topic Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant in Community Chat

HGTV Property Brothers Rant

occasionalrain — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:53:41 GMT

I was watching Property Brothers yesterday. They were renovating a quality older home and redoing the kitchen. I haven't a problem with the new owners having the kitchen they like but why can't they remove the previous well made, solid wood cabinets without trashing them? Lots of people would want these period cabinets for a home they are trying to bring back to it's original style. Even if the cabinets are unattractive, people may want them for a garage or basement workshop, summer camp etc.

So instead of donating or selling the perfectly good cabinets, countertops, sinks etc. they trash them and fill up dumps.

Wasteful and environmentally irresponsible.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Jessa9 — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:02:41 GMT

It's amazing that when people move in homes they destroy the cabinets with a sledge hammer instead of just taking them down. Some of which were very good in my opinion. Sometimes they complain about the color and out comes the sledge hammer. Very wasteful.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

akaburtonfan — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:13:12 GMT

I hate that too. All they have to do is unscrew the screws and the cabinets would come right out. Guess they don't believe in recycling. Did you see the show yesterday with the house with the very large stained glass window? I couldn't believe they put a pool table in front of it. I wonder how long it will be before they put a cue stick or ball through it.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

occasionalrain — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:14:17 GMT

On 8/24/2014 JESSA said:
It's amazing that when people move in homes they destroy the cabinets with a sledge hammer instead of just taking them down. Some of which were very good in my opinion. Sometimes they complain about the color and out comes the sledge hammer. Very wasteful.

For some people the kitchens that are unacceptable to the new owners would be thought wonderful to others.

When the new owners sell the house to the next set of owners, what do you want to bet the sledge hammer will be employed to smash the "dated" cabinets chosen by the previous owners.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

occasionalrain — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:19:02 GMT

On 8/24/2014 akaburtonfan said: I hate that too. All they have to do is unscrew the screws and the cabinets would come right out. Guess they don't believe in recycling. Did you see the show yesterday with the house with the very large stained glass window? I couldn't believe they put a pool table in front of it. I wonder how long it will be before they put a cue stick or ball through it.

That's the one I saw. I actually liked the cabinets that were in the kitchen. The new improved kitchen looked out of place in that house.

Sometimes when I'm watching and they've gone through a beautiful period house with an Art Deco bathroom and talk about about gutting it, I hope they chose a different house. I should stop watching, it's bad for my blood pressure.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

------ — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 19:19:29 GMT

Why don't you write to the network and tell them?

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Snowpuppy — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 23:48:00 GMT

I think the sledge hammer/jack hammer destruction adds to the show's "excitement" factor. After all, how exciting can a can of paint be?

ITA with cabinet recycling if they're in good shape. Habitat Restores will take them and the profits go to a good cause.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Photo Donna — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 23:54:57 GMT

we put our old kitchen cabinets in our garage

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

rolen — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:07:45 GMT

On 8/24/2014 Photo Donna said:
we put our old kitchen cabinets in our garage

We put our old cabinets in the basement for much needed storage. When the crew was going to dismantle our kitchen, I asked if there was any reason for them to use sledge hammers like on TV. They said there is no need to do that except for the fact that the TV people seem to think it makes for "a good show".
They just used a screw driver to undo the screws that were holding the cabinets and once in a while needed to use a saw with a thin blade to cut some stubborn screws.

They also mentioned that using the sledge hammers was dangerous and sends pieces of cabinets flying all over the place. It can be unsafe for the workers and is a huge mess to clean up. Plus, it destroys the cabinets for any possible reuse.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

haddon9 — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:33:38 GMT

On 8/24/2014 JESSA said:
It's amazing that when people move in homes they destroy the cabinets with a sledge hammer instead of just taking them down. Some of which were very good in my opinion. Sometimes they complain about the color and out comes the sledge hammer. Very wasteful.

I have to agree! When we got married 32 years ago my husband bought a fixer upper and did a lot of the renovation work himself. He always comments about how ridiculous it is to see the many shows on HGTV taking a sledgehammer to cabinets! Even if you wanted to just trash them it's so much easier to merely take them down with a screw drill. It's a lot more work using a sledgehammer but I guess it makes better television!

...and we do have old cabinets in our garage and a workshop area in the basement.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

lilypadfrog — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 05:28:50 GMT

I think the only show in Hgtv where they actually fix things up or reuse them is Rehab Addict.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

sylviahomeatlast — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 06:13:03 GMT

when we remodeled, our kitchen had the white metal cabinets from the '40's-----we gave them to the guys working on our house---they wanted them for garage and basement storage----we also gave one guy our 2 year old dishwasher since we bought a new one-----there are all kinds of house things that can be re-purposed

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Deb1010again — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 07:07:12 GMT

They advertised a new show on DIY network called "sledge hammer". The couple has 30 minutes to demolish as many rooms in their house as they can. But only the room(s) they totally demolish will get redone. If they just start and time is called, that room stays as is with whatever damage they did. I thought of this thread when I was watching.

My dad also rehabbed our kitchen cabinets when we did a remodel growing up -- he put them in the garage.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Puzzle Piece — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 16:02:23 GMT

I agree with the OP. I think the 'drama' is for us viewers and it is wasteful on the part of the folks doing the show. Maybe someone needs to write and let them know.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

terrier3 — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 16:13:08 GMT

On 8/24/2014 sylviahomeatlast said: when we remodeled, our kitchen had the white metal cabinets from the '40's-----we gave them to the guys working on our house---they wanted them for garage and basement storage----we also gave one guy our 2 year old dishwasher since we bought a new one-----there are all kinds of house things that can be re-purposed

Habitat for Humanity will also come and take away old cabinets, light fixtures, etc.

They then either sell them, use them in a rehab or sell them for scrap.

I got some great old paneled wood doors and door handles from their ReStore.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

hennypenny — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 17:16:34 GMT

Our house was built in the twenties. The old white farm style cupboards were replaced in the fifties and the old ones were put in the bomb shelter. If I hit the lottery I will have the ugly newer ones replaced with ones to replicate the original ones.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

AnikaBrodie — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 18:03:25 GMT

We repurposed all of our old kitchen cupboards. Two of them were painted and installed in our laundry room. Several others were installed in the garage and basement/furnace room. I would never discard cupboards. If you can't use them, offer them as a donation. Like others have said many people would be happy for them.

HGTV could repurpose too IMO.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Catitude — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 19:21:49 GMT

Wasteful but up to the homeowners to ask the brothers to recycle or re-purpose them.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Annabellethecat66 — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 16:33:37 GMT

Saturday afternoon and I'm watching this show. My late husband and I built several homes. Actually, we've developed several developments (from land to the houses).

I totally agree with all of you about saving the cabinets, etc. Habitat for Humanity uses some of the donated things in houses that are being renovated and no longer needed.

Actually in the house I'm living in now we took the cabinets that we'd originally put in the kitchen into the garage. My late husband put kitchen cabinets from another house he'd renovated into the laundry room.

In May 2001 lightning hit our house (for the 4th time actually) but this time it did some real damage. We couldn't live in it for 5 months. We lived in a hotel for 5 months courtesy of our insurance company. Hence, we had to 'redo' our entire house, again courtesy of the insurance company.

I'm off course again. Where was I? Oh! I enjoy the show but it is frustrating to see where these guys get so much pleasure tearing up things. I've watched a lot of shows like "inside the Property Brother's show", etc. I never get the feeling they think much about re-using some of the things taken from previous houses.

That's sad because this show could be a learning experience for future home owners like using cabinets like we did. A lot of money could be saved if they'd do this sometimes and people would learn there are places where they could get used things. Most people aren't aware that they can find attractive, usable cabinets and the like in businesses totally devoted to people who have imagination and want to save money.

To the original poster, thank you for offering up this subject. I only wish more people felt the same way all of you feel.

Re: HGTV Property Brothers Rant

Allegheny — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 16:40:53 GMT

@Snowpuppy wrote:
I think the sledge hammer/jack hammer destruction adds to the show's "excitement" factor. After all, how exciting can a can of paint be?
ITA with cabinet recycling if they're in good shape. Habitat Restores will take them and the profits go to a good cause.

I agree with you. I see this on most of these types of shows. Like they get some kind of glee busting down the cabinets. It really irks me, especially when some of the kitchens have obviously quality made cabinets. Like you said the cabinets can be donated and there is a tax rebate for the donation. When we remodeled our kitchen our designer told us of the donation program, but we elected to utilize the old cabinets down in our basement. We even had friends asking us for our cabinets if we weren't going to reuse them. I think I will write a letter to the various shows that do this. It is so wasteful. On top of that this stuff ends up in landfills.