Canada's Worst Handyman 6 was the sixth and final season of Canada's Worst Handyman, a Canadian reality television series on Discovery Channel which seeks to improve the do-it-yourselfer skills of five contestants. In this season, the contestants must transform several rooms in the Niagara Falls Carriage House on Lundy's Lane in Niagara Falls, Ontario and transform the space into a retreat for newlyweds. Group challenges this year will be focused on transforming a common area into a spa. As with its sister season Canada's Worst Driver 6, a new series logo was commissioned for this season, dubbed "the honeymoon suite season" for all but the first episode.
Experts Gail Prosser-Craig is an expert carpenter, operating a renovation company entirely staffed by women. Geoff Woodmansey is a general contractor who has a lot of experience in transforming rundown places: the on-screen host of Discovery Channel's Junk Raiders chronicles one of his most notable recent endeavors.
Contestants Charlene Hunt, from Pickering, Ontario, is a designer who considers herself an "idea gal," but when it comes to actual work, her husband, Dave, is usually the one to step in and fix her errors, to the point he has to go to work to relax. Accompanying Charlene (the only female nominee) to rehab will be her twin sister Charmaine. Daniel "Dan" Lafleur, from Cambridge, Ontario, is a new homeowner whose home is under constant renovation due to projects never being completed. This sends calm and cool Dan into a frenzy, forcing his wife and nominator, Natasha, out of the home for him to rage in peace. Robert "Rob" McFarlane, from Dunchurch, Ontario, is a professional construction worker, with his trade being installing insulation. He believes that handiwork is a painful job and that anyone who is handy should bear the pain. However, Rob's common-law wife and nominator, Joe-Anne McMillan, is more concerned about his health than the quality of their work. Ajay Pal Singh, from Strathmore, Alberta (near Calgary), is a landlord and businessman who believes professionals are too expensive. However, his wife and nominator, Prabhjot Sarao, believes that professionals, at the very least, can do things right. Matthew "Matt" Young, 35, from Ottawa, Ontario, is a drug counsellor, youth worker and bachelor who is inexperienced with handiwork. He is nominated by his buddy, Kory Keogan, because he is tired of Matt constantly turning to him for advice.
Synopsis Contestant(with hard hat colour) Nominator 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ajay Prabhjot IN IMP WORST IN WORST IN IN Charlene Charmaine IN IN IMP WORST IN IN CWH Dan Natasha IN WORST IN IN IN M/W IN Matt Kory IMP IN IN IN IMP IN IN Rob Joe-Anne WORST IN IN IMP IN IN IN
CWH – The contestant is Canada's Worst Handyman. WORST – 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.
Episode 1: Check-In Original airdate: May 2, 2011 After interviewing a record 900 nominations and after a screening process culled the field to 40, the five contestants arrive at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, where their nominators are waiting. As with previous years, each contestant is assigned a color-coded room. Ajay is given the blue room, Charlene is in purple, Dan in yellow, Matt in grey and Rob in orange. Each room has been locked from the inside by two locks, which they must remove from the outside before they can enter their room. Matt is the first to enter his room after Kory explains how a reciprocating saw works before helping him cut the locks. Rob smashes off his doorknob (something which baffles Joe-Anne, as the door itself wasn't actually locked) and causes substantial damage to the door itself before entering. Ajay is next to enter after chiselling the locks off his door. Charlene eventually enters after cutting the locks, leaving Dan last to enter their room. In each room, there is a heart-shaped bathtub that is to be installed, as well as their first challenge. The Vibrating Bed: The contestants must convert the queen-sized bed into a vibrating bed by attaching a vibrating motor. Matt passes in short order. Ajay fails after erroneously installing the vibrating motor underneath the bedframe rather than fitting it to the side. Charlene also fails for this reason. Rob, having already injured his hand, injures himself again trying to install it, so he fails (though his installation is correct). Dan also passes with ease. Best Performer: Both Matt and Dan pass this challenge. Worst Performer: While Rob failed due to injuring himself while installing the motor, both Ajay and Charlene did the worst due to installing the motor incorrectly. Home Challenge: The Heart-Shaped Box: Each season, there is one challenge that is done at home, before the contestants arrive in rehab. This year, the contestant must build a heart-shaped box from a single sheet of plywood. Matt proceeds to cut a heart free-hand with his own saw, a rip saw and so power saws were provided for him for this challenge. Despite this, he fails due to frustration, and ultimately only manages to produce a small, triangular box, which has a notch cut out an attempt to make it look like a heart. Ajay fails after building a box that is too big and has gappy sides. Rob injures himself and also has gappy sides, so he fails. Dan fails as his box is not heart-shaped (it is a rectangular box with a heart-shaped base). Charlene's box also is not heart-shaped (it is a rectangular box with a heart-shaped lid) and so fails. The Workbench Challenge: Each year since the second season, contestants are tasked with building a workbench as a working surface during construction. However, in this year's challenge, the workbench must be repurposed into a massage table in the final episode. The contestants may use the experts' table as a reference. Rob ends up building the best workbench, but is judged to have failed the challenge, since not only did he injure himself for the third time, he also injured Joe-Anne as well. Ajay builds a relatively decent workbench, but forgets to take into account the fact that it's supposed to become a massage table and makes it far too short for that purpose, leading to him failing. Matt's workbench seems solid, but when subjected to a "jump test" one of the main braces fractures. Charlene fails as her workbench lacks a top, having given up on cutting a top to size. Dan is the only handyman to pass the challenge, despite his table being a full sheet of plywood and his lower shelf being at floor level. Best Performer: Dan is the only person to pass this challenge. Worst Performer: Charlene did the worst by failing to get a sheet of plywood on her workbench. Group Challenge: The Bathroom Demolition: The group challenge this year is to renovate a common space into a spa. First, they must demolish a bathroom. The contestants mainly resort to a sledgehammer before proper tools are used, but Charlene quickly takes the rear by cleaning after the other four and not actively taking part in the demolition, laughing off the notion of actually doing so as being "men's work." Though the demolition is eventually completed, the toilet's water intake was never shut off, resulting in a surprising leak when the water is turned back on.
In the experts' evaluation, Gail and Geoff took Charlene's lack of participation to heart. No major criticisms were leveled at Dan, Ajay or Matt, but for Rob, Geoff warns that his door is a writeoff. Geoff names Charlene is the worst for the episode for being slow and not participating in the group challenge, while Gail names Rob as the worst due to constantly injuring himself. Despite Geoff believing that Rob had the best workmanship, he is named the worst, while Matt is named the most improved by virtue of fixing his workbench in his own time and doing relatively well despite having the least handiwork experience going into the show. For homework, Rob must build a "days without injury" sign. As he does this, he regales Andrew on his numerous injuries in the past.
Web extras for this episode: Danger!: Andrew and the experts comment on what they considered the most dangerous thing that they had seen on the show and the most common handyman mistake that they had seen on the show. Andrew believes that Deen Fletts initial entry in the previous season was the most dangerous (so much so that the camera crew had to intervene), before changing his mind and saying the massive plumbing leak in last year's group challenge as the kitchen was installed when he mentions destroying toilets with a sledgehammer as his most common handyman mistake. Geoff's nomination of the most dangerous thing was Joe "The Bullet" Barbaros demolition work in his first year as an expert and his indiscriminate use of the sledgehammer which ultimately caused him to intervene, while he names mismeasuring as the most common handyman mistake. Gail names the incidents in last season's group challenges where Deen repeatedly drops a power cord of an angle grinder into a puddle, only to get shocked as he tries to pick it up as the most dangerous. Her candidate on what the most common handyman mistake is a lack of effort into planning ahead. All three agree that not reading and following instructions, however, is by far the most common cause of handyman mistakes; Andrew even believes that it happens at least once an episode in each of the six seasons.
Episode 2: Framed Original airdate: May 9, 2011 The Heart-Shaped Tub: Framing: Each episode will have one portion dedicated to installing a heart-shaped tub in their room. The first tub challenge is to build a frame for the tub to support on. Dan makes short work of framing the tub despite a few minor snags over the size of the tub and the speed of his pass even surprises him. Ajay makes the mistake of cutting the tub to its outside perimeter and making a one-inch strip from the cut-out portion as the bathtub's lip instead of cutting the heart shape itself one inch smaller. Matt builds a frame too large for his plywood, but he fails as he takes too long to adjust the frame down to size (having not been completed four hours into a challenge originally scheduled in three hours). Rob and Ajay also take too long to install a frame due to a lack of internal supports. Charlene also takes too long and fails. Best Performer: Dan is the only one that passed this challenge. Worst Performer: Matt, Rob, and Charlene fail due to taking too long past the time limit. The Tool Test: Gail administers a quick tool test to all the contestants. Of the 10 tools tested, Dan gets the most tools correct with 5/10, while Matt has the fewest with 1/10. The Soundproof Headboard: The contestants must install soundproof panels the size of a headboard. This involves precision mitre cuts for a frame as well as fitting fibreglass panelling between the frame paneling. Everyone cuts the mitre cuts incorrectly and only Rob does not have any troubles with the stapler or adhesives used to attach the framing pieces to the wall. He passes easily. Dan fails due to the panels lacking internal supports (admitting that the entire headboard must be redone on his own time), while both Matt and Ajay build their framework too large; Matt gives up after this, but Ajay is able to complete the task by cutting the fibreglass into small chunks and building a patchwork panel. Charlene falls behind again and only has a frame up with no paneling installed when time runs out. Best Performer: Rob is the only one that passed this challenge. Worst Performer: Charlene as she is the only nominee that did not get to installing her fiberglass.