Interview: ‘Make it Right’ Mike Holmes talks with MyFixitUpLife

‘Make it Right’ Mike Holmes, talks his projects, job sites, efficiency and doing things the right way with MyFixitUpLife’s Mark and Theresa.

 

Mark: And we’re home at the Hyde Tools Booth at the National Hardware show.

Theresa: Yes.

Mark: And we’re here with someone who might actually symbolize home for so many people and who’s earned it with real deal, real work, real saving: ‘Make it Right’ Mike Holmes.

Mike Holmes: You know what? I kind of like that, Holmes. How about the Holmes Network, the Holmes Channel, the Holmes Information. That’s kind of making sense to me.

Theresa: I’m in.

Mike Holmes: I should do something about that.

Theresa: I’m in.

Mark: Circle R, my friend. Circle R.

Theresa: The Holmes Network. I like it. Let’s do it. Make it happen.

Mike Holmes: I thought of this years ago. Why not? It can be relayed. It’s a lot of money, a lot of time and right now I’m doing so many things that that’ll just sit in the idea box. There’s a lot of ideas in the idea box, but stay on top of what we’re doing, right now the Holmes Approved Homes and Holmes Communities has exploded across Canada, now moving into the U.S. which I’ve been waiting for. St. Paul’s, Texas is also interested. Right now the market in Texas is doing really well. I just look at it, if you could have a house that just won’t mold, won’t burn, won’t fall down, won’t blow down, and it’s built for the environmental standards and healthy for you, do you want it?

Theresa: Yes.

Mark: I mean now that you put it that way.

Theresa: I’ll take two.

Mike Holmes: I don’t blame you. We just did our first Holmes Approved condo.

Mark: Oh you’re kidding.

Theresa: Where?

Mike Holmes: Yeah, it’s the first in Canada and not only is it the first Holmes Approved condominium, it’s the first condominium that is CODEGen geothermal related. So CODEGen is the next stage of …

Theresa: Yes.

Mike Holmes: Do you understand CODEGen?

Theresa: A little bit, yeah.

Mike Holmes: The building produces it own power.

Theresa: Absolutely amazing.

Mike Holmes: And doing geothermal is obviously going to help with the cooling cycle, but I like that if the lights went out again in Toronto, that that’s the only building that … I actually bought an apartment in that building.

Mark: Did you really?

Mike Holmes: I did.

Theresa: No way.

Mark: Is that your failsafe? Is that your doomsday prepper cabin?

Mike Holmes: No, that’s just a smart thing to do.

Mark: Now, way back when, when Mike Holmes was working with his dad and doing jobs and running crews and stuff like that, did you ever foresee yourself being a builder like you’re describing today? Was that ever in the idea box?

Theresa: When I grow up I want to …

Mike Holmes: I know but I don’t think you think of that as you’re a kid. I mean, I built how many tree forts? I worked on how many houses with my dad? I was 12 when I finished my first basement, but I’d never looked at it that that was what I would be going in to. It just is who I am. So I think that it isn’t about what you think you’re going to do, it’s about what you should be doing and that just became a reality at 19. It opened up, I walked through that door and I haven’t turned around since.

Theresa: Wow. I like it.

Mark: Now is that door still hanging plumb with nice trim

Mike Holmes: It’s very square.

Mark: Now, I have a question because I don’t feel like I get to see enough of it on the shows that you’ve done and it’s just because I’m a tool dweeb. I want to know what it looks like behind the cameras. You see tools, but they’re close up; the saw blade go through and so forth. When you guys roll on to a job site, what comes off your truck? What is your truck? Is it a van? Is it a …

Mike Holmes: We actually have two box vans. One of them will be completely loaded with everything you can imagine. Each and every vehicle, trucks, that my guys have, they’re loaded. The idea is to not turn it into a Coke-a-Cola commercial. If you just keep showing tools then it’s all about the tools. The reason you see the close up shots is because that’s us cutting and it doesn’t highlight that one specific brand or name. It keeps it very general then the network’s not going to fog it out and say, we want to make royalties from this and it’s a shame that it works that way but that’s how they make their bread and butter. We try and do it in a smart way that it makes sense that everyone gets it, it’s not a bad thing and I’m not standing there drinking a can of Coke. That’s the idea, but talk about tools …

Mark: Oh, sure, it’s not all one color. It’s not all this…

Mike Holmes: Right.

Mark: I’m talking about work tables and the work flow and your shop’s set up. That kind of thing.

Theresa: Yeah, like how the Miter saw is set up.

Mike Holmes: We have outdoor tents. We are set up. If it rains, we want to make sure that our tools don’t get wet, that we can continue to work so we are prepared for absolutely any type of weather and we’re ready to go, ready to play every day.

Mark: That is awesome. Lots of guys pack up and go home. They don’t …

Mike Holmes: Not us.

Mark: They don’t work in the rain.

Theresa: Oh, yeah, rain, yeah.

Mike Holmes: Not us.

Mark: Yeah. It’s snowing, I can’t…

Mike Holmes: Well, give them a reason. Oh, look it, yeah, it’s too cold, we’re going home. No. Yeah, we work in the north pole and the south pole. Let me tell you, it doesn’t matter.

Theresa: Wow.

Mike Holmes: It’s freezing cold where you can’t even start the generator. You can’t even start the compressor. You just warm it. Tent it in, warm everything, keep going.

Mark: Do you have to keep stuff plugged in, in the trucks overnight or do you bring them in, do you have a warehouse to bring them in?

Mike Holmes: I have a warehouse. I have a big building. It’s like a depot store in my warehouse, actually, it’s loaded with CertainTeed drywall, 3M products, all of the coated lumber, pink, blue. It’s loaded with the things that we need. I don’t want to pick up the phone and say, “Okay, I need this at the site tomorrow.” We need to have a stock option that we pick it up, we take it there, very efficient. I’m about efficiency, I don’t like losing time.

Mark: You keep your own inventory. That’s genius.

Theresa: That’s smart.

Mike Holmes: Yeah.

Mark: That’s genius. You don’t keep a whole house in there?

Mike Holmes: You’re going to see, we literally have three tool rooms. You’re going to see a hardware section with every nut, screw, whatever you can imagine is in there.

Theresa: Wow.

Mike Holmes: Types of nails for guns, hammer, every type of hammer. You think about that and then you got the lumber yard where it’s two by fours, two by sixes, two by eights, two by tens, sheets of plywood, OSB, on and on and on, concrete board.

Theresa: The amount of time that you save by doing that must be unbelievable.

Mike Holmes: That’s efficiency.

Theresa: Yes. That’s a lot of time saved.

Mark: Okay, so, there’s no possible segue, but I’ll try to make one up anyway.

Theresa: Okay.

Mark: So that’s all pro, that’s hyper pro. We love that and efficiency is something I think about constantly.

Theresa: Yes.

Mark: I really do, that’s why I’m asking you about this. For the weekend person, for they DIYer who’s maybe doing chair rail or the door we talked about, or casing out a door, are there tips that they can pull for their Toyota Corolla from your race car?

Mike Holmes: Yeah. You’re going to need a chop saw. You’re going to need the standard tools: The level, the square, the measuring tape, the little things that you need, the drill, and pick your right drill. I always love the battery operated drills and at the same time I have a screw driver that has all the bits in it that can take from, because it’s in my pouch, I can take it out, put it in the drill, be efficient. If you do all that, then I think even from a small handyman, you’re doing very well. The last thing you want to do is stop because you’re hanging a door and have to run to the hardware because you need something you don’t have.

Theresa: Okay, so I want to ask a question that’s nothing to do with what you’re talking about, Mark.

Mark: Oh, good so let’s stay on topic.

Theresa: But it is related. I want to know, has there been anything here at the hardware show or in the past year, six months, that has impressed you? A new product, a new way of doing things that you, Mike Holmes, were impressed by?

Mike Holmes: Yeah, I got to tell you, I love my position because first, from around the world, things get sent to me. “Mike, what do you think,” “Please try this,” “Look at this.” Again, we’ll analyze everything. We will check it out, we never just say, “Hey, that’s going on the show.” We literally will test everything. Coming in, I like seeing new and innovative tools. 3M’s always got incredible products. They got some new stuff coming out now that I just keep saying, “Wow, no wonder you guys are 3M, you’re the beasts.”

Mark: Yeah.

Mike Holmes: You know, Schluter. I guess the small companies that have a tool and they want them to see me here. They’ll come in and say, “What do you think of this?” I say, “I really like that, let’s talk,” because I wanted to do something on my website that, Mike likes. There’s no way I could put the Holmes mark on every single tool and I don’t really want to do that. I can at least put something out there on the website that says, hey, this is a cool idea. You may want to play with it.

Theresa: I like that a lot. I think that would be extremely helpful because making decisions, especially a weekend DIYer or something, trying to figure out what to get and what’s actually going to work …

Mark: Is just inundated with data.

Theresa: Because they’ll never actually start a project if what they get doesn’t work for them.

Mike Holmes: Agreed.

Theresa: Yeah.

Mike Holmes: I’ve seen a lot of gimmicks. Somebody approached me just not even a week ago, knew I was going to be here and showed me this. I don’t want to say it because this is going to sound bad for him, but we’ll say it was a type of drywall plug. To me that’s a gimmick. I can show you how to fix a drywall hole in five minutes with a piece of drywall. No tape, no nothing.

Mark: Bullet patch.

Mike Holmes: Just mud and the drywall. Yeah. Cut the back of the drywall, use the paper on the drywall as tape, mud the hole. Stick it in. Mud over top. Two coats, you’re done.

Mark: Yeah.

Theresa: Yeah.

Mark: Where do you draw the line? When I first learned that technique, I thought it was for everything. I did a bullet, and I call it a bullet patch …

Theresa: As big as Mark.

Mark: It was as tall as I was.

Theresa: He ran through the wall.

Mike Holmes: That’s too big.

Mark: I’m putting it on there, the paper’s wrinkling. I’m like, “What am I doing?”

Theresa: It’s like a cardboard cutout of yourself.

Mark: The cutoff’s like somewhere around …

Mike Holmes: A six by six hole, max, max ten by ten otherwise you’re going to be doing it the right way, say the normal way, not the right way because I think that’s the right way, where you’re going to cut that hole much bigger …

Mark: Put some things behind it.

Mike Holmes: Put some wood in. It’s a lot more work. What I love about that quick little fix is a door handle. Your door stopper stops, somebody opens the door, it punches a hole in the wall, quick fix and people like that. Teach me something new, show something that makes sense to everyone and they want try it themselves. Anyone can actually do that one; you did.

Theresa: Even Mark can do it.

Mark: Yeah. I can’t, I can’t.

Theresa: That is actually hilarious, though.

Mike Holmes: But you’ve got to hold that big piece and it’s like a big painting, you’re going to fill plaster around the edges.

Theresa: That’s why he’s in such great shape because he does these extreme acrobatics with the …

Mike Holmes: The hard way.

Theresa: Yes.

Mark: Yeah. I use a framing nailer to hang a picture.

Theresa: You’re never getting that picture off the wall either.

Mark: So, take a picture. Doing it the right way with Mike Holmes. Stay with us we’re coming back from a break right after this.