Grand Designs’ host, Kevin McCloud, went to meet some more plucky self-builders on the Channel 4 show this evening.
He followed the story of Paul and Blanka, who wanted to build an eco house on a measly £60,000 with an added £100,000 for the plot of land.
It was certainly an ambitious build and it saw Paul take charge on his project, stepping away from his commitments as a lawyer to focus solely on it.
They used a lot of interesting materials in order to create the stunning home, including “hempcrete”, cork insulation and a heat exchanger which was positively ginormous.
However, it was the latter that proved to be the most challenging and it resulted in an agonising watch for viewers of the Channel 4 show.
Paul had to insert the heater which was an extraordinary weight into his ceiling.
All he had was a tiny winch which was passed on to him from friendly neighbour, Jack.
As the great beast was being lifted in the air, it was touch-and-go whether the winch would hold.
Miraculously, it did, but Paul was met with another issue: space.
The heater was 12 inches too low and it was proving impossible to jack it up the remaining space.
The team decided to lower the metal object and try once more, when they had adjusted the strap.
Although wobbly, it finally made it up to its permanent position.
Nevertheless, viewers were on edge throughout the whole scene and flocked to Twitter to comment on what they saw.
One said: “#granddesigns let’s hope they never have to replace that heat store!”
A second shared: “During 40 years in the UK construction industry I’ve never seen anything as dangerous, half cocked & quite likely in breach of Health & Safety law as the installation of that water storage tank on @GrandDesigns thank god no one was hurt.”
A third commented: “Ffs what the chuffing hell are they doing?this is making me feel ill.”
Thankfully, Paul and Blanka eventually got the house of their dreams – but t wasn’t without a cost.
Kevin was keen to discover whether they were able to stick to their initial £160,000 budget.
Paul and Blanka timidly admitted they’d paid somewhere between £200,000 and £300,000 for their dream home and of course they had no regrets.
Grand Designs: The Street continues next Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm.
