Contributed by Korina Rossi, Catalogs.com Top 10 Guru

Buying a new house or renovating an old one can be tricky—outmoded plumbing, fussy wiring, and structural problem pop up without warning.

Not only will home projects introduce you to every aisle of your local building supply store, they can also fill up those empty weekends that used to worry you. Fortunately, you can turn to home improvement shows that guide you through almost every conceivable disaster.

Here are the top ten home improvement shows:

10. Holmes on Homes

Mike Holmes, the scourge of shoddy contractor work, comes to the rescue of desperate homeowners who have been left high and dry by a contractor. A few episodes of Holmes can save you from being the victim of an unscrupulous contractor.

9. The Red Green Show

Canadian handymen in the fictional town of Port Asbestos show viewers how to fix everything with duct tape and yard rubbish. The show’s many milestones—including inventing a perpetual motion machine—and woodsy humor continue to make it popular.

8. Clean House

Always entertaining, Clean House features a team of four quipping comedians with limited home improvement skills who want to organize your home. Every episode, bamboozled homeowners watch as the four seize their possessions for a side-splitting, but low-yielding, garage sale.

7. This Old House

One of the longest running home improvement shows, This Old House follows the extensive renovation of a historic home in each episode.

6. Property Ladder

Hapless first-time house flippers find that renovating a house is harder than they imagined. As the flippers buffet weeks of toil and expensive mistakes, host Kirsten Kemp drops by to offer tips on how to save their investment.

5. Woodwright Shop

Rivaling This Old House as the longest running home improvement show, Woodwright Shop has been teaching you woodworking since 1979.

4. Trading Spaces

Two teams of home improvement newbies update each other’s houses with matching bowling shirts and a little advice from experts. The pressure of a tight deadline and the inevitable design foibles made Trading Spaces one of the most popular home shows.

3. Haunting

Not every home problem can be solved with a hammer and nails. The Haunting, on the Discovery Channel, re-enacts tales of new home owners who have bought homes possessed by spirits. But there are experts for these issues listed in the yellow pages, too.

2. Design Star

This design competition show challenges designers to decorate with kitty litter, industrial equipment, and every color in the spectrum. Winners of the show have become hosts of their own design shows.

1. At Home with Gary Sullivan

If you’re planning this weekend’s project on your daily commute, radio show host Gary Sullivan can shed some light on your do-it-yourself predicaments.