Exclusive: Mike Holmes of ‘Holmes Family Rescue’ Reveals the One Thing To Never, Ever Do When Renovating

Mike Holmes knows that all home renovations begin with the best of intentions. But if there’s one thing that can send things off the rails, it’s a contractor who isn’t up to snuff.

That’s why Holmes has made it his mission to teach homeowners how to keep projects on track on his show, “Holmes Family Rescue,” which recently premiered Season 2.

On the show, the Toronto-based builder and two of his children, Michael Holmes Jr. and Sherry Holmes, join forces to fix and finish remodels for families who’ve been left high and dry by the workers they originally hired for the jobs.

It’s a situation Mike himself has been in before when he paid someone to redo his driveway.

“It was nothing but a piece of crap, and I never heard from the guy again,” he admits to Realtor.com.

Hoping to help homeowners avoid a battle with a bad builder, Mike and Michael Jr. shared their tried-and-true blueprint for vetting contractors, as well as their personal renovation plans to accommodate the expanding Holmes family, which includes Mike’s newest granddaughter, born just earlier this month. If renovations are anywhere in your future, read on to learn a whole lot about what it takes to get the job done.

What went down with your own bad experience with a contractor?

Mike: I hired who I thought was a great paving guy in the neighborhood. I have a very large driveway, and it was good for the first couple of months, and then after that, it literally fell apart. He did not do what he said he was going to do, and of course, he never came back.

Michael Jr.: Oh, I remember. That was a big job. It had to be completely redone. [My dad] had to bring in a crew of a lot of machines to get that all done.

What is your advice for hiring a reliable contractor, and what are some red flags?

Mike: You need to learn to trust your instincts, because your instincts are almost never wrong.

I have three rules: One, slow down and take your time, because doing any construction on your home is going to take way more work for you than you could imagine. Two, educate yourself. What type of permits do I need? And No. 3, check out your contractor. I mean, we test-drive every single car that we buy in our lives.

Go check out the work that he has given you references for and ask the homeowners 101 questions: Did they start on time? Did they finish on time? Were they courteous? Were they clean? Did they charge you more money at the end of the job?

This is a job for you, and if you don’t do it that way, odds are you’re not going to be in a good position.

What are the most common issues or poor practices that you get called to fix?

Michael Jr.: Electrical is a very common one that we see. You have a handyman or you have a framer, and they’re like, “I can do your electrical as well.” And you end up seeing a ton of fire hazards at almost every job.

Mike: Once you see one thing wrong, odds are there are many things wrong. It’s very rare that it’s just going to be a bad electrician. It just doesn’t usually happen that way. It’s usually a contractor that’s brought in a plumber, or he’s done it himself. The electrical, he’s done it himself. The structural, he’s done it himself. So it tends to be not just one thing, but many things wrong.

A lot of money is inevitably involved in these transactions. How can homeowners protect their investments?

Mike: You should never put more than 10% down because, upon signing a contract, all you’re starting with is tying up their time. In other words, scheduling them.

Everyone needs to pay in milestones. Don’t give them half the money upfront, and then you’re hoping to hell that they come in and do the first half right. In milestones, at least you’re paying upon roughing of carpentry, roughing of plumbing, roughing of electrical.

Once passed by a building inspector, give your money up. That’s what we should be doing.

What rights and recourse do homeowners have if things go south?

Mike: There truly is no recourse. You’re never going to win hiring a lawyer. This is why your instincts need to be very clear. These red flags, start watching them from Day One and know when to stop the job and tell the contractor to leave your home.

What ends up happening is, much like this wonderful family [this season], they’re out their $400,000 and then they’re hoping that he’s going to come back and finish.

“Please, it’s almost done, just finish it, we need to get back in our home!” That is the worst trap you could ever get yourself into. And I wish—because if you stole a pack of gum, you could go to jail—contractors should be going to jail if they’re taking that much money from people and leaving them high and dry. That’s just not right.

What’s the worst state you’ve seen a contractor leave a job?

Michael Jr.: There’s one we did years ago. I was just joining the crew at this time, and this contractor came in, built a new house for these homeowners, and the structure was wrong, the electrical was wrong. Everything this contractor did was wrong, so much so that this house had to be torn down, rebuilt from scratch.

Thinking back to your first personal renovation, what lesson did you learn from that?

Mike: I did my first basement when I was 12! My first personal renovation was probably when [my oldest daughter] Amanda [Holmes] was born. It was the house that I purchased. Soon as I bought it and started renovating—yes, I was living in it, and I tell everyone don’t do that—the recession came and it kicked my butt. That was a whole new learning curve for me.

When it comes to construction, I’m not worried about it—there’s really nothing I can’t do. But I didn’t expect a recession to come in and smack me sideways.

Michael Jr.: Sherry and I, we bought a house together, and one of the biggest lessons I learned was that you need to be organized and you need to have a plan. Without a plan, I ended up turning two rooms into one bigger bedroom. I didn’t have a greater vision of this house and was just doing things off the top of my head, and I ended up having to fix this bedroom multiple times because there was a leak. We bit off a lot more than we could chew.

Speaking of a volatile time in the market, do you have any advice for homeowners taking on a renovation right now?

Mike: Well, now is a different game. It’s just because of interest rates rising, and especially because of the costs of construction materials. You’ve got to be really careful. This is a time that you can really lose a lot of money if you’re not careful. Take your time, and check out your contractor. You can still do things, but be a little more realistic in the times that you’re playing with.

Michael Jr.: And not trying to spread yourself too thin. Prioritize your renovations. Try and work from the outside in. Life in general is just costing more money, and then hiring a contractor, they’re more expensive because there’s a shortage in skilled trade, materials cost more.

When it comes to your own homes, what upgrade have you done that makes you most happy?

Mike: I just finally, after all these years, fixed my house up, the whole first floor—kitchen, bathroom, mudroom, laundry room, new furnace, new ductwork, new electrical, new plumbing, new structure—and I think it was about time.

[My longtime partner] Anna [Zappia] deserved a new kitchen, and she finally got it. And it’s completely open concept, so every window on the first floor sees out to nothing but beautiful nature, trees, bushes, gardens. I love it, I really do.

Michael Jr.: My wife and I, two years ago now, we bought a building in downtown Meaford, Ontario. We opened her business in there, and then we did a major renovation on the second story and put in a yoga, Pilates, and fitness studio, a couple of practitioner rooms, a bathroom—completely redid it.

From the before and after, it was like a nightmare and [now] it’s stunning. There’s herringbone white oak flooring. Everything’s new, brand-new electrical, proper panel, so, pretty happy with that.

What still needs to be rescued or made right in your homes?

Michael Jr.: What you need is a spare bedroom for when your son and daughter and new granddaughter come and visit!

Mike: What we’re doing next is a sunroom off the house, and it’s something we’ve always wanted. And with that sunroom, Michael, I’m going to set up the rooms upstairs as a bedroom so you guys can come over and visit me.

Michael Jr.: There we go!

“Holmes Family Rescue” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on HGTV and streams on Max and HGTV GO.

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