MIKE MAKES IT RIGHT
HOLMES COULD ONLY REBUILD ONE HIGH RIVER HOME, BUT HIS ADVICE MAY HELP OTHERS.
This week’s instalment of Holmes Makes It Right strays from the usual formula of Mike Holmes and crew meeting unhappy homeowners, surveying an improperly built/renovated home and then making it right. In the end, there are smiles all around.
Tuesday’s episode, though, is set in High River, the Alberta community hit hardest by June’s flooding. While Holmes & Co. helped the Rotheisler family, there are more than 2,000 people still out of their homes in Alberta due to the natural disaster.
“It truly wasn’t a happy ending because it was just one family that has a smile on their face, with everyone else still stuck in the middle. So it goes from a happy ending to a not-so-much happy ending,” Holmes says over the phone from Toronto. “It was hard for me. I can only help one family at a time. I can’t help an entire city.”
But he can help flood victims make informed decisions on the road to rebuilding, another reason for the special. The 60-minute episode on HGTV Canada will also remind the rest of the country about the scope of the flooding that continues to affect thousands.
“I was overwhelmed at the size of the area that was flooded. I had no idea it was that big,” Holmes recalls of his visit to southern Alberta in July. “As far as I was concerned that day, it was bigger than (Hurricane) Katrina. It was surreal. I had no idea it was that bad.”
The Rotheislers’ bungalow was one of the more than 14,500 homes damaged in the disaster. On June 20, Gillian Rotheisler came home from work early due to the flood warning. Husband John, an RCMP officer, was in Edmonton on a course. Daughters Jordyn, 15, and Cassidy, 12, were with their mom in their 1,533-square-foot home that backs onto a 16-acre water feature that serves as a storm pond.
“When I saw it bubbling out there, I knew we were in trouble,” Gillian recalls, looking through a photo album full of pictures that document the destruction.
She told the girls, whose bedrooms are in the walkout basement, to put their things up on their beds. Then, she told them to put them on the upper shelves of the closets. Then she just told them to get out of the basement.
Water a metre high surged against the basement windows, blowing out the sliding glass door. The flood waters filled the lower level, reaching approximately 2.25 metres high.
“The noise was so horrendous. It sounded like the house was collapsing,” Gillian says.
She and the girls laboured through thigh-high water on their street to a dry patch up the road. They waited there with approximately 40 neighbours to be evacuated via helicopter. No one was allowed back into their neighbourhood of Montrose for two weeks. (The family was out of their home for six weeks.)
Thankfully, the water didn’t breach the main floor of the Rotheisler home. It destroyed the lower level, though, which housed the girls’ bedrooms, a family room/office, a bathroom and the mechanical room. Gillian points to a photo showing a giant pile of detritus in their backyard, the remnants of their once-finished basement.
“That’s what your house looks like when you put it outside.”
The family had help in the cleanup. Volunteers included members of Lifestyle Homes, which crafted the house. In 2012, the home was the first built in High River under the Holmes Approved Homes program.
“When they said they would help, we thought they meant a plumber, or maybe an electrician. But not the president of the company shovelling mud out of my basement,” John says.
As they needed the living space for the girls, the family decided to finance an immediate rebuild of the basement, rather than wait for any insurance money or provincial assistance to come through. Because of the home’s provenance, Holmes signed on for the project alongside Lifestyle Homes.
The Rotheislers’ experience “is a great example of what needs to be done that relates to almost everyone there,” Holmes says. “I know for a fact that a lot of families there have already closed their basements up. If the moisture content was above 15 per cent, they are going to have such a problem in the future.”
He’s talking about mould, and he refers to it as “the storm after the storm.” Gillian says it took four to five weeks for their home to dry out, aided by the use of air cleaners and systems to help remove the moisture. The Sept. 22 reveal was almost pushed back because of moisture issues.
The family is grateful that they had the opportunity to “make it right” in their home, but feel for those in the community still struggling with the aftermath of the flood.
“Even though we got hit so hard, we know there are people who have it worse.”
To those who are rebuilding, Holmes has a message: “Slow down.”
While he knows those trying to re-establish their homes don’t want to hear that, Holmes says it pays to do things right the first time. And the most critical issue is getting the moisture content of a flooded structure to that 15-per-cent level.
“Remember, insurance and government are going to help you once. They’re not going to help again so, if it’s done wrong, the next time is going to cost you big-time.”