Michael Holmes (politician)

Transcription

Tina Srebotnjak: So let's get started and I'll turn things over to our host for this evening, Global Morning Show co-host, Liza Fromer. [applause] Liza Fromer : Thank you so much, I really don't think I have that much to say to introduce your featured guest tonight. This is his fifth book, they have all, by the way, been best sellers. He first went on the air in 2003 and has since become one of the most trusted, most well-known, most sought after, I'm sure everywhere he goes, guy in the country, please welcome, the author of "The Holmes Manual," Mike Holmes. [applause] LF: I'm here, you're there. Mike Holmes: Okay, there's no stairs on this side. [laughter] MH: We'll make that right. LF: Thanks everybody for being here. There we go. Trademark. [laughter] So, Mike, I wanted to start with this. So this is "The Holmes Manual," answering your most common questions. So after all this time, '03 is when you started, and here we are in '14, these simple questions still need answering, what's going on out there? MH: Yeah, I thought that after all of these years, I said right away, this is gonna work, everyone's gonna pay attention, we're gonna build better, we're gonna build smarter, all contractors are gonna smarten up. Well, that didn't happen. Truth is, by getting to the public, it was the public that started to create demand, you, it was the public that started to say, "I want a better home, I want a better contractor," but it's slowly getting better. Why hasn't that happened overnight? How many times... Alright, has everyone seen my show, put your hand up. Alright who hasn't seen my show, put your hand up. [laughter] LF: You're being charged double. MH: Who the hell are you people? Okay, how many times have you seen me remove mold, how many? Countless. This means that each and every house out there has mold, the question is how much, and it's only because of our building technology, thank you, that we are growing mold. So I'll make it really quick. Mold needs two food groups, it needs moisture, which if you notice, Liza just poured me a glass of water and it's already condensating on the outside. Did you notice that? That's because hots meeting cold and it's creating condensation instantly. That's the first food group of mold, and that's in the wall cavity. MH: The second food group of mold is organic, much like our bodies are organic, that's the paper on the drywall, the lumber inside the walls. So if we have that in our outside cavity, in other words our outside structure, organic, and then we allow hot to meet cold, we have moisture, means automatically, you're gonna mold. That's because our technology has changed over the last 30, 40 years in code as we try to make our houses more airtight, more energy efficient. MH: We failed the system, we haven't learned from this, and we haven't changed. As a matter of fact, I just sent my son into college last year, 'cause he wanted to, to become a licensed carpenter. And he did his first year, he did really well, as a matter of fact he probably taught the teacher a few things, and I'm not kidding you, and I won't get into it, it doesn't matter what he did. The point is he's teaching minimum code to my son, and my son started questioning, saying, "But that's not... " He knows that's not the way we do it on television and how I'm teaching him. MH: So that... My whole point to that is we haven't changed our education in college, in university, in the trades. That's a problem for me, that's a big problem for me. I'm the Ambassador to World Skills, who has heard of World Skills? That's not enough people. [laughter] MH: That's the Olympics of the trades, going for gold, silver, and bronze, and 60 countries participate with over 1,000 competitors, and it's from around the world. Why isn't it on television? That's why only two people put up their hands. I'm also the ambassador to Skills Canada, because I want to make a difference in the trades. We're gonna see the changes, we gotta keep pushing it, encourage our kids to get into it, if you noticed, and I don't mean to take over this conversation, but if you've noticed... I tend to do that. LF: Make my job easy. [laughter] MH: If you've noticed, years ago... I'll tell you a quick little story, I was at this fire hall, and with my buddy, I was single at the time, I got divorced, and life happened, and my buddy says, "Oh, you gotta come out, come on." I'm like, "Oh, I'm busy I have work 17 hours a day." "No you gotta come out. I'm going to this fire hall event where the firefighters walk on stage to crazy freakin' women out there, all dressed up, take their shirts off, screaming, yelling women." What is it with guys in fire clothes? MH: Anyhow, I go. I dress up in a suit and tie and I looked really fancy, and the whole time I was there, I had so many women come up to me going, "And what fire hall are you from?" And I said, I'm an honest guy, I said, "I'm a contractor." And they turned and walked away like I was a piece of dirt. So years later, now that this show's come out and everything, we're starting to see a change in the trades, and it's cool to be in the trades, yes? S?: Yes. LF: Oh, well here's the funny thing, a girlfriend of mine got married a few years back, and she married a contractor, and she was already in her late 30s, and I said, "Isn't it funny how in our 20s, we wanted to date rock stars, and now in our 30s and 40s the rock stars are contractors? You can fix something in my house? MH: Oh my God, he can sing and he can cut wood! [laughter] LF: I know, it's like, "You're mine." So how many people know how Mike got into the business? Do you know how he got on to TV at all? Okay, good. Let's talk about that for a minute. So, way back, I said your first show aired in '03, but you started shooting in '01, or this all started to come together, but you didn't intend to be on TV. MH: No. Actually, no. I've always been a contractor all my life. I was doing this even from a kid. My dad was a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I didn't understand that till I got older. It means you know a little about a lot, but really nothing about anything. [laughter] MH: But I was glued to him. I wanted to learn and I did. I finished my first basement at 12. But I'll tell you, years in, I was running a big company when I was 19, they hired me under contract to run a very large company, actually. I had long, blond hair, I'm a Leo, I guess I thought I was 40 or something, but I did what I do. MH: Anyhow, I was probably 35 years old, I think I was 35 years old when I met this guy at HGTV, and he asked me to build him a custom straw and bale home. I got to know him a lot and he kind of got on my nerves because he wasn't listening to me, right? He wouldn't comprehend what I was trying to tell him. Meanwhile, I was comprehending that he wanted a Fred Flintstone home. If you understand straw bale, we're gonna do a lime parts on the outside, it looks very much like a Rubble home. MH: I liked that he was thinking environmental. Because I'm in his office going over the plans, at the time, he wasnt' listening. I got a little excited. I said, "Do you know what? I don't like the shows on your channel." Am I honest? You know, me, right? I said, "You're not educating people properly. Every show I'm watching, I can tell there's no permits, and every single one of them, these guys don't know what they're talking about. What is this, some kind of like camera stuff that you're trying to fluff everything?" And I said, "I'm surprised you haven't been sued." MH: So I went off for about 30 minutes straight, and I didn't realize that. I looked at my watch and it's a big watch, and I said, "Man, I've got diarrhoea of the mouth. I'd better shut up. And I gotta go." 'Cause he's looking at me really strange. He didn't say one word in 30 minutes. By the time I got up, he said, "Mike, I want a pilot right away." And I laughed my head off because I knew what a pilot was 'cause I got to know the guy. And I said, "No, I'm a contractor, I'm giving you an idea. You run with it." MH: For months, he bothered me. One day, he said to me, "I noticed you like to teach one family at a time." And I said, "That's exactly what this is about, education." And he said, "How would you like to teach everyone at once?" And I said, "You son of a brother." [laughter] MH: "Okay. I own the show or I'm not doing it." I started, "This is what I want, pom, pom, pom, we'll try it." And we handed in on 2011, you're not gonna for... 2001, September 11th, dated on the pilot. I handed it in the morning, within 30 minutes, the plane hit the tower. And I realized that day, like everyone was glued to the TV, that, "Wow, you're right, we're not gonna have a show, but it's okay, because this is what I do." We end up having a show that went right around the world, which was quite the phenomenon. LF: No kidding. That's unbelievable. So, that was that long ago, and here you are today. What still surprises you? MH: I'm still surprised that we are in a hurry. I'm still surprised that we're not truly paying attention. You watch the show, you don't wanna get in trouble. Let me tell you something, I receive 100,000 emails a year from the GTA. Every year. This has been nonstop. I film 12 months of the year, three jobs at a time, and every year, I've got families begging for my help. The hardest part I've ever had was that I can't help everyone. That's the hardest thing on me, and I gotta sleep with this. But I can't. So I try to help those who I can, and educate you by watching. And you would think, much like... You'd think it doesn't happen to you, but when it happens to you, it will change your life forever. MH: Right now, I'm filming a show in Pickering, and both husband and wife are police officers. He's on the SWAT team, task force, and she's a wonderful female cop. And the two of them got taken by this contractor who was a friend of the family, a friend of the neighbourhood. Not only did he screw their house, after they gave him $300,000. LF: Oh! MH: See, he, actually, was able to swindle $15,000,000 from 35 families in the neighbourhood. He got caught by playing with the police. They went after him, and he pulled out a gun and blew his brains out, after taking $15,000,000. I have never, in my life, heard someone take that amount of money from all these people. So my point to that is, Why do we continue to do this and not learn from our mistakes? Why do we continuously say, "Okay, I've watched the show 100 times, I think I can hire the right guy," and then you don't. And then you try and email me and I can't help you. MH: This has gotta stop. We need... And it's not your fault. This is the fault of our system. There are no consequences. This means that if you go to the store and steal a pack of gum, you can, and probably will go to jail, especially if you have a track record of stealing gum. But if you rip someone off for 300,000, for 50,000, for 10,000, for 1,000,000, you've gotta prove it in court because the fraud law is really defined that as long as the contractor has done something in your house, something, that he cannot be charged with fraud, which means he will not go to jail. So we gotta do something about this because as far as I'm concerned, these guys gotta go to jail. Period. [applause] LF: What I really love about this book is that there are... There's something for everyone and that for me, I couldn't be more at the basic end of what I need to do around the house, but it still speaks to me, this book. For instance, just something we were talking about in the green room, as simple as changing your furnace... S?: Filter. LF: Filter. S?: Thank you. LF: See, the early ant. [chuckle] But I'm not going to be doing it every month, and I'm going to buy 3M. MH: Now, we did talk about this, and what did I say? What did you learn from me? LF: What you said was if I change it every month on the first day of the month, I will have much less dust in my house, and it will just keep a furnace running, which is so expensive, that much longer, because the motor won't be suffocated. MH: Right, now think about that. The filter on your furnace is the lungs. It is the actual cloth that will clean the air inside your home. You have two choices, the HVAC, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning of your home, is the lungs of your home, just like the lungs of your body. Now, this will get full of the skin, which is dust, mainly your skin, throughout the house. That is the duct work. How about if you got a pet, pet dander, hair. How about your hair. How about, let's see, anything of contaminates inside the home that you cannot see? The more you change your filter, the better it is that your lungs are not cleaning the air. MH: I can't say this enough. We waste money on coffee every day going to Tim Horton's, which I happen to love Tim Horton's, but I don't want to stand in the line or wait in the line. I have no patience for that, which a lot of people do, surprisingly. Not wanting to wait for the right contractor but yet they wait in line for coffee. I'm trying to put it together. So by putting in a new filter... And 3M does have the best filter, they do not pay me to say that, it is the one that has been proven to me. By doing this, you are going to keep your kids healthy. It is going to be clean indoor air environment in your home, and less dust. MH: The other thing to that, that you've noticed is if you wear a mask, everyone has had a mask in construction... Tell them I'll call them back, if you don't mind. If you wear a mask in construction, you're working in an area that you've taken down walls, that mask starts to get really dirty on the outside because you're not breathing it in, so what happens is you start to breathe less because it's being muffled, right? Your furnace is the same way. If your filter starts to get caked up, and it doesn't take long, it starts to choke off the motor, and the motor now is running harder. So the more you change your filter, you clean the air and the motor runs freely, simple as that. One aspect of your home. LF: So, I bought a house about a year and a bit ago and before I bought it, I had an inspection, but it would never occur to me to have an inspection done ever again. And now what I concentrate on is I want to make my bathroom prettier. I want to make my kitchen better. And that's fine, but what I've heard you say before is you've got to still focus on the bones of your house. MH: Yeah, we're, again, creatures of habit. Everyone that intends to buy a home, the first thing they see is the kitchen, the bathroom, the paint, the floor. In other words, the finish, the icing on the cake inside. So you're looking at it and saying, "Okay, it's time for new bathroom. Let's do a new bathroom." We tend not to pay attention from the outside. So first, may I say, spend your money right. Protect your investment from the outside, you'll never have to replace the inside. Keep an eye on the roof, better yet, do a metal roof. I want to see a steel roof on your home because asphalt is not friendly to the environment. It's an oil-based product. It will burn like a mold. Let me tell you something, when a fire starts next door, embers flash over, land on your roof. It's like gasoline, burns from the top down. MH: Why do you think housing, new housing, especially when they start fire, it's from the shingles, because it's one of the first things they do on the outside before the brick, right? So use a metal roof. If we pay attention to the windows, to the doors, our performance of the home is better, so we're not... And remember, no builder out there is going to put on the best roof. They're going to claim it, "Oh we use 30 years crap shingles." They do, because they never last 30 years, and I'm sorry I almost swore. I am a contractor, and there's young people here... [chuckle] MH: But it's not a friendly product. So I want you to pay attention from the outside, because if you do... Put it this way. If you put in a new kitchen, you finish your basement, put in a new bathroom, that's in the area of about $100,000 minimum to do all three, but you didn't protect it from the outside and then you have a massive flood, because that's when we pay attention to the roof, is when rain comes in, right? That's the only time you call a roofer. The only time you call an HVAC specialist about your air conditioner is when it's 4000° outside and it breaks down, right? Your furnace is the same thing for the winter. MH: We need to pay attention to this and work. Like your child will tell you, "I have a sore stomach, mom," and you will give you baby whatever you need because you hear it. Now you know, your house is always talking to you but you're not paying attention. We all work by visual. "Oh, we need to paint the house." Start from the outside and work your way in. Don't do it from the inside out because you're gonna waste your money every time. LF: So inspections once a year or... MH: You don't have to do home inspections once a year. What I would say is I've created a system called Test & Troubleshoot. So the Test & Troubleshoot is really simple for you to do. You go to makeitright.ca, you call up my electricians, my plumbers, my HVAC guys. I don't make money on this. I wanted something to help you. This means if there's something wrong or you feel there's something wrong with your electrical, you do a Test & Troubleshoot. They'll tell you everything that's wrong with the electrical and how much it's gonna cost to fix. Same goes for the plumbing, same goes for the heating and ventilation. And I wanted it more for people that were buying a house and have a peace of mind. Because you don't know if this is all good. We just know how good it looks, right? And I can make the cake look really good, but I can tell you, it can taste like crap. [chuckle] LF: Alright, I'm gonna ask you one more question, that's personal, from my house, and then we're gonna open it up to all of you guys. And if you have some questions, I was saying to Mike, I assume that he's just like a doctor, when you walk into a room there's like, "I got this thing, can you tell me how to fix it?" MH: My elbow! LF: I know exactly. [chuckle] MH: You can do that, right? LF: In my case, it's my windows, and I have glass in the doors and then, of course, windows, and they were... I can only describe it as weeping all fall like water, like it's... So doing that exactly all the time. What is that? MH: How old's your house? LF: It's not that... It's recently been totally redone in the past five years, I wanna say? MH: So is it a new house, or is it a renovated house? LF: It was gutted. MH: How old's the house? [chuckle] LF: Older than five years probably. It's in an older neighbourhood, it'll be like... MH: This is wonderful, she bought a house she doesn't know how old it is. [laughter] MH: Is it 50 years is it 10 years? LF: Well now, I'm just gonna say yes. MH: Sort of fairly new... Where do you live? LF: Bathers and St. Clair, so it's an older neighbourhood. MH: So it's a older home? LF: Yeah. MH: Been renovated? LF: Yes. MH: Okay, that's totally different. That tells me many things. If you read the book, the book was designed really for... [laughter] LF: Is this gonna turn into a full self-help for me for the rest of the night? MH: The book was designed to answer your questions, and that's exactly what Liza is trying to get to, an answer to her questions. "Why are my windows condensating on the inside of her home?" Now, this is one of the many reasons or possibilities, so I have to start with questions. How old's the house? It's been renovated. Next question, do you have curtains on your windows? LF: No. MH: No curtains. Do you have blinds? LF: Yes, upstairs, and then in the doors there's nothing. MH: Okay, so is there any windows that condensate that you never close the blinds and the windows? LF: Yes. MH: And they still condensate? LF: Yes. S1: Okay. Now, what about your furnace? How old's your furnace? LF: Not very old. MH: Not very, so it's new? Part of the renovation? [laughter] LF: It's just lying right now. MH: She doesn't know how... LF: No, it's not very old. MH: You're assuming it's not very old. Okay, now you know the air return in your home? LF: Yes. MH: Do you have an air return? LF: Yes. [laughter] LF: They're taping this, for God's sake. It' gonna go on a website. MH: You... In order for me to give you the answer, I have to ask you questions. LF: Yes. MH: It does the same thing. You can't block your registers, you can't block your air return. Once again, it's the lungs of your home. If you don't have cycling air inside your home, they'll condensate. Now, I'm gonna guarantee they only condensate in the winter, not the summer. LF: Correct. MH: Okay. This means we have one of a few issues, possibilities. We have improper air flow, so I would recommend you bring in a HVAC specialist and balance the air in your home. LF: Okay. LF: They'll go to each and every register, give the proper amount of CFMs, cubic feet per minute, coming out of your forced air. The same amount that comes out needs to be pulled back in the air return. Because if you look at a bottle, let's get a plastic bottle of pop, blow in it. You can't, can you? Punch a hole in the bottom, you create cycle. That's the same thing about your home, it needs to cycle the air. So, don't block the registers, don't block the air return, make sure there's no cabinets in front, don't block the windows, because you could close it up with curtains, hot air is on the inside, cold on the outside, hot meets cold, condensation. Did I help you? LF: Yes, who wants to go next? [laughter] LF: Dare you, dare you. Okay, there's a microphone back there, so if you don't mind, just... I know it's a whole thing. MH: Now let's... I want to get to know everybody, so please tell me your name first. What's your name? S?: My name is Spring. MH: Spring? S?: Yes. LF: Oh, we're right in the... You came! S?: I'm in season. [chuckle] LF: Yeah, welcome, Spring. S?: Thank you. I live up in Aurelia, and I live in a house that was about built in 1895. MH: An old home? S?: Really old home. My question to you is: This last winter has been very severe, and I've had ice and snow fall off my roof and hit my daughter's car twice, [chuckle] so I don't have any holes drilled in my... MH: Soffit. S?: Right. Do I have to put baffles in the attic or can I just drill holes in my soffits? MH: Again, are you wanting to do this yourself by chance? S?: No, but I wanna be able to tell somebody how to do it. [chuckle] MH: Okay, this is more of the reason you need this book. This is gonna take me a little bit to talk to you about this. One, your house is very old. S?: Yes. MH: And because of the age of the home at that time, it was a closed soffit, so it was all plywood. S?: Yes. MH: So it didn't really breathe. And I'm gonna also bet that you have gable vents, meaning here's your roof, this is your gable, this is your gable, so both sides of the peak are your gables. S?: Yep. MH: Understand, everyone, understand? S?: Yep. MH: There's usually vents in the gables that allowed air flow through the attic. Okay, that worked really well years ago, because there wasn't a lot of insulation in the home. As a matter of fact, there was none. If you've noticed them, when I take them apart there's newspaper as insulation, which actually worked, by the way, folks. Now, the gables worked well, but then all of sudden years later, let me guess, somebody came in and did a little bit of aluminum covering on the soffit, right? S?: Yes, they did. MH: And they guaranteed, "We're gonna drill holes in the soffit to let it breathe." I have on all my experience opened up any old home that has a metal soffit now, only one of them they actually drilled holes in the soffit, the rest of them they didn't do anything. This was one of those things, remember man, people wanna make money and they do the work quick. If it takes them time, they don't make enough money, so they'll cut corners, they can, which is shameful. So, your attic's not breathing properly, which causes an awful lot of issues. And it's an old home, which means you had a lot of hot air escape through the ceiling into the attic. So now we have hot meeting cold... S?: Condensation. MH: Condensation. That's gonna form on the inside of your sheathing. And because it's old wood, I'm trying not to confuse anyone, old wood is heartwood. Young wood is sapwood. Sapwood, which is just freshly grown trees, will mold like crazy. Absolutely crazy. Heartwood actually resists bugs, moisture, mold, fungi. Your house is made with heartwood. S?: It's very hard, all the wood. MH: Heart. 24:26 S?: Yeah, I know, but the wood's hard. I don't see any... 24:30 MH: Also very dry. 24:30 S?: Yes, it is. MH: Also very dry, but not your attic space. So, the reason you're getting the ice dams and so much snow, this winter is an exceptional, which I need to get into, is because you have that hot air escaping up into the attic. You have it melting now, because it's reaching the underside of the sheathing. It's melting, coming down to the soffit, which now, soffit... Fascia faces you. That's where your eavestrough. Soffit. Fascia, right? MH: So what happens is, once it comes down to here, this is a freezing cold zone. Cold air coming in, there's no heat escaping from inside the house. It's on the outside. It freezes instantly. When it freezes, it starts to build its way back up underneath the shingles and can cause one large amount of damage. S?: It did. MH: Water back inside the home. Huge icicles coming off the roof, smashing into, well, people and cars, etcetera. Now, how do you stop this? Well, you really want to make sure you stop all heat loss from your house into your attic space. Think of your bed. If we're sleeping in the middle of winter with a sheet, you are going to shiver. If you put on a down-filled comforter, you are going to be warm. Same as the insulation in your attic. MH: Minimum code gives you about 12 to 14 inches. Put in an R50. Get it up to about this much. It must be a loose fill and not a packed fill. It doesn't work if it's tight. Only loose, like down-filled comforter. Stops the heat loss from getting into the attic. Now, the other part about this, is this winter, we had a phenomenal amount of snow, and three months of freezing cold temperatures, which I never want to see again. [laughter] MH: Because I work in this. I'm fixing people's houses in this. So this causes other issues. Our vents on our roof are how far off the roof? About that much, right? That little box that allows your roof to breathe. Air in the soffit coming out the roof ends, or a ridge vent which is the top of your roof. That's the ridge. If you have a ridge vent, it escapes there. Now, if you fill your roof full of snow, what's happening? It can't breathe. So that means it's not escaping and we got even more of a problem. MH: On the market now, we have new roof vents that are tall, that will exceed the snow level. We need to start paying attention to this. It has nothing to do with minimum code, it is not taught in school. These are things that we learn as we go and what we need to really look at. So when do I gotta come to your house? [laughter] S?: Whenever you can. [laughter] LF: Did that help? MH: Do you understand? S?: I just need to know, do I have to drill holes in my soffit still? MH: What you need to do... [laughter] S?: Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah? MH: I want you to go to my website, makeitright.ca. Once you get a hold of Better Contracting, the guys you see, my roofers, Steve Graves, for years I've had him. Ask him to come to your house and do an inspection and tell you what you need, okay? 'Cause unless I actually see your house, I'm gonna speculate, you need holes in your soffit, you need baffles in your rafters, you need more insulation, and you need better roof vents. That means you need my roofer. S?: Okay. MH: Thank you. LF: There you go. MH: Thank you. LF: Welcome. MH: Please tell me your name. S?: Hi, I'm Anne Breeze and this is Theadora. I'm wondering... You were mentioning that you were involved with an event that looked at contractors globally competing. And I was wondering how Canada fairs in terms of the construction, in terms of our codes, in terms of the technology that we use. MH: Okay, you're gonna be really happy because at the beginning of all this, I knew that there was gonna be a lot of people that wanted me to build houses, that wanted me to help them outside the television. As a matter of fact, from Ireland, even stars from around the world want me to fix their houses. Carmen Electra just asked recently. Gene Simmons from Kiss. Tom Hanks got screwed by a contractor, "Holmes, can you come help me." But I didn't do that because I'm helping people that need my help. Not rich people that can actually pay someone else to make it right. But I needed to make a change so I started Mike Holmes Inspections. MH: And Mike Holmes Inspections was not just to inspect homes. It was the gravy line that would keep or sustain the company. And I'll tell you, I found the best home inspectors in the country. I re-certified them my way. Taught them what I wanted, made sure they had an L1 or a level one of IR, infrared, so they could use that camera you see me use. And that shows temperatures on how your home is performing. That company was solely designed to oversee Holmes' Approved Homes at Holmes Communities. MH: Right now, from Vancouver to Ottawa, we are building the greenest and best homes with my minimum code that I'm not building. That I found the best builders in Canada want to build to my levels. That want to build to my minimum code, where Mike Holmes Inspections oversees it, documents it, takes six different levels of pictures. And you get a package of how your house was built, with the products that make it smarter. Air renewed dry wall, which absorbs VOCs, and is mold-resistant. So how would you like a home that won't mold, that won't burn, that won't fall down, that won't blow down, like the three little pigs. That's about $10,000 more, would you like that? S?: Mm-hmm. MH: Instead of putting $10,000 into upgrading kitchen cabinets? Or 20,000 in flowing? What's your name? In the black shirt. Third row back. No, but I talked about kitchen cabinets and you went... [laughter] MH: Did you do that? [background conversation] [laughter] MH: I don't mean to embarrass you. We're friends here. I'm gonna buy everyone a beer after this. [laughter] LF: Whoa! Things got interesting. MH: Does that help? [background conversation] MH: Okay then. [laughter] S?: Not at all. I was asking internationally, like Canada's homes versus other countries in the world... MH: Are we better? S?: So are we better? Where's our technology? What's... About the skill of our craftsmen? The sort of the technology we have. MH: You know what, Canada's right up there. I'm gonna have to say Canada's right up there, but there's no difference from Canada to around the world. We're all doing the same things. I'm seeing it in the UK. I'm seeing it in Germany. I'm seeing it in the United States that we're still building to make money and not building... See, when I speak to world skills, and I talk about the next generation skilled trades and the colleges, at all the events that I do, I say to them, "If you get in a trade, you have an opportunity to make money," and that really excites the young. "So you wanna make money?" "Yes, I wanna make money." "So why did you get in to this?" "I wanna make money." But you can never succeed in the desire to make money. You have to have the desire to do it right, and then money follows. MH: So until we do that, Canada is superior in building. United States would argue with that one. They would, because they think they do everything better than us and it's a shame, because all they do is watch American television and don't even understand Canada. They think we're still way up north, where our weather is a little warmer. Now, I love the States, don't get me wrong. So this is the same around. No matter what, until we, the people, start to push other people and say, "We want to build smarter and more environmentally friendly," then we're gonna see change and that's just beginning. S?: Thank you. MH: Thank you. S?: I'm Stephanie. MH: Hi, Stephanie. S?: Little short. So don't worry. I'm a renter. So I'm not gonna ask you to fix my house. MH: You're still probably living in crap, but go ahead. [laughter] S?: Well, yes. I think we have termites, but I rent. So it's good, but I was wondering... [chuckle] MH: Good thing is they won't eat your clothes. May possibly take apart your couch. S?: Well, I was gonna ask that, so if we move, do we need to treat our furniture or are we gonna take... MH: No, no. Look, where do termites come from? Do you know? S?: Little things that grow on my ceiling. It's kinda gross actually. MH: You have termites, my dear. S1: Okay. MH: Okay, so yeah, I want you to phone the owner and I want you to... S?: They live downstairs. They know already. [laughter] S?: Wait, they've already had the house treated once. MH: Sorry? S?: They've already had the house treated once. MH: Yeah, and you still have them? S1: It was a few years ago, so yes. So didn't go... MH: This means... And this kinda bothers me because we have designated areas in the city that have termites. That's just does. Now, it's because termites come from the ground, so code, years ago, said, "No wood can touch grade." This is why the new rules came out that our foundation had to be a minimum of 8 inches off the ground off grade, then brick and/or siding, whatever, because it's cladding. We used to build with brick and it was structured. Now, it's just the cladding. The idea is that the termites won't come out of the ground into the wood 'cause they'll get right into the wood and then work their way in. They won't get into your furniture unless you are so infested and they've eaten the rest of the house, which clearly you'd be in the basement with the owners at that time. [laughter] S?: They live below us, so we get a cushion. MH: Yeah, well they're in trouble. Let me tell you, don't tell them to call me. [laughter] S?: No, they're gonna call the guy that... MH: Where do you live? S?: I live in Church and Wellesley. MH: Okay, this is an area that has a lot of termites. Any of the older areas... LF: No, thank you. Pass. [laughter] MH: You live in an older area. LF: No. MH: You just Google, "Where are termites in Toronto?" and you'll see it. And I bet you they're round your place. LF: Right. I know they're in Little Italy as well. MH: Yes. And the beaches, full in the beaches. And everyone wants to spend one to 10 million dollars on a house in the beaches, and then 1-800-Got-Mike, "Hey, can you come pull up my... " [chuckle] So unless the house is infested, it won't get in your furniture. But really encourage the home owners to pay attention to this because if they know there's termites, they can't sell the house without declaring it. If they did and the next owners find out there's termites and they didn't disclose it, they could be sued and they will be in trouble. So they should pay attention to this and make sure they try to get rid of the termites. S?: Thankfully we just found the first one or the indication just Friday. MH: If you see them coming out of your ceiling, you've got a lot of termites. What happens is, they'll find a hole, and that's their path. They make a path just like ants. They're identical to ants, only they're tiny little worms. And they'll make that path and they literally can keep going in that path and then they find a hole and then they wanna make more of a path, so they literally, out of the wood, they make a path hanging down that looks like a huge thing hanging off your ceiling, right? And eventually if you keep it there, it will come down and touch the floor, or across to the bathroom, they'll use your toilet, they'll go... [laughter] MH: I'm exaggerating, but you understand what I'm saying? S?: Yeah, I'll get them to call right away. MH: Thank you. S?: Thank you. LF: Good luck with it. Good luck with it. MH: Have we learned anything? S?: Yeah! LF: Don't get termites. MH: Okay, what's your name sir? S?: Hi Mike, my name's Larry. On your show, you're constantly showing people things that are not done to code and not done properly and you're saying your son in college is being taught minimum code, like meeting the kind of the lowest possible qualification on air. You do things, I understand, beyond code. MH: Yes. 36:04 S?: You wanna do it right, and I think all of us, socially, we'd like to have things always done right, have to be done right. To what extent do codes need to be really revamped and improved? To what extent do we need maybe more and better regulations, and what sort of materials, licensing... I don't know what it is to make us have a Mike Holmes world. But we need better... MH: I really like you. [laughter] S?: Regulations, and is anybody working on the political lobbying to make that happen? MH: Okay, thank you. This is what I wanna hear. That's a fabulous question. Now, can we actually change minimum code? Should we change minimum code? The answer is no. We need to change smart things, fire regulations, should we put indoor sprinklers inside homes? I'm against it, because more morons are gonna have more water inside your home than I'm trying to keep out. Let's build it so it won't burn, that makes sense to me, but there are aspects of what we should do with fires. MH: Now, this is something that's supposed to be a starting regime. In other words, minimum code is the bare minimum you can build something. So as long as we, the people, do not push the builders, nothing's gonna change. School's not gonna change, your new homes are not gonna change. They're still gonna mold, they're still gonna be built like crap, but they're gonna look good. That's exactly what they're doing, they're making crap look good. Doesn't smell good, but it looks good. MH: It isn't about changing code. It's about changing what we want. It's about... We're big now on the environment, why have we pushed that? I'd rather see a push in environmental, on your home, which will benefit you. Now, that's a code I wanna see changed. That makes sense to me. Using smarter products, building it a little bit better for the environment, which helps you, living inside it, and our planet. MH: What we need to do, and I've talked to Stephen Harper many times, actually. I talked to the government, I talked to many different aspects, the colleges, the universities, the teachers. We need to teach the young, the next generation, to build smarter. So, it isn't about... Okay, I still wanna teach my son, "Okay, Mike, this is minimum code, but let me teach you why we should do this." And all of a sudden, he goes to school and tells the teacher, "No, we shouldn't be doing that, we should be doing this," and the teacher goes, "Ahem, listen. Sit down." 'Cause he doesn't wanna be told what to do. But Mike was right. He's trying to teach the teacher what he's learned from me, that we need to build, and teach to do it smarter. MH: So, how do we fix that? We can't change minimum code. Minimum code is about the minimum. All we need to do is teach better, that's what we need to do. If we teach theory, and I can make this really simple, if I wrap your body in plastic, I punch two holes in your nose... I'm teaching you theory right now. I punch one hole in your mouth, will you live? LF: Yes. MH: You will die a miserable death. Why? LF: The rest of your skin can't breathe? MH: Your breathing... I'm sorry? LF: I don't know. MH: You just said it. LF: The rest of your skin can't breathe. MH: Correct. You're organic. Your skin needs to breathe. You will die from the skin in. Yet you're breathing. Your house is the same thing. If we try to make it air tight and wrap it, and it can't breathe, it will die. So, we teach theory. We start to teach smarter, and people start to respond. They start to understand, "No, we shouldn't do that, we should do this." Still have the bare minimum, but don't build to it. Let's brag about it and built better, that's what we need to do. LF: Thank you for the question. MH: Yes. S?: Hi, Mike, my name is Dino. MH: Dino? S?: Dino, yep. My question's kind of similar, but a bit different. I think us consumers, we wanna do the right thing and buy right, the problem is that the Toronto real estate market's just crazy, and there's like multiple bids and we're not always in a position to make the right choices when you buy new homes, and so I think when people go, they try to buy pre-construction, because they know what price is being offered. But the problem is that the builders have so much power in the contracts, and I remember you doing an episode... MH: Do you know the builders actually dictate minimum code? S?: Yeah. MH: You know that. They control it. Okay, so continue. S?: Yeah, so, I remember you did an episode where you were in these cookie cutter neighbourhoods, and you fixed someone's balcony. MH: Five years old. S?: And you said, "Every house on this street probably has got the same problem." And you were looking at maybe the consumers don't have the right to withhold 10% of the purchase price until after it's done. MH: That's not gonna fix anything. I'm telling you right now. Every developer can... They open up a numbered company, they can close it down just like that developer did. They shut it down, the electrical company went bankrupt and shut it down, the window and door company did the same, and every single one of those houses, the people were screwed. That's not how we fix this. It's you, the people. MH: You people bought it. When you talk about the bidding, the war bids on houses, that's you people. You think I'm gonna stand in line to bid on a piece of crap that I know is a piece of crap? Most of the time the people that win that battle, lose 'cause they need me to come in. Because they like what it looks like! Again, we're doing it by illusion. MH: So, what should we be doing? Don't put an offer on a house unless you're sure. How are you sure? Do you know? You're sure it looks good, but is the house good? A new house is no exception, it's the same thing. That house was five years old, and I could shoot nothing but brand new houses. So, how do we change that one? Brand new houses for a second. Does anyone go up to the developer and/or builder, Mattamy Homes, Green Park. I don't care who they are, right? They all do the same thing, they all build the minimum code. MH: Does anyone go up to them and say, "Hey, do you have any references [chuckle] in the area of building good houses? Because... As a matter of fact, did you build on that block over there? 'Cause I'm gonna go knock on every single one of their doors and ask them if they like the house you built, if they've had any problems and how you responded to it." Does anyone do that? Do they give you a documentation of the piece of crap they built you? MH: No. Because they don't have to. Because we don't request it, because we don't enforce it, we, the people. If you said to builders, "We're not gonna buy that house, we're not gonna buy that condo unless you prove to us you're building smarter and building better," what they do and what you do, and I say "you" as "we", okay? What they do is "What upgrades would you like? The floors, the countertops, the cabinets, the bathrooms? What upgrades would you like?" MH: It's never about a better roof, a steel roof. It's never about "We're gonna do this no matter what, and we're gonna brag about it." You don't even have to ask for that. It's about greener products? No, it's not about that because you're not enforcing it, they're not gonna do it, it's gonna cost them money. Better toilets? That's a joke. We're down to a three-litre flush, you gotta flush 14 times when you do a number two. [laughter] MH: That's a joke. We had a 20-litre flush that took it down the drain like that. Now we got all kinds of crap being stuck in the drains on the street 'cause there's not enough water behind it. We keep screwing the system because we don't understand it. If I tell you about water and how we cycle it, we're not losing water by flushing it down the drain, we're losing it by washing cars and doing things that we don't need to do with it. It doesn't hurt to water our lawns. It's because... MH: Oh my God, I can sit and talk about this for hours. It's up to the people. The best example I can give you that if everyone... Gasoline going up in price and there's a problem in China and all of a sudden gas goes up 10 cents overnight, which is not allowed by the government but they allow it because they get taxes, that's another battle I'm gonna have. If all of us did not buy gasoline for one week, it would drop by 50%. MH: You know that if the whole country said... Put up one finger -- I didn't do this one -- put up one finger and say, "We're not gonna buy gas for seven days," I guarantee gas will drop by 50% 'cause they gotta sell that gas. In other words, it takes the people to make change. And as long we continue buying those houses like that, as long as we continue bidding on those houses like that, we're not gonna make change. S?: You gotta get more people to watch your show, thank you. [chuckle] MH: Thank you. S?: Hi. My name is Angel. MH: Angel? You look like an angel. [chuckle] S?: So I recently bought... Found a affordable old house. I don't want to bid on a pretty house, so I got a home inspector for me. From my review, he's like 10 out of 10, so I got him. MH: Just so we understand, your home inspector said your house is 10 out of 10 and it's an old home? S?: No, I got a home inspector and according to the review, he is 10 out of 10. LF: Oh he got a 10 out of 10, the inspector? His review. MH: Yeah. Well, who would give him a 10 out of 10? [chuckle] MH: What market out there is saying a home inspector's got a 10 out of 10? I don't know anything out there for a home inspector. Okay, continue, please. [chuckle] MH: I need a drink, is there wine here? [laughter] MH: Continue. S?: Okay. So he inspected the house and I said, "Okay, there's an office with basement," which anyone can tell, and then he said, "Otherwise, the house is great." So I bid for the house, I got the house. Then I got contractors coming in to check the water problem, and the contractor told me, "You have foundation issue in the house." I got a second inspection for my homes... MH: Do you have pictures? S?: I got a second inspection for my home, and they confirmed there's a foundation issue. MH: So my inspectors went in? S?: Yes. MH: Do you like my inspectors? S?: They're so very good. MH: Yeah, and no one gives them a 10 out of 10 but me 'cause there is no system out there that gives them a 10 out of 10. So they went in these... They told you, you haven't... Do you have any pictures with you that I can see? S?: Lots of pictures. MH: Okay. That's because my inspectors take pictures. All of a sudden, people are starting to take pictures because I say, "Take pictures." It's called documentation. Okay, did you need me to come to your house? S?: I need you to come to my house very badly. [laughter] MH: Do you understand how I get a headache? S?: I didn't sign up for this program because of the house. I signed up three days after I got the house just to learn something, without knowing my foundation has an issue. MH: I really like who you are because you need to learn, and we all need to learn. So the question you got up is to ask me is what? What's the question? S?: Can you make it right? [laughter] [applause] MH: Remember what I said about 100,000 emails a year, not to mention the people that I meet like Angel every single day on the street, at the gas station, at the doughnut shop. Angel, what I'd like you to do is... Right now, you're just knowing it's the foundation? Okay. On my website, makeitright.ca, we have people that we always use. And they don't pay me, these are people that I love, that help me help people like you. Please, go on the foundation area, it'll say... On makeitright.ca, it'll say, "How can we help you? What are you looking for?" Search foundation contractors. S?: I did. MH: You did? [chuckle] S?: I'm waiting for a response. MH: What? S?: I'm waiting for a response. MH: Who did you call? S?: There's a link to find the pre-approved contractors. MH: So homes referred contractors? S?: Yes. MH: Okay, now the foundation guys are not on there yet because I'm slowly building that because I don't just let anyone in, these guys gotta pass all kinds of levels to get in to be a homes referred. So foundation guys are not there. So come here and I'm gonna give you a phone number, okay? Come here. LF: Come on up, Angel. MH: And you tell this guy that Mike said... LF: You have a pen? You got paper, pen, you got everything you need? MH: Okay, his name is Colin, C-O-L-I-N. [laughter] MH: And I'm giving you his cell number, and if he doesn't do what he says he's going to do by coming to visit your home when he says it, I wanna know about it, okay? And you can reach me at makeitright.ca. But I guarantee, Colin is a good guy, and he wants to do it right. Here it is. Here's the cell number. Now, they don't normally like me giving out their cell but in this case, I'm giving it out, okay? LF: Good, Angel? MH: You phone him and you tell him to come look at the house, okay? [applause] MH: Thank you. And always use Mike Holmes Inspections. Now, you know what? I started this because, again, I wrote the second book, "Holmes Inspections" it was all about... My number one complaint on my website was home inspectors. And I don't wanna beat everyone up. That's not ever what I was trying to do. What I'm trying to say is we have good guys everywhere, in restaurants, in... I don't care where it is, in television, we have good people. [laughter] MH: We do. And we have bad guys everywhere. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And there's more bad than there's good. So the home inspectors out there, there's some good ones but this 10 out of 10 thing, I've never heard of this. Where did you check that, in the better business bureau? I don't wanna say it doesn't work but unless you complain about it, it doesn't work. MH: So how do you find a better home inspector? Well, it only takes two weeks to become a home inspector, by the way, I just want you to know that. It's not a registered license recognized by the government. I worked with the government to put together the very first three-year, two-year course that's recognized with diploma, a home inspection course. It's at Sault Ste. Marie College and I'm trying to get it across Canada. MH: So it doesn't mean there's not good guys out there because I'd like to see contractors that have been in the field for years who worked tired, their knees are gone, their back are sore, like me, I'm getting older, I'm 22. [laughter] MH: What the hell are you laughing at? They're getting older, that it makes sense for them to become a home inspector 'cause they know what to look for, that's what I wanna see. So it's up to you to say, "What was your background? What'd you do before this? How long have you been doing it? How long have you been a home inspector?" Convince me that I should give you money. And by the way, who the hell spends $400 to actually look at a house and think you're gonna get good advice? You spend 3,000 to buy the house through a lawyer and all he does is make a couple a calls and he hands it to his secretary who writes it up, and he charges three grand. Shouldn't you be spending a little more money to get a professional opinion on that house? Yes or no? The answer's yes, thank you. What's your name, sir? S?: My name is Ken, and I'm enjoying your comments this evening. My question is to do with patios, in particular the appropriate support beneath a patio. The patio in my home presently had to be replaced, partly because it was old and partly because it grades incorrectly, it grades down towards the house, so water's entering the basement. So the decision is to rip up the patio, regrade, and put in a new patio. What should be the proper support for the patio so that it will last a long time? MH: Okay. So you're talking about a concrete patio that surround your house? S?: Around the front of the house. MH: Around the front of the house. So how big is it? S?: The patio will be probably two to three hundred square feet. MH: Sorry? S?: Two to three hundred square feet. MH: Two to three hundred square feet. Okay. First of all, we want it to be floating independently. You really don't wanna attach it to your house but you can. Not that I'd recommend it because it needs to be independent. We talked about this earlier in the room, you heard me talk about trusses and dry wall when I was talking to Melissa about this. Anyhow, it needs to be independent because the house is now at least four feet into the ground if not eight feet into the ground if you have a basement, that's code. So the footings are down here. So if you do a pad, you can't tie into the house 'cause it's gonna wanna move independently to the house. And if we have a winter like we've had and it freezes and pushes, it will break, it'll cause damage. MH: So the most important rule we have when we're doing a concrete pad is the prep, to make sure we have a really good base. Don't listen to those guys out there that say, "Oh yeah, we break that concrete out, jack hammer. We dig down three inches, we put in six inches of stone, you're good." A driveway needs a minimum 12 inches of stone just to have a car on it. So it's all about the prep, making sure that you have proper slope away from the house, pushes the water away, stops the water from getting underneath and freezing it. But I'd like to see a 12-inch bed of stone underneath it, okay? MH: Now, you can also go makeitright.ca and get some good concrete guys that are on the website. And if they don't do it right, I'll go to their house, grab 'em by the ear and bring 'em to your house. But I know they will, that's why I'm recommending them. Does that answer your question? S?: I think so. So the gap between the house and the patio, what would be there? MH: Well, what we do is we put in, it's a Ten-Test product, it used to be a product we put on the outside of the house and it would be a... Insul-Board is the term, we used to know about it, four feet by eight feet and they use it in the sidewalks and in the street. Every two sections, you'll see that little piece, that's a Ten-Test. All it is is a wafer board and what we're doing is we're trying to keep that concrete from touching the house. MH: So you're gonna put in Ten-Test and/or Insul-Board, you can call it whatever you want, concrete guys know what it is, but that's to keep it from touching. Because if the concrete bonds to the house, the freezing pushes it, we break it, it causes an issue. Once it's all done, then we want to put up a nice caulking bead to stop the water from going down there, okay? MH: We want it to wash away. Whenever you see them do a saw cut in the concrete, they're supposed to fill it with caulking, but this doesn't happen. You do it on the streets, and you know how good the streets are. If you notice that guy that follows them with a tar truck and he just drops tar? And then it looks like a puzzle so big... Do you know how much these guys charge? I'm telling you, I should've opened up a business called the Tar Drippers. I really should've. I probably would've been rich. But I know it's done wrong. I can't do it. I have integrity. I can't. Does that help you? S?: Thank you very much. MH: Okay. LF: Thank you so much, everybody, for your questions. Mike's gonna stick around to sign some books. It's called, "The Homes Manual." I hope you have enjoyed this evening's discussion. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only, Mike Holmes. MH: Thank you. LF: Thank you so much for being here, everybody. [applause]