Mike Holmes shares expert home maintenance tips in 'The Holmes Manual'

I was hoping he'd do something like this. I'll have to watch Costco for it.

Biggest investment you'll ever make - now with an owners manual!

Although I have a great deal of respect for the ideology behind Mike's work...don't take his book (or shows, for that matter) as gospel.

Please, do your own due diligence.

As you should with anything, but the guys that do that work for a living know some darned good tricks.

Between Mike Holmes and my dad, I've learned a TON over the years!

As much as Mike Holmes knows the one thing I respect him for is always bringing in the proper trades to do the job. That is the one major failing of hiring someone to do a complete renovation and then letting him have complete control.

When I got out of the Navy I worked with a friend who had a reno business and we always told the homeowners that if there was any electrical or plumbing work we would be bringing in the appropriate tradesman. It saved us alot of headaches and stress knowing that it was their ticket and insurance that covered any problems not my buddies.

But, as amazing as this sounds we also lost alot of contracts because of the cost of having the right people. A surprising number of homeowners wouldn't want to pay tradesmen rates and wanted us to do the electrical and plumbing, so for Mike Holmes to blame contractors for "all" the homes problems is disingenuous since half of the problem might just have been the homeowners penny pinching by finding a sleazy contractor who was willing to do every trade on the cheap with untrained, unqualified people and then being shocked when the reno went south.

But if this is just maintenance tips then great, it may save the homeowners some headaches and cost by showing them how simple it is to maintain your home rather than paying for major repairs later on. I do know that he's had a column in one of the Vancouver papers for the past couple of months and was unpleasantly surprised to see that he had an article on Gardening.

Maybe he should stick to what he knows and just like he preaches start letting the experts do the job.

Best two Mike Holmes tips of all time:

1) Don't do it yourself
2) Hire someone who actually knows what they're doing.

Would have saved me a lot of grief over the years if I'd listened to him. If I could relive my youth all over again I would have taken as many shop and carpentry classes as possible back in high school just to pick up the common sense basics. Probably wouldn't feel like such an idiot today every time I try my hand at anything involving tools.

Had to fix your first point. Mike doesn't want anyone to do things themselves because it would mean less work for him. A lot of his shows are known for NEEDLESS expense, but it's way easier to replace rather than repair.

On the flip side, I've helped friends over the years with repairs and renos, and these friends shouldn't even own a hammer because they didn't know how to use it.

I find a balance between Mike's advice and that of Clint Eastwood:

A man's got to know his limitations.

Meaning there's a lot of things around the house I'll take on and some of them I do very well. Then there's other things that are over my head and I'm the first to admit it. Where other guys get tangled up is on knowing their limitations.

Contextually, I'm also frugal.

Because it's cheaper to spend $5,000 on someone else to do a job than it is for me to spend $4,000 to try to do it myself and then have to spend $5,000 anyway for someone else to fix what I messed up.

I don't replace windows, for that I pay someone else.



We call that cheap up here.

If you don't mind me asking...why?

I have always found windows and doors to be one of the easier DIY projects.

I always wondered about who picks up the tab for one of Holmes' renos. Is it the insurance company or have the owners successfully sued the previous owner/realtor/inspector for selling them a place that turned out to be either a money pit or a death trap? I can easily see a lot of those homeowners having to sell the place just to cover the bill for the work Holmes and his subbies end up having to do.

For Holmes on Homes:

We call that cheap up here.

It's both frugal and cheaper to do it right the first time.

If you don't mind me asking...why?

I have always found windows and doors to be one of the easier DIY projects.

I think it has something to do with the sheer cost of replacement windows and if I fuck up and break one I eat the cost. If the professional installers break it, they eat it.

I have actually replaced smaller windows, like basement windows, but big bay windows I'll pay someone to do that. One advantage I have is that I'm friends with a number of tradesmen and for things like electrical and plumbing I invite them over to inspect my work before calling it complete.