Anybody watch the Holmes on Homes et al Series?

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

I admint it. I have been hooked for years. My husband hates Mike Holmes, but I think he's just jealous. He always says "He just always finds things wrong." I have to remind him the whole reason he's there is because the homeowners called him in in the first place because there was so much wrong.

Anyways, I have a couple of questions. I know the show is filmed in Canada and I'm wondering about some things.

1. Weeping tiles. I have never heard of a weeping tile before watching this show. Is this basically another name for a French Drain? We have one of those, but it's not made from a ceramic-type material I'm seeing on the show. Also, it seems to be something that all the houses have, whereas I think French Drains here are not the norm for all houses.

2. Cold Rooms. It seems all houses in Canada have cold rooms. What is the purpose? I can't imagine it being a root cellar since most of these houses are in subdivisions, not on farms. I live in the South, so maybe all the houses in the norhern states have cold rooms too?

I have noticed they call the Electric Company "Hydro".

I so wish I had grown up learning the basics of home repair/construction. I do know how to do a basic tile job, but if something is wrong underneath, I have no idea. I do a really nice caulking job though.

deepwaterdotter · ‎03-09-2010

Wouldn't a "cold room" be the same thing as a walk-in cooler?

shaggygirl · ‎11-24-2011

I used to watch him. Once his son and daughter came on board, for me it changed so haven't watched him in quite some time.

Sorry can't answer any of your questions but hope someone can.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@deepwaterdotter wrote:
Wouldn't a "cold room" be the same thing as a walk-in cooler?

No, it's not refrigerated. It's generally a concrete block wall room below ground often (or maybe always) underneath the front porch area. It should be vented to the ouside as they showed on one episode where it had been vented to the garage which meant CO was coming into the house via the vent.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@shaggygirl wrote:
I used to watch him. Once his son and daughter came on board, for me it changed so haven't watched him in quite some time.

Sorry can't answer any of your questions but hope someone can.

@shaggygirl I stopped watching when it became all reruns which was before he came back with Holmes Inspection. So, now I'm watching those. I haven't watched but a couple of the Holmes & Holmes ones which is more about him and his son working together. His son started working with him I think in the later HOH shows and all the Holmes Inspection ones. You don't see his daughter as much. I think she is a production manager now, or at least she was in the one episode that was a behind the scenes show.

Pantsonfire2 · ‎07-30-2019

@Icegoddess ... not only is he handy around the house, he is VERY easy on the eyes too !! I am also watching the competition show HGTV is doing where Holmes is teamed up with Allison Victoria against four other designers and wondered if they were "an item" ... Rock the Block maybe the name ?? I did enjoy the show more without the children ... he looks GREAT in those coveralls ...

Anonymous032819 · ‎03-29-2019

@Pantsonfire2 wrote:
@Icegoddess ... not only is he handy around the house, he is VERY easy on the eyes too !! I am also watching the competition show HGTV is doing where Holmes is teamed up with Allison Victoria against four other designers and wondered if they were "an item" ... Rock the Block maybe the name ?? I did enjoy the show more without the children ... he looks GREAT in those coveralls ...

@Pantsonfire2

I agree!

All I know is, if I ever win the lottery, and I wanted a house built, I'd hire Mike Holmes to be the general contractor. At least, I could be confident that everything was being done correctly, right?😊

The Sky looks different when you have someone you love up there.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@Pantsonfire2 isn't that season completed? I saw about 3 episodes including the finale. I preferred their house except for that putting green for a back yard. The only thing I really liked about the winning house was the back yard, not what they did to it, but they were give the best back yard to start with.

I got my answers. Basically, the cold room is a root cellar. I kinda wish I had one, but I don't have a basement. Looks like basements are more popular in Canada than here, which brings us to the other answer.

Functionally, a French drain and drain tile are very similar but their placement and output make them different. A French drain is typically installed just below the surface and is used mainly to move water from low spots or other places where it may collect and saturate the soil. Drain tile is installed next to foundation footings, which may be eight to ten feet below the surface and is used to drain away ground water and relieve hydrostatic pressure around the foundation to prevent seepage and foundation damage. This was taken from the US Waterproofing website and the page does mention Mike Holmes. I'm not seeing any shopping links, so hopefully it won't be poofed: https://www.uswaterproofing.com/learning-center/french-drain-effective-basement-waterproofing

It seems most of the houses Mike works on has a basement, so maybe that's why there's always a weeping tile. I wonder if all basements in the US have Drain Tiles too.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

I agree with the OP's husband. I never did care to watch him.

shaggygirl · ‎11-24-2011

@Icegoddess wrote:
@shaggygirl wrote:
I used to watch him. Once his son and daughter came on board, for me it changed so haven't watched him in quite some time.

Sorry can't answer any of your questions but hope someone can.
@shaggygirl I stopped watching when it became all reruns which was before he came back with Holmes Inspection. So, now I'm watching those. I haven't watched but a couple of the Holmes & Holmes ones which is more about him and his son working together. His son started working with him I think in the later HOH shows and all the Holmes Inspection ones. You don't see his daughter as much. I think she is a production manager now, or at least she was in the one episode that was a behind the scenes show.

@Icegoddess

I used to watch him faithfully then for some reason I stopped for awhile. Maybe like you it was because of reruns. When I went back to viewing it his son was there and their bantering back & forth gave me the impression his son thought he was a comedian.

After a few more shows not only did I think he was trying to be a comedian but also that he was trying to step into his dad's shoes and be the "main man", so to speak, of the show...but then maybe that's what Mike wants and something about stars trying to promote their own kids rubs me the wrong way. Just because you love your kid and think he's fabulous doesn't mean everybody else will take to him. But then I'm old, I can get cranky, I don't like change about certain things, so maybe it's just me.