Holmes on Homes

[Dan Mages]

I normally avoid HGTV like the plague. I would tell you what I think about the interior design shows, but I am sure it will violate the TOS. There is one show though that has caught my attention, Holmes on Homes. The premise of the show is a contractor that helps people out who had disastrous encounters with shady contractors. During the show, Holmes points out every mistake and code violation he discovers and rips the responsible contractor a new one for the sloppy work. As a person with a quality background, I find this extremely entertaining. I was wondering what others think of the show. Of those in the industry, is he justified in his complaints? Has anyone seen his team do something wrong?

Dan

[Chuck Wintle]

I normally avoid HGTV like the plague. I would tell you what I think about the interior design shows, but I am sure it will violate the TOS. There is one show though that has caught my attention, Holmes on Homes. The premise of the show is a contractor that helps people out who had disastrous encounters with shady contractors. During the show, Holmes points out every mistake and code violation he discovers and rips the responsible contractor a new one for the sloppy work. As a person with a quality background, I find this extremely entertaining. I was wondering what others think of the show. Of those in the industry, is he justified in his complaints? Has anyone seen his team do something wrong?

Dan

In toronto where the show is based they are overrun with fly-by-night contractors. And the contractor can put a lien on the clients house if any payment is stopped because the client is fedup with a bad job. He even earned a PHD for his work in the construction business.

[Jeff Monson]

I think he does a great job, obviously he knows his building code very well. Its very entertaining to watch what some of the other so called "contractors" have done. In some cases though, the home owner hires a shade tree carpenter to do a job at a reasonable price, then it goes bad, and in comes Holmes, with a crew of highly trained professionals. I think his bid to do the job, do it correctly and to code, would have blown the homeowner out of the water. Like I stated, this is only in a few episodes...many homeowners on the show pay a premium price for very shody work, not even close to code. I do really enjoy the show.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Ditto. The homeowners are party to blame much of the time.... Most don't know what to ask for so the contractor does what he can make money on. Ask for cheap work, get cheap work. Holmes comes in and usually does what the homeowner couldn't have afforded even if the original contractor had offered it at a fair price. I usually see shared responsibility in many instances.

Jeff. My son is at UND and stacked sandbags in Fargo not too long ago.

I like the Blue Moose.
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[paul cottingham]

Its a great show, but some of their safety practices with power tools will make you cringe.

[Joe Leigh]

A bit too sanctimonious for my taste. It's easy to sit back and nit pick every nut and bolt after the fact. He's always whining about fixing everyone else's screw ups, I assume he's getting paid??

[Lee Schierer]

I watch the show and think Mike is doing a good thing, eh. Be sure to watch the "behind the scenes" episode if you get a chance. It will better explain how the show works. Most of the stuff he shows is pretty scary and his fixes are generally right on if not a touch overboard.

I can empathize with some of the home owners. We recently had an encounter with a landscaper that I hired to do some work in my yard to repair the lawn after a new sewer system installation. I had checked him out and his work was good. One night before he arrived it rained pretty hard and long. He lives less than 2 miles from me. He arrived Monday morning and proceeded to tear up more yard than needed repair in the first place and then got stuck. After the tow truck pulled him out he crossed the yard twice more leaving deep ruts, but went around where he got stuck and then decided that it was too wet to work and he quit telling us that he would be back next summer and he would refund my money. I asked what he was going to do about the damage he caused and he said he would fix it next summer if I had him do the work. Part of the work was in my neighbors yard who loaned me their yard for access to my back yard (long story) so I could get the sewer done. So now I had to tell them their yard would be torn up until next July. Well I asked for my money back and completed the work on the neighbors yard plus 3 hours extra labor for the landscaper damage myself. My yard will probably wait until spring.

[Matt Meiser]

two words: "Spray foam"

[Joe Leigh]

Two more: "vapor barrier"

[Jeff Monson]

Jeff. My son is at UND and stacked sandbags in Fargo not too long ago.

I like the Blue Moose.
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Me too! My family enjoys the food and atmosphere there, its loud....and so are we ....we end up there once every couple of weeks.

Hope your son is enjoying UND, its a great university. Avaition I assume?

[Jeff Monson]

two words: "Spray foam"

Thats funny stuff Matt, did you see where he resprayed the spray foam on a bathroom over a garage? I think he has a love affair with spray foam....and overalls.

[Pat Germain]

Ditto. The homeowners are party to blame much of the time.... Most don't know what to ask for so the contractor does what he can make money on. Ask for cheap work, get cheap work. Holmes comes in and usually does what the homeowner couldn't have afforded even if the original contractor had offered it at a fair price. I usually see shared responsibility in many instances.

I think there was more homeowner blame in the first few seasons. But now, many of the homeowners will actually say, "I followed everything Holmes says to do. I got multiple estimates. I hired who I thought was a good contractor. And my house is still a mess and the contractor flew the coop!".

The one HoH episode that really got to me was about a family with a disabled little girl. They wanted so much to give her a bedroom and bathroom which would accommodate her disabilities. They also wanted a simple, small, built-in table where the girl could easily eat from her wheelchair.

The contractor kept delaying and delaying. And he was delaying while doing shoddy work. He did install the little table. But it actually collapsed on the little girl while she was eating!

The contractor delayed so long, the little girl died before ever getting to use her special bedroom and bathroom. Holmes came in and pretty much had to rip out everything the first contractor did; not so much because it was not longer needed, but because it was a crap job. It was so very sad.

[Jim Rimmer]

I enjoyed the show for several episodes then it became almost as repetitive as the design shows and the house hunters. Same stuff, different victim.

[Charlie Reals]

I enjoyed the show for several episodes then it became almost as repetitive as the design shows and the house hunters. Same stuff, different victim.

+1 to that, at this point it is redundant. Same thing over and over, butt then that is home tv for ya.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Me too! My family enjoys the food and atmosphere there, its loud....and so are we ....we end up there once every couple of weeks.

Hope your son is enjoying UND, its a great university. Avaition I assume?

Yes.. He got his pilot's lic in HS and he's headed for a degree in Aviation Management. He's also in ROTC so he can fly choppers for the army at graduation. Uncle Sam is paying his tuition and will cover the costs for the chopper lessons/license and commercial endorsements. He'll start helo lessons next year.

I met Sen. Dorgan on a flight last year. He was a college buddy of John Odegard (and told some hair-raising flying stories) and offered a boatload of support for one of the premier aviation schools on the planet.
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