What's Mike Holmes really like?
- Thread starter poorboy
- Start date
He bugs the hell out of me. Mr. perfect. It's so easy to criticize someone else's work that might have been done on a budget etc. I always see this with mechanics badmouthing the guy before who shoulda done this shoulda done that. They're all full of it. I'll bet there are a few jobs he did that might be easy targets of unfair criticism. Now that would be good TV!
Since it's his job to work on projects that other's have screwed up/not finished , if would be very difficult for him to compliment any previous contractor,the show simply does not go to homes that have been well built/renovated, but it has happened at least once though where he was in a home to fix the mess of one contractor and during the inspection he comes upon the work of a different contractor who did do a good job, and he's pointed it out.
Jim Caruk. He did a house across the street from my parents - total demo and rebuild from the ground up. Not my style but it's still standing. And at the time he rode a nice Harley.
I think Holmes has the right ethic - Do it right, or don't do it all. He's also very big on going beyond base code - which I also think is the right way to approach residential construction.
As for what he's like in "real life" I have no idea. Probably a lot like you see on the show. From the show, he was married, split with his wife, has at least 2 kids (who are on the show). Holmes also had a huge falling out with the original producer of the show some
As for the show - HOH is now finished, replaced by Holmes Inspection.
HOH was good for first 3 or 4 seasons, but then it became a farce. Holmes started out fixing leaky roofs and windows and porches, then graduated to building entire homes. Many of the people who were on HOH deserved to be right where they were. They hired cheap - they got shit quality. (Imagine that.) One asshole I remember lived in a newer house in Vaughan I believe and wanted to convert an attic that was made of trusses into living space. He admitted that he had 4 or 5 quotes. Four of his quotes were about 150k or so and the fifth was for 27k
So the asshole goes with the 27 k quote and almost undermines the house. Well, what the fuck did you expect buddy?
Some people legitmately got ripped off, but most deserved to be right where they were.
IMHO, if you want to have a reno done, best find someone who knows what the fuck he's doing and pay him accordingly.
As for what he's like in "real life" I have no idea. Probably a lot like you see on the show. From the show, he was married, split with his wife, has at least 2 kids (who are on the show). Holmes also had a huge falling out with the original producer of the show some
As for the show - HOH is now finished, replaced by Holmes Inspection.
HOH was good for first 3 or 4 seasons, but then it became a farce. Holmes started out fixing leaky roofs and windows and porches, then graduated to building entire homes. Many of the people who were on HOH deserved to be right where they were. They hired cheap - they got shit quality. (Imagine that.) One asshole I remember lived in a newer house in Vaughan I believe and wanted to convert an attic that was made of trusses into living space. He admitted that he had 4 or 5 quotes. Four of his quotes were about 150k or so and the fifth was for 27k
So the asshole goes with the 27 k quote and almost undermines the house. Well, what the fuck did you expect buddy?
Some people legitmately got ripped off, but most deserved to be right where they were.
IMHO, if you want to have a reno done, best find someone who knows what the fuck he's doing and pay him accordingly.
Yes some of them are pretty stupid. Simple things like letting the existing homeowner choose and pay for the inspection. That's crazy. I wouldn't buy a house with a geothermal system that has a heating problem or buy a house where the floors are sagging or the basement smells mouldy. Of course I've picked up a suspicious eye from working on cars and know to look past the flash, but there are some houses that I might have bought just because they were so new and the problems were hidden.
Mike Holmes is great. "if you're going do it, do it right" , canadian of year type person.
on holmes on homes , he pays for cost out of his own pocket sometimes
on holmes on homes , he pays for cost out of his own pocket sometimes
I have spoken to a couple of contractors who also say that it is very easy to criticize another contractor's work because of course if you want to pay for the gold standard on everything then everything will be perfect. But there are usually budget constraints so some things not so much don't get done the right way, it's just not the gold standard although in many cases silver is perfectly adequate. The home owner has a lot to answer for too sometimes for not getting things inspected or for using a contractor who agrees not to get permits to save costs. That said though, I think he is probably a decent guy and his principles, although over the top sometimes, are at least headed in the right direction. I have used a couple of the subcontracting companies that he has used on his show and have to admit that they were good and professional.
Funnily enough I used "Better Contracting" to redo my aluminum facia, soffit, new facia boards, and eaves trough.
They were fucking idiots.
On the show, that fat guy - Robert Graves I think is his name rides up with 20 guys with matching T shirts and fall arrest harnesses and shakes his 3 chins about how sad the other guy's work is.
In my case, he (Graves) just subbed the work out to a jobber from Oshawa who tried to do the entire thing by himself (other than the eaves - different guy did those). Jobber had only a minimal idea of what he was doing. He was by himself (well, his girlfriend was in the van alternating between weeping, smoking, and talking on the cell phone while he was working. (You can't make this stuff up.)) I ended up helping the Jobber, showing him how to do his job, and cleaning up after him. In the end, I got what I needed, but that's only because I was in there with Jobber.
The guy who did the trough was right on though.
But "Better Contracting"?
Good luck with those bozos.
Heard the same about Rick Mercer from someone else in the entertainment industry who worked with him.
A well respected contractor once told me that Mike is very knowledgeable however, he goes over board sometimes. Not ever contractor have the same amount of money to spend on projects as he does nor do you have to spend that amount of money to get the same job done.
Robert Graves DIED like 3 years ago... Car accident just north of Barrie. So, either your work was some time ago; or it was a rip-off...
As for Mike Holmes - met him several times; my personal thought is that fame's gotten to him in a pretty big way... Early shows he had a much more humble attitude; as time went on, the image developed into "it isn't right, unless I did it..." He actually gives some pretty decent advice, sometimes - and some horrible advice other times; particularly around electrical work.
I've heard he's a dick off camera; and I wouldn't have much of an issue believing it...
Jim Caruk is great - he bought a bunch of appliances from my ex a few years ago, when she was working at a furniture/electronics store - just the nicest guy you could imagine. I see Brian Baumlaer (sp? - the Disaster DIY guy....) as being the same sort - what you see on TV is probably what you'd get in real life, too... Dunno, just a vibe, I guess...
I was not aware he died, but I did a quick google search and yep, he died. They didn't say on line, but it sounds like he fell asleep at the wheel because he was going southbound on 11 and hit another southbound car at night and went into the median. Sorry to hear that.
I had my work done about 5 years ago actually. I called 3 contractors listed on the Holmes website for prices and went with Better Contracting.
They were not better.
What pissed me off was that they just subbed out the work to a jobber. (When you see them on the show, they rail against this practice - yet here we are.) They just take their cut and find some guy to work cheap (he told me he got paid piece work - by the square foot). Reminds you of the old joke.
