Is it easier to get your house worked on in the States?

[Thankyou4calling]

I know it's TV but the US home makeover shows appear to make getting a new kitchen, bathroom, garden etc a lot simpler than here.

They call it remodelling and it involves ripping out the old and upgrading in a few areas.

Is it easier to get get firms/people to do this type of thing? Are the houses different and allow for more of a "Modular" design.

People also don't seem to be so obsessive over things there, happy to discard things.

is it just the TV that makes it look this way or is it easier?

[Thankyou4calling]

greg2k said:

Their houses are more often wooden which lens itself to serious internal remodelling. I think the bureaucracy and strictness of the building codes varies hugely from state to state. The coastal blue states are as bad anything in Europe I think, the interior red states are really laissez faire. There's a really annoying show on W called property brothers/dream home and the prices they quote to alter what are essentially big garden sheds clad in plasterboard are eye watering.

Edited by greg2k on Thursday 25th August 17:30

That was the show i saw and I actually really liked them.

When you say eye watering i thought the prices were really low (well aware it is a TV show thus needs to appeal)

[Thankyou4calling]

Thanks for that.

It certainly feels to me that in the UK getting any kind of work done on your house is a complete and utter pain, a few tiles on the roof and they want to put scaffolding up, putting in a new kitchen takes numerous quotes and faffing about and don't even start if you want a garage built or a wall knocked down.

It just seems (albeit from the TV) that stateside you can get things done faster, cheaper and in a way that suits.

[Thankyou4calling]

aspender said:

Wouldn't any George Clarke/DIY SOS type show in the UK give the same impression though?

That is kind of what i'm asking.

I would say the UK shows of this type always seem to show the difficulties of getting reliable people, the costs are high, the work always seems to have complications.

Part of it may be that the buildings are older here and made of brick, as referred to above construction methods in the US seem to make changes easier and they are'nt precious about taking things out, at least not as much as here it seems.

No period features, no AGAS, often more space to work in too and things like windows seem much simpler.

[Thankyou4calling]

That's fine as your opinion but others on this thread have highlighted some fundamental differences beyond the TV facade.