A Grand Designs project, which was described as “gravity defying”, suffered a whooping £200,000 in damage costs after it was claimed the builder forgot one of the most important rules. Richard Hawkes, 49, and wife Sophie, 50, built their dream home near Maidstone, Kent, but the arch that showcases the eco house was unsupported and constituted of Plaster of Paris and tiles, which were 100mm thick.
The method is usually reserved for domed structures and it is alleged they were told not to lean on it during construction of the house in what was a world-first design. But problems were soon apparent and while presenter Kevin McCloud was talking to the camera, the structure behind him collapsed.
Loud crashes could be heard in the background as Kevin rushed over to the property to find out what had happened. The collapsing of the roof added £200,000 to the project’s bills and an extra week onto the timescales as the problem was rectified.
Speaking to The Sun, homeowner Richard said: “I was standing by the camera person looking at the camera. You hear this almighty crash.
“One of the things they were told not to do was lean on the first layer of tiles. It’s extremely delicate. It’s the subsequent layers that make it stronger. [The stonemason] leaned too much. It made part of it fail and whatever that was left fell with it. So that was dramatic.”
The contractor suffered a grazed head as he fell through the roof and was “crying and really upset” after the accident.
He was then tasked with rebuilding the collapsed roof as, Richard said, it “was his responsibility.” There was a relief on the site that none of the other 15 people working had been hurt.
Richard admitted “it could have been a lot worse” and was pragmatic, saying: “Sometimes you’ve got to dust yourself down and think actually we were very fortunate in the grand scheme of things. Within a week we were back to where we were.”
Richard and his wife had long dreamed of having a curved roof and thought the tiny cottage in a remote location would be the ideal renovation project.
As an architect, he was full of ideas and said about the curved roof: “I planted the home. The model was me trying to make part of the building living and what form could hold up a lot of clay to sustain things that grow in the landscape, so it blends.
“Then it was ‘how do I hold up all this clay?’ An arch. The idea of this arch with these objects nestled seemed to be a natural sculptural response but I didn’t know how to build it.”
They found a master builder who had used the technique of stacking tiles with Plaster of Paris and then Richard had professors from Cambridge University working on the plan to help the structure come to reality.
“The finished property looked impressive and is a fine example of just how sustainable houses constructed in the UK can be. A the risky experiment, with astoundingly successful results, this building provides lessons for us all,” he shared.
“The house is so efficient that they should make money selling excess electricity back to the grid and from grants. It’s a house that we can happily live in for a long time”, Richard said during the episode, adding “I’m proud that I had the courage to build it.”
The episode of Grand Designs first aired in 2009 and is available to watch now on Channel4.com.