If you have seen any of my TV shows, you KNOW I don’t recommend that homeowners try to save a few dollars by doing work around the house they aren’t qualified to do. You can make a much bigger mess and compromise the safety, structure or durability of your home. Then I’ll have to come in and fix the mess.

Stay away from these jobs that require a trained professional:

#1 Plumbing Jobs

Are you considering taking on your plumbing jobs or repairs? Wait. Your home’s plumbing is complex and tackling a plumbing job yourself can make a mess of your lines or cause flooding in your home. Licensed plumbers have years of training and on-the-job experience, so leave any plumbing jobs to the professionals.

#2 Electrical Work

Even I don’t touch my own electrical work. I get so nervous when I hear of homeowners taking on their own electrical projects because it’s NOT SAFE. If you don’t know what you’re doing, someone could get seriously hurt – or worse. Think about this – electrical fires make up about 15 per cent of all fires in Canada. Bring in a licensed electrical contractor to do the work, no matter how small you think the job might be.

#3 HVAC

Your heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is the lungs of your home. It is a complex system that shouldn’t be messed with. For your family’s health and the health of your home don’t do any DIY on your HVAC system. Hire a professional to make it right.

#4 Asbestos Removal

Asbestos was commonly used in building materials up until the late 1970s, so there are many homes that may contain it. Asbestos becomes dangerous when it’s disturbed or when the asbestos-containing material starts to deteriorate. If this is the case, hiring a professional asbestos abatement company is the only way to remove and dispose of the material safely and properly. Trust me – asbestos removal is not a DIY job.

#5 Roof Install or Repairs

It’s important to know the signs that you may have issues with your roof – curling or missing shingles, a leak in your bedroom ceiling. But unless you REALLY know what you’re doing, you should leave your roof repairs to the pros. Firstly, most homeowners do not have the right safety equipment to get up on their roofs. Why risk it?

Fixing it yourself will just be a “band-aid” solution and will lead to bigger issues down the road. And don’t forget – standing on your roof isn’t exactly a safe place to be. Call a professional roofer to identify problem spots and to do repairs properly and safely.

Here are 5 repair projects you CAN do on your own.

About Miller Contracting and Holmes Approved Homes:

Miller Contracting is a Mike Holmes Approved builder. Being part of the Holmes Approved Homes program means each home built by Miller Contracting is inspected by Mike Holmes Inspections. The result? A better built home and PEACE OF MIND.

Generally, there are two ways a new home can achieve desired results.  The prescriptive path is sort of like a checklist – if I do this, that, and the next thing from a list of acceptable practices, my home will meet requirements.  It’s a pretty simple way to achieve the desired result.  Think of it like a “Thou shalt do…” type of list.

The second method is a performance path.  That means that you may design the home to achieve a certain certification – Energy Star or R2000, for example.  How that could work is perhaps you don’t meet the minimum prescriptive requirement in one area, but you more than make up for it in another.  The end result is the home uses the same or less gigajoules of energy than if you used the prescriptive path.  It provides more flexibility in design and equipment usage than a prescriptive method.

If you are building a new home, what should you do?  First, align yourself with a reputable designer – one who understands how to design what you want, but also someone who understands how to implement the new code into the design.  Again, the calculations need to be shown on the plan, so your designer should be able to carry that out.  You may want to go with a performance plan, so you will need access to an Energy Advisor (EA.)  An EA will be able to use software to model your home and advise how much energy the home should use, and may be able to register the home to be certified under a program such as Energy Star.

If all of this seems complicated, it’s probably because it sort of is.  There has been an immense amount of changes headed towards new home builders in the past year or so.  Your best move is to contact a reputable builder who can guide you through the process.  Your builder should be able to answer your energy-efficiency questions.  They will also be able to steer you towards good designers and Energy Advisors so you can get the home you want.  And, the builder will understand how to construct the home to be energy efficient.  In the end, your home should cost less to run, be more durable, and structurally sound.  Isn’t that what we all want?

Dan Yungwirth
General Manager

• “How long have you been in business?” This is a question to help you judge the builders’ level of expertise.  More importantly, do they have the experience to be able to deal with different challenges and scenarios during your build?  Keep in mind, a corollary to this is how many different projects the builder has successfully completed.  A shorter number of years in business can be compensated for by quantity and variety.
• “What is your area of expertise?” Like many people, builders gravitate towards things they love.  Some become experts in energy-efficient homes, while some are experts in exquisitely fine finishing details.  If you are looking for something very specific in your new home that is very valuable to you, find a builder who can satisfy that desire, without sacrificing quality in other areas.
• “Do you have insurance and warranty, and what is covered?” Your builder should have liability insurance in case a mistake is made that can become a problem.  Especially for custom builders, do they carry Course of Construction insurance?  COC policies will cover typical perils like fire during construction, so that you don’t have that worry.  One area often overlooked is workers compensation insurance.  Check the legislation where you live – often, if you are the property owner, you are responsible for everyone’s health and safety.  Many contractors will assume that liability from you as part of their contract, providing immense peace of mind.  A lawsuit against you in case someone gets hurt building your home is avoidable.  Good contractors make sure workers are working safely, and are covered by their policy. As far as warranty goes, your builder should offer at least a five-year structural warranty along with everything covered the first year.  Some warranty providers will also cover things like water infiltration, systems coverage, and various lengths of coverage.  Some provinces now have mandatory new home warranty; regardless, ask questions so you are clear as to what is covered and what is not.
• “What professional associations do you belong to?” To me, this is an indication of a builder’s willingness to stay on top of current trends, building codes, and best practices.  My parents told me to surround myself with people who I want to be like.  Professional builders understand the importance of belonging to their local Home Builders Association or Construction Association, the Chamber of Commerce, Holmes Approved Homes program, or similar professional groups.
• “Can I speak to some references?” Professional builders will have developed a good reputation over time and will be able to put you in touch with a few clients.  Ask them what their experience was like, and don’t just look for the good stuff.  Ask how the builder was able to address and rectify challenges that came up during construction.  This will give you a feel for how they will be able to handle challenges with you.  Online reviews can be valuable as well; be aware that they can more easily be manipulated or outright fake.  Don’t use them as a substitute for talking to real, live people!

Of course, ask any other questions of your builder that you think are important.  This list is not meant to be all, but what I believe will capture the important aspects of your builder.  It’s a consequential relationship – don’t go on a blind date!  Be prepared, and look forward with excitement to moving day!

Dan Yungwirth
General Manager

But, who checks the builder?  After all, we are all human and make mistakes despite our best intentions.  Of course, municipalities are the Authority Having Jurisdiction under the National Building Code.  So, houses have to undergo municipal progress inspections at different stages such as foundation, framing, and others up to completion.  These are vital inspections.  But, municipal inspectors check to make sure your house is built to minimum building code only.  What if you want your house to go beyond minimum code?  Holmes Approved Homes Builders implement additional third-party inspections.  These inspectors are independent of the builder and importantly, are experts in their field.  They are building scientists.  So, they not only look for minimum code, they look for “best practices.”  Best practice building means that the builder is looking to improve materials and processes so you get a house that is more sturdy, lasts longer, is more energy-efficient, and requires less maintenance over the long run than a code-built home.

Holmes Approved Homes Inspections can be customized from three inspections to as many as six inspections, covering everything from foundation, energy efficiency, roofing, and healthy home aspects among others.  One of the most valuable that we have found is the thermographic scan.  The Holmes inspector scans the whole home with an infrared camera to find potential insulation deficiencies.  It even helped us find a tiny water leak on a new home that probably would have gone undetected for a long time!  Speaking for ourselves at Miller Contracting, we have certainly utilized the expertise of our inspectors to improve the way we do certain things during a build.  This means that we can be confident that when we turn a home over, we can be confident we are turning over a well-built home that will last.  Most important though, is that the new homeowners can be confident that their new Miller Contracting home is well-built and that nagging feeling stays away with the excitement of a new home remaining for a long time.

Dan Yungwirth
General Manager