They don't call him G.I. Joe on the set for nothing.
Ask Mike Holmes about what's wrong with the home renovation business and he gets mad -- mad about the shoddy work he's seen all too often, mad about people getting taken, mad about the lack of recourse when they try to get mistakes fixed or their money back.
Tune into Holmes on Homes, a new weekly show premiering on HGTV on March 24, and you'll see him go into commando mode to fix them.
On the first show, Melanie and Dave Carter take Mr. Holmes to the back of their Toronto house to run through all the problems with a recent kitchen addition, including a rough-looking, unfinished stucco wall, the deck improperly reconstructed, and wobbly stairs leading to the back yard.
Mr. Holmes delivers his action plan, rapid fire.
"The deck's coming down, all new stairs, railings. We're going to take the trim off, take all the stucco off, all of it. We are going to show you what it should look like," he says.
Those wobbly stairs? With one hand, he wrests them aside in a matter of moments.
When Mr. Holmes first pitched the idea for the show, he didn't have himself in mind. He'd been taking time out from his business, Restovate, to build props and act as consultant to the HGTV do-it-yourself fix-it program, Just Ask Jon Eakes. But given all the horror stories of renovation disasters he'd seen and heard about over the years, he thought it was a natural for television.
Scott McNeil, the producer/director of the show, thought Mr. Holmes was a TV natural too, especially for the guerrilla-style approach he thought the subject matter demanded.
With his buff build, buzzed hair, earring and tattoo, Mr. Holmes certainly looks the part. He's also supremely confident and totally passionate about the problems homeowners too often come up against.
"People think, 'This could never happen to me.' In my world, I see it every day. These are things that just shouldn't happen and I want to do what I can to make sure they don't," says Mr. Holmes, 39, who has been in the construction and renovation business for most of his life, learning from his handyman father.
"I was doing electrical by the time I was six," Mr. Holmes says.
Mr. Holmes divides renovators into three categories -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good know what they're doing and they charge accordingly, although they're not necessarily the most expensive. But they're certainly not the cheapest, either.
"I myself could never do a job where they just wanted it done on the cheap. I couldn't purposely make something wrong, which is what you have to do," says Mr. Holmes.
Many of the bad don't mean to do shoddy work, but they're not as professional as they think they are, Mr. Holmes says. They just don't know the proper methods. There are some, though, who have a "mine over matter" attitude, he says, meaning, "It isn't mine so it doesn't matter."
"The ugly are the guys who are out to take you, and they're very good at it, getting their foot in the door at a cheap price then charging extra, with no intention of finishing the job," Mr. Holmes says.
The show tackles problems that range from relatively small -- a bad bathroom tiling job that encouraged mould to mushroom within a few months -- to a huge total home redo, subject of a special one-hour Father's Day special. In that case, the problems were extreme, and so was the frustration and despair that homeowners typically feel after a bad reno experience. The wife suffered from depression and suicidal feelings.
"These are nice people who didn't deserve what happened to them. They'd lost $160,000 and if we didn't step in, could have lost everything," Mr. Holmes says.
Although the contractor was taken to court and lost, the couple still didn't get their money back, which also is far too common in the construction and renovation business, Mr. Holmes says.
"People just don't pay up, they close their businesses, disappear and reappear under another name. The system doesn't have enough teeth," Mr. Holmes says.
Coincidentally, the Ontario government passed a new consumer protection law in December. It includes certain rules that affect home renovations, including a stipulation that the final bill can't be more than 10 per cent above the estimate.
"It's a step in the right direction for sure, but it really won't change much. You'll still have to hire a lawyer and hope the contractor doesn't disappear if you win in court," Mr. Holmes says.
Although the show is careful not to name names to avoid being sued, in one instance Mr. Holmes and a cameraman staged a visit, Mike Wallace-style, to the office of a contractor. The homeowners had paid the contractor $18,000 for kitchen cabinets but he hadn't passed the money along to the cabinet maker.
"The guy got really upset and kicked us out but, yes, he did pay the cabinet maker and we did get the cabinets," Mr. McNeil says. "If it was me, I wouldn't want Mike mad at me."
Though he looks like he could eat nails, Mr. Holmes is actually a "sweetheart," Mrs. Carter says. "We have nothing but praise for the job they did. They were totally professional, brought in an outside expert for the stucco, and even improved the design. And it only took two weeks and cost $5,000."
The show charges for the work it profiles, but for less than it would otherwise cost, Mr. McNeil says.
The Carters thought they had done their homework. The renovator came recommended by a friend and they checked references, but it wasn't enough, Mr. Holmes says.
There should be at least 20 references and people have to go and actually see the work that was done.
"People will spend a lot of time checking out a new car for $30,000, but will hand over $100,000 for a reno no problem," Mr. Holmes says.
As well, the initial price tag for the Carters' job was $26,000, far too low, and another red flag, Mr. Holmes says. Eventually, they were charged $38,000 to cover extras.
When the city building inspector refused to approve the job until the stucco wall was fixed, the Carters withheld some of the final payment and are now being sued by the contractor. Mr. Holmes has agreed to be a witness in court if needed.
Even if you spend big bucks for a contractor, that's still no guarantee, Mr. Holmes says.
"What you often get with a big company is that they hire on a lot of subcontractors and my feeling is that a lot of those people aren't professional enough to run their own top-quality business," Mr. Holmes says.
In fact, there's no end of bad practices and no end of advice from Mr. Holmes. You can read some of it by logging onto the show's Web site, http://www.holmesonhomes.com, which provides standard answers for often-raised questions, as well as a forum for disgruntled homeowners to commiserate. People can also submit their renovation horror stories to the show to be considered for an on-air profile.
In future, Mr. Holmes is planning to write a book and produce how-to videos for the home market if the show takes off. Further down the road, Mr. McNeil says, he's also contemplating building houses that would be guaranteed to not only meet the building code, but be the best-built home available, Holmes-certified, if you will.
But first, Mr. Holmes and Mr. McNeil, who are co-partners in Make It Right Productions Inc., which owns and produces Holmes on Homes, are hoping for international distribution, especially into the United States.
"We've also been told there's a potentially big market in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Spain. There are the same problems everywhere and with Canada's high standards, we could preach to the world," Mr. McNeil says.
So busy is Mr. Holmes with his television career, in fact, that he hardly has time to renovate off-air any more.
He's maintaining the business, though, partly to keep his two full-time guys employed, and partly to keep his hand in.
"Being hands-on, transforming someone's house into their dream home, that's my first love," Mr. Holmes says.
Even if he has to relinquish his hammer and nails to some extent, can he count on his own three teenage children to follow the family tradition?
"No, none of them shows any interest, and you can't force something like that," Mr. Holmes says. "Years from now, I guess I'm destined to be the dad who fixes things."