The Government Approved THIS? Mike Exposes the Truth | Holmes Makes It Right 108

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Imagine buying a house. Everything's been renovated. Everything is new.

[00:00:05]Everything is >> [music] >> perfect. And even got title insurance to cover you just in case.

[00:00:10]And your world is pulled out from under you as soon as you pull down a piece of drywall.

[00:00:14]>> At first we didn't think it was that serious. It was just looked bad.

[00:00:17]>> Once we took down the walls, we realized there were all these other structural problems.

[00:00:21]>> Call the insurance company. Hey, do you cover things like this? Oh, yes we do.

[00:00:24]That's why you have title insurance.

[00:00:25]>> The catch-22 is that the [music] title insurance policy won't come into effect without a work order.

[00:00:31]>> city till this day, despite all the evidence that we have, refuses to step on my property to actually visit the home and determine whether uh >> [music] >> it's fit for habitation. This is a title fight.

[00:00:42]That title insurance, they're not claiming to pay? Okay.

[00:00:55]>> [music] [music] [music] >> We met in 2005.

[00:01:14]After 3 years we got engaged and we're looking for a house. We looked all over the city actually and this is one of the our favorite neighborhoods. [music] We're not really suburban people so you know we do like having restaurants everywhere and being close to amenities.

[00:01:28]So it's it's a great neighborhood. The neighbors are awesome. Rocco. Hi, how are you? Mike, nice to meet you.

[00:01:33]>> Very nice to meet you. And Stephanie?

[00:01:34]Hi. [laughter] How are you?

[00:01:36]>> Nice to meet you. How long How long?

[00:01:37]When? Uh six and a half months now. So yeah.

[00:01:41]>> Six and a half months.

[00:01:42]Rocco and Stephanie, nice couple. I mean they got a baby on the way. They've had this house for almost 4 years now. They looked at many homes. This is a really nice neighborhood. I can tell they're picky people. They you know they're very clean. The inside of the house is spotless. Here's Stephanie going, "Well, I saw the rag over there." I said, "I can tell you're clean." Okay, [snorts] what have you done at the house so far cuz I know why I'm here.

[00:02:02]>> Nothing. You've done nothing. We painted pretty much painted. That's pretty much You haven't built a deck. You haven't done anything. Anything.

[00:02:09]When you bought this house, I'm going to assume that the real estate agent said, "Oh, all new renos, new electrical, new basement, new new new." Which for us was a big selling feature. And I don't know much about construction or you know repairing.

[00:02:26]Uh the appeal the house was that it was completely renovated.

[00:02:28]>> It really seemed like a place where we could raise a family. It had everything we wanted. Honestly, you walk in the house and you see a tall ceilings. You see beautiful old character. It's It looks really good. But I look at the side of the house and I see three meters. Actually there's two meters and one capped off. That tells me this was a triplex. And your heating in the house is we have a wall system here. It's a called a wall furnace.

[00:02:50]>> I don't see any registers so I'm going to assume you don't have any forced air.

[00:02:53]So you have one on each floor? Yes.

[00:02:56]>> Okay.

[00:02:57]Uh but I hear we have a big issue with the basement. And am I going to like be surprised when I walk downstairs?

[00:03:02]>> I think you it'd be I would be surprised if you weren't surprised, put it that way.

[00:03:06]>> [laughter] >> We wanted to soundproof the basement because we were planning on having a family. We wanted a nanny suite. It was supposed to be just a simple take down the drywall in the ceiling, install some uh some insulation and some uh resilient channels. Pretty much a week max. And a year later and here we are.

[00:03:25]All right, that's jammed.

[00:03:26]And I can see the wear here. And I'm wondering why we're walking outside to go to the basement. Because there's no entrance to the basement.

[00:03:33]>> Now I know for a fact, I don't care if this house was 100 years old, I know for a fact there was a set of stairs inside the home that led to the basement.

[00:03:39]>> probably was.

[00:03:42]So this the basement a little bit of work. Okay.

[00:03:46]Nothing holding this.

[00:03:47]>> No, there's nothing there. Well, that's not a good sign. Why did you take everything down? Because of the smell.

[00:03:53]We found mold, took down the ceiling and one thing led to another.

[00:03:58]>> There was mold [music] throughout the walls, not just the ceilings but everywhere.

[00:04:01]>> We just had to gut everything. Paint looks good. New floors look good. New cabinets look good. Beyond that, that's my world. And my world may you know it's kind of sickening because when I take things down I go, "Look. Look. Look."

[00:04:14]And somebody's dug this out here because we have a new ABS vertical pipe.

[00:04:19]>> The floor was dug out at some point. So [music] um the foundation was below the level of the footings. The previous homeowner had dug down and lowered the basement floor to below the foundation footings. This means nothing is preventing soil and water from entering the basement and undermining the load-bearing walls directly above. We have to find a way to stop erosion and support the footings.

[00:04:41]If we don't, the results could be catastrophic. The first reaction was just scared and then trying to figure out how serious this was. Looking at a brick foundation now that's undermining at the footing area, is that an issue?

[00:04:53]Yes, that's an issue. It needs to be addressed. Something you can't just close [music] in and say everything's fine. this looked beautiful when you came into the house, right? You were like, "It's sold. I want it."

[00:05:03]>> Yeah, we we definitely felt like it was a beautiful house and we had faith that the person had done the renovations properly. So when we found all of this out, it was really upsetting. We did feel violated. We felt like, you know, they knowingly sold us this this house and had just repaired it so that we wouldn't find out what was actually wrong with it.

[00:05:25]>> Nothing's really shifting except the front. Surprisingly, this area here is the biggest area that that has not fallen down. I'm really surprised with that. Every time we had someone new come in to give an opinion, they'd find more and more things that were more more serious in nature.

[00:05:40]>> Between uh renovator and a city inspector not doing his or her job and um uh you know, there's so many people in the mix had being able to do this to us.

[00:05:51]I just I took it personally and so pretty angry.

[00:05:56]So they've 2 by 4'd your floor over top of the old planking. Kind of ingenious.

[00:06:01]I've never seen it done before.

[00:06:03]>> I get worried when Mike Holmes says this is not something you've [laughter] seen before.

[00:06:06]No, no. Actually that's Whoever done this, somebody you know years ago this was beautiful. This was beautiful. It's really a true 2 by 8. This was [music] stairs.

[00:06:16]I've always believed that title insurance was a great product. I know that it's a one-time cost and that you know it's supposed to protect you for the lifetime that you own the house and your heirs. So to me it was a no-brainer. Uh it covers any structural repair that required a permit or work [music] that was done without permits and it was not done properly. It should be black and white. Title insurance is a good thing to have because it can help cover you in problems just like this one, structural defects. However, the title insurance won't cover this one until they get a work order from the city. That's a problem. The city is the one that signed off on the home being renovated in 2004.

[00:06:59]But they're also the uh the party that actually has to trigger this title insurance. The city came and inspected the work that was done in 2004. Now they're being asked to come back and give a report that it's defective. Does anyone see a problem here? We contacted [music] the city countless times. We contacted different building departments by phone, by email. We contacted [music] our city councilor. We've contacted um all kinds of people.

[00:07:24]>> ombudsman.

[00:07:24]>> The city ombudsman.

[00:07:26]>> And the city till this day, despite all the evidence that we have, refuses to step on my property to actually visit the home and determine whether uh it's fit for habitation.

[00:07:36]>> The building services department at first said things like, "Oh, we'll come next week. We'll we'll get back to you."

[00:07:42]Um and then eventually they said it was with their legal department and at that point we looked at each other and said, "Why would it be with the legal department? That doesn't make any sense." The city's not going to come back in and say the work they've already already passed is defective. Why?

[00:07:55]Because it holds them liable. We got a lot of digging to do. I'm going to have to bring in a lot of people and I haven't even seen the rest of your house yet.

[00:08:02]I'm a little nervous. Yeah, me neither.

[00:08:04]It makes me feel small.

[00:08:06]>> I'm grateful for Mike to come and help us out. But at the end of the day I don't uh I think title insurance and the city should have get their act together and help not only us cuz we're I doubt we're the only people in the city that uh are facing a similar similar circumstance.

[00:08:23]At this time I want to focus on my baby, signing up for baby and me classes. And all we're doing is focusing on, >> [music] >> you know, this nightmare with the city.

[00:08:34]Jim. Hi Mike, how are you? I'm doing good.

[00:08:37]So what do we have here?

[00:08:39]Let me show you.

[00:08:42]This is the only entrance to the basement. I can see right here the round top which means this was a basement window. They do have a beam across here.

[00:08:50]This is original this beam in here. But nothing's holding the brick. Definitely it's already starting to move so we got to go even support that with something.

[00:08:58]>> Something temporary so it doesn't fall on anyone's head. Let's talk about the floor joists for a sec. I'm about a 16-ft span here and I notice this is the old fairly old 2 by 8 with 2 by 4 top then plank flooring. And then I looked down the path here and I go, "There used to be a beam here." Or a load-bearing wall. One or the other.

[00:09:15]Something. Yeah, but I mean >> Definitely been something here.

[00:09:17]>> I'd almost say a beam looking by It would have had to have been something here for this span given the depth of these joists.

[00:09:22]>> 16 ft's not good. Absolutely not.

[00:09:24]>> Looking at the span of the floor joists and knowing there was a beam in place and somebody pulled that out, it's just like, "Oh."

[00:09:31]Who needs a beam? It looks like we've got a bit of a stone foundation and then brick on top.

[00:09:34]>> Yeah, again it's not everywhere. We're going to see brick. Come on over here.

[00:09:38]We can see the continuation on the wall you were just in in the bathroom.

[00:09:41]>> Look at this. I know. When you see a step like this, it's a settlement or a shift. And a corner is a typical area that a house will shift. The good sign is there's no horizontal cracks. It's a It's a thick wall. But this is saying there's something going on here. Uh water's been getting in. It's kind of washing away the soil.

[00:09:57]>> And when we look under the wall here, Oh, jeez. completely rotted out. So, close to condemned, close. If we were to leave these areas for a prolonged period of time, it could get progressively worse. And the unfortunate thing about clay brick and stone foundation is that when it does fail, it's instantaneous and without warning. So, what do you think? A benching or an underpinning am I going to have to do here? If we're just doing it for stabilization and and and to try to fix up these footings, then we'll really do a bench, but we'll just underpin a little bit. So, we've identified a few areas. We've got some step cracking showing settlement. We can deal with that. We have an area of the footing that looks like the bearings kind of given way. We can deal with that as well. But, we've caught it early enough.

[00:10:38]Now, what I'm looking at what I believe at one time is the footing.

[00:10:43]So, I brought in an engineer. I'm bringing in you. What Right now, Martin's here, too, and we're going to be going through checking all the plumbing in the basement, all the drainage, and all the weep holes. Okay.

[00:10:52]Benching is a process of stabilizing the foundation, and in some cases you do it to to gain more head height. So, our bench pin is going to come out, and it's going to go down. We're going to install our weeping tile at the base of the bench. [music] The weeping tile is going to have a gravel bed around it, filter cloth underneath it to make sure no sediment comes up from beneath the pipe, and then [music] we're going to put a drainage membrane down this foundation over the benched area and over the weeping tile. Weeping tile is a perforated pipe that runs along the footings of inside or the normally the outside of your home. It doesn't matter, one of the other. It's designed is to grab the water and disperse it out to the city sewers or sump pump so you don't flood your basement. Hey, Mike.

[00:11:33]Welcome back. What a wonderful basement [laughter] another job, huh? So, my big wish list is to confirm that we have an exterior weeping. I think over the years someone has dug down on the outside of the house, reparaged it, put in an exterior, because I'm looking at little pipe sticking out the wall. You see that little pipe there?

[00:11:49]>> Yes, yes. And I think that was an old weeping system allowed the water to come into inside the house and go into the floor drain. Currently, with our current code, floor drains are only used for any water that spills on the floor. In the past, previous code was allowing the weeping tile and storm water to be draining into the floor drain, right?

[00:12:07]Hopefully, the drain's been upgraded underground, which would Make it easier on us. Make it easier on us, right? Did they affect the run of the drain out? And we won't know that until you >> Until I scope it, yeah. Okay.

[00:12:21]So, I'm running a video camera through this cleanout that I discovered at the side of the house, and I'm running it to determine whether I do have a weeping tile system on the outside or whether this cleanout takes me to the inside and it connects [music] to the sanitary line. What I will need is to have someone flush the toilet. This will indicate [music] that this line is connected directly at the bottom of the stack. And it's part of the sanitary line. Can you flush the toilet in the basement, please?

[00:12:49]There's the water. So, that tells us this is a sanitary drain and not a weeping tile. The homeowners make a fundamental mistake by flushing a toilet, running a sink, and that [music] gives them a belief that everything is fine underground. And it takes 20 or 30 ft of drain that's 4 in in diameter to fill with water first before they would actually have a backup in the house.

[00:13:10]As I push the camera forward out to the street, this is a cleanout right at the top here, which is on the front lawn.

[00:13:18]And then past that few feet, this is the city line already.

[00:13:21]>> We're not seeing anything to do with a weeping tile We don't see anything in this line. Yeah. I'm going to have them break an area on this side of the house to see if there's an interior weeper.

[00:13:29]The floor drain's been upgraded. Now, I need to run a camera through that floor drain and see if anything connects to it.

[00:13:34]>> Let's do that first. Okay? No problem.

[00:13:36]Thank you. Okay.

[00:13:41]This is my basement toilet.

[00:13:46]So, based on the camera inspection, there's no exterior [music] weeping tile, there's no interior weeping tile system. This is not a good news for Mike. Today was the most comparative day to do what I need to do. That's investigative work. I need to find out where the drains are. Do we have a a weeping system interior, exterior?

[00:14:02]What's the plumbing like in the floor?

[00:14:04]What's the structure like? Bringing in Colin, bringing in Martin, and making the next call on what we need to do.

[00:14:10]Now, I have a side drain that I know that runs out to the street.

[00:14:14]>> Mhm. When in all of these houses, it was at the front of the house. That's correct, yeah. So, this is quite possible that when they did the supposed reno, that they abandoned everything else, and ran a whole new line path of least resistance come to the side of the house.

[00:14:28]>> Very possible. Where does that Where the hell does that go? Give me another 5 minutes. I'll test this, and I'll get to the bottom of it. It's bad enough there's not a weeping system to control the outside environment of weather, but to close in that basement with it the foundation literally falling apart is psychotic.

[00:14:47]>> I'm going to have to do an interior weeping and a sump pit. Yeah. Or a sump pump. I would I would definitely recommend keeping the house off the grid. If we manage our own storm water in this house and spill it onto green space, it takes us away from the mercy of the city's infrastructure, which we know is having a problem with high volumes of storm water. So, front of the house, we got to find a spot that I can eject it summer and winter. It's working on the inside. Let's do it the way they should have done it in the first place, and solve all the other freaking issues.

[00:15:17]Please let me know about that drain. I will. Thank you. No worries.

[00:15:21]So, I got my locator with me. Now, the head of the camera sends a magnetic signal.

[00:15:25]It's the sound of the pitch that gives me an indication that I'm over the head of the camera. I do not have drawings to play with. Video camera and locator is the only tool I can use to map out the entire system underground. The fear I have is the line could be either on the inside or outside. And if the line is on the outside, it changes the story.

[00:15:48]Found it? I'm tracing it. 5 minutes.

[00:15:51]Well, it's 4 minutes only, right? So, No, no, it's It's 40 minutes. It's like Come on.

[00:16:02]It is actually running outside.

[00:16:04]I have my san main sanitary line running on the exterior wall.

[00:16:09]And I and I don't have direct access to it unless I excavate on the outside of the house. So, I can abandon the line here, do new roughing, excavate outside, tie directly into that. So, that's the good news. Yes, they did new plumbing in the floor.

[00:16:24]That's That's clear, but why didn't they control the water around the house from outdoor environment, snow, rain?

[00:16:32]If you don't do that, where does it go?

[00:16:34]Into the basement. Now, we're going to As long as the plumbing works, that's my main point.

[00:16:42]>> [music] >> I couldn't sleep for the first month.

[00:16:47]Comes like waking up in the middle of the night.

[00:16:49]>> Basically, our foundation is sitting on nothing except the soil. Title insurance is not going to pay for it because permits were pulled on the job.

[00:16:56]Who's going to pay?

[00:16:57]No one.

[00:16:58]But, we're in here taking a look at the basement, and the problems that I'm seeing here really is a little bit of structure. Somebody finished the basement, didn't know what they were doing. Whoops. When we look in this little room, watch your head.

[00:17:09]Oh, there we go. Yeah. [laughter] That's a little better. Something I don't see too often is this style of a heating system.

[00:17:16]>> I've never seen one before. This is new for me. I personally wouldn't run it in a house like this. If they've gone to the extent of reno You should see upstairs, it actually looks really good.

[00:17:23]>> Really? If they've gone to the extent of renovating the whole house, what dummy says, you know, "Well, let's go ahead and put all these in."

[00:17:30]>> Look at the mold on the cabinet. This was like the perfect storm for mold because no furnace, no air circulation in here, and a leaky foundation. The moisture was just sitting in this house.

[00:17:38]>> Correct. So, we're probably going to bring in Gary. We're going to run it upstairs, give them a forced air system.

[00:17:44]They have a baby coming in the next 10 days. We want to clean the air, clean the environment, and They live in here?

[00:17:50]Uh they're living here. And Gary's running duct work upstairs. Yeah, but we may have to kick them out for the Yeah.

[00:17:56]So, here we go again.

[00:17:58]One more basement RENO. HERE WE GO.

[00:18:01]YEAH.

[00:18:03]I WANT THIS WALL LEFT IN PLACE, SO DROP ALL THE DRYWALL, all the drywall, all the drywall. Knock this wall out. I want to see behind that wall right there.

[00:18:10]Want to make sure that we displace load across that doorway. The back room Rocco really wanted his own little poker room. Okay. We're going to change it around, small kitchenette, definitely a bathroom. For now, for our safety, let's do a top piece in here with two vertical posts just to hold this and keep it from falling down. Good idea.

[00:18:28]A header is something that will support a load.

[00:18:31]And in this case, this header is supporting all of this brick that looks like it's ready to come right down on your noggin.

[00:18:45]Ready? 1 2 3 Three guys can push over a wall.

[00:18:50]It's supposed to be holding all this back. We are pretty huge. I mean, yeah, we're pretty strong, but So, we took this out because we're going to do some plumbing, I think some foundation work, and then put in a new deck.

[00:19:02]It looks like we have removed the front porch. [snorts] Yeah, cuz after Martin has to dig, he's got to dig right there. So, he was into half of that porch.

[00:19:11]So, what that's going to do is allow them to fix this area inside and out, and we'll go [snorts] out that way cuz we're going to put in a sump pump.

[00:19:17]>> Yeah.

[00:19:21]So, this was a window more than likely.

[00:19:23]They ain't not broken on this side. We have a structural piece of wood in there. You think there was a permit on this? Yes. You're kidding me. No.

[00:19:30]Is it open still? No.

[00:19:32]It's a closed permit on this house.

[00:19:34]>> Yes.

[00:19:35]Okay. Thank you. Some things get hidden.

[00:19:38]Yeah. All I know is we're here.

[00:19:41]Uh it's a bad time. So, lose everything.

[00:19:42]Okay.

[00:19:45]So, here we go again. I've said it a million times. I'm going to take all this down. I'm going to take it to the graveyard. All the drywall, all the siding, it's all going. not because I just want to do it, it's because it needs to be done.

[00:19:58]You look hot. Happy birthday to you.

[00:20:00]>> I know, I I keep thinking boat Go TO MY BOAT.

[00:20:08]WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO FIRST is we're going to chip this floor out and we're going to go in a horseshoe shape with the footprint of the basement.

[00:20:14]We're going to come out about 18 in and [music] we're going to dig it down about 8 or 9 in past the top of this floor.

[00:20:21]Once we've got the area trenched, we're going to form it so we can bench pin this [music] basement.

[00:20:28]This PVC pipe is [music] going right through the foundation to the other side. When Marcin comes, he's going to have to redirect all of this plumbing.

[00:20:36]>> [music] >> Right now, we have no choice but to cut this right out of the way so we can get our forms in so we can pour. There's definitely [music] never any time you should be removing the bottom portion of a stone rubble foundation under any [music] circumstance.

[00:20:55]This area [music] is worse than the rest. We had to have the engineer in and we had to have all of this formed [music] and have the steel work done to his spec. So, it is going to be a bench, but it's going to be much taller than the benches we've already installed and it's [music] going to step down and it's coming about 18 in from the wall. That's just to ensure that it's got maximum lateral pressure and it keeps this part of the foundation stable.

[00:21:19]We've got all the concrete in. We're just putting the finishing touches on the surface.

[00:21:23]We're going to come back in a couple of days once the concrete's cured. We're going to rip out the floor. We're going to install the weeping tile system and get this basement stable and dry.

[00:21:34]What?

[00:21:40]I have to say congratulations to you both. This is unbelievable. But now you got to move out of the house for a bit.

[00:21:46]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's For his sake.

[00:21:48]Yes. Sounds nice. Okay, we'll see you soon.

[00:21:50]>> Yeah.

[00:21:54]Come on down, guys. Let's get this moving.

[00:22:11]We were hoping and scheduled to get this done today. It's not going to be possible.

[00:22:16]We've come across this This is the thickest bit of concrete I have ever seen in my life inside a basement. This is definitely going to take another 4 or 5 hours to get out of the ground.

[00:22:26]There's no way around it.

[00:22:37]We've got a line going this way for about 8 ft and it just stops dead. And then we've got the main line running out through the house where appears to be the second worst spot of this foundation.

[00:22:49]So, we're going to take a hammer and chisel and we're just going to put a bit of a V into this joint so we can get the slick in here. You pre-soak this area.

[00:22:58]You let the brick get wet. Once the brick is already absorbed that water, then you can start the tuckpointing process.

[00:23:06]We're going to use hydraulic cement to repair this area. Hydraulic cement is a very fast-setting masonry product.

[00:23:12]You've probably got about 2 minutes to work with it from the time you mix it till the time it sets up and turns harder than rock.

[00:23:23]So, right now we're just placing our filter fabric. It's just going to make sure that 30 years from now sediment is not making it through the weeping tile.

[00:23:31]We're using weeping tile that's got a nylon sock on it already, but at this point it doesn't hurt to take an extra preventative measure and put some filter cloth down.

[00:23:40]>> [snorts] >> Once we've got all of this finished, we're going to cover this [music] with a gravel bed and then we're going to put our drainage membrane from the weeping tile right up the foundation to the grade level.

[00:23:51]The idea is the water is going to come down the foundation. It's going to go over where we've beveled. So, anything that travels under here has no choice but to be redirected into the weeping tile.

[00:24:04]It looks like everywhere this foundation was compromised was directly related to the plumbing. Everything.

[00:24:11]Coming back from the original trap was that piece of cast and the end of it was just like you see it now. Just a broken pipe going nowhere.

[00:24:22]Little signs. The stairs are on the outside of the house, that means think, right? The stairs weren't on the outside of the house to get to the basement years ago. They were inside the house.

[00:24:32]So, something's happened. Something's changed. Real estate saying all new house, all new electrical, all new plumbing. This is a not all new. This is an all new cover-up. And then you see the gas heating. If they renovated the house, why would they install little gas space heaters rather than running in a furnace with duct work?

[00:24:51]Because they're cutting corners. That's why. Now, something's I'm in bed last night and I'm thinking I know Colin's doing the the the basement and everything and it's clicking into me. We're going to call this the office now. The room back there. That years ago they got a permit to do this [music] this area, right? I saw I saw the drawings.

[00:25:09]>> Yeah. And they go ahead and they put everything in. No weepers, right? As we both know, a lot of stuff notoriously in the '80s and a lot of inspections were missed. That's a lot of the stuff we fix today. So, it's it's a lot of times if there's something questionable that that's not done that was in the drawing, I like to find out when was it done because [music] usually that helps us figure out why.

[00:25:33]It always gets left in the hands of the person who buys the house. You buy a new fridge and the fridge doesn't work, they're going to replace the fridge. And we can move higher to a car, right?

[00:25:42]They're going to fix the car. It's a brand new car, but it died on the highway. They fix the car. You buy the most expensive investment of your life, a house like this, and it's your problem.

[00:25:57]Today we're sistering up these old floor joists.

[00:26:01]The electricians were here yesterday.

[00:26:03]They pulled out all the existing wires.

[00:26:05]Plumbers were here the day before. They pulled all their pipes out. We've got Derek going ahead of us. He's cleaning out the joist space.

[00:26:11]They'll go up pretty quick actually, just two of us.

[00:26:14]The original span here, 16 ft, is too big to not have some [music] sort of support, whether it be a sister joist or a a dividing wall in it.

[00:26:21]We're using the laser to level the entire ceiling. And what that does is we'll take a consistent measurement everywhere.

[00:26:29]Good.

[00:26:32]This is a tuna.

[00:26:34]Chicken of the sea.

[00:26:39]When I speak, I speak English. You know, I tell you what's right, what's wrong. I got to take it down. I've got to fix this. What I need to do.

[00:26:47]If I was an insurance company, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to cover. I'm going to cover this. I'm going to cover that. You get this, you're on your own.

[00:26:51]And this is exactly the kind of work it should have covered. So, we're we've been let down and I think we really need to keep pursuing this.

[00:27:00]>> [music] [music] >> So, I have the guys excavating outside.

[00:27:17]What I would ask you is if you can start digging here and tunnel out as far as you can. And while the excavation outside is taking place, we'll tunnel underneath and we'll try to meet and so [music] that it would allow us to run the new line.

[00:27:36]>> [music] >> Hey.

[00:27:50]I meet a lot of people that they they either say this, Mike, I know you know what you're doing, do it. Surprise me.

[00:27:57]And then I meet the people that and I like it. Don't get me wrong cuz I like to educate that say, I really want to see it. It's my house. I don't you know, I'm a little nervous about what you're doing. So, I decided to call Rocco in one, let him get to see this great fine job that what we're doing and just how bad it really was. And two, explain in detail what it takes to do things properly.

[00:28:18]>> They told you it was all new plumbing.

[00:28:19]Yeah, they told me it was redone in '06, I think. 2006.

[00:28:23]>> only were the old pipes full of crap, so were they. What they did was they left the old pipes in the floor, didn't even block the end. They just tapped into it and you were literally bleeding poo Yeah. under your floor. Lovely. It It shocks me that someone can do this and get away with it.

[00:28:40]Um but I'm I'm sure I'm just one case of millions that happen every day. We were outside and an older woman came up and very old actually and says, "What are you doing here? I used to live in this house."

[00:28:52]>> Oh, no way. Yes. And she said, "Do you know when my father was here, he built a boat in the basement so big he couldn't take it out. He had to take a part of a wall down." You're saying this was torn down and put back up?

[00:29:04]>> No, I think this area was. Remember, this was a porch. This was a porch.

[00:29:09]>> A lot of people have seen this. This has gone through a lot of eyes. A lot of hands have seen it have have looked at it and not one person until now has told me the how extreme or how bad it was.

[00:29:20]And and we thought it was bad. So, just seeing this now just just shocks me. I'm actually afraid to buy a new house now. I want to live here forever. You know I can't turn this into a basement apartment because it's great that you have a separate entrance, but every bedroom must have an egress window. We should be separating the heating, separating the electrical. This is what I came up with. One, furnace room over here. Okay. Two, we'll do a kitchenette because we have a window.

[00:29:44]So, a nice kitchenette across here. The laundry room in the corner is going to be attached with the sump pump that we must have. The bathroom will be here cuz we have a window here.

[00:29:55]That room back there can be your office, or it can be your man cave. You can play poker in there and everything. Perfect.

[00:30:07]That bucket's embarrassing.

[00:30:09]It's a bad way to kill time by kicking dirt in the hole.

[00:30:13]I'll race you see who can fill the hole faster.

[00:30:26]>> [music] [music] >> Now, what's my overall width? Overall now on the inside is just over 14 ft.

[00:30:44]You have 14 ft two. Honestly, I would have liked the walls a little closer in because we're losing a bit of space here, but we have to remember I'm benching the bottom. So, here's our foundation wall, then it comes out and here's our bench. Do you stud back and leave leave a curb that's going to be in the way and we still have to address it, but the guys automatically came to the outside of the bench. But, I'm just wondering if we push this one in. Did you screw that to the bottom? What did you do?

[00:31:11]>> It's not moving. It's got It's got got to be cut away. Okay, and I'd rather we didn't take that off because what that's going to do is weaken our footing. Mhm.

[00:31:19]My guys, they're very happy when they read my mind because I think I've taught them enough and they've been with me enough they know what I'm thinking. They know when I need a hammer. They know different ways that I want things. They did this with confidence that they know it's going to work, that they know it's right because that's how I taught them.

[00:31:35]Try not to do bulkheads. Try not to do curbs. So, maybe I threw a curveball at them.

[00:31:41]Oh, what I need you to do in this case is mimic that wall right there. Only the double top plate won't be in. I was going to lose that whole top thing and pocket a header right up in it.

[00:31:51]>> afraid to make suggestions and that's important. Just cuz I'm the general contractor doesn't mean I'm just going to Just listen to me. Don't don't add anything. Give me your input because it might be a freaking good idea and I might just say do it.

[00:32:04]I'm completely surprised. I thought it was literally just a just a quick underpinning job. I thought we'd be back in the house in in about a month, nothing a bit.

[00:32:12]Looks like it's going to be a little longer.

[00:32:18]How many renovations is too much? And you think about it, has this house been renovated over and over again? The answer is absolutely yes. It's old. And the last renovation was the bad one.

[00:32:31]We've laid down a layer of InsulTarp right on the subsoil to act as a vapor barrier and insulation blanket.

[00:32:39]My guys then pour Agilia, a very fluid type of concrete.

[00:32:44]It flows almost like water, so you have to anticipate the leading edge.

[00:32:50]We're pouring Agilia and I love it.

[00:32:54]We're using 2-in line and look how easy it is to handle. Yeah.

[00:33:00]This is a 400 sq ft basement [music] that we basically prepped, poured, and finished within an hour.

[00:33:06]We then spray curing compound on top to keep the surface from cracking during the drying process.

[00:33:13]Well, the concrete's had a couple days to cure now, so we're able to come back, cut back what we had covered up, sump pit, the cleanout valves and everything, and we're going to start framing. The kitchen guy's coming today. He's going to measure this area here, get prepped for his cabinets, his countertops, and everything, so that's ready to go. And then Northwood's going to be here and they'll start laying out their furnace room. We'll be done this framing today with the exception of bulkheads.

[00:33:43]This pipe here is for the toilet flange.

[00:33:45]Because when the toilet flange goes in, it's got a V-shape underneath it.

[00:33:49]We wrapped this pipe to give it a bit of a joint, just a little bit of room let the flange [music] go in and sit down where it's supposed to. This is sill gasket. Anytime we have wood touching concrete, we want to put sill gasket in between. [music] It's creating a barrier, not allowing any water or moisture to get to the wood.

[00:34:05]Nice.

[00:34:08]Framing is actually probably one of my favorite parts of [music] the job. You know, you kind of see everything open and then once you frame it up, it it really shows you the big picture.

[00:34:15]Working with wood's always fun. I don't know what it is.

[00:34:21]>> [music] >> Well, I like the design of these doors.

[00:34:25]>> Yeah. The shaker double step. Yeah. You can see it.

[00:34:28]>> And the gable would be the darker color today.

[00:34:30]>> I want it framed the fridge as well.

[00:34:32]Okay. So, we're going to need wires going uh to the shelves.

[00:34:36]Okay. We're going to go with the base cabinets chestnut, the crowns and the floating shelves all nut as well. Yeah.

[00:34:42]And uh we'll get that going into production right away. Perfect. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. All right. Thanks.

[00:34:47]Thank you. Okay. [laughter] Rocco and Stephanie contracted HVAC ductwork to be installed throughout the rest of the home at the same time.

[00:34:55]It was a smart move, but it's impacting on our work in the basement.

[00:34:59]Well, right now HVAC's kind of leading the way. Everybody gets worked around them. They've got to start from the top down and drop into the basement. From there, they run their trunks and connect to the furnace. In the basement, there ended up being bulkheads that maybe the customer might not be happy about, but at the end of the day, [music] they're going to be warm on that third floor.

[00:35:18]They're going to be warm throughout the rest of the house. If you got to create a bulkhead in the basement to get my ductwork in, so be Oh, we might have a short door down here. is a very time-sensitive product and this is great. This is It loaded at 8:39, he's on here at 9:20. Like, that's perfect.

[00:35:40]Concrete's one of those industries where a lot of people think they can do it.

[00:35:44]It's very easy. It's been done for thousands of years, but to do it right takes a bit of work. It's labor-intensive. It takes a lot to know what to do and it's very easy to cut corners because nothing underneath is ever seen. This is just a pad for the underlayment of the interlock. So, it's going to be a rough finish out here.

[00:36:01]Sand's going to go on top and then the interlock on top of that.

[00:36:04]Takes about 8 hours to dry, about 24 hours to cure.

[00:36:09]It's always important to have expansion joint. That way it allows expansion and contraction that way there's no cracking between the brick and the concrete.

[00:36:17]Now it's time for the landscaper to do his work. We're good. We're done.

[00:36:30]>> [music] >> We got a full house today. We got Tierney Contracting here doing our tiles. We got Heritage Kitchens. We got Northwood. Our crew of three guys in this tiny basement and we got a lot of stuff to do. I don't know where they're going to put all this stuff, man.

[00:36:46]>> [music] >> Having nails are definitely not a standard [music] thing for construction, um but I do have a life other than work.

[00:37:22]>> [music] >> Things are looking really good. We're going to make our deadline. It's just going to be a little bit of long hours and uh we're getting to know each other pretty well.

[00:37:40]Isn't that right?

[00:37:42]Feels like it. Yeah.

[00:37:55]>> [music] >> We're pretty close to the finishing.

[00:38:00]We've got all of our uh major compaction in and and done.

[00:38:04][music] Matt is just doing the finishing sand there now and that's just our our bedding layer for our clay pavers that we're going to be putting down.

[00:38:12]We're having a railing coming out from the wall just because we have some height issues here.

[00:38:17]We're going to keep any and all water away from the house [music] and this thing's going to last forever.

[00:38:33]So, what do you have left?

[00:38:34]Baseboard, filling, sanding, few spots we got to do some mudding. I'm trying to keep ahead of the painters here that way everyone can keep going.

[00:38:41]>> Awesome job, brother. I thought your dad didn't like yellow.

[00:38:45]This isn't yellow. This isn't earth tone.

[00:38:49]How much of this driveway did you pull up? Cuz it looks like you did the driveway again. I don't It looks like it's been here for years, but it's brand new. Yep. So, you've done new grass. I can see you've sloped your stairs out and not in.

[00:39:00]>> That was the plan. Well, that's a pat on the back. Isn't that the plan?

[00:39:02]>> I really appreciate it.

[00:39:03]>> Thank you. No problem, Mike.

[00:39:06]Look at the size of this ductwork.

[00:39:09]120-year-old house, they weren't meant to be finished, you know, down here. No.

[00:39:12]We're lucky we got that ceiling height we did. And in a nutshell, what this is doing is actually measuring the voltage that's coming through and making sure it's staying consistent. When it goes too high, bang.

[00:39:21]This is dead right now, so we're good.

[00:39:24]It is?

[00:39:26]Kidding.

[00:39:27]Nice bathroom. Did you do that? Well, we painted it.

[00:39:31]Hey, Derek. Yeah, look peeping Toms like Derek here.

[00:39:35]Well, no matter what, this actually works. You know, when we were working down here, it was really tight. I thought it wasn't going to be as you know, as open as it is, but it feels really good. It's a nice little room down here. Sure is. This was not a cheap [music] job at all. Like it let's talk about how much money this cost. The most expensive part was the foundation, $26,000.

[00:39:54]Now let's go into HVAC, electrical, [music] plumbing, painting, the glass in the shower stall.

[00:40:00]How about the tiles, all the drywall, the studding, the insulation? There's so much here that that totals around $128,000.

[00:40:10]That's an awful lot of money for something that should have been done right the first time.

[00:40:15]Unacceptable.

[00:40:17]How you doing, Max?

[00:40:18]Hi, sweetie.

[00:40:20]So, are you excited?

[00:40:21]>> Yeah, really excited, actually. I'm excited, too, because it's done. Good.

[00:40:25]It's done.

[00:40:28]>> [laughter] >> Come on, let's walk.

[00:40:30]Look at the front. Oh. Wow, that's totally different.

[00:40:33]>> It's like a whole different house.

[00:40:34]Proper rails.

[00:40:36]Now John had a great idea to clear it all, make it bigger, make more room, and have the stairs going in this way. When you're backing up, you can see anyone that's on the sidewalk. That's awesome.

[00:40:46]You want to see the inside? Yeah.

[00:40:51]Wow, it looks nice.

[00:40:52]>> Wow.

[00:40:54]Okay. Wow. Before we go too much over there, I want to talk about the windows.

[00:40:58]>> Okay.

[00:40:58]>> So we have new windows, and if you notice what I did, because of all our structure, I've actually driven it upwards. So that way we get a lot of window light, right? And then I had the window drop down to make it look like a bigger window. Ah. This is what you wanted. You wanted a new furnace that's run throughout your whole house.

[00:41:15]>> Wow. All the gas lines have been run, your hot water heater here, and you can even see the pressure. Man, you were very particular about what you wanted when it came to the ductwork and talking to Gary. You wanted enough air to get to the third floor, because what that does is this is all ductwork in here.

[00:41:32]This is all ductwork, and I hit my head in here. It's a good thing you guys don't.

[00:41:37]Let's just say Rocco had a very specific way of saying what he wanted the ductwork to do. In other words, the HVAC. So he was very clear on this, which I love. I really do. But what that did do was so communicating that to me was change the somewhat design. Okay, go take a look at your kitchen. We can't call it a kitchen cuz it's not a kitchen. There's not a stove. If we put a stove, it turns it into the next level, which is a basement apartment, which this is not.

[00:42:02]So doesn't this work as your little place?

[00:42:04]>> Yeah, for sure. You wanted your man cave. You wanted the possible [laughter] the possible couch and private room. It could be yours.

[00:42:10]Yeah. Come see your laundry room.

[00:42:13]Wow.

[00:42:14]>> [laughter] >> And just so you know, this is my Christmas present to you.

[00:42:19]>> [screaming] >> The little things we do, yes? Hey, what would we do without Yeah, you wouldn't buy me a WATCH FOR CHRISTMAS.

[00:42:25]>> [laughter] >> WOW.

[00:42:29]ADJUSTABLE SHOWER HEAD, I really love that. You got the tub, so you can have a bath, you can have a shower, and lots of room. And my son picked this cabinet. I want to beat him up. So why didn't you like the cabinet if >> No, I really like it. I just knew I just knew looking at it that he spent a little more than he should have.

[00:42:43]>> [laughter] >> And what's that?

[00:42:47]That is the new water meter detector. So they can actually pick [music] it up through Wi-Fi, and now they don't have to come in and open that up.

[00:42:54]We're all happy.

[00:42:55]I was not expecting this at all.

[00:42:58]Wow.

[00:43:00]When I was pregnant, [music] I was afraid to come down here. The smell was just overwhelming, and you know, it was scary.

[00:43:05]>> It smelled like a like an old shoe. I'm so glad it's over and that we're we're back home, finally. Thank you so much.

[00:43:14]>> Congratulations. We really appreciate it.

[00:43:17]I really like the tie.

[00:43:23]As far as I'm concerned, the homeowners got the raw end of the stick here, really simple, because title insurance didn't have to pay, and the city didn't have to produce. No one wins.

[00:43:33]And I mean, no one wins. How did you like the smell?

[00:43:36]Uh just like you opened up a [laughter] septic tank. I could I could have my lunch right now. I'm just totally cool with that, so.

[00:43:43]>> And not hungry. It's not a good way to start your birthday, buddy. No, it's not, actually.

[00:43:48]Happy birthday.

[00:43:51]It's your birthday.