DIY renovation shows the good the bad the bad

Joe Mioux

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Carlyle IL
I have really grown tired of those renovation shows on DIY.

The worst of the shows is seeing happy "profesionals" use unsafe demolition techniques when removing walls, ceilings, fixtures, etc.

A sledge hammer and a giddy host/homeowner wailing on a wall is not my idea of teaching.

I bring this subject up as I was watching Tom Silva remove a wall during a remodel on "ask this old house" this evening and then switched over to a renovation show on DIY>

The contrast is amazing.

I think its' time to downgrade my Dishnetwork service to eliminate the DIY channel.

Is it just me or do any of you see the same problems associate with DIY programs?

joe
 
Well Joe alot of those DYI shows are just that. Some guy that got him self a camera and made a show. No one ever said they know what they are doing.:thumb::rofl::rofl:
 
My favorite is 'Renovation Realities'. It's a show where they have typical homeowners take on projects over their skill level, in tight time frames, with few tools and fewer skills. Let the hilarity begin! It makes me feel better about my attempts at DIY projects...
 
Renovation Realities is the worst of the shows.

I get the humor, but I don't understand the unsafe situations these people are encouraged to put themselves in. I know its for ratings, but still it is wrong.

I mean watching someone hook a rope to their truck to pull a side of their house away is just wrong and dangerous.

joe
 
Renovation Realities is the worst of the shows.

I get the humor, but I don't understand the unsafe situations these people are encouraged to put themselves in. I know its for ratings, but still it is wrong.

I mean watching someone hook a rope to their truck to pull a side of their house away is just wrong.

joe
I been know to tie a rope to a tree stump and my truck and pull it out ??
 
Renovation Realities is the worst of the shows.

I get the humor, but I don't understand the unsafe situations these people are encouraged to put themselves in. I know its for ratings, but still it is wrong.

I mean watching someone hook a rope to their truck to pull a side of their house away is just wrong and dangerous.

joe

So your saying that chaining a store front to a truck and pulling it out is wrong also???????
Not that I have done that more than say 3 times:thumb::rofl::rofl:
 
Renovation Realities is the worst of the shows.

I get the humor, but I don't understand the unsafe situations these people are encouraged to put themselves in. I know its for ratings, but still it is wrong.

I mean watching someone hook a rope to their truck to pull a side of their house away is just wrong and dangerous.

joe

Well, I think it probably does a public service compared to the rest of the shows. The rest of the shows convince you that in a half an hour you can gut your kitchen and completely remodel if if you've never picked up a screwdriver.

At least RR presents the 'reality' of the situation, humorous, dangerous, or not. I think 75% of the shows I've seen ends up saying that the homeonwners brought in pro to finish it out for them...
 
I would have taken a movie of it. But I am a firm believer of not providing some one like OSHA with evidence. :thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
I agree with Joe, too many of the programs portray bad work done in an unsafe manner. Tommy Silva, Holmes, and a few others are out there teaching the right way to do things. Many of the others are just bad at what they do..
 
I think the PBS shows do a good job, but the ones on DIY, HDTV, eh, I think they mislead people.

As someone who has been mislead, and continues to DIY, all I can say is they should emphasize that a lot of this stuff requires HARD work and SKILL.

But for some reason it never stops me... :rofl:
 
I enjoy some of the shows like Holmes on Homes... but even he does an overkill sometimes I think...but he may also be following Canadian rules and regs... with him, I wonder what the costs are though... he comes in after the homeowner has already spent the farm and doesn't have the job finished, then he tears it all out and starts over...it always looks pretty and is pretty extravagant when he's finished... who pays for it...
most of the other shows I don't watch as I about fed up with "reality" TV...in any variety... there ain't nothing real on TV... it's all entertainment.

I know from my experience (which is limited as are my skills) most rennovation work will ALWAYS take me 3 or 4 times longer than I estimated when I started... I'm slow at this type of work since I don't really know what I'm doing.
 
My niece and her husband watch these shows all the time. They decided to remodel their bathroom and asked me if I would help. Neither one had done any remodel work.

The house was built in the earl 60's and several BAD remodels had been done to the bathroom. I'm talking spliced wires in the walls with the wires twisted together with electrical tape holding it and extension cords spliced in to complete runs. It was bad. The floor had a hump that had to be fixed and tons of rot. The ceiling looked like a washboard. It ended up needing to be gutted from ceiling to floor joists. A small laundry room was taken out and moved to the basement to make the bathroom larger.

The funny part was when I went over to look at the bath my nephew told me he had taken 3 days off work and said that should be plenty of time. I just agreed and smiled. About halfway through the second day when we were just starting to put new sub-floor down he said "I don't think we'll finish in 3 days". I just chuckled and said I don't think so. I told him this isn't DIY. This is the real world. I then told him it was going to take a good two weeks. My niece was about to die because they didn't have another bathroom to use. It took us about a week and a half to finish. I think they both got their eyes opened.
 
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It kills me to watch them wail away on often times decent sets of kitchen cabinets. Not only is it 2x as hard, potentially dangerous - it's just plain wasteful. If they don't need them in their garage, I'm quite certain either a neighbor or the local habitat store would take them. :doh:

Another favorite is when they show the happy couple painting their oak cabinets with a 4" foam roller and claiming great results. I always wonder what the results look like in person.

I will say that it seems to me the recent trend is to minimize the homeowner involvement to a few carefully planned vignettes and leave the real work to the crew. However, even then I have to wonder what the quality level is when they only have 2 or 3 days to complete the job.:huh:
 
It kills me to watch them wail away on often times decent sets of kitchen cabinets. Not only is it 2x as hard, potentially dangerous - it's just plain wasteful. If they don't need them in their garage, I'm quite certain either a neighbor or the local habitat store would take them. :doh:

Another favorite is when they show the happy couple painting their oak cabinets with a 4" foam roller and claiming great results. I always wonder what the results look like in person.

I will say that it seems to me the recent trend is to minimize the homeowner involvement to a few carefully planned vignettes and leave the real work to the crew. However, even then I have to wonder what the quality level is when they only have 2 or 3 days to complete the job.:huh:

I've also gotta wonder about those "Crash" shows where they (supposedly) show up the next morning, work for three days, and are done. They do electrical, plumbing, and structural stuff, all of which would need permitted and inspected. Three days? Yeah...Right!

Also, lotsa shoddy work involved in many (most) of them.

Another one that gets me is the "Desparate Landscape" show where they do a complete makeover on a yard that's been totally ignored and neglected by the homeowner. Will the homeowner treat it any differently after the show leaves? I'd sure like to see some 'one year later' follow-ups on those.
 
I don't know if it's true Jim. But I have heard that with most of those shows that get it done in 3 days. Some one spends the next week or so fixing up the mess.:thumb::thumb:
 
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