Extreme Makeover

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kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Occupation
EC
Has anyone ever worked on a project on Extreme Makeover show, or other fast moving project - I have heard of Habitat for Humanity projects that were executed in a days time?

If so, what was the experience like? I'm sure like any project there are always problems that pop up, but some of these types of projects would need to have a coordinator that was very good at knowing what each trades requirements are to realistically allow them to get the job done and correctly.

How do inspections work out on these projects, not just electrical but all required inspections. There obviously would need to be some planning involved to schedule inspectors also.

Do you feel the overall quality of the build is good, bad or fairly average.
 
We did a publicity stunt kind of scenario for a builder and built a house from dirt to complete move in in 7 days. There were inspectors there everyday pretty much all day. Quality was good IMO. There were lots of eyes watching everything the entire time. We also do "Builders Care" projects this same way....these are MUCh more difficult than new builds IMO. An "experience" none the less!!:grin:
 
A year or so ago I was asked to donate time to an extreme make over new home. Although I would have liked to help I'm glad I didn't. There were several electricial outfits involved. Each one was schedualed for certian times of day, includinig midnight to 10AM so expect that. There's no reason to build a house like that other than the show. I'd call Jimmy Carters habitats for humanity I think it is.
 
I did a kitchen for "In a fix" several years ago. My friend was the construction manager for the production company time. Their normal celebrity electrician, "Sparky" was sick that week, so they asked me to fill in.

I was never on the air, because they had one of the carpenters fill in for Sparky. When the carpenter was demoing the installation of an old work high hat for the camera I had to correct him several times.

Permits, what permits?
Inspections, what inspections?

I think the production company goes by, "better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission." I can't imagine renovating an entire house and getting away without permits and inspections, however, nor do I condone the apathy for either.

Quality of construction, extremely poor, I call it camera ready! My favorite saying from the project, and this is what I said to the cast, "all of you play and pretend to be craftsmen on this show, I am an electrician and I am a professional, so we either do it my way-the right way, or I rip everything back out"!

PS: while you are there the homeowner will try to get you to get you to do dozens of other things, thinking that the production company will pay for it, just say no!


Take 2:
My home of 32 years was featured on "Designed to sell." While they didn't do any work, they proceeded to drag mud and snow all through the house and insult my Mother. The show didn't help out the sale of the home either, but we knew that it would probably not. The thing is that my family built that home over the course for 35 years and I personally knew where every screw, stud, cable and structural support was. The design that the "architect" came up with was so unfeasible due to structural constraints that the $75k design they drew up would have been more than double had they gone forward with the plan.

Moral of the stories:

Theses are TV shows, the cast are actors, everything is edited, and most things are scripted.

Let us know if you get on a TV project so that we can all watch.
 
Most of the Habbitat homes around here are on a 120 day schedule. I've worked on a couple of electrical roughs with the local group. There is a licensed electrician supervising a group of volunteers so work doesn't really progress all that quickly.
 
I did the house in Somers CT last year. It was a good experience, lots of free food and exhausting. The scheduling is tricky, if the foundation is not done in time then the framers are late etc. So you might sit for a few hours then run like mad. Coordination is very important. There were about 30 of us but we all knew each other, we were "hand picked" so to say by the EC that was running the crew. He had all of the rooms layed out with a mini print and a box of material and we knew our "assignments" before we got to the job site.

The hardest part is getting the suppliers to donate all of the material in this economy.

PS: Ty is never there, he doesn't do anything as far as construction. :roll:
 
I worked on a Extreme Makeover home last year, and while personally rewarding, it was very expensive for our company. With little notice, we were expected to have our vendors donate material, including 130 CFL recessed lights (very expensive), and the service equipment, devices, ect. Due to site issues, the construction was delayed, and then compressed into 4.5 days. We essentially shut down our shop for a week, and paid for the employees labor. It became very expensive, and we got very little (read "no") media exposure, although I was on national tv for about .5 seconds.

The best part about this project was the catering. We were fed very well. Oh, and of course the satisfaction of seeing the recipients of our labor being surprised with their new home. On a side note, the homeowner was an electrician, however after receiving a several hundred thousand dollar new home at no cost to himself, he still called and asked us to come back and replace a noisy bath fan! That really took the wind out of my sails.

We were just asked to be the EC on the largest home ever built by Extreme Makeover, an 11,500 sq ft home for a girl's group home, however we politely declined.
 
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