extreme makeover stories - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

berkey · 12-23-2008, 11:17 PM

have you worked on a house? share your stories.

Speedy Petey · 12-23-2008, 11:21 PM

Although the concept is wonderful, I would never put my name on any of the work that is done in those homes.

How they do that all in one week is amazing and impossible at the same time.

Nosparxsse · 12-24-2008, 12:50 AM

I know a drywall crew who worked on one.....they said it was complete and utter CHAOS.

BryanMD · 12-24-2008, 08:35 AM

I've helped with a couple of charity jobs. Based on the clusterfuque that those (much slower paced projects) were I shudder at the thought of that having been done at the insane pace of that tv show. No thanks; I'll write a check.

www.ramusa.org

480sparky · 12-24-2008, 09:38 AM

They obviously do a lot of pre-planning that isn't aired on the show. No way in he11 they show up at someone's door at 8AM, tour the home & talk with the occupants, then magically have a demo crew show up at 10 to destroy the existing home.

And the 500 people with hard hats that arrive at 11? Well, they just happened to be walking down the street looking for work to do......

Just think about the leg-work that is required prior to Ty and the gang pulling up in their million-dollar motor home. Permits, plans, approvals, contractors, subcontractors, sub-subconttractors.

I'm also pretty sure the next door neighbors aren't too happy with hammers banging and big equipment going 'beep-beep-beep' all night either. (Maybe they get sent to DisneyLand too???)

FWIW, my opinion is they spend waaaaay too much money on a single house. Wonderful concept: Give a needy family a new home. But methinks the money & labor that goes into one extremely nice house could be divvied up and 3 or 4 basic homes could be built for the same price tag.

Ya listening, Sears?

Wireless · 12-24-2008, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 480sparky

FWIW, my opinion is they spend waaaaay too much money on a single house. Wonderful concept: Give a needy family a new home. But methinks the money & labor that goes into one extremely nice house could be divvied up and 3 or 4 basic homes could be built for the same price tag.

Ya listening, Sears?

That is all very nice if they were trying to help these people! They are doing it for the viewers and advertising. Ever wonder how these people who couldn't afford to pay for their small house are now going to pay the electric bill on their new house? The people being "helped" are actually being used.

Nosparxsse · 01-03-2009, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wireless

That is all very nice if they were trying to help these people! They are doing it for the viewers and advertising. Ever wonder how these people who couldn't afford to pay for their small house are now going to pay the electric bill on their new house? The people being "helped" are actually being used.

Not just the electric bill, but some of these people go out and take their newly (paid-for) home and mortgage it to the gills to buy stuff. I have heard of a couple of these families losing their homes to financial woes even after the extreme makeover process. They can't fix people who like to spend till their poor( probably where they started)

just an example...http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/20...n-foreclosure/

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/20...e-foreclosure/

480sparky · 01-03-2009, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosparxsse

Not just the electric bill, but some of these people go out and take their newly (paid-for) home and mortgage it to the gills to buy stuff. I have heard of a couple of these families losing their homes to financial woes even after the extreme makeover process. They can't fix people who like to spend till their poor( probably where they started)

just an example...http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/20...n-foreclosure/

They didn't go broke by being given a home they couldn't afford... they went broke because they mortgaged it and couldn't make the payments.

brian john · 01-04-2009, 05:20 AM

And nothing like having a way too expensive house for the neighborhood, a target for theives and the taxes.......

In our area several habitat families were going to lose their houses for non-payment of taxes.

It may seem Scroogest (like that is a word) but some people should be renters. NOT everyone can handle the responsibilities of a home. Miss a rent check 4 or 5 and you are evicted, miss a mortgage payment 4 or 5 and you lose a lot more, till Uncle Sam comes to bail you out?

When Freddie Mac ran their commercial about everyone deserves to own a home I cringed for years and now it has come home to roost.

Thank you Mr, Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush oh heard the other day that Obama wants to figure out how to get more lower income into their own homes...Will we never learn?

Mountain Electrician · 01-04-2009, 06:44 AM

My brother is a carpenter and was involved with an edition of extreme home makeover. He said it was a dangerous, chaotic mess and is nothing he would ever do again. Trades working over top of one another, safety issues out the window and lower quality work. From his descriptions, OSHA would have a field day with one of these episodes.

'Course he b**ches a lot too.

480sparky · 01-04-2009, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain Electrician

..... OSHA would have a field day with one of these episodes.......

They had better bring hearing protection...

heel600 · 01-04-2009, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain Electrician

My brother is a carpenter and was involved with an edition of extreme home makeover. He said it was a dangerous, chaotic mess and is nothing he would ever do again. Trades working over top of one another, safety issues out the window and lower quality work. From his descriptions, OSHA would have a field day with one of these episodes.

'Course he b**ches a lot too.

They did one near me.

They didn't pull a permit. they used an unlicensed electrician to install a PV system which wasn't installed correctly.

They obviously didn't call for any inspections.

The job got shut down, and they called the State to complain! They had a production schedule to keep, so they thought that was enough reason to do what they did.

And that Ty guy doesn't do any work on the job either. He get's driven to the job, does some shoots, and leaves.

I think I saw something written on the handle of his hammer once. looked like "hold this end".

gilbequick · 01-04-2009, 11:33 PM

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/20...me-in-trouble/

Sparkyprentice · 01-25-2009, 08:58 PM

One was done a few miles from my place a couple years ago. Aside from the permit and workmanship violations that were called on at the time (which were quickly handled by the city to maintain a certain image) from talking to a few of the contractors that have fielded service calls to the location, there have been drying-in issues (more precisely LACK of) and all kinds of 'it'll work long enough for the camera' type problems ever since the crews left.

Maybe I'm a little naive saying this, but more and more often, I think there's good reasons for why homes can't or shouldn't be built in 'episode length' time frames...

billdozier · 01-26-2009, 06:47 PM

Did one similar to this for a local church. Absolute nightmare. I was supposed to help the ec who volunteered his time. Ha. I became the ec. Was told the job had to be done in a week scratched my head and said ok. Started with some basic fishing of walls. Next thing I knew the whole roof was torn down due to framing being wrong. So now ive got an open attic in spots. Used it to my advantage to fish more wires. By the end of the job all of the sheetrock had been demoed and I think I wired the place 3 times

I had to have everything wired in place because of time factor thanks to overanxious church people. By the time the framing was done it had to be sheetrocked. So I had no time to wire at the proper time. I was trimming out on wet mud which had been painted over. Id hate to see this house in 6 months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho4JWuXeoLM this is a link to the almost finished product. you can see I hadnt quite finished

billdozier · 01-26-2009, 06:57 PM

apparently they decided to go vinyl instead of hardyboardhttp://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=30590392&id=83500007

I dont know who opened that panel actually scares the

out of me. Cause aint none of em qualified