only slow us down. I thinking of making a home owner check list to give out when we do estimates.

1. Verify insurance (tell them to look for comp and liability)
2. Ask to look at contractors past jobs...
3. Check BBB
4. If a contractor is willing to start same day and if he is a pro why is he not booked (Mikes Holmes made this a point.)

Last year we did about 100 jobs. Only 10% of our customers asked for references. There were 0 customers who asked for proof of insurance. What the hell is wrong with people around here.

This loss of a job last year has been bothering me. I bid $5500 to paint a ladies house. I told her I would let her look at our past 3 houses we painted. She was like that would be great would like to make sure the company is legit that I hire. I called the lady back 1 week later to follow up. shes like I heard another companies "you out bid them but they were able to start the same day". Why the hell would you not verify people what is wrong with people

boman47k

I have to wonder if maybe some of the repairs are originally done by HD contractors. Maybe the show makes a good situation out of a bad one by making a deal with ho to fix the problem for free and the ho gets to be on tv! Afterall, HD should be resposible anyway for messed up installs. Why not make elmonade out of a lemon? If HD installs are as shoddy as some ppl say, there should be a list of good projects gone wrong to have on the show.
Of course, I imagine a lot of ppl do contact the show on their own about their projects for whatever reason. Kinda like Foxworthy may get ' you may be a redneck if ' jokes sent to him all the time because of who he is and what he does. Seems like a good position to be in for him. Do one or two good redneck shows, they take off, and material starts pouring in!

pn70

HUDSONVALLEYEXT...I watched the basement remodel yesterday from Holmes on Homes, it was funny yet also disappointing to see. The only time I see work that bad is from SLUM lords.

As for HD, they provide only single services...meaning you want a new sliding deck door? They will sell it to you, install it but will not prepare the existing odd size opening for the new sliding door. I don't believe they will mud drywall for a new smaller opening and don't think they would repaint the wall either once completed.

As far as I know, HD and Lowes subs all this work out.

If I'm remodelling a kitchen, I will correct ahead of time if the floor needs to be levelled out before installing new cabinets and redo shabby old plumbing if needed, add electrical and/or replace old receptacles. New lighting configuration roughed in. Modify existing bulkheads to accomodate new cabinet layout if needed or remove old bulkheads for new taller cabinets. The list can go on and on of what we will accomplish as contractors while also providing the home owner one person to deal with for the complete job.

A home owner will have to be the GC for the remodel job if they hire HD or Lowes. Just my opinion based on what I've seen.