wife beater! i love it. fist bump blow up.

 

I just like the fact that he goes to the extreme and opens up all kind of walls, basements, french drains, roofs for the slightest amout of water!!:thumbup: most of the time hes right though,

on show he brought in a guy with a thermal image camera, ripped the ladies entire kitchen out, oak floors, etc, and he still couldnt find the leak:no:

 

The show this morning had two seats in the shower filled with 2" of water a year after a complete gut and remodel. Talk about --->

He impresses the hell out of me.

Does what Mike does even require a carpentry license in the Toronto area?

 

Okay Axmen time, And what mikey is gonna rip out :whistling

 

talk about over regulation! i won't be moving to canada anytime soon to do work up there.
could it also be that he's in the US doing many of these shows? therefore, he can swing a hammer and he's ok.
no such thing as a GC license here in NJ.
home improvement contractors license or a builders license.

 

talk about over regulation! i won't be moving to canada anytime soon to do work up there.
could it also be that he's in the US doing many of these shows? therefore, he can swing a hammer and he's ok.
no such thing as a GC license here in NJ.
home improvement contractors license or a builders license.

Same thing basically.

 

you know tin...'''and now back to hometime'':thumbsup:

 

Oh. Never mind...

 

Well, I've stated this before, I have no problem with the thrust of the show. It has done a lot to educate the consumer about the pitfalls of hireing hacks.

That said, my beef is that holmes -IMO- degrades the carpentry trade when he goes on and on about making sure you hire licensed trades, and he hasn't even written his exams, but he's there working away as a carpenter. Hipocite!! Or should I say "hack"

 

That said, my beef is that holmes -IMO- degrades the carpentry trade when he goes on and on about making sure you hire licensed trades, and he hasn't even written his exams, but he's there working away as a carpenter. Hipocite!! Or should I say "hack"

Puristically you're right, but I'd wager that more than 99% of the viewers aren't privy to that little detail. So in that sense, it's completely irrelevant.

My point is that he's done WAY more good than harm with the series, and for that I applaud him. :thumbsup:

 

I agree with you Katoman, he shows great deal of disrespect not only to the trade, but disregard for people's property.
I think that show is scarring more HO hiring good contractors, then actually educating them. Yes, there is hacks out there who don't know what they doing,and so is doctors, and so is every other trade. You get what you pay for in most cases, and everyone with common sense should know, when you hire someone, they should be insured and licensed.
This guy comes into a home,dressed like a bum, he cannot identify a simple problem or find a solution to fix that problem with minimal destruction to surrounding area, and his only solution is to rip up half of the house and put a HO to face major remodeling and major expense, just to prove the other guy was no good. That is the shows main goal.
The last show, with the water under the floor. He took the whole kitchen apart and found nothing.Took all the hardwood out,found nothing. Called Thermal Imaging guys, and did you see the guys faces when they came in :laughing: "Holly S^*t, is this guy nuts or what " was written all over theirs face.
There was water staining behind the refrigirator...there was a copper water line for the ice maker, it could have been from condensation,or the old ref was leaking,etc After the kitchen was remodeled, there was no problems anymore. So what this guy does, he starts on the roof and works his way down, and after he took the whole kitchen apart, including,granite, hardwood floors, and found no problems, he started to drill holes in the concrete and there was no problems, so he blamed on the plastic.
This guy is a class act moron, and most of the crew, who cannot put a sentence together, walk around behind him, and "yes" him to death, as if "yes" the only word they know.

 

I like the show just fun to watch, but did anyone see the mold house one? Him and his under study have a race to trim out two windows? Wooo, not pretty on the finished product, the scary part was I didn't see them go back and re-finish it.

 

The license carpenter thing is not a big deal as most parts of the US,if not all the area do not require a separate license to do carpentry work and the show is big in the US and so is HGTV, so maybe they don't want to make it's focus on canadian rules/regulations. by him saying hire licenses trades, to most homeowners in the US, that means simple, plumber, electrician, hvac possible. roofers don't need a special license here. but in NJ and PA, anyone working on home improvements needs a home improvement contractors license.(i believe that plumbers and electricians are excempt in at least NJ because they already have a license), where before, most contractors didn't unless they had gone to get their builders license.

 

Just to pick a nit, PA doesn't have HIC licensing, just registration. I have yet to see a homeowner ask for it, but you won't pull a permit without it.

 

my bad, i know i had to fill out the forms online, didn't realize it wasn't a license as it looks just like the one i have from NJ. i guess they just call them different things. either way they get money from us and keep track of who's doing what.
we can't pull permits here without the HIC license.

 

bE NICE TO HAVE THE TIME AND MONEY TO SET DIAMONDS ON EVERY JOB.

 

Getting back to the HIC license in NJ. The only thing they've done to enforce is you have to show your license to get a permits app. They don't enforce it. All this law did was make it harder on guys already playing by the rules. How many trucks do you see without the license on it as the law says you have to do? Guys, we're probably in the most UNregulated business in the country.

 

(looking around in the air) number on my truck? hmmm i know i need it, but like you said, no one enforces it, so i just keep procrastinating getting it lettered like that. lol. it's just a money maker for the state, they get everyone (just about) to give them what is it, 75 bucks a year, every year!

 

had to pick axmen over mr. holmes.

rather watch guys bickering like little girls for an hour that some guy tearing apart a house.

to clear up the plate to concrete fastening......... don't want to look like a hack.... I GLUE and use a mechanical fasenting device. Either red heds or ram sets pins. BUT my problem is 95% of all concrete floors I deal with have heat tubes in them which is a risk..... to say the least.

As far as crappy building inspectors on his show. (or in canada) The one episode I did watch had no access to the jetted tub (ie able to reach the motor and the GFIs, with ease) and the jets and heater were on one circuit. I am not a plumber or an electician but I've dealt with enough jetted tubs to know the code. If our building department showed up for a CO inspection then they would have flunked us.

 

Greg, I watched that episode yesterday, but let's just say he was covering his azz a bit (along with making a TV show) by ripping up the floor. Honestly, there were how many other contractors on site previously and that was the 3rd floor that buckled in a row. It was all getting tore up and out regardless so is doing some "digging" to see if other hidden issues were part of the problem really a bad thing?? None of the other guys had done research that far, so how they can they with CERTAINTY there was'nt a drainage problem/wash out problem...they could'nt, all they could do is ASSUME, and we all know assumptions have cost alot of people alot of money.

I'm no nutswinger of the show, but compared to what's on TV, at least this show really highlights alot of the things I know we've run across over the years with "good intentions homeowners" and hack contractors. It's a great show for my wife and daughter to watch and it's helped my wife understand my frustrations when i come home flustered at the end of the day after finding many of these types of problems for what initally looked like a "easy repair/redo". It's one thing to listen to me talk about it, but like most women, she needs these visual ques to really understand my plite, and luckily this show really highlights ALOT of what we run into on reno's Downside though, is neither I nor the homeowner have corporate money to be able to dig in and do the $30-50K worth of repairs before we start the original $10K job quoted. Unfortunately budgets in the real world force a compromise since integrity HAS to be addressed first and foremost, and there's been many jobs we never even got to do the work bid originally because we had to use budget money to repair unforseen problem, OR once we uncover REAL problem, homie will get the price to fix it from us, and then just say, I'm sorry, but we cant afford to do it, so we'll have to fix it ourselves:whistling and you know that is'nt happening correctly.:furious:

 

I have been wanting to pull up this thread to knock on Holmes for a couple weeks now. At first I really liked the show and what he was doing as far as scaring HO's away from using unlicensed uninsured. He has gone too far now. He comes into the home and starts picking it apart without fully knowing if there is truely a problem. There was an episode where he noticed a junction box fed with 14/2 and lead out with a 12/2. He immediatley stated that this was an illegal circuit because it was fused with a 20 amp breaker without ever checking the breaker box. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a junction like that as long as the breaker amperage doesn't exceed the smallest wire in the loop.

It is not realistic to tear an entire house apart looking for a problem. It takes a much more skilled tradesman to troubleshoot and repair a problem locally than it does to redo the whole project.

 

Not sure if these points have been made already because I don't feel like reading a novel today, but for one, this guy is waaay too cocky and acts like he knows everything about everything. I could pick apart his window and siding installs, and I'm sure that other pros who have a specialty could do the same (like the electrical guy above). He does a fine job overall, maybe the attitude is just for tv. Secondly, the show does nothing to show the poor decision making of these H.O.'s... You can't tell me that every sob story on the show didn't get quotes from other contractors that cost 2-3x's as much as the hacks that they chose. You aren't a victim! You chose the cheapest bid and you got a hack job! Lesson learned. Lastly, does this guy own stock in a spray foam company or something??? Holy crap, I think this guy goes to sleep and dreams about it. I can imagine visiting his home and seeing furniture made from sprayfoam, etc... Geez... He's like the Willy Wonka of spray foam.

 

Lastly, does this guy own stock in a spray foam company or something??? Holy crap, I think this guy goes to sleep and dreams about it. I can imagine visiting his home and seeing furniture made from sprayfoam, etc... Geez... He's like the Willy Wonka of spray foam.

I am terrified of using spray foam. i realize there are different expansion rates but my fear comes froam a real life experience.

I used to build custom boxes and mounts for a car stereo shop. I built a box to hold 8 12" subwoofers that took up the entire back of an F150. After finishing the install, we fired up the stereo and among everything within 5 square miles that rattled, the back of the box was vibrating against the back glass of the pickup. We needed something to fill the void and absorb the pounding. with access back there a major problem, we used like 8 cans of the spray foam. in the winter. The guy came back in the summer laughing his head off. He showed us his truck and I couldn't believe what I saw. The foam had expanded a little more and pushed the back glass out perfectly. Luckily, the foam had adhered to the glass so we were able to cut the foam off and re-install the glass.

I see him spraying around windows and have always wondered how long the windows will open before the foam expands and binds the window, permanatly.

 

Mike Holmes is a wannabe contractor that has an act that some people like.

 

Imagine if he had to contain lead HAHAHAHAHAH

 

The moral of the story he presents is -

There is a right way and a wrong way to do construction.

The moral of the story that every other show presents is -

Do it as cheap as possible with any jack leg who you happen to find and sell the place and make a lot of money, even a hair dresser can do it.

Whether you like him or not, I like the message he is sending to homeowners a lot better.

 

The moral of the story he presents is -

There is a right way and a wrong way to do construction.

The moral of the story that every other show presents is -

Do it as cheap as possible with any jack leg who you happen to find and sell the place and make a lot of money, even a hair dresser can do it.

Whether you like him or not, I like the message he is sending to homeowners a lot better.

I disagree, This Old House and Hometime have never been about doing it cheap, they have always been about doing it right.

 

I agree with IHI to his credit he went the distance because 3 other contractors didnt. Its tough trouble-shooting. All said & done it look like a water leak from the frig defrosting or dripping. It could have wicked in across the ground but it didnt look convincing. Maybe that Ho isnt so honest. I didnt see any terrible construction. What I did see is an insane open end contract with unlimited money. All said & done he put a slate floor that would never bring the same problem back and was a better choice in the first place even though the floor spec's said its acceptable. Nails through the vapor barrier was bad but the problem area was not evenly spread out. The overalls are tough to watch.

 

I always thought that he did the work free

 

hmmmm, ironic is the term for the day regarding this thread and fixing screw up's. I got a call last week to look at remving a U shaped staircase, completely reframing it all and then doing oak/wrought iron stairs/spindles..simple enough right?

Met today @ 9am with the homies, upon entering the house it was a fricken DIY nightmare, big 2 story house gutted to the studs, insulation with paper in the walls, plastic over the insulation. Floors buckling/heaving at all levels, some drywall installed sparatically. HO plumbing, HO electrical and NO permits pulled for any of this. After investigating the basement to see first and foremost wh the floor is so messed up, well, undersized beams, failing footings, too long of span for floor joists, I counted 12 floor joists completely cut through hanging loose for new plumbing to pass through....12 floor joist hanging in the breeze. I counted 33 4" metal junction boxes screwed to floor joists, INSIDE wall cavities, those are the big ticket items, and so many more smaller electrical infractions because homie did it himself. He was pizzzed because he did'nt get a meter spot and the utility company wont hook up his new panel until he moves the weatherhead to the other side of the house...so he just jumped from the old 60amp to the new 100amp panel with a pieces of welding cable.

When asked about me doing the work and permits, I just told him I did'nt think this was a job I could do since budget wise we'd have to rip soo much stuff out to fix that we'd burn up any budget he had set aside for the stairs and then some since as it sits, the moment an inspector walks in, most likely they'll red tag the house and deem it inhabitable due to so many major safety infractions; and then i got "the gripe" about building codes are all about the money.

It's definately a house that would be perfect for Mike Holmes LOL!! or extreme home makeover, outside of a match and gasoline, that house has no hope, they took bad and made it worse with good intentions....worst part is he had "buddies that work for XXX, XXX, and XXX construction/electrical/plumbing companies "help him out"

Should've taken pictures, but I did'nt have my camera and my phone woulda took a day to upload all the problems I woulda shot...WOW:furious:

 

I had forgot all about Hometime and saw it the other day. I was trying to remember if he was gray back when I watched it and then figured out holy crap it's a newer episode!
Not a bad show but I can't even hear what he's saying when his assistant is in the picture.

 

Dean's assistant is his wife, she is a nice looking woman and she is pretty knowledgeable about construction and they both seem to know when they are not capable of doing something themselves.

I saw a show a few months back where she was pregnant and was pretty far along, it didn't seem to slow her down.

 

he used to have a different girl on there with him, but i think he's got some younger girl now. the other one must have gotten too old for him.
hahahaha