home builder dilemma.

[HowardH]

Ok.  You have two home builders to choose from and only these two:

Tommy Silva
Mike Holmes

Who do you choose to build your house? That would be a tough decision.

 

[Cheese]

I’d go with Mike, he seems a bit more progressive. More of a match for my style.  [smile]

This will be interesting...[popcorn]

 

[MaineShop]

Nothing against Mike Holmes, but its Tommy all the way for me. Its not even close.

 

[deepcreek]

Tom Silva by a mile.  I've met the man.  He is the real deal.

 

[HowardH]

Tommy is a master at restoration of the New England style house. Mike is really great at finding issues in existing houses and then over engineering solutions to correct. Both are fantastic in their respective wheelhouses.

 

[DeformedTree]

it's hard because they work in different worlds.

Tommy works on really old stuff, uses old methods, which is fine, if that is what you want.  Things like he go to great strides to manage water on the outside of the building using good layers/techniques.

Holmes also does good stuff and also focus on the shell of the house. He tends to solve things via modern products, which again can be ok.  I think there is also the issue that we see Holmes working with vendors to offset cost for the show. Where TOH is more of an advert for over the top appliances and products for their sponsors.  No real idea what each would use on their own.

Since we tend to see one do repairs and the other do rebuilds, it's hard to compare how they would do both new.  I think ideal would be in the middle someplace. 

Big thing would be who is designing the house? I wouldn't let Holmes make any style/design choices. He also tends to like things that others would not (vinyl windows). His sense of design/style tends to be bad, which later shows look like he finally addressed and now uses designers.

If you are building a modern high efficiency type home, (say concrete construction), go with Holmes.  If you want say a more classic style home, maybe a timber frame, etc. Go with Tommy.

Both do good work, both have short comings.  Also which country are you building in.  It would be interesting to see them work on a house together, or "compete". Maybe have Mike build the structure, Tommy do the finish work.

 

[squall_line]

I'd have Tommy do most of the work, but definitely let Mike install the electrical panel and spray foam insulation.  [big grin]

 

[peter halle]

Mr. Silva by a huge margin.  If I could afford him.  Details matter later down the road.

Peter

 

[jimbo51]

On an Ask This Old House show, Tommy Silva used a circular saw to trim a piece of flooring he was holding in his hand. Doing that on camera in a show that many DIYers watch showed an incredible lack of judgement. The fact that that segment went on the air showed a lack of judgement on part of the producers.

 

[DeformedTree]

On an Ask This Old House show, Tommy Silva used a circular saw to trim a piece of flooring he was holding in his hand. Doing that on camera in a show that many DIYers watch showed an incredible lack of judgement. The fact that that segment went on the air showed a lack of judgement on part of the producers.

TOH/ATOH are famous for doing sketchy things with powertools, and generally not showing safe practices. Holmes to his credit push safety all over the place on the show. You see helmets, mask, professional remediation crews, bring in an engineer, use the right tool heavily on his shows.  While this is a drift from the question being asked, no one wants to see anyone hurt/killed building the home they live in.

TOH has got better over time showing stuff. I suspect the regs of Canada/funding stream have forced Holmes shows to be sure to show safety more. Again we have no idea how these 2 would function off camera.

 

[MaineShop]

As someone who is on professional jobsites every day, if seeing a quick cordless cut without supporting the board was the worst thing I saw that would be a really safe day. To be fair I do that cut pretty often when I am working on my knees.