Canada's Worst Handyman 2

Canada's Worst Handyman 2
Country of origin Canada
No. of episodes 9
Release
Original network Discovery Channel Canada
Original release April 16 – June 11, 2007

Canada's Worst Handyman 2 is a 2007 Canadian television series, airing on Discovery Channel Canada, and is the successor to Canada's Worst Handyman. Like its predecessor, five contestants and their nominators enter the "Handyman Rehabilitation Centre", where a series of challenges await them. At the end of the series, one contestant is given the show's dubious namesake title. Unlike its predecessor, however, Worst Handyman 2 is a longer series with a slightly different format, largely due to the increasing trend in garage and shed renovation and a decline in home renovation.

Format

Over the course of the series, each of the five contestants seek to build "the ultimate eco-shed", incorporating various environmentally friendly building materials and "creature comforts", from within the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, a warehouse in Toronto, Ontario. In each episode, contestants partake in a series of challenges, with one contestant being named the most improved handyman and another being named the worst.

At the end of the series, the contestant with the worst shed overall is given the title of Canada's worst handyman. The five sheds, as well as one built by experts Greg House and Jill Rydall, have been sold to the one lucky, and five unlucky bidders on eBay, sight unseen. The winning bidders will also appear on the final episode of the series (which traditionally is a recap episode) as the shed is being delivered to them. The proceeds of the eco-shed sale goes to Habitat for Humanity Canada.

Contestants

Experts

Synopsis

Contestant Nominator 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Candace Justin WORST IMP IN IN IN WORST IN IN
Jaime Sheilla IN IN IN IN IN IMP WORST IN
Jeff Fred IMP IN WORST WORST IN IN IN IN
Ruth Michelle IN WORST IN IN IN IN IN IN
Terry Harvey / Angie IN IN IMP NOM M/W IN IN CWH
     CWH – The contestant is Canada's Worst Handyman.
     WORST – The contestant is the worst of the episode.
     NOM – The nominator of the contestant is the worst of the episode.
     IN – The contestant was considered for the worst for this episode.
     M/W – The contestant was named both the most improved and the worst for this episode.
     IMP – The contestant is the most improved of the episode.
     NOM – The nominator of the contestant is the most improved of the episode.
     IMP - The contestant and their nominator are both the most improved for the episode.
     WORST - The contestant and their nominator are both the worst for the episode.

Episode 1: Starting from Scratch

Original airdate: April 16, 2007

In this episode, the five contestants arrive at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre. Prior to entering rehabilitation, the contestants were asked to specify the dimensions of their shed, along with a birdhouse-sized replica. At the end of the episode, Jeff, by virtue of never having done anything considered handiwork prior to rehab and nailing three boards together in this episode during the skills evaluation, is deemed the most improved handyman of this episode, while Candace, whose self-proclaimed "renovation skills" contrasted with it taking her 171 tries and five minutes to hammer in a single nail, was deemed the worst. Her extra lesson was in the use of hammers of all sorts.

The Birdhouse

Prior to entering the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, each contestant was asked to specify the dimensions of the shed they would like to build, with the only restriction that the total dimensions of the shed be no bigger than 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) by 13' 0" by 9' 2". Then, the contestants are asked to build a birdhouse-sized replica using 100-year-old barnboard.

The Reveal

Upon entering the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, the shed frames, assembled by the show crew to the contestants' specifications, are revealed to the contestants (and their nominators) for the first time. They are also given their own color-coded areas: Candace in orange, Terry in blue, Jaime in yellow, Jeff in purple, and Ruth in green. Ruth's, Jeff's, and Candace's sheds are on one side of the warehouse, with Jaime's shed opposite Ruth's and Terry's shed opposite Jeff's. The area opposite Candace is used as the site for various challenges as well as the area where contestants "hang their head in shame" when they are named the worst of the episode.

Skills Evaluation

In the skills evaluations, the contestants have up to 30 minutes to cut a 14-foot (4.3 m) board into three equal pieces, so that the laminated board can be used as a pedestal for their birdhouse replica sheds.

Building a Workbench

The contestants are introduced to the experts, head instructor Jill Rydall and head builder Greg House, as they showed the contestants how to build their own workbench from pre-cut materials (including a $400 piece of bamboo board). The contestants are asked to build the workbench as shown by the experts in 90 minutes.

Group Challenge: Building a Rain Catcher

The group challenge takes the contestants to the roof of the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, where they are to build a rain catcher from plastic tubing, vapour barrier, T-connectors, and a bucket. The rain catcher, in turn, will be needed to provide water to the sheds in upcoming challenges, as the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre lacks plumbing.

Right after Andrew explains the challenge and gives the assembly instructions to Jaime, Jaime begins reading it, ignoring Andrew's instructions to drill a hole from the top of the bucket (which would haunt him later). The group challenge begins with everyone trying to agree on the size of the catcher, and everyone eventually agrees that the diameter at the top of the funnel should be eight feet. However, confusion between the circumference and the diameter of a circle results them in going with Jaime's advice and cutting 16 feet (4.9 m) of tubing – good only for a five-foot-diameter top. Because Jaime is the one with the manual and made the most important decisions to this point, he was named almost by consensus as the challenge's foreman (although Jaime was apparently unaware of this). Jaime's attempt to assert authority fails (and the bottom of the raincatcher was assembled using duct tape in the process), and he also does not listen to the advice of the others (Terry in particular) when they advised him to drill a hole in the bucket near the top – the part where Jaime had missed out when reading the instructions. Because of this, the rain catcher was deemed a failure.

Episode 2: Electric Circus

Original Airdate: April 23, 2007

The episode begins with Andrew and Jaime repairing the bucket of the incorrectly built rain catcher (so that the hole in the bucket, drilled by Jaime in the first group challenge, is now at the top instead of at the bottom), needed in fact to do the very next challenge. The episode ends with Candace being named the most improved, due to her redesigned shed, while Ruth was named the worst as she made unnecessary changes to her shed, and did not do a single challenge correctly. Her extra lesson is not shown.

Group Challenge: The Barbecue Pit

In the episode's group challenge, Jeff must lead the contestants to build a barbecue pit, using reclaimed bricks, bags of mortar mix, and water collected from their new rain catcher.

The challenge begins with Jeff being the only person not to read the instructions in the mortar, leading the team to lay dry bricks with no gap for mortar between. When he is informed by Andrew that wet bricks bond better to mortar, the team simply continues to lay bricks, with wet bricks over dry ones (as opposed to starting over and having all wet bricks). Furthermore, there is very little mortar applied, and the mortar is applied after the bricks are in place (as opposed to buttering the brick with mortar before setting the bricks in place). While Jeff, Ruth, and Candace continue to lay bricks, Jaime uses the pointing trowel to do tuck pointing while Terry adds in ventilation for the barbecue pit by leaving holes in the brickwork. When the nominators arrive to see the contestants' progress, the nominators (Sheilla in particular) do not like the contestants' work so far in the challenge – in particular Jeff had not used a level at all in the challenge (needed to ensure that each row of bricks are applied to a uniform height). Despite Jaime's last-ditch attempt to level the brickwork using said level (only to stop when he realizes that it is a pointless endeavour with multiple layers of brick already installed), when the challenge is over (after 82 minutes) and the nominators are asked to give a thumbs-up thumbs-down rating, the fire pit received five emphatic thumbs-downs.

The Countersink Challenge

Despite the camaraderie that had formed between the contests, nominators, and even the crew, Jeff and Ruth have not gotten along well with each other: this is due to Ruth seeing Jeff as an arrogant chauvinist, and due to Jeff having previously proclaimed that he could improve far better than any of the other four contestants. To settle the score, Jeff and Ruth decide on a race to see who could countersink one nail with fewer strokes. The race, with Andrew as referee and everyone else watching, was close wire-to-wire, but Ruth was declared the winner after video replay as it took Jeff two more strokes (which he had claimed was "for insurance") of the hammer to drive his nail home.

The Redesign

After some instruction on basic framing knowledge from Jill, each contestant could choose to redesign their sheds to new specifications. This was necessary for four of the contestants, whose sheds are either too tall for the warehouse door (Candace, Terry, Jaime) or would fail a building inspection (Jeff). These redesigned shed frames would then be assembled by the show's staff.

The Tool Test

While the show's crew get busy on rebuilding the contestants' shed frames, the contestants themselves are given a simple test, administered by Jill, to see if they can identify 11 different handyman tools. Among the tools were bevels, coping saws, files, pliers, reciprocating saws, and screwdrivers. Although very little of the test was shown, Jeff was the worst out of the five contestants, having been able to identify three of the eleven tools.

Solar Panels

The contestants in this challenge are tasked to build a triangular frame that would house a solar panel, which would power two lightbulbs and two wall outlets in their sheds, within 60 minutes. To help them, they are given one prototype frame from which they can take and copy their measurements.

Electrical Wiring

The next step in shed building is electrical work, which they are given tutoring by Jill (On how to properly connect wires, Jill states simply "White-on-white, black-on-black, no sparky-sparky"). In this challenge, the contestants must wire their shed by adding an electrical panel, which would be connected to the solar panels (by Jaime, who volunteered), as well as connect two $90 energy-efficient lightbulbs on one series circuit to it (the entire electrical setup, including the solar panel, is over $2300 per shed). If, at the end of the challenge, the lighting is faulty, the show's own lighting technician Rob MacDonald would help the contestants fix their faulty wiring.

When the solar panel captures energy, it is stored in a car battery, and then through an inverter, which would then be used to power their sheds (as well as charge their power tools in later challenges). To aid the contestants in their electrical work, detailed diagrams have been given. The contestants are free to place their rectangular box (for the switch) and octagon boxes (for their lights) anywhere in their shed.

After the electrical, the final evaluations are made. Greg notes that Ruth's fixtures are too low for her shed, while Greg and Jill note down Jeff's flat unsloped roof (flat roofs are slightly sloped so as to allow water on the roof to run off). Greg's and Jill's critique of Candace's shed is that the lights were installed in the wrong places (which, when they were on, would create shadow), while the criticism against Jaime is that he made the smallest change in the height of his shed (needing a two-foot lowering of his original shed to make the 9'2" height limit). Finally, the experts' critique of Terry's shed is that much of the work done so far is not his own work – and the work that Harvey has put in is not too great either. As for the barbecue pit, it is still not in one solid piece after several days of the mortar curing (as Andrew demonstrates, he is able to take apart pieces of the brickwork with his own hands).

Episode 3: Sealing the Deal

Original Airdate: April 30, 2007

In this episode, the five contestants continue building their sheds by installing a window as well as finishing their shed exterior by adding insulation and vapour barrier. At the end of the episode, Terry is named the most improved despite his noticeable imperfections, as he was the only one other than Candace to finish all of their tasks (Candace doing so due largely to the work that Justin had done). On the other end, Jeff was named the worst due to his self-proclaimed perfectionism and his actual results leaving much to be desired, as well as refusing help from others when it was needed. Jeff's extra task is to name all of the imperfections in his own shed.

Framing a Window

After being taught another lesson in framing by Jill, the contestants must frame for a window in their shed.

Plywood Sheeting

Before installing the window, the exterior must be covered in plywood. As per Candace's suggestion, however, the contestants will be assisted by someone other than their own nominator.

Installing the Window

With the plywood exterior, the contestants now have to test their work from the previous two challenges by installing the window.

Insulation

The contestants must insulate their sheds, using batt insulation created from recycled denim. The insulation comes in two different widths – one for 24-inch (610 mm) on centre frames (needed for Candace in particular) and one for 16-inch (410 mm) on centre frames. Following the denim insulation, they must then spray form all of their remaining spaces – particularly in the area around their window and shed door.

Vapour Barrier

Without any environmentally friendly solution around vapour barrier to stop air movement, the contestants must install their (non-recycled) plastic on top of their insulation. Little footage of the process is seen overall, except that nearly all teams deploy their vapour barrier vertically rather than horizontally (horizontally would allow a continuous barrier around the shed), and that nearly all sheds had problems securing the vapour barrier in the corners. In the end, Jaime's shed is the only one with good vapour barrier (after 55:08), while the others were drafty.

Group Challenge: Picnic Tables

In this group challenge, Candace must lead the contestants in assembling two identical picnic tables from a schematic. Although Candace makes a concerted effort in reading the instructions, she has difficulty in processing them, leading to the rest of the team being idle and trying to help her understand the instructions. Although after 50 minutes they manage to cut all of the pieces of wood to perfection, Candace is further confused by how and where to drill holes to connect the pieces together, leading to the team finishing neither table within the specified time.

In the final critique, Jaime's main critique was that his sheeting was not secure, his corners were badly done, and that he had rearranged his studs in both his framing and sheeting; he also didn't clean up afterwards, including leaving a ladder in the doorway, which meant that his shed was no longer a safe workplace (Jill even refusing to enter his shed). The main criticism against Terry's work was the gap in his window from his installation, as well as inadequate support for his window frame, while the critique against Jeff's shed was on both an incomplete vapour barrier job and loose sheeting. Ruth's shed had major structural problems from the window frame which could not house a window (Greg claiming that the window would never fit), while Candace's critique was localized to one area where her 24-inch (610 mm) insulation was not wide enough for a gap next to the window that was slightly over 24 inches (610 mm), causing the insulation to droop and the vapour barrier to bulge.

Episode 4: Clear as Mud

Original Airdate: May 7, 2007

The episode begins with the contestants being informed that their sheds have been sold on eBay to the highest bidder. Surprisingly, all of the contestants and nominators took to the news well, with Candace even asking how much each shed was worth. However, Harvey's back pain issues, persistent throughout the series so far, is too much for him to handle, and he has to be carried away on a stretcher. Although he eventually recovers (earning him the title of "most improved"), his back pain means that he will be going home to rest instead of continuing to assist Terry. As such, Terry is forced to do many of the challenges in this episode alone, although he is given some assistance by Sheilla and Andrew. As for the worst, Jeff becomes the first contestant to date to be named the worst for two consecutive episodes. His extra lesson is not shown.

Drywalling

The contestants must drywall the walls of their shed. The experts will assist in installing one wall (not the wall with the window) in each shed.

Clay Primer

Although three sides of the shed will be plastered, the side with the window will be covered in a clay wall treatment, to be installed later. Right now, though, primer must be put up so that the clay will stick to the wall, and the primer takes five hours to dry. Jaime is puzzled as to why this is going up in the first place, while Candace has trouble opening the bucket of primer. To prevent Justin from "butting in", he is consigned to a back room to watch alongside the experts while Candace does the actual priming job alone. No other footage is shown other than Ruth, Candace, and Jaime using rollers when the instructions state that brushes should be used.

Tiling

After being given some instruction on how to tile by Greg, the contestants must now tile a small corner of their shed, where toilets will be installed in a later challenge. These recycled glass tiles come in 36 one-inch squares, held together by a piece of plastic, and each contestant is given tiles that match their workspace colors (except for Jeff's red tiles and Jaime's gray ones). The thinset mortar provided is also fast-drying, completely setting in eight hours. One mistake made by nearly everyone is that everyone uses a whole bag of mortar when only one-sixth of a bag is needed.

Plastering

In this challenge, plaster is applied to the three remaining walls of the sheds.

Clay Wall Treatment

At the end of their last challenge, much of the unused plaster and thinset mortar had settled and hardened (with one even having their notched trowel stuck in their hardened thinset mortar). The contestants begin the challenge of applying the clay plaster over their primed wall by cleaning up their wasted products, totalling over 100 pounds. Again, the contestants use a whole bag (which is far too much) each, mixing a combined 215 pounds of clay (Jaime and Jeff mixing 50 pounds, while Terry and Candace mix 40 pounds of clay, and Ruth with 35 pounds) – nearly a pound of clay for every square foot of wall in the sheds. In retrospect, Jaime states that they would have been better off mixing one bag together and sharing the mortar.

Group Challenge: Building a Doghouse

Along with Ruth and Michelle, Ruth's dog Dica had also made the trip to the Handyman Rehabilitation Center – but because of safety concerns she isn't allowed on set while challenges are being done. In order to give Dica a home away from home, Terry leads the team in building Dica a new doghouse. As leader though, Terry delegates much of the leadership work to Jaime and Jeff, while he gets down and does the work. Due to mis-communication, Jaime and Terry both make sub floors for the shed, although Terry later uses Jaime's sub floor rather than his own. The framing also goes up without a hitch, as is the exterior plywood. In the end, Dica's new doghouse is a mini-shed (not unlike Terry's own, but in Ruth's green color) with a door that may be slightly too small. Although Andrew has doubts about whether Dica would accept the doghouse, Dica nevertheless nestles comfortably in her new home, making the challenge a success.

In the final evaluation, Ruth's main critique in the episode is that her plaster job was horrible (which would require many hours of sanding with a power sander and many coats of plaster to fix) and that she had used too much mortar to tile, while Candace's main critique was that she did not keep her workplace clean. The hammer falls hard on Jeff, though, as the experts thought that he made the largest amount of mistakes.

Episode 5: In Too Deep

Original Airdate: May 14, 2007

At the start of the episode, Angie is brought in to replace Harvey, who has gone home to nurse his back. Angie's first impressions were of surprise: after seeing Terry's shed for the first time, Angie was impressed as the work seemed to come from a competent handyman. At the end of the episode, Terry is named both the most improved and the worst for the episode: the most improved because, despite the usual husband-wife interactions causing trouble, Angie, ironically enough, caused Terry to do more things correctly. However, he is named the worst when, given the opportunity to finish unfinished work, Terry took a pass (although Angie did some work in Terry's shed during this time). He is the first contestant to be named most improved twice, and is also the first to be named both most improved and the worst in the same episode. His extra work involves uninstalling his partially installed urinal and replacing it with Ruth's toilet.

Grouting

In this challenge, the contestants must grout their tiles, using grout designed to set in 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the nominators place a second coat of plaster on the wall.

Group Challenge: The Hot Tub

As Harvey is absent, Angie takes over foreman duties and leads the five contestants into building a wood-fired hot tub from a pre-fab kit. The contestants have three hours to build the tub, while it takes three hours to fill the tub with water and another three hours to heat the water. Thus, at the end of the day, the contestants could finally enjoy the tub they built – if it was built right.

Before Angie even begins reading the instructions, the men begin trying to assemble the cedar staves around the hot tub, attaching the slats to the base. This is correct, but caulking must be added to seal the joint so as to prevent the water from leaking. The completed tub has 43 staves, but, because the later staves were fitted in using a mallet while the earlier ones were not, the hot tub is assembled in two discontinuous portions rather than in one piece. As a result, there is enough room for all but one stave, and any attempt to jam the last stave in resulted in the stave splitting. Although they try to work around it by using the supplied metal rings to tighten the existing staves, this reduces the diameter of the tub, making it impossible to fit wooden benches meant to fit in the interior of the tub.

While Ruth and Candace mull over how to trim the benches to fit, Terry and Jeff focus on assembling the plumbing, which is initially correct even though neither had read the kit's instructions. However, Terry's fanaticism over using every part (even if the instructions state that not all parts would be needed) causes Terry to install valves and connections everywhere, which were not secured using glue. In the end, the hot water intake from the heater to the tub has a section travelling straight upwards.

When only 15 minutes remain, the other four nominators enter to try to move things along. Sheilla, in particular, is trying to force everyone to work. By this time, everyone agrees that finishing the benches is a futile effort, and are resigned to a leaking tub. By the time the tub is ready (at the end of the episode), the men all try the tub out in front of Candace, Ruth, and the nominators. Although everyone enjoys the time, the tub, admittedly, is a failure.

Tongue-in-Groove ceiling

The contestants have two hours to vapour barrier and line their ceiling with tongue-in-groove ceiling boards.

Toilets and urinals

In this challenge, the contestants must install either a urinal (for the men) or a toilet (for Candace and Ruth) on top of their tile, while the nominators prime the shed. The toilets are specially designed to turn human waste into compost for flower beds, while the urinals are entirely waterless (the only maintenance required is having to replace a filter every 7000 uses). At the end of the challenge, the contestants are given an hour to finish any work from previous challenges that were incomplete.

In the final evaluation, Greg and Jill also note that by this point installing the window for Ruth's shed (now that the hole has been narrowed down yet again and the window has parts broken off) will still not fit, while Terry's shed is inconsistent at best (the grout job and the level urinal were both positives but the rest of the work was incomplete). In Jaime's shed, the main critique is that Jaime had not cleaned off his tiles prior to installing the toilet, meaning that at this point it would be difficult (if not impossible) to get the tiles clean. No critiques were shown on Candace's or Jeff's sheds.

Episode 6: The Finishing Touches

Original Airdate: May 21, 2007

The episode begins with a lighthearted rib: because of Terry's surprising "most improved" title from the previous episode, someone had put on a "kick me" sign behind Terry, causing nearly everyone (cast and crew) to kick Terry in the rear. It would be not until part way through the first challenge when Terry finds out (for Angie had also known about this and had kept quiet). In this episode, the experts focus on the fact that two persons are working on a shed at a time, and decide to name both a contestant and their nominator as the most improved and another pair the worst. For the most improved, the relationship between Jaime and Sheilla had gone over the edge, but as a result they completed their next challenge correctly in uncharacteristic silence. On the flip side, the duo of Candace and Justin is named the worst because of Justin's continual butting-in and Candace's often-futile attempts to take charge, resulting in Justin doing much of the work. The resulting picture of the pair as the worst is, fittingly enough, a picture formed from half of Justin and half of Candace (titled "Justice" as a play on both their names). The extra lesson for the husband and wife is in a task meant for one – one must hold a tiny nail or a screw while the other must drive it into place.

The Entertainment Unit

In this challenge, the contestants must build a shelf that will house a set of speakers, their electrical panel, as well as the two batteries that will be storing the power to their sheds. To protect the batteries from dust, doors must be installed where they are housed. The contestants also have access to a chop saw (although a crew member will do the cutting on the chop saw). Meanwhile, the floor is to be cleaned in preparation for installing the floor later.

The Rematch

In the original "countersink challenge", Ruth had beaten Jeff in sinking a nail the fastest by the slightest of margins. During the previous challenge, as Ruth was waiting on Jeff to finish using the chop saw, Jeff challenges her to a rematch. In this rematch (with Andrew, the experts, the nominators, the crew, and their fellow contestants all watching – Justin even holding up a makeshift sign cheering Ruth on, with Candace, Jaime, Terry, and Jill taking up the other front-row seats), the premise is the same, except that Jeff and Ruth will take turns hammering in their single nail to avoid the need for video replay. The rematch begins clearly in Ruth's favor as Jeff wastes turns lightly tapping his hammer (in preparing for a real forceful hit) while his forceful hits often bent the nail (forcing him to reset) or missed the nail completely. Ruth's slow-and-steady approach wins the match after 13 strokes.

The Television

The next creature comfort to be installed is a 26-inch (660 mm) wall-mounted high definition television. The contestants must determine where to mount the television, as well as mount and power the unit.

The Cork Floor

With the floors clean and Terry's and Jaime's false starts removed, the contestants can now apply their cork tiles (costing $5 apiece) onto their floors with contact cement in earnest.

Trimwork

The contestants must install a nailing edge around their windows and doors in order to install trim and baseboards. Again, all contestants have access to a chop saw, although Jeff and Terry are the only ones seen using it (with everyone else cutting using their mitre box and their crosscut saw – none of the contestants have a proper miter saw).

Group Challenge: Finishing the Sheds

In the group challenge, Terry must lead the other nine persons into finishing as much of the incomplete work across all sheds as possible within 90 minutes. Although simple on paper, Terry identifies 47 unfinished tasks (including the reinstallation of features that were removed for the flooring) in total between the sheds (with 10 tasks in his own shed, 13 in Ruth's, 10 in Jeff's, 10 in Jaime's, and only four in Candace's). The nine other persons, for their part, are offended when Terry takes this opportunity to get everyone working on his own shed (Candace, as a reaction to Terry making everyone work on his shed: "You lazy SOB!"), much to everyone's objections – to the point where when Terry hands his orders out to Angie, Sheilla promptly takes it from her hands and rips it up in protest (Sheilla, on having everyone working on Terry's shed: "You know, this isn't fair. We should be doing everyone's shed but yours."). Terry eventually allows Jaime to work on his own shed, and also assigns Fred and Justin to take care of the ceilings (Fred in Ruth's shed and Justin in Jaime's), although Terry is also rebuked when he wants Fred to install a urinal in Ruth's shed (Fred objects, of course, because Ruth would have no use for a urinal, saying simply "Ladies don't like using urinals"). Terry is even forced from barking orders in Ruth's shed – not because of his apparent lack of leadership ability, but because he was smoking in Ruth's self-declared no-smoking zone.

Terry's lack of organization leads to his downfall: first, he tries to reassign people on the spot as a task is nearing completion, first by pulling Justin so that he could assist Fred (although both roofs would eventually be completed) and replacing him with Angie (in Terry' shed at the time), then by kicking Ruth out of her own shed (and into Terry's, where Jeff is also working), and forcing Michelle and Candace (both working in Ruth's shed, sealing the window) to meet Justin in Jaime's shed – only for none of them to show up. In the end, only seven of the tasks that Terry identifies is complete: the ceilings on Terry's, Ruth's, and Jaime's sheds, the sealing of Ruth's window, the installation of Ruth's electrical panel, and the trimwork in Jaime's shed.

In the final evaluation, the focus on Jaime's imperfect trimwork was on the mind of the experts, when Andrew raised the issue of whether Jaime's interaction with Sheilla should be considered to be the main critique. Although the experts validate Andrew, they also state that the perfectly finished floor vindicates him somewhat. The work on Terry's shed is criticized as being wasteful (having destroyed 40 cork tiles in his false start and not waiting until the contact cement was dry before adhering tiles causing more, and also having six persons working on his shed in the group challenge with little to show for it), while the main criticisms in Jeff's shed is his visible gap between his cork tiles and his battery door not closing all the way (due to, as Greg puts it, hinge-bound hinges). Ruth's shed is critiqued for its overall incompleteness (including her hinge-bound hinges), while Candace's shed is critiqued over the fact that to this point Justin had been doing much of the work, leaving the contestant to do virtually nothing except yell at her nominator when he is either doing too little or too much of the work.

Episode 7: Hanging by a Thread

Original Airdate: May 28, 2007

In this episode, the contestants install roofs on their sheds, and Jaime and Sheilla are considered to be the co-foremen in the two-part group challenge. Being the penultimate episode, no one is named the most improved, but Jaime is named the worst for his disastrous leadership work (despite his shed being arguably the best overall) which rendered every roof to be done incorrectly. His remedial work is to identify the faults in the roofs that he had caused as the foreman. With Jaime being named the worst, this marks the first time that all of the contestants have been named the worst at one point or another.

Group Challenge: Sheeting

In the first part of the two-part group challenge, Jaime and Sheilla, as co-foremen, must lead the other eight cast members in insulating, sheeting, and shingling the roofs in all five sheds. The first part of the group challenge involves the former two. Because of the height of Ruth's shed (at 10'10"), all the contestants and nominators are trained in a course on fall safety prior to the challenge, as Ontario's regulations require this for working on the roof of any structure over 10 feet (3.0 m) in height. Despite the fact that Candace is barred from being on a roof due to her pregnancy, she too must also take the training. In addition, due to Jeff's flat roof, his shed requires thicker plywood, and enough plywood is provided to cover Jeff's exactly, and 10% more than what is needed is provided for the other four sheds.

Jaime and Sheilla quickly organize the eight others so that two two-man crews (Terry and Fred on one team, while Justin and Jeff are on the other) are on the roofs on two sheds (although Jaime had initially wanted three-man crews), while Ruth and Angie relay measurements for Candace and Michelle to cut. However, things go out of control when Sheilla insists on cutting down the plywood sheets instead of relying on full sheets, meaning that by the time the first two sheds (Jaime's, done by Justin and Jeff, and Terry's, done by Terry and Fred) are sheeted, there are no full sheets remaining. In fact, by the time the last shed (Candace's, done by Justin and Jeff) is left to be done, only cut pieces of all shapes and sizes remain. However, Jaime and Sheilla do get the roofs to be sheeted in two and a half hours.

Group Challenge: Shingling

The second part of the group challenge involves installing tar paper over the sheeting, and then installing shingles on each roof (except for Jeff's, whose flat roof requires galvanized steel). Regardless of the outcome of this challenge, every roof will eventually be completed – either through the contestants and their nominators in this challenge, or by the show's staff after the fact.

Due to Justin being a metalworker by trade, Justin and Jeff get working on Jeff's shed, while Terry and Fred form one of the roofing teams while Angie and Sheilla form the other. In Justin's and Jeff's shed, the two make the mistake of installing the flashing first instead of last, creating a water dam. Jeff's progression in his skills is also showcased when he is shown cutting the metal with a circular saw under Justin's supervision – a far cry from his inability to use a jigsaw well during the skills evaluation. However, Jeff had cut his metal too short, resulting in a roof that will leak.

Meanwhile, things go badly due to Jaime's and Sheilla's different leadership styles: while Jaime tries to be an inspirational leader, Sheilla is more of a demanding workhorse, trying to get Michelle to help out on the roof. When Michelle refuses, Sheilla does not take it well at all. Terry and Fred, on Candace's roof, would make the mistake of not shingling around the rubber gasket (in fact, the rubber gasket was stapled down to the sheeting with no tar paper underneath). Meanwhile, Angie and Sheilla would begin to work on Terry's roof, while Jaime tackles Ruth's shed with Michelle, leaving Ruth to do nothing. In the end, with only 15 minutes to go in the challenge, and two sheds (Terry's and Candace's) fully done, Jaime and Sheilla decide to abort and cleanup.

Finishing Touches

After finishing the group challenge, the contestants have 90 minutes to finish any unfinished tasks (which largely amounted to painting the shed in their colors). They are assisted by Greg and Jill wherever necessary, so as to give everyone completed sheds. Much of the remaining work is painting the sheds and putting a sign on their sheds. Finally, to complete their shed interiors, the contestants' workbenches, complete with tools are moved into their sheds.

The Shed Door

As their final act, the contestants install the doors to their sheds. The doors were built as part of the shed frames at the start of the series, but had been removed – even the screw holes remain after 26 challenges. The doors are brought back for four of the contestants to install. Ruth, who had, in the design of her shed, insisted that, to fit into the "eco-shed" theme, that wooden barn doors to be installed, is provided with wooden doors instead of the metal doors that were originally part of her shed.

When the sheds are complete, Jaime completes the most of the challenges at 18, while Terry and Candace finish 13 challenges correctly. Jeff finishes three of the challenges correctly, while Ruth finishes the fewest with only two. However, despite Jaime completing two-thirds of the challenges, the criticisms fall hard on Jaime over the group challenge: Terry's roof is incorrect as his shingles (done by Angie and Sheilla) were not staggered) while Candace's roof (done by Terry and Fred) was not correctly shingled around her toilet's vent stack. In Ruth's shed (whose roof was done by the show staff), the main criticism was over her work in general, as she had done the fewest of the challenges (at one point, Andrew could tear down her trim with only one hand). Jeff's main criticisms largely resulted in the choice of the flat roof, which Jill compared to a deck – its almost nonexistent slope, despite the steel roofing, meant that puddles could still easily form on the roof, compromising the shed's structure.

Episode 8: Raising the Roof

Original Airdate: June 4, 2007

In this episode, the five completed sheds are moved out of the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, where they will be loaded onto a truck, awaiting delivery to their new owners. However, only Candace's shed will be able to move out in one piece, due to the height restriction of 9'2" (despite the doorway itself being 9'6" to allow some room for error) – the four others must be cut down to size. Because of the effort of moving the sheds (despite the fact that they are on castors under the subfloor), the show's crew as well as the experts are all there to assist.

Terry's shed

After seeing Jaime's initial failure, Terry is worried about his shed, which is taller than Jaime's. In addition, his measurements reveal that his shed is also too wide and too long. Terry suggests that a chainsaw be taken to Terry's shed so that it can come out in four pieces (after telling everyone of having quartered a moose with a chainsaw), for which Jill is happy to oblige. The shed is cut front to back with the chainsaw, and the front half is cut again – only to find the second cut unnecessary. The rear half of the shed is taken out, but the roof is also taken off (so indeed, Terry's "Bud Shed" is in four pieces). After his shed is removed, Terry resolves to reassemble his pieces with duct tape.

Jaime's shed

Because of Jaime's claim that his shed is the best (justified by the fact that he finished more challenges correctly than anyone else), his shed is the first shed to be moved out – until he discovers that his roof will not fit due to the height restriction (being eight inches (203 mm) too tall). Jaime goes back to the drawing board, and tries to figure out a way to remove his shed in two pieces. After three sheds have been removed, Jaime comes up with the idea of using the overhead pulley inside the shop to lift the roof off the shed, and using it again to reassemble the shed once both pieces are outside. He first braces the underside of the roof at both ends of the shed (so that the roof will not collapse when it is lifted), and installs castors on the underside of the braces. Separating the top plate from the roof proves to be not too difficult, and, after extensive harnessing, manages to successfully carry out his plan.

Jeff's shed

After measuring his shed and the doorway after Jaime's initial failure, Jeff discovers that his shed is just over the height of the 9'6" door, making for a tight fit. His first attempt at pushing the shed at high speed fails, he discovers that his shed is only a small amount over the height of the door (in his words, less than the thickness of a screw). To address this, he removes his steel roof, and after three more attempts, finally makes it through the door. His shed is the first shed to be removed from the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre.

Candace's shed

Because her shed is fully within the building guidelines put out by the show, her shed easily rolls out of the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre – with the minor caveat of detaching her vent stack and reattaching it later. Her shed is the second to be moved out, after Jeff's.

Ruth's shed

As the tallest shed, Ruth has her work cut out, as she is 20 inches (510 mm) too tall. As part of the redesign, though, Ruth had asked for a three-foot increase in height, which was accommodated by the experts by adding a 3-foot-high (0.91 m) pony wall. Ruth, after tearing off the exterior sheeting, resolves to cut the shed where the main wall meets the pony wall and move the two pieces (each of which is easily under the height restriction), and reassemble it later. However, instead of adopting Jaime's approach (as Jaime had a similar problem and was successful at it), Ruth instead uses pipes as rollers to move the top half of the shed onto scaffolding, freeing the bottom half. However, she is stuck with what to do about getting the top half off the scaffolding. Resolving to weaken the scaffolding so that the top half easily drops onto the floor, the top of Ruth's shed collapses instead, crushing the pony wall and flattening her peaked roof. Ruth's shed is the last shed to make it out of the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, but is now in three (incomplete) pieces (the bottom half of her shed and the two halves of what was her roof).

The Verdict

In the final evaluation by the experts, Jeff's shed is the first to be evaluated. Although the poor workmanship is clearly shown (Jeff claiming that he had finished the fewest number of challenges correctly – which is not actually true as Ruth finished fewer), he is vindicated as his learning experience was well worth the trip (to support this, his troubles with the jigsaw in the Skills Evaluation and his use of a circular saw to cut metal for his roof are contrasted, as is his lack of knowledge of a drywall file during the tool test and his usage of one during drywalling). Despite Jaime's claims, the experts actually consider Candace's shed to be the best, as it has a solid overall quality of workmanship and was the only one of the five to fully meet all the requirements. While there were questions over exactly how much of the work was really done by Justin, Candace did learn that doing things is not as simple as it appears on television, and she too is deemed not the worst by the experts (consideration was also given to her pregnancy, which made it impossible for her to safely carry out several of the challenges). Jaime's shed is also deemed not the worst, though the experts were still rather scornful that he had to resort to such lengths to get it out of the warehouse. The main critique they had for Jaime was lack of planning skills and his relationship with Sheilla, both of which were addressed over the course of the series (Sheilla, in fact, was entirely supportive of Jaime's plan in this episode). In fact, when informally polled by the contestants and nominators on who may be Canada's Worst Handyman, Jaime's name had never come up (Candace and Jeff having named themselves – Jeff from his self-admitted skill level, and Candace due to Justin having done most of the work – and Ruth and Terry having named each other). In a sense, these three had addressed the main issues that had led them to their nominations.

This left the two contestants with their sheds in pieces: Terry and Ruth. Although Greg and Jill vehemently differed on who is worse (Greg claiming that Ruth is the worst because she was slow, prone to giving up, and had the least amount of work done, while Jill puts Terry as the worst due to his lack of commitment to the instructions, including having his shed exceed the show's limits in all three dimensions, and also due to the quality of his work having dropped considerably after Harvey left), eventually they agree: over the course of the series, one took pride in their work but failed to deliver, while the other did not. The final factor was clearly visible: while Ruth was visibly disappointed in the fact that her shed had to be cut up, Terry revelled and fully enjoyed what amounted to tearing his shed down. Because of this, Terry Cress, despite the fact that he finished more challenges than Ruth and was the only contestant to be named most improved twice, is named Canada's Worst Handyman.

As a result of Terry being named Canada's Worst Handyman, the person in the blue colors has been named Canada's Worst Handyman twice in a row.

Can-Cam Confessions

In the bonus segment, the Can-Cam has everyone give their insights on the final day at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, as well as each contestant or nominator's picks to be Canada's Worst Handyman.

Episode 9: Special Delivery

Original Airdate: June 11, 2007

In the recap episode, the six sheds (the five belonging to the contestants, plus one built by the experts) are delivered to the persons who had bought them sight unseen on eBay. As Canada's Worst Handyman, Terry will be present to personally present his shed to the ones who had purchased his. The six eco-sheds – one each from the contestants and one built by the experts, combined raised over $10000 for Habitat for Humanity Canada. As it is an hour-long drive from the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre to the shed's new owners, the Lange family in Caledon, Ontario, Terry and Andrew reminisce on their time at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre on the way there.

Terry and Andrew first reminisce about Jeff, the computer expert who Terry was convinced he could beat. Jeff finally learned the importance of instructions through his adventures, and ultimately was considered rehabilitated. In the end, his shed arrives at the Boettcher family, who had bought the shed as a Father's Day gift.

Ruth was the second contestant to be reminisced. The birdhouse column (built during the Skills Evaluation) collapsing during the window challenge may have been an ominous sign of things to come, as her oversized shed may have been a cause of why she had only completed one challenge unassisted, and why she was named the worst on the second episode and was on the experts' shortlist in nearly every subsequent one. Because of this, Ruth was declared to have not been rehabilitated. Ruth's shed would arrive at the Noble household of Newcastle, Ontario to its new owners, who had paid $1725 for her three-piece remains.

Jaime's experiences are recounted next. His constant battling with Sheilla was a source of contention for Jaime, and nearly everyone else as well. Still, the spat during the TV installing challenge that caused Sheilla to go over the edge, but it gave them the opportunity to improve their relationship, cooperating to salvage their oversized shed using a plan that not even the experts and crew believed would succeed. Jaime is definitely rehabilitated. Jaime's shed arrives in Caledon, Ontario to the Eturi family, who were glad that the shed was of a passable quality – and the fact that Sheilla didn't come with the shed.

Candace's experiences are recounted next. Candace's self-proclaimed prowess was contrasted with Justin's actual expertise, and it was Justin who helped Candace go through entire challenges correctly – almost to the point of excluding Candace entirely. Candace's sometimes wild mood swings were often something that would lead Justin to take charge and complete challenges by himself, and it was only halfway though rehab that the show crew (and the other contestants) learned that this was because Candace was three months pregnant with their second child (their child would be born during the first airing of this series). Terry admits that Candace having Justin may have given her an advantage in the rehab process, as he helped her bail her out of her troubles. However, after becoming the worst in the second-to-last episode (leading Justin to give a more hands-off approach due to it being a factor), Candace finally learns that construction is not as easy as it is on TV, thus rehabilitating her. Candace's shed arrives at the home of common-law partners Debra Hale and Dale Roach, who paid $1825 for the shed, and are completely satisfied with what they had paid for, being well worth their investment.

As for the Lange family, who paid $1676 for Canada's Worst Shed, Canada's Worst Handyman arrives at their home. The Lange family had hoped to put the shed near their pool to rival their neighbour's gazebo, but clearly, that was not going to happen. Terry's shed arrives in two packages: one driven by Terry and Andrew, and the second by Harvey (arriving with Angie), who had last seen the shed when it was still in one piece. As the pieces are being unloaded, Harvey delivers a final poem, A Shed in Torment, to close off the series. The episode ends with Terry stating that he wants to build a gazebo.

Throughout the episode, Andrew also explains the various costs of these eco-sheds: these sheds cost over $2800 for the structure alone, due to the various expensive materials involved (compared to roughly $1300 using conventional materials), and how their eco-friendly materials compare to their regular counterparts. Among the highlights of this cost comparison:

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